The Battle for the Media
Sunday
The rise of ‘citizen journalism’
Does the media dumb down complex ideas in the arts, science and politics?
The rise of 'citizen journalism'
Click on the Tiscali logo to join the Tiscali Battle of Ideas discussion about citizen journalism
Sponsored by Tiscali and produced by Shirley Dent & Helen Birtwistle
Seminar Space, 11.00 - 12.30 on Sunday 29 October 2006
New technology and media convergence is putting new ways of disseminating news and information into more and more people’s hands. New voices seem to be influencing traditional news gathering and reporting. This is the era of the citizen journalist, whether the mobile phone user’s film footage appearing on mainstream news or the growing importance of the ‘blogosphere’ to print journalism. From the Drudge Report’s breaking of the Monica Lewinsky story to the Baghdad blogger, media outsiders are increasingly setting the news agenda. This move towards the non-professional journalist reporting and commenting on current affairs is not just driven from below. The BBC recently made its user generated content (UGC) team permanent and has increased its resources.
Is the rise of the citizen journalist a valuable counterbalance to mainstream media or does it allow journalists and editors to evade responsibility for what the papers say? Where do editorial standards and judgement come from in the age of news blogs, RSS and camera phones? Does the rise of citizen journalism herald a new democratisation of the media and a new age of free media, free speech and free expression? What does the rise of these new citizen journalists mean for the way we receive and understand news about the world? Does more information mean we are more knowledgeable about the world? And will our view of the world become smaller or larger if the editor gives way to the citizen?
George Brock, Saturday editor, The Times
Brendan O’Neill, deputy editor, spiked
Richard Ayers portal director and editor of http://www.tiscali.co.uk/
David Schlesinger, managing editor, Reuters
Mike Slocombe, creative director, designer, writer and editor, Urban75; specialist in multimedia and the internet
Chair: Shirley Dent, communications director, Academy of Ideas
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spiked recommends:
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Recommended readings:
- Bobbie Johnson and Michael Fitzpatrick Korean website's 40,000 citizen journalists get shot at byline in Herald Tribune Guardian 31 May 2006
- Jeff Jarvis Talking Back Guardian 05 April 2006
- Stephen Brook 'Reuters to evolve with citizen journalists' Guardian 04 May 2004
For more recommended readings please click here...
Does the media dumb down complex ideas in the arts, science and politics?
Sponsored by Arts & Business and produced by Shirley Dent, Helen Birtwistle, Toby Marshall & Wendy Earle
Seminar Space, 14.00 - 15.30 on Sunday 29 October 2006
Politics, international relations, arts and science appear regularly in the media. But does the media do justice to the complexity of these topics or does the need for soundbites and sensation-grabbing headlines swallow up expert analysis and explanation? John Lloyd, author of What the Media Are Doing to Our Politics (2004), complains that ‘The world is very complex...It takes a lot of understanding’ and the mass media ‘inform us less than they used to do’. Niall Fitzgerald, the Chair of Reuters, has challenged the way media stories about Africa perpetuate ‘the image of a continent in constant crisis.’ Ben Goldacre, the Guardian ‘Bad Science’ columnist asks ‘Why is science in the media so often pointless, simplistic, boring, or just plain wrong?' Meanwhile leading figures in the arts protest that media coverage is more focused on celebrity or five-minute spectacle than with art itself. How do journalists answer the accusation that the media can’t handle difficult subjects and deliver programmes and articles with depth and insight?
Dr Anjana Ahuja, feature writer and science columnist, The Times
Paddy Coulter, director of studies, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford
Robert Dawson Scott, television producer, Lion TV (BBC4); arts critic
Sara Ramsden, creative director, Cheetah Television, An Endemol Company
Joel Morris, head of media relations, Pfizer Global Research and Development
Sebastian Paul, marketing and communications director, Arts & Business
Chair: Claire Fox, director, Academy of Ideas; co-convenor, Battle of Ideas
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spiked recommends:
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Recommended readings:
- K C Cole Weird Science: Why editors must dare to be dumb Columbia Journalism Review 2006
- Andrew Haydon Review of Julia Hobsbawm's Where the Truth Lies: Trust and Morality in PR and Journalism Culture Wars 17 August 2006
- John Lloyd From the Daily Star to the BBC - we must all change Guardian 10 January 2005 (login required)
For more recommended readings please click here...
Is TV good for children?
Sponsored by Action for UK Childrens Media
Produced by
Seminar Space, 16.00 - 17.30 on Sunday 29 October 2006
From Blue Peter to Tiswas, the Tweenies to Fifi and the Flowertots, Children’s TV has touched today’s adults and still offers delights to millions of young viewers. However, children’s TV is facing challenges and criticisms as never before. Concerns are growing over the ethics of marketing to young people: parents complain of ‘pester power’ and policy-makers promise to protect children from the not-so-hidden persuaders. Some argue TV adverts have an unwholesome influence on children’s eating habits, and the government has charged regulators with sorting out the problem. But at what cost? Pact, the UK trade association for the TV industry, has warned that Ofcom’s proposed bans and regulations ‘could wipe out children’s programme production for commercial channels.’
At the same time, some fear children’s programmers are too willing to prove they are socially responsible by trying to influence the young more ‘positively’. Last year Nickelodeon launched Nickitrition, a series of programmes, live events and a website encouraging healthy lifestyles. While banned from advertising crisps and sugary drinks, broadcasters use celebrities and cartoon characters to promote healthy eating and anti-bullying campaigns. Programme makers seem happy to drive home messages about everything from active citizenship to environmental awareness.
Should children’s TV aim to shape the outlook, attitudes and lifestyles of the nation’s children? Are broadcasters caving into pressure to spread politically correct messages and are they abandoning editorial independence in the process? If children's media are concerned with promoting ‘issues’, is there a danger of ‘playing safe’ rather than imaginative risk-taking? More broadly, are we worrying too much about the influence of the media on our kids? Are they not media savvy enough to cope?
Anne Brogan, controller, Granada Kids
Toby Marshall, head of English and communications, Havering College of Further and Higher Education
Raymond Snoddy, freelance journalist; presenter, NewsWatch
Jocelyn Stevenson, freelance writer/producer
Chair: Wendy Earle, commissioning editor (education), British Film Institute
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spiked recommends:
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Recommended readings:
- Owen Gibson Watchdog puts ban on celebrities advertising junk food to under-10s Guardian 29 March 2006
- Brian Young Does advertising to children make them fat? A sceptical gaze at irreconcilable differences University of Exeter 20 February 2004
For more recommended readings please click here...