The BBC Trust published the outcome of its strategic review of the BBC. It said that the principal role of the BBC remained valid: but it said that the corporation needed to show greater 'transparency', and become more efficient.
Source: The BBC's Strategy: Putting Quality First, BBC Trust
Links: Report | BBC Trust press release
Date: 2010-Dec
A report examined how frequently alcohol was shown or mentioned in top 'soaps' on television, and how it was portrayed to viewers. Over one-third (38 per cent) of soap opera air time featured verbal or visual mentions of alcohol: but the negative consequences of drinking to excess were rarely shown.
Source: Alcohol and Soaps: Drinkaware media analysis 2010, Drinkaware
Links: Report | Drinkaware press release | Portman Group press release
Date: 2010-Dec
A report examined how changes in global media had affected low-income groups in the United Kingdom; explained how communities benefited from and influenced their global news consumption; and discussed the potential widening of the digital divide.
Source: Charlie Beckett, Globalisation, the Media and UK Communities, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Nov
A study found that 45 per cent of peak-time television programmes with mental illness storylines portrayed people with mental health problems as posing a threat to others; and 63 per cent of references to mental health were pejorative, flippant, or unsympathetic. 45 per cent of programmes had sympathetic portrayals: but these often portrayed the characters as tragic victims.
Source: Greg Philo, Lesley Henderson and Katie McCracken, Making Drama Out of a Crisis: Authentic portrayals of mental illness in TV drama, Department of Health
Links: Report | Summary | DH press release | Mind press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Nov
The coalition government announced (in its 2010 Spending Review) that current spending on culture, media, and sport would be cut by 24 per cent by 2014-15, and capital spending by 32 per cent. The BBC licence fee would be frozen for 6 years, and the BBC would be required to pay for the World Service, the Welsh language broadcaster S4C, and most of the cost of improving the broadband network.
Source: Spending Review 2010, Cm 7942, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Report | Summary | Hansard | HMT press releases | DCMS press release | Arts Council press release | British Library press release | CILIP press release | Heritage Link press release | Museums Association press release (1) | Museums Association press release (2) | Youth Sport Trust press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Oct
A new book examined the relationship between urban gay male culture and digital media technologies.
Source: Sharif Mowlabocus, Gaydar Culture: Gay men, technology and embodiment in the digital age, Ashgate Publications
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Sep
A study examined the portrayal of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people across the BBC's television, radio, and online services. The BBC had made progress in its portrayal of LGB people, but could do more to better reflect the diversity of LGB audiences.
Source: 2CV and Kantar Media, Portrayal of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People on the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation
Links: Report | Summary | BBC press release | Christian Institute press release | LGF press release | Stonewall press release
Date: 2010-Sep
A think-tank report said that the television licence fee should be abolished, and that the BBC should instead became a subscription service. The licence fee criminalized poor people, forced people to pay for genuinely 'free' services funded by advertising, and obliged the BBC to replicate a crude commercial model based on mass-audience advertising. Universal broadband and the internet made a 'licence' to broadcast obsolete.
Source: David Graham, Global Player or Subsidy Junkie? Decision time for the BBC, Adam Smith Institute
Links: Report | ASI press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jul
A study found that ordinary gay people were almost invisible on the 20 television programmes most watched by young people. Just 46 minutes out of 126 hours of output showed gay people positively and realistically.
Source: Unseen on Screen: Gay people on youth TV, Stonewall
Links: Report | Stonewall press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs said that audit arrangements at the BBC were unsatisfactory, and expressed concern about the BBC's record of spending public money without fully analyzing costs and benefits.
Source: Scrutiny of Value for Money at the BBC, Twenty-ninth Report (Session 2009-10), HC 519, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Apr
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on press standards, privacy, and libel. It said that it shared the Committee's view that there was no need to put the law of privacy on a statutory basis. It also agreed that the Press Complaints Commission should consider urgently how to introduce a system that demonstrably penalised publications for severe breaches of its code.
Source: The Government's Response to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on Press Standards, Privacy and Libel, Cm 7851, Department for Culture, Media and Sport/TSO
Links: Response | PCC response | MPs report
Date: 2010-Apr
A report by a committee of MPs examined the challenges facing regional and local media organizations.
Source: Future for Local and Regional Media, Fourth Report (Session 2009-10), HC 43, House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Apr
The BBC began consultation on its future strategy, following a review. It proposed the closure or scaling back of some of its activities, and using the savings generated to improve the quality of its mainstream output.
Source: BBC Strategy Review, BBC Trust
Links: Consultation document | BBC Trust press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report said that civil society had a crucial role to play in protecting and enhancing a diversity of viewpoints in the media, following the demise of traditional media business models.
Source: Tamara Witschge, Natalie Fenton and Des Freedman, Protecting the News: Civil society and the media, Carnegie UK Trust
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report by a committee of MPs said that the Press Complaints Commission should be given more power to penalize publications that breached its code.
Source: Press Standards, Privacy and Libel, Second Report (Session 2009-10), HC 362, House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | PCC press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Feb
A think-tank report said that public service broadcasting needed to be radically overhauled if it were to survive in the new digital age. It called for the BBC to place quality before ratings, and to cut spending on sports rights, programmes for people aged 16-35, and popular entertainment. The BBC should spend up to 5 per cent of total licence fee income on co-funding public service programmes on other channels. Channel 4 should be sold to private owners.
Source: Mark Oliver, Changing the Channel: A case for radical reform of public service broadcasting in the UK, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jan
A report by a committee of peers examined how the film and television industries had developed, the challenges they were facing, and what practical help might be provided to enable them to develop further. It said that the government should consider ways of encouraging private investment in film production.
Source: The British Film and Television Industries: Decline or Opportunity?, 1st Report (Session 2009-10), HL 37, House of Lords Communications Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jan