BtN: Episode 18 Transcript 26/6/12
On this week's Behind the News
· We look at an unusual solution to stop poachers killing rhinos.
· Why super size soft drinks are being targeted in the fight against obesity.
· And we look at the future of map making as technology takes over.
Hi I'm Nathan Bazley, welcome to Behind the News. Also on the show today a group of scientists turn to rock music to teach kids about water. But before all that.
Old News
Reporter: Sarah Larsen
INTRO: A lot of people are talking about the future of newspapers. It's been a lot harder for newspapers to make money in recent years mainly because people can now get their news online for free. Last week two of Australia's biggest media companies announced some big changes. Sarah takes a look at that announcement and what it could mean for the future of newspapers.
PAPER BOY: Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: Before there was Twitter and 24 hour news there was this.
The morning and evening papers set the news agenda and broke the stories that changed history.
It took a lot of people to publish a paper, a lot of time and a lot of money, but they were profitable. People would pay a lot to put an ad in the paper knowing their message would get to thousands.
Over the years newspapers got some competition. First there was radio which could give up to date information as it happened then TV, where you could actually see the news unfold.
But newspapers survived and even today there are plenty of people who like to start the day like this.
REPORTER: The good thing about a newspaper is that you can fit a lot more information here than you can into a radio TV news bulletin. I can take my time, decide what I want to read when I want to read it.
But the internet is changing everything. Now you access information from all over the world whenever you want. You don't have to pay for it and you don't have to wait for it to be delivered. Nowadays when news breaks it usually breaks online and that's where we heard this last week.
GREG HYWOOD, CEO, FAIRFAX MEDIA (Fairfax Digital): The days of the huge printing plants built for our legacy print classified business are well and truly over. There will be redundancies.
That announcement was made by the boss of Fairfax Media, Australia's second biggest newspaper business.
It publishes the Age in Melbourne, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Review.
But lately business hasn't been going so well and Fairfax is making big changes. It's going to close some of its printing presses and send some jobs overseas to save money. 1900 people will lose their jobs.
Australia's biggest news organisation, News Limited, is also making changes.
It's merging newsrooms, cutting jobs and buying online media.
MIKE SMITH, FORMER EDITOR, THE AGE: I think this is the biggest thing in newspapers for a hundred years. This is the end of the golden age of newspapers. The big question though is whether it also means the end of the golden age of journalism
For the moment there aren't any plans to actually close the major newspapers. But some are wondering if these changes are the beginning of the end for newspapers as we know them.
And there are questions about how that will affect journalism; whether reporters will still have the time and money they need for quality reporting.
But the newspaper companies say they're just trying to adapt to a changing world.
They're hoping their online editions will help business grow. But making money online can be more difficult. There's a lot of competition for ad space here.
From next year News Limited will start charging for access to some of its sites and some reckon Fairfax might follow.
They're hoping people will be willing to pay for the newspaper even if it isn't made of paper any more.
But at least for now there are still some who prefer it the old fashioned way.
Presenter: Let's see what else is making the news. Here's Tash with the Wire.
The Wire
A boat carrying around 200 asylum seekers capsized off Christmas Island last week. Authorities rescued 110 people, but up to 90 people are feared dead. The survivors have been taken to the Christmas Island detention centre.
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Egypt has a new President. Mohammed Mursi is the first democratically elected leader in the country's history. Mr Mursi is from a group called the Muslim Brotherhood. That group was banned when Egypt's last president, Hosni Mubarak, was in power. The current military regime says it will hand over power by the start of next month.
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And WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is still trying to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faces criminal charges. He's hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He's asked Ecuador to grant him political asylum, which would mean he would live there and not be extradited. Ecuador is considering the request.
Rhino Trade
Reporter: Nathan Bazley
INTRO: You might have heard before that rhinos are often killed for their horns. The poachers sell the horns for money. Well some conservationists have come up with an unusual solution to the problem. But not everyone thinks it's a good idea. Let's see what it is.
NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: They are one animal you certainly wouldn't want to face off against. With their massive front horn, rhinoceroses sure look pretty intimidating.
But while it may be their main weapon, it's also their biggest threat. Because their horn is the main reason many are killed.
They may not look all that valuable, but on the black market, rhino horn can be worth as much as $60,000 a kilo. It's been used for thousands of years in some traditional Asian medicines. But unfortunately, the easiest way for poachers to get it is to kill the animal. And so far this year, more than 200 have died for this very reason. That doesn't have to be the case though.
Take a close look at these rhinos and you'll notice something pretty interesting. They're all hornless and they're all still alive and healthy. Well this one is about to be pretty sleepy.
This private game farm has had trouble with poachers coming in and killing rhinos for their horns. So they decided the best way to stop it was to remove the temptation.
MARTINE VAN ZIJIL LANGHOUT, WILDLIFE VET: Dehorning is the same as clipping your nail or clipping the hoof of a horse. As long as you don't go in the tissue, it's not invasive for the animal.
NATHAN: Well okay, they do use a saw instead of clippers, so it's probably not exactly like clipping your nails. But rhino horns are made of keratin, which is the same protein that forms our nails and hair.
Within a few minutes it's all done and they say the animal doesn't feel it much at all. But this tactic would take a lot of work to carry out in the wild. So some say the next step would be the legalisation of the trade of rhino horns, so that proper businesses could be set up to harvest the horns safely.
