Wednesday, June 3, 2009

what journalism is about

This morning there was big news on the radio. Coca Cola (no less) is going to increase the size of the opening of the cans (coke, sprite, minute maid, ...) it produces. This will make a serious saving in aluminium (or aluminum, it is spelled correctly both ways) ! Wow, Coca Cola is surely a great environmentally-aware company to do this, is it not ?

So I send a message to the radio asking them if they bought their drinks in open cans (I do not). After a bit of panic (they obviously had not thought about it) another listener came to their aid, stating that the layer over the opening of the can is thinner. Thus the saving.

This afternoon I studied the can I drank from. It may be true that the layer over the opening is thinner, but not that I can notice. But let us still assume it is true and that Coca Cola will make some savings. Does that make it a great environmentally-aware company ?

Coca Cola is a multinational. Their goal is to make profit. From us, the consumers. So let us look at it from that end:
  • We will be able to drink quicker from a can with a larger opening. And since coke is not about thirst (but about sugar) we will finish the can quicker and start a new one quicker. Profit.
  • If you have been around as long as me, you will have noticed that the size of the opening of the cans and bottles has steadily been increased. So how do you get publicity for something which is not new ? These days everybody is (or is starting to be) environmentally-aware. So, the multinational follows and creates a cool image of itself.
  • Coca Cola probably thought of this too, but ... if you use less metal, shouldn't your prices drop ? No ! In fact, on the back of the environmental-awareness you can even rise the prices (manufacturing cans with bigger holes is probably a lot more difficult ... blah blah blah ...).
My message to the Belgian journalists, newsreaders, etc. ... news should be independent, critical and above-all self-critical. I have no illusions about the first and the last couple of weeks you seem to have forgotten the last one too.