MRC asked some leading advocates of media reform for their reaction to the result of the general election. Angela Phillips: The media and the polls Outrage about the bias of the media has been a constant over many years of elections but the past four years allow us to make a fairly direct comparison between events. The main thing that has changed is not the … [Read more...]
Community Radio: Deliberative Media Communities at the Heart of Media Reform
This is the second in our series of invited pieces about the importance of local and community radio. by Rob Watson You would have to be living under a rock not to sense the destructive tension of Brexit in our political debates of recent times. These strains are stretching and distorting our traditional social accords and norms in ways that are intensely polarising and … [Read more...]
Stop the deregulation of local commercial radio
MRC has invited the Local Radio Group to offer its own thoughts on some worrying developments in local commercial radio. A further comment piece is forthcoming on the impact of community radio. by The Local Radio Group We need to talk about deregulation. Unnecessary and extreme deregulation of the commercial radio industry has recently caused hundreds of job losses. … [Read more...]
A modest proposal: Why your MP’s voting record can be a platform for strong media democracy
The recently published Cairncross Report on the future of the UK press spoke of a “reduction in public-interest reporting [that] seems to reduce community engagement with local democracy (such as voter turnout) and the accountability of local institutions.” It called for the creation of an Institute for Public Interest News, one of whose tasks might be to … [Read more...]
A Sustainable Future for Journalism? An initial evaluation of the Cairncross Review
By Angela Phillips The Cairncross Review, which is published today, finds that: “Support for public-interest news providers is particularly urgent and justified. In the immediate future, government should look to plug the local gap to ensure the continued supply of local democracy reporting.” It goes on: “Given the evidence of a market failure in the supply of … [Read more...]
A Report on the Special Meeting on the Cairncross Review
By Isaac Costley On the 4 October the Media Reform Coalition (MRC) held a public meeting to discuss the Cairncross Review established by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to examine the sustainability of high-quality journalism in the UK. The Cairncross Review was established in March 2018 and is due to run for 9-12 months. It is currently examining the … [Read more...]
Selling Scotland’s local television to That’s TV is a travesty
Given the Cairncross Review's ongoing consultation into the future of 'high quality news' in the UK, we thought it would be useful to re-post this sobering account of recent developments in the local news environment in Scotland. It was originally posted in Bella Caledonia and is published here with kind permission of the author. by Dale McEwan Job adverts have been … [Read more...]