Culture Shock: New media and organizational change in the BBC in In: Natalie Fenton, ed. New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age. Sage, pp. 73-86. ISBN 9781847875730

Abstract

A culture that grew organically for the best part of a century is now undergoing a would-be revolutionary transformation in response to changes in news consumption -facilitated by new technologies - and to accommodate the economic and political pressures bearing down on the BBC. Tracking this new dawn through the experience and opinion of many of those involved reveals divergent opinions on how radical, valuable and sustainable it all is, and exposes faultlines within an organisation keen to lay its old image of ‘Auntie’ to rest, while seeking a new relevance and appeal for the 21st century. New media has been a convenient Trojan Horse for importing a root and branch reorganisation many thought long overdue at BBC News. This short account can only offer a few stanzas from that odyssey. It looks at how new technology meets changing patterns of consumption; how new platforms of delivery have pitted technology against creativity; and how the BBC has managed the change