The South African Government is looking at how this horn trading could be made legal, while making sure poachers couldn't profit from it. One idea so far is to genetically track where every horn comes from. And if the government make it work, they'll stand to make a lot of money from it too, because they have a huge stockpile of rhino horns that they've seized, just sitting around.
But of course, some other conservationists say this isn't the way to go.
KIRSTY BREBNER, ENDANGERED WILDLIFE TRUST: Having seen it done and just seeing basically the majesty of that animal taken away, it affected me psychologically, so how does the baby then come back and see its mum with no horns?
So is this a case of having to be cruel to be kind? Or is there a better way?
Presenter: Even though they say it's not cruel it doesn't seem ideal. Do you have a better idea? Let us know on the guestbook on the BtN website.
Quiz 1
Now we're going to have a story about soft drinks next. But first let's have a quiz about them.
The question is:
What gas is used to make the bubbles in fizzy drinks?
Carbon dioxide
Nitrous oxide
Helium
Answer: Carbon dioxide
Slimming Soft drinks
Reporter: Nathan Bazley
INTRO: Nitrous Oxide is laughing gas and helium is the light gas that goes in party balloons. Drinking too many fizzy drinks can be a big reason for obesity. So much so that over in America the mayor of New York wants to put a limit on the size of soft drink people can buy. So how bad can a bit of soft drink actually be? Let's find out.
KID: Hey!
POLICE: I'm with the Soft Drink Police Department. You're busted!
KID: Chill out. It's just soft drink!
Just soft drink?!
NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: Not if you're walking through New York, where soon enough, soft drink could be a crime.
Welcome to the big apple. A big city of bright lights, screaming at you to eat, drink and be happy. As you can see, serving sizes here aren't exactly small. But that's not the only thing that's big in New York.
More than half of the population are overweight and 6000 people a year die from obesity related illnesses. So the city mayor has decided to do something about it. He's targeted super sized soft drinks.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK MAYOR: Now there are many factors that contribute to childhood obesity, but the single biggest is soda.
When McDonalds first opened in the 1950s in the US, you could only buy a drink that was about 200mls - less than a measuring cup. At the peak in 2003, the two biggest sizes were 946 millilitres, and a whopping 1.2 litres! Now the sizes are smaller, but the smallest is still 355 millilitres - almost double what was available in the 50's and it's called a kids size! It's a pretty common story in other outlets too.
The plan is to limit any soft drink bought from a restaurant, fast food store, movie theatre or stadium to 473mls. Any bigger would be against the rules.
NATHAN: That's about this much. But it might surprise you to learn that in this bottle of soft drink, there would still be roughly 13 teaspoons of sugar! In the US, some restaurants serve drinks three times the size, which means you'd be looking at about 40 teaspoons of sugar!
The plan won't affect diet soft drinks, because they don't contain any sugar. But it will affect some other drinks you might not have thought of.
THOMAS FARLEY, NYC HEALTH COMMISSIONER: Sport drinks, energy drinks, sweetened teas and coffees, sweetened fruit drinks, so called vitamin water.
That's because despite not always tasting as sweet, all of those drinks can still contain heaps of sugar. Not that many New Yorkers seem to care all that much.
NEW YORK RESIDENT: My wife, personally she drinks two litres of soda every day and she's very thin like you.
NEW YORK RESIDENT: I'm gonna do what I want to do, period.
NEW YORK RESIDENT: I don't think that anybody government official has the right to tell us what to eat or drink.
That's where most of the opposition to this plan comes from. While others say soft drinks are being unfairly targeted, because in many cases, orange juice can have almost as much sugar as soft drinks. Milkshakes can have more, but neither are banned. And on the food side of things, you'd get more sugar in a chocolate bar or doughnut than you would in a glass of soft drink.
But it's an interesting debate. What do you think should come first, health or the freedom to drink up big?
Presenter: OK let's make that our poll this week.
Online Poll
The question is:
Should super size soft drinks be banned? To vote just head to our website.
Last week we ran the story of the Olympic swimmers who posted a picture on Facebook of them posing with guns. They were punished. We asked you if you thought they should have been.
28 per cent thought yes and 72 per cent thought no, they shouldn't have been punished. Thanks for voting.
Modern Maps
Reporter: Sarah Larsen
INTRO: Helping you to find your way in the world is a competitive business. Recently Apple announced that it's going to take on Google Maps and develop its own mapping software. Technology like that is changing the way we think about maps and it got us wondering how map making has changed over the years? Here's Sarah.
WIZARD: The hill of doom lies 350 leagues to the east
HOBBIT: Um. I'm pretty sure it's west
WIZARD: No it's east
HOBBIT: The map says west.
HOBBIT: You're reading it upside down
HOBBIT: No I'm not
SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: If you've got somewhere important to go a good map is a valuable thing. For millennia maps have shaped the world as we've known it. Leading the way to treasures, new lands, and helping us to see our place in the world
The art and science of making maps is called cartography and it's changed a lot over the years. In the old days maps were drawn by hand. Cartographers would carefully observe and measure the land around them, make some calculations, and try to draw what they saw to scale. Some were pretty accurate like these charts that Captain Cook made of Australia and New Zealand. But eventually we found ways of making sure we got it right. Planes could take photos from the sky and computers meant maps didn't have to be drawn by hand anymore. Then there were satellites which let you see the earth below and even find your place on it with the Global Positioning System.
Now finding where you are and where you're going is as simple as clicking a button.
REPORTER: Image what Captain cook would have thought of Google Maps! As programs like this get more popular paper maps are getting less common. But that doesn't mean we don't need map makers anymore.