Out With A Bang

Having a vague knowledge of OfCom’s latest review of the future of Public Service Broadcasting, this was always going to make for interesting reading…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/25/itv.ofcom

Even if the numbers are slightly eye-watering, there was a very real sense that this was in the wind. Like everyone else, ITV can’t make the numbers add up. Their world – our world – is all but disintegrating. The game’s up; the show’s over. At least as far as Anglia (East) and Anglia (West) are concerned.

For the people of Norwich, here comes the news from your region. ‘A man from Milton Keynes was today bailed to appear before Buckingham magistrates…. etc, etc…’

Local news? My a*se, would be the view from the Royle Family sofa.

And then this…

http://egrommet.net/2008/09/09/credit-where-it-is-due/

Good piece; though I would argue that ‘backpackdave08′ is a citizen publisher, not a citizen journalist.

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=41

We can all publish, we can all write… does that make us all journalists? Mmm. But anyway, credit the bloke… here he is: http://www.youtube.com/user/backpackdave08

But the really interesting line out of Glyn’s blog post is the number… 500,000.

‘Yesterday I had a whinge about the BBC not giving credit to backpackdave08 for his video of Noel Gallagher being clattered on stage, which this morning had been seen by over 500,000 viewers…’

Over 500,000 viewers. Clearly that number has been helped by the world and his wife embedding links into his clip – with or without due credit – but the point is, does the Anglia (East) breakfast time bulletin actually pull in 500,000 viewers with such ease?

And for a whole new – and departed – audience out there, which better fits with their concept of news? News from Milton Keynes magistrates or some lad with a mobile catching Noel getting twatted at the V-Festival?

And for that same audience, which suits their means of access to news better? Watching a 7.30am breakfast bulletin on TV – or watching a YouTube clip on their moby?

And if I’m an advertiser aiming to get in touch with that elusive yoouuufff market, where am I going to concentrate my efforts? Particularly when money is tight? ITV Anglia or backpackdave08 and his kind?

All of which brings us right back to a document written by Anthony Lilley of Magic Lantern fame – http://www.openmedianetwork.org.uk/anewapproach/default.htm

For me it still deserves a wider airing. In it there are some real gems; some real insight as to the way that backpackdave08 is part of the future of TV; accept that, and, for me, it helps to explain why OfCom might be treading the path it is; why if the traditional means of newspaper distribution is broken beyond repair, that of traditional TV is not too far behind either.

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=26

And, in particular…

“The coming of global broadband linkage and the web has changed that landscape forever.

“In the process, as has been discussed above, an explosion of participation in media is beginning.

“This world has flipped from a state of affairs where scarcity of content was the norm to the landscape we see now – with many more content creators, aggregators and owners out there.

“In addition, the availability of low cost digital production and post-production technologies is driving an unprecedented surge in creation, modification and remixing of content by the people formerly known as the audience… “

Brilliant. Brilliant – that one line: “The availability of low cost digital production and post-production technologies is driving an unprecedented surge in creation, modification and remixing of content by the people formerly known as the audience… “

‘Low cost digital production…’ That’s a mobile phone.

‘Post-production technologies…’ That’s YouTube.

‘By the people formerly known as the audience…’ That’s backpackdave08.

And that’s the world that OfCom is trying to make sense of; likewise, that’s the world that the NUJ has got to understand if it’s ever to stop fighting yesterday’s wars.

We’ve lost; the audience has won. Move on.