Some sailing channels like to shoot footage of what they see: wildlife, landscapes, seascapes, cities, cultural icons, etc. But too many keep the camera on themselves, ignoring what viewers can see in the background, getting their facts wrong, and manufacturing fake drama.
Look, we get that all channels have their own USP, which is often themselves, and that’s OK. But the problem is that in some parts of the world, like here in southeast Asia, it’s easy to offend people by not taking the time to understand local culture.
This global tendency towards self-obsession is irritating, but worse than that when cruisers criticise and shoot their mouths off without knowing a place, they offend local people and make life difficult for other cruisers.
The fakery of sailing channels comes down to three main factors:
- Passing on fake facts
- Giving no context and making dramas out of normal situations
- Offensive language and criticism
Of course, we can all do and say what we like; there are no laws for sailing channels. But surely we are accountable for the information we are giving our audience. Isn’t it our responsibility to fact-check before we start spouting our opinions?
In this week’s video, we pull no punches (but name, no names) and talk about the amount of bullshit we see from other channels. Dragging anchor is normal, hitting the bottom is normal, going through a storm is normal, sailing at night is normal: none of these events needs to be made into a drama, they are enjoyable enough without all the nonsensical hysteria.
There are some fantastic sailing channels out there producing entertaining and informative videos. So let’s choose our channels carefully and take sailing and destination information only from the people we trust.
If you don’t want to watch the video, you can listen to the podcast here.
If you like our content and would like to support us, we will give you ad-free access to our videos before they go live to the public, discounts in our shop, access to Jamie’s iconic full-res photographs, and supporter-only blog posts. Click our ugly mugs for more info!
