| Stimulating Debate on Old and New Media |
Public Event |
| Cyfrwng , National Library of Wales Aberystwyth , May 6, 2008 |
The theme for Cyfrwng’s fifth conference, held in the setting both elegant and imposing of the National Library is “Convergence: New Platforms”. Over two days the range of topics is huge. A Scots broadcaster speaks of Alba, the new Gaelic-language digital service. A researcher from Bangor describes the latest voice-driven translation software. There are sessions on the press, the new national theatre for Wales and broadcasting. Over every panel, presentation and plenary hangs the shadow of the omnipresent internet. The organisers have brought together producers and academics, animators and game developers, performance artists and writers, an Assembly Member, the regulators and the regulated. Within minutes of the opening, acronyms and industry jargon are flying through the air. Add in the references to Castells, Habermas and Lyotard and this observer is well befuddled. The gathering itself is a mini-simulacrum of the new media landscape. Once upon a time conferences were steady events with a linear programme. Now panels and discussions run in parallel; the audience is forced into choice and selection. In its very design “Convergence: New Platforms” is beyond the grasp of any single reporter. But like the best of conferences it stretches and stimulates, both enriches and exhausts. One factor makes it stand out. A deeper theme emerges early on and becomes a powerful heartbeat that unifies what might appear on the surface a host of discursive topics. First to old media; the state of the press invites little controversy or debate. Planet 188’s Editorial has lamented the collapse of the Y Byd project and is unimpressed by the view of Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas that only the web matters. The market research may say that no-one under the age of thirty reads newsprint but the press matters. Kevin Williams, Professor of Media and Communications at Swansea, has written in Planet 173 on the structural inadequacies of the Welsh media. If anything, the situation in 2008, as represented forcefully by Meic Birtwhistle of NUJ Cymru, has deteriorated. At the Western Mail circulation drops inexorably, journalist numbers decline and profits rise. Wales’ national newspaper is the most profitable part of Trinity Mirror’s empire, buoyed up on a sea of public sector advertising. The conference provides some historical context. From birth the press has dived on lurid content. In 1601 an attack on a James Messier is recorded in gruesome detail, his daughter “so hurt that the intrals came forth of her body”. The Prince Regent- Caroline of Brunswick story was as profitable as the Diana-olatry of today. What has changed is the pressure on journalist numbers. The percentage of newspaper text that is “churnalism", reworked press releases or Press Association material, is unknown. But original reporting everywhere is under assault with public relations machines staffed, better financed than journalistic ones. The result in Wales, according to the consensus of the conference delegates, is that it is up to the broadcast media to make good what is termed the “democratic deficit.” As in life, so in conference; the audience numbers swell when the topic turns to television. With BBC, ITV, S4C and Ofcom all in attendance the television sessions have the feel of any industry get-together. Ostensible competitors they may be in the hurly burly of the marketplace, but industry delegates are collegiate and clubby when gathered together. Acronyms and jargon abound and the layman is left well and truly stranded. A new initiative is currently undergoing its PVA. Sorry? That is its Public Value Assessment. Delegates at industry conferences are never representative. Those who opt, or are nominated, to attend are invariably intelligent, questioning, and presentable. But, unless there is a Minister to cosy up to, the organisational Barons stay at home guarding or, more likely, extending their fiefdoms. But from the evidence of the speakers in Aberystwyth they do seem to occupy a world of great stability and order. Ofcom sets about its latest review. Consultations are made and papers are drawn up. All this is to lead in a timely way towards a government Green Paper and a new Communications Act due before 2011. A BBC representative describes an initiative with Youtube, although she is coy about who may be paying whom for precisely what. The agreement is geographically bound to the United Kingdom. Equity, writer and other artist agreement are thus protected. In this Panglossian world the techies can be relied on to build in all the safety tripwires. All is order. Except that it takes two minutes in the blogosphere to locate a Briton visiting Canada who just cannot live without “The Mighty Boosh.” She states quite knowingly, and courtesy of the Web in complete anonymity, that she knows watching it is illegal. Just like the millions of suitcases that fly out of Britain containing teabags and sausages it seems that sampling another country’s media, like its cuisine, has small appeal. Even in that most dirigiste of states, France, the authorities apparently turn a blind eye to the multitudes of illegal dishes on rental properties that point Sky-wards. Sky and ITV on tap are as necessary as a swimming pool in securing bookings for a French holiday property. It may be that copyright infringement has its natural limit so that broadcast authorities, if not artists, tolerate it. In a student bedroom I have seen every Spongebob episode held on disk courtesy of Limewire. It may be that copyright-busting is akin to cannabis or pirating of DVDs. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who can get it. But maybe there is a limit to the number at it, whether out of fear, deference, inertia, a sense of citizenship, or even some respect for the rights of artists. Whatever, the face of public broadcasting in this context does resemble a little the smile of the Cheshire Cat. A second factor makes the television people resemble any other industry sector. The axiom is unspoken that unlimited production is a good thing. In this they are little different from pub owners defending twenty-four hour opening or cheap flight moguls defending non-taxed fuel as a blow for equality. A public service channel unveils plans to extend children’s programmes during the day. This is universally taken to be a Good Thing. The decision to transmit “M I High”, an excellent programme, well written, stylishly produced, for eight hours over the last Spring Bank Holiday caused a lot of trouble in at one household. A pox on both regulator and broadcaster was my thought at the time. Wales customarily has values in common with those admirable small Nordic countries. It would be revealing to know how those nations handle the thorny topic of round the clock children’s programming. The television folk sound on sure ground in the company of their peers, their regulator and talking about their traditional territory. It starts to sound wobbly when the discussion goes web-wise. “The medium and the message are an ontological entity” stated an admirable industry figure. Again? In the era of the I-Player, 4OD, and the plug-in receiver dongle isn’t it exactly the opposite? The internet now is where quantum theory used to be. It used to be said that only four people in the world understood it. For the rest of us “if you think you do, you don’t.” “I’ve been thirty years in the industry which probably means I have lost all perspective” says one speaker. It is meant as a quip, but without discredit to the intelligence, acuity or insight of those at present it is not only true but quite reasonable. In a period of transition it is not that no one knows how it will end, but that no one can know. Not for the first time Wales’ bilingualism proves an enriching resource. The conference’s twin titles “Cydgyfeiriant” and “Convergence” are not cognate. The Latin-based English word has the underlying sense of edges that join. The Welsh term does not make use of “Min”, the word for “Verge” but “Gyfeiriant” “direction”. It is about moving in the same direction, a very different concept and closer to reality. Old and media co-flourish. Yes, ITV is in doldrums but the plain old Economist magazine, founded 1843, has a circulation at its highest level ever. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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