Posts by admin
Is the increase in choice bad for society?
“Content is King”
Since getting my N95 8Gb I’ve been listening to a lot more podcasts (I set them to download overnight) and have been particularly enjoying Stephen