The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published its 2007 autumn performance report, showing progress against its public service agreement targets.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2007, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Dec
The BBC published a six-year plan designed to deliver a 'smaller but fitter' organization. Every part of the BBC would be required to make efficiency savings, with the money reinvested in 'high-quality, distinctive content'.
Source: Delivering Creative Future, British Broadcasting Corporation (020 8576 8888)
Links: Plan | BBC press release
Date: 2007-Nov
A report by a committee of MPs expressed concern that the BBC should not be left as the only supplier of public service content in any area of programming: the maintenance of plurality in this area was an important public policy objective.
Source: Public Service Content, First Report (Session 2007-08), HC 36, House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Nov
A new book examined the way in which public service broadcasters and their press counterparts approached the communication of political issues.
Source: Neil Gavin, Press and Television in British Politics: Media, money and mediated democracy, Palgrave Macmillan (01256 329242)
Links: Summary
Date: 2007-Oct
An article examined the portrayal of social workers and social care professionals in television drama. Television drama was apparently more likely to portray these characters in positive terms, as friendly, sympathetic and 'good listeners': at the same time, they were represented as highly bureaucratic, isolated, 'sad' individuals rather than an integral part of the– largely working class – community that they served.
Source: Lesley Henderson and Bob Franklin, 'Sad not bad: images of social care professionals in popular UK television drama', Journal of Social Work, Volume 7 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2007-Aug
The Scottish Executive announced the creation of a Scottish Broadcasting Commission, designed to identify a strategic way forward for television production and broadcasting. At the same time the First Minister called for broadcasting policy to be devolved to Scotland.
Source: Press release 8 August 2007, Scottish Executive (0131 556 8400)
Links: SE press release | Speech | BBC Trust press release
Date: 2007-Aug
A report by a committee of peers said that the dual role of the BBC Trust chairman, as corporation head and regulator, was unsatisfactory.
Source: The Chairmanship of the BBC, 1st Report (Session 2006-07), HL 171, House of Lords Communications Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | BBC press release | Liberal Democrat press release | FT report | Guardian report
Date: 2007-Aug
The BBC Trust – the new governing body for the BBC – published its first annual report. It said that the BBC had failed to live up to public expectations for original television and radio output.
Source: Annual Report and Accounts 2006/2007: The BBC Trust?s review and assessment, BBC Trust (0870 010 3100)
Date: 2007-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs rejected calls for statutory regulation of the press, despite evidence of abuses. It said that any move towards a statutory regulator for the press would represent a 'very dangerous interference' with the freedom of the press.
Source: Self-regulation of the Press, Seventh Report (Session 2006-07), HC 375, House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2007-Jul
A report said that children aged 9-13 who spent a lot of time in front of a television or computer screen were more materialistic, argued more with their family, and had both a lower opinion of their parents and also lower self-esteem. Children in poorer areas were twice as likely to have televisions in their rooms as those in affluent areas.
Source: Agnes Nairn, Jo Ormrod and Paul Bottomley, Watching, Wanting and Wellbeing: Exploring the links – A study of 9 to 13-year-olds, National Consumer Council (020 7730 3469)
Links: Report | NCC press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2007-Jul
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the new media and creative industries. It said that the creative, knowledge economy was a key global driver for economic prosperity; and it was important for government and industry to work together to create the right economic framework in which creative businesses could thrive.
Source: Government Response to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee Report into New Media and the Creative Industries, Cm 7186, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2007-Jul
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published its annual report for 2006-07, showing its performance against public service agreement targets.
Source: Departmental Report 2007, Cm 7104, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-May
A report said that there had been an overall improvement in press coverage of asylum since the Press Complaints Commission introduced new guidance for journalists in 2003. Inaccurate terminology was found in just 1 per cent of articles surveyed, and only a small number potentially breached the guidelines. However, coverage in all papers suggested journalists were preoccupied with a system in 'chaos' rather than discussing the context of asylum.
Source: Kate Smart, Roger Grimshaw, Christopher McDowell and Beth Crosland, Reporting Asylum: The UK press and the effectiveness of PCC guidelines, Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK/School of Social Sciences/City University (020 7040 4596)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Mar
The government announced increases in the BBC licence fee over the six years from 2007-08 to 2012-13. The fee would rise by 3 per cent for two years, then by 2 per cent in each of the next three years, followed by an increase of up to 2 per cent in the final year. The BBC Trust would be given £600 million of 'ring-fenced' funds to help elderly and vulnerable people switch to digital television.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Oral Statement 18 January 2007, columns 933-946, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | BBC report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | FT report
Date: 2007-Jan
The broadcasting regulator began consultation on proposals for a new 'Public Service Publisher'. This would be a commissioner of new media content, focused on meeting public purposes. It would use new distribution platforms such as broadband, mobile, and digital broadcasting to deliver distinctive, high quality, United Kingdom-originated public service content.
Source: A New Approach to Public Service Content in the Digital Media Age: The potential role of the Public Service Publisher, Office of Communications (020 7981 3000)
Links: Consultation document | Ofcom press release
Date: 2007-Jan
A report said that British Muslims saw the media as 'exclusionary and discriminatory'. It examined how the media persistently categorized Muslims in narrow terms, and advocated a freer and fairer media that included marginal and minority voices.
Source: Saied Ameli, Syed Mohammed Marandi, Sameera Ahmed, Seyfeddin Kara and Arzu Merali, The British Media and Muslim Representation: The ideology of demonisation, Islamic Human Rights Commission (020 8904 4222)
Links: Report | IHRC press release
Date: 2007-Jan
A think-tank report said that broadcasters were 'crippled' by the requirement to be impartial. The BBC television licence should be scrapped, and broadcast journalists given the same freedoms as their print media colleagues.
Source: Richard North, 'Scrap the BBC!': Ten years to set broadcasters free, Social Affairs Unit (020 7637 4356)
Links: Summary
Date: 2007-Jan
An audit report said that the government had adequate evidence to assess the BBC?s efficiency as part of its consideration of the next licence fee settlement.
Source: How the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Assessed the BBC?s Efficiency as Part of the Licence Fee Settlement, HC 183 (Session 2006-07), National Audit Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | NAO press release
Date: 2007-Jan
An independent report examined future changes in the policy and regulatory framework for broadcasting and other electronic media.
Source: Robin Foster, Future Broadcasting Regulation, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Jan