Hi all
I just wanted to underline the presence in our group of dissidents -
myself and Salvo - in the matter of the licence fee, as well as a
slightly different experience with Ofcom (which Sonia has heard me talk
about before now). The upshot might be that you all agree to some
reflection of this difference on any panel - eg at Bradford MeCCSA.
A simple summary (for detail see the report of London Met's
international colloquium last September at www.communitymedia.eu, and
the resulting letter in The Guardian of 26 September
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2176972,00.html#article_continue),
using community radio (CR) as an example, is that there are now 150
licensed CR stations trying to make do with the Treasury (via DCMS) fund
of £0.5m originally intended for the first 15 stations - inadequate, and
comparing poorly with some other EU countries. This was the gist of our
brief submission to Ofcom - whose handling of CR has been quite sympathetic.
Some of us have been campaigning for CR in the UK for a long time. The
suggestion about use of the licence fee was first made by the Community
Communications Group (predecessor of the Community Media Association) in
its comments on the Annan Report in 1977! Since, COMCOM argued, PSB was
not the sole prerogative of the BBC, neither was the licence fee. All
those years before Peacock this was regarded as outrageous sacrilege.
But, we continue to argue, CR /is/ a local form of PSB. We don't ask for
100% government support for the sector. There should be a variety of
sources of funding, but some core, or start-up funding channeled through
a funding agency, should be available to the sector. The French do this
through a fund (FSER) created by a levy on the profits of the commercial
audio-visual sector. We wouldn't argue for any widening of the Model 3
definition of PSB (as I understand it) as limited to BBC and C4 beyond
the addition of community radio and television.
best
Peter Lewis
Sonia Livingstone wrote:
>Great ideas
>
>Plenary - well, Ed Richards, CEO should perhaps be our first invitee.
>
>Stewart Purvis would be excellent - perhaps focus on news/citizen media/future directions
>
>With a different focus, James Thickett could talk about Ofcom's research agenda and approach to research
>
>
>Policy panel - do we know what the key open consultations will be then? Perhaps something looking ahead to a new Comms Act?
>
>best, Sonia
>
>Sonia Livingstone
>
>Professor, Department of Media and Communications
>Project Director, EUKidsOnline, www.eukidsonline.net <http://www.eukidsonline.net/>
>
>
>Address: LSE, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK
>Home page: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
>
>Upcoming LSE conference: [log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
>New book: The International Handbook of Children, Media and Culture (edited with Kirsten Drotner, Sage, 2008).
>
>________________________________
>
>From: Media, Communications & Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA) - Policy Network on behalf of M Messenger Davies
>Sent: Wed 25/06/2008 12:29
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fw: MeCCSA Conference 2009- Call For Papers
>
>
>
>Dear all - it was suggested at the last meccsa exec, when conference planning was discussed, that there should be another policy panel at the Bradford conference in Jan, last year's being so successful. It was also suggested to have a policy plenary speaker - perhaps someone from ofcom?
>
>Could ideas for this be circulated to the list, and also suggestions for a policy plenarian (if there is such a word.)
>
>best
>
>Máire MD
>Professor Máire Messenger Davies
>Director, Centre for Media Research
>http://www.arts.ulster.ac.uk/media/cmr.html
>Director, Media Studies Research Institute
>
>School of Media, Film & Journalism
>University of Ulster at Coleraine
>Cromore Rd
>Coleraine BT52 1SA
>Northern Ireland
>
>Telephone: + 44(0)28 70324069
>Fax: +44(0)28 70324964
>email: [log in to unmask]
>
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--
Peter M. Lewis
Senior Lecturer, Community Media
Media Information & Communication
Department of Applied Social Sciences
London Metropolitan University
Tel: 0207-133-5209
Companies Act 2006 : http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/companyinfo
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