BBC and DEC Appeal Controversy

Mark Thompson, director general of the BBC, defends the BBC's decision not to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee's Gazza appeal (Click on Post title to see the interview). Do you think he is right to claim that the broadcasting the appeal would leave the BBC open to accusations of bias? Remember, the BBC has previously broadcast similar appeals following conflicts in other parts of the world. Thompson seems to claim that this situation is particularly complex, making it more difficult to preserve impartiality if they were to broadcast it. You might also want to consider what might happen to BBC journalists on the ground in Israel and Gazza should they be viewed to be siding with the Palestinians as a result of broadcasting the appeal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/video_and_audio/7850585.stm

Paxman Patronising? Well I never.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/08/us-elections-2008-usa
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/08/dizzee-rascal-paxman-jeremy-bbc
The above article in The Guardian has transcript of Jeremy Paxman's interview with Dizzy Rascal after Obama won the American Presidential Election. Lots of issues to explore here - representation of ethnicity, audience appeal, dumbing down, news and institutional values. . Read the article and reference the points and 'experts' in your exam responses. You can also look at interview on Youtube

Real Debate

Last night's Richard Bacon programme on 5 Live radio had a really intense debate about the role of newspapers and the news media in a democracy. Tim Luckhurst, who used to edit the Scotsman newspaper and is now Professor of Journalism at the University of Kent made some really forceful arguments in favour of traditional journalism and paid for newspapers as a way of holding government to account and offering readers a properly informed choice because of their investment in fact gathering when news reporting. They differ from blogging and other forms of citizen reporting because of this and their wider perspective. Richard Bacon tried, in vain, to get him to accept that blogging is an equally democratic source of information as it provides readers with a perspective they may not find elsewhere. However, Luckhurst insisted that ultimately blogs tend to be more opinion based and therefore cannot replace proper investigative in holding government to account. Neither can they offer readers the more rounded perspective on issues as they report a story from a very local viewpoint.

You should be able to listen again by clicking on the title above and clicking on Monday's programme. I heard the debate from about two hours into the programme, though it was already in full flow by then. This would be very useful for both Broadcast News and Freedom of the Press.

News from Iraq. Is it a Fraud?

Rageh Omaar, a former BBC correspondent in Iraq, details how difficult it is to report the full truth of what is happening in Iraq due to the increasing insecurity in the country. He makes that point that the British public are not getting the full story about what is happening in the country because of the dangers facing Western journalists in the country. Whereas five years ago, at the start of the war, all sorts of journalists, from big Western news outlets like CNN and the BBC to local and independent one, could go report with relative freedom now only those who can afford the massive insurance costs can do so - i.e. big news organisations like the BBC, Sky and CNN. Even so, they report under real constraints, having to be accompanied by large security forces and from within heavily guarded compounds.

What Makes The News?

Click on the title above to go to two radio programmes from the BBC World Service about how news stories are selected and edited in different parts of the world and by different news organisations. The second programme examines the future of news in light of new media developments. Essential listening. The more examples from current news output that you can include in your exam answers the better - it shows that your engaged with current debates not just the well rehearsed ones that examiners will be bored of.

BBC News Editors Explain Their Decisions

The BBC News site has an editor's blog, where many of the decisions made by BBC News programmes are justified and explained by the editors who made them. This is a really useful resource for the Broadcast News and Current Affairs section of the Debates paper in Year 13.

Blair takes on the "beastly" media

Relevance - Freedom of the Press & Broadcast News
Tony Blair made a speech today, reflecting on the state of the media. At one point, he described it as a "feral beast." Obviously this implies that, at times, it is out of control and needs taming. There is loads of stuff on this all over the web, especially on the BBC website. You could look at any number of places to find commmentary on it, including the BBC's political correspondent's (Nick Robinson) blog - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2007/06/feral_media_my.html
If you'd rather listen to a debate about it, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/drive.shtml and select "Listen Again Tue" for today's programme (this will only be available until Friday or so). Then skip forward to 2:30:30 to get to start of a report on the speech. They interview a prominent Labour MP, Gerald Kaufman, and the editor of the Independent newspaper, Simon Kelner. It's a perfect opportunity to get a sense of two sides to a debate (it gets a bit feisty) and of how politicians feel the urge to control the press - especially when it is unkind to them.
You can also read the whole of Blair's speech at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6744581.stm - he says interesting things about Broadcast News as well.
The more you can refer to speeches like this in your answers the better chance you have of succeeding - it shows that you are truly engaged with the live debates and not just rehashing the notes given out in class.

YouTube - the right to reply.

Year 12 and 13 - this is worth looking at. Amazing footage of a BBC Panorama reporter loosing his cool with a representative of the Church of Scientology has been posted on YouTube. You can click on the link above to see the clip, together with how it was reported by BBC News 24. This raises the important point of how sites like YouTube offer those who are reported upon the opportunity of a more enhanced reaction to how they are represented in the media. The Church of Scientology filmed the reporter's interview and have now been able to show the world footage which may never have seen the light of day were it not for sights like YouTube. It is likely that the BBC would have edited out the angry reaction of its reporter. Because of such postings, the audience are now able to see much more of the "whole story" than previously, thereby empowering the audience in terms of deciding upon issues. It also diminishes traditional news media outlet's (like the BBC) role as gatekeeper to what we can and cannot see. It will be interesting to see if Panorama now includes this footage in its report (tonight 8.30 on BBC1). Look at the way BBC News 24 presents the story; it seems to try to excuse the behaviour of its reporter by discussing the pressures he was under at the time.

