{"id":1197,"date":"2014-12-18T20:29:14","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T20:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cumnockmediaclass.wordpress.com\/?p=1197"},"modified":"2014-12-18T20:29:14","modified_gmt":"2014-12-18T20:29:14","slug":"role-of-media-explaining-the-difficult-topics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/ea\/cumnockmedia\/2014\/12\/18\/role-of-media-explaining-the-difficult-topics\/","title":{"rendered":"Role of Media – explaining the difficult topics"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Birt in the Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

The former BBC director general John Birt has criticised the corporation\u2019s current affairs output, which includes Panorama, saying it is not doing enough to address \u201cawesomely difficult questions\u201d about issues including Europe, the UK economy and the threat from radical Islam.<\/p>\n

Birt, who brought his \u201cmission to explain\u201d<\/strong> approach to current affairs from LWT when he joined the BBC as deputy director general and director of news in 1987, said the BBC\u2019s on-air current affairs presence had been progressively dismantled.<\/p>\n

In order to restore its effectiveness, he called on James Harding, director of BBC news and current affairs, to be willing to \u201ctake on battles with other people in the BBC\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Birt said the major part of Harding\u2019s BBC News division, the day-to-day news operation, was \u201cin really good shape; as good as it\u2019s ever been\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said the corporation had to \u201credefine\u201d its role in a digital era that had seen an explosion of information but a deficit of analysis and explanation.<\/strong> \u201cYou do have to fight for airtime and the right kind of resources,\u201d Birt told a conference on the future of the BBC at London\u2019s City University on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I think news is in excellent shape, I think James faces a challenge on current affairs. What it\u2019s not sufficiently doing is addressing the very big awesomely difficult questions our country and our world are facing at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BBC needs to be equipped in every way, including with airtime in order to be able to address these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birt, who flagged up the importance of the BBC\u2019s role in the event of a referendum on Europe in 2017, said: \u201cChannel controllers will say \u2018I don\u2019t want big, weighty programmes\u2019 \u2026 They will always resist that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the BBC as whole needed to \u201credefine [itself], get back to those very high purposes which are appropriate to a publicly funded broadcaster<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about BBC2\u2019s Newsnight, Birt said the more in-depth current affairs analysis he was calling for was not the remit of the Evan Davis-presented programme, which he said was a \u201cprogramme of the day, about issues of the moment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am talking about a much more strategic need on all the big questions we face,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery economy bar one in the G7 is more productive than the UK \u2013 these are the big issues that go undiscussed<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Birt declined to talk about BBC1\u2019s Panorama, which faces an uncertain future and was criticised in a BBC Trust report earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not going to make James\u2019s life a misery by going through his team of players,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you take current affairs as a whole it doesn\u2019t have sufficient presence at the moment. I am not alone in thinking that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birt said new technology and digital platforms meant everyone had more information than ever before. \u201cWhat it is not creating is more quality journalism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get more knowledge of things happening around the world but pulling it altogether and addressing the big policy questions \u2013 what should we be doing in respect of radical Islam, the National Health Service \u2013 that\u2019s what we\u2019re not doing very well and nobody\u2019s doing very much.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Birt in the Guardian The former BBC director general John Birt has criticised the corporation\u2019s current affairs output, which includes Panorama, saying it is not doing enough to address \u201cawesomely difficult questions\u201d about issues including Europe, the UK economy and the threat from radical Islam. Birt, who brought his \u201cmission to explain\u201d approach to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Role of Media – explaining the difficult topics”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4655,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52312,52677,71671],"class_list":["post-1197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bbc","tag-birt","tag-role-of-media","eportfolio_category-none"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/ea\/cumnockmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/ea\/cumnockmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/ea\/cumnockmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/ea\/cumnockmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4655"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/ea\/cumnockmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/ea\/cumnockmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/ea\/cumnockmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/ea\/cumnockmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/ea\/cumnockmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}