Today, we’re still in the first phase of broadcasting in Britain: Mass Media 1.0, where the content agenda is being firmly ruled by the broadcasters. Currently, broadcasters’ portfolios are being drawn up by too few people and audiences are not yet getting a diverse and surprising enough portrayal of life on their TV screens. What we need on TV in Britain is to make the change to Mass Media 2.0, where the audience originates a higher percentage of the broadcaster’s ‘agenda’.
We’ll then be in a position where broadcasters are more able to act as facilitators, commissioners, and clearing/publishing houses for content made and submitted by their audiences, as well as authoring their own content.The Mass Media 2.0 environment will offer individuals a voice on the mass media which has been less-mediated and less-filtered by the broadcasters.
Practically, when Mass Media 2.0 happens, there’ll be hundreds – maybe thousands – of people around Britain who are trained, equipped and incentivised to submit content to broadcasters. And their work will be being enjoyed and valued by the broadcasters’ audiences. Broadcasters also be publishing licensed content from its formal partnership organisations in the community, as well as by independent producers. The challenge will be to devise inclusive media forms which make it possible for almost anyone to make their contribution; inclusive forms like Digital Storytelling.
Written and first published by Gareth Morlais on 10 October 2006.