Minority Report Almost a Reality

This one covers both NEW MEDIA (Year 12) and BROADCAST NEWS (Year 13). Before I go on, a reminder to sign up for the Media Guardian online - it's free and only by doing so will you be able to access this story. I know it takes time but it's time well spent.

The 3 mobile network will soon be sending its users personally targetted ads when they choose to watch news and sports updates provided by ITN. Here we're moving away from the idea of niche audiences, let alone mass audiences, and towards the concept of individual audiences. You may have seen Tom Cruise's character in Minority Report being bombarded with ads designed specifically for him. This is a classic example of how new media technologies offer even greater personalisation of media consumption and experiences.

From a news perspective, this carries all sorts of potential consequences. It increases competition for other traditional broadcast news providers like the BBC. However, it also shows that established news providers like ITN are inscreasingly turning to new technologies as a way of reaching audiences, expecially younger audiences (read the article to see the types of stories that may typically be sent to customers' phones. Within this there is also a threat to the role of broadcast news in helping to create informed citizens. News plays an important function in society. By informing the audience about events in our local and global community, the news empowers us to make more informed decisions about how we want to be governed and how we want to relate to other members of our community. If, however, we increasingly receive personally tailored news updates (by choosing the types of stories that are sent to our mobile phones, e-mail or Yahoo / MSN homepage) we will lose touch with the wider range of stories offered through longer news bulletins on traditional news outlets (e.g. 10 o'clock news on BBC 1 or the Channel 4 news), thereby becoming less well armed when it comes to making decisions about who to vote for or even whether it makes any difference to buy fair trade coffee or not. This is also true of those people who increasingly rely on blogs to find out what's happening in the world because they feel mainstream news media is just too, well, mainstream. By relying on blogs, or even newspapers for that matter, that they feel represent their perspective, they are reinforcing that particular perspective and limiting themselves to certain amount of information. Of course, some would argue that they read a range of blogs, which of course would overcome this difficulty. However, there is the issue of time - how many people have the time to devote to properly informing themselves in this way? So, I guess what all this boils down to is a question of whether you think the traditional broadcast news outlets still have a role to play, and if so how important a role?

The Key Questions In Media Packed Into One Article

Mark Lawson uses the recent TV phone line scandal to ask many of the key questions in Media Studies in one tidy article - (I very much doubt this was his intention but it does anyway.) This isn't just relevant to New Media but also to Broadcast News and Contemporary Issues in British Broadcasting in Year 13. Most of all it addresses the big issue of Audience Theory - what is the nature of the relationship between the audience and the producer? He claims that the phone scandal, and the public's reaction to it, challenges the commonly held view that the audience today is a sophisticated and media savvy. He also discusses the different conceptions of the audience that are revealed through the recent Virgin Media and Sky row - with Rupert Murdoch and Sky seeing the audience as a mere consumers and television as just another product to be sold rather than some kind of cultural artifact that contains meaning for the viewer, "their status more akin to that of guest, student, even patient." He raises the issue of "trust" and how news programmes have sold themselves on the basis of their trustworthiness. However, is this now possible when so many people feel they can trust blogs more than traditonal news outlets like the BBC and NBC (in America)? Are blogs to become the main news source for the next generation? If so, what impact will this have on our shared cultural understanding? In an increasingly personalised media world, will we ever feel connected to those around us?

Blogs Breaking News

All you keen news watchers and politicos out there are sure to be aware that the government is under even more pressure because of the failure to deport foreign ex-cons. Well yesterday it got even worse when it was revealed that someone who is now a suspected terrorist is among those the government (the prison service) failed to deport. This was the lead news story across most of the broadcast news yesterday. And where did the story originate from? A blog. Admittedly the blog is attached to an establish political magazine, The New Statesman, but the fact that it exists and is considered important enough for broadcast journalists to read is further evidence of the way that the internet is changing both the way media is produced and consumed. Established or traditional media outlets are increasingly turning to new media as a way of maintaining their status within the media market. The New Statesman is a weekly magazine but by allowing its journalists to publish blogs it allows audiences to access its content on a daily basis and develop a reputation for breaking news as well as commenting on it.

You Make The News

This is a real crossover story - relevant to New Media Technologies in Year 12 and Broadcast News in Year 13. You may remember all those great pictures from inside the tube tunnels after the London bombings last July. Obviously they weren't taken by the BBC, Sky or ITN's news crews. They were taken on the video enabled mobile phones of the survivors of the crash. The idea of an ordinary member of the public (citizens) generating such pictures (content) for news programmes is what has become known as the growth of citizen reporters or journalists. They make the experience of watching the news all the more powerful and immediate for the audience and could have a significant impact on the financial resources of broadcasters (who needs to employ all those journalists and camera crews when the public can do their job?). There are, though, signifcant issues to resolve -the two As - accuracy and access. The 3 mobile phone network is trying to resolve the access issue (read the article for more on this) and claim that broadcasters have to do their bit to ensure that the citizen generated content is truthful and accurate (a cornerstone of news reporting).