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BSkyB and ITV
Gary Herman
I understand what you're saying about convergence, but doesn't the example of Murdoch and BSkyB undermine that to an extent? After all, we're still getting hot under the collar about TV ownership, and rightly so, I believe, since TV still represents the dominant news medium in much of the world among the population as a whole. The fact is that the web remains - in McLuhan's term - a cool medium and, as such, one that appears to talk predominantly to the engaged (in whatever sphere they happen to be engaged). Media owners are worried about it because they identify cool media with a perceived fragmentation of the audience. If you want to reconstruct the mass market, so the argument goes, you need to push the same message to everyone wherever they may receive it. That's the way to turn 'cool' back into 'hot'. But this doesn't necessarily follow - a fragmented audience may just feel more isolated not more engaged; and pushing the same message through a website, a TV programme and a publication may actually have no effect - cool will stay cool and hot will stay hot. Google is so successful not because they do everything, but because they're one of the few media companies with a genuinely global reach and an effective approach to localising their markets. They don't need to run a TV station or a newspaper, or even a string of them. One search engine and advertising vehicle in a hundred different languages will do. Where I agree with you completely is that the owners act in the belief that consolidation will bring greater influence. Advertisers - and politicians - agree with them. They are trying to manufacture consensus. And so the economics of the media are distorted and the political process is distorted. But this may just be because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the way the media work. So an 'inquiry into the issues relating to media ownership' that you mention might just expose the flim-flam and help us to better understand how the media actually work. It may not stop Rupert Murdoch, but it may stop politicians paying so much mind to him. And who's to say what will happen? If we can see through the fake consensus of a consolidated media universe, it may mean that we begin to establish some serious alternatives.
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World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Media Ownership
BSkyB and ITV
Campaign welcomes government ruling on ITV shares
Murdoch: Sky News should be like Fox
Murdoch and ITV
BSkyB 'should sell shares in ITV'
Internet Television
Murdoch must sell his stake in ITV
New inquiries into ownership
Murdoch Junior takes the money
Murdoch's Journal deal - another blow for journalism
MediaChannel faces closure for lack of funds
Murdoch faces probe
Lords Probe Media Ownership and News
A Waiting Game
Review: Labour's missed opportunities
Stopping Murdoch Now 5
Rivals clarify complaints over Sky dominance
Stopping Murdoch Now (2)
Stopping Murdoch now!
Stopping Murdoch Now!
Early Day Motion 309: Attempted takeover of ITV by Sky
Stopping Murdoch now
Turmoil at the Telegraph
Independent news network expands
Australian media law reform plan goes off air indefinitely
Off and On: the OFT and Newspaper Distribution
Prodi to undo Berlusconi's media laws
Who does he think he is?
No Sale for Northcliffe
Report on 'Content diversity in newspapers and television'
