Communicating for change: media and agency in the networked public sphere

This paper is aimed at anyone who is interested in the role of media as an influence on power and policy. It especially about the role of news journalism, NGOs and other activists who use communication for change. It looks at the context for those actors and their actions. It asks how much the Internet and social networks are changing advocacy. It takes an ethical and political rather than technological or theoretical approach. It ask whether the ‘public sphere’ needs to be redefined. If that is the case, I argue, then we need to think again about journalism, advocacy communications and the relationship between mediation and social, political or economic change. I would identify three overlapping, interrelated media dynamics that might add up to the need for a new notion of the public sphere: the disruption of communication power; the rise of networked journalism; the dual forces for online socialisation and corporatisation. This is not only a theoretical concern. From these dynamics flow all the other arguments about what kind of media we want or need, and what effect it will have on our ability to communicate particular kinds of issues or information. Unless we understand the strategic context of these changes we will continue to make the kind of tactical blunders that Kony2012, for example, represents. This is not just an academic question, it is an ethical, political and practical set of problems

NGOs as Gatekeepers to Local Media: Networked News for Developing Countries

This paper illustrates how innovations leading to networked media have the potential to support the work of non-governmental organisations engaged in development work through providing new means of achieving accountability and transparency. The trend towards new forms of participatory media does not necessarily lead to better engagement with local media, civil society or citizens in developing countries. As the analysis in this paper, suggests there is some resistance in the development community towards a deeper involvement in networked forms of journalism.

From Fortress to Network: Changing Structures of News Media Production

A new form of networked journalism based on new media is changing the core of news production and consumption, challenging the business models of the past and the efforts of traditional journalism organizations to control the news. News values are changing even in the BBC and other mainstream news outlets. Although the meaning of news itself is changing, the author argues that even more significant is that we are gaining a whole new means of producing and consuming news. This has implications for empowering citizens, though the outcomes are by no means certain. Policy choices will shape the consequences of current shifts in news but the changes are global and there is increasing evidence of the major potential for change as news production becomes much more like a service - a service co-produced by citizens and journalists.

BBC and Channel 4: a marriage made in heaven or hell?

The BBC and Channel 4 are dancing around each other but it’s more of a hakka than a waltz. As I have reported before there is a Battle of Britain in the UK over the future of Public Sector Broadcasting. And toes are being stepped upon

To err is human, to blog is divine

I’ve made plenty of mistakes in two decades of broadcast journalism but I am still surprised at a couple of blunders made at the BBC recently. First, they broadcast library pictures of the 2004 Asian tsunami in a report about the 2008 Burmese cylcone. Then they used pictures of Hitler dolls in a piece to illustrate the rise of neo-nazism in Ukraine. Unfortunately the film was actually of dolls made in Taiwan

Fight! Fight!

Does the Labour Party, the public or the media want someone substantial to stand against Gordon Brown when Tony Blair leaves Downing Street this summer

What does the Brooks Coulson phone-hacking verdict tell us about editors’ responsibility for their newsrooms?

The verdict in the phone-hacking trial raises an interesting question: how much do editors know about what happens in their newsrooms? I think the problem at the News of the World was symptomatic of a certain period in tabloid journalism. The problem in that newsroom was particular to the people involved and perhaps the proprietor, too. But even allowing for the exceptionalism of this case, there is a wider issue about journalistic leadership

Morality and media: Silverstone's global legacy

Polis exists because Professor Roger Silverstone believed that we should all think a lot harder about our global media. As head of the Media Department at LSE he was a gentle and urbane visionary. He inspired individuals to a deeper critical understanding of media but he also wanted ideas to have influence. Hence, Polis

The BBC: from fortress to open house

The news that the BBC is planning to share its studios and other facilities with ITV regional news indicates that the fortresses of British public service broadcasting are coming tumbling down

Ofcom throws down the gauntlet to the BBC: Ed Richards at Polis

Ed Richards is the consummate policy wonk but at Polis tonight he allowed a little passion to surface. There was a definite sense that Britain’s broadcasting regulator wants a bit more urgency injected into its public service broadcasting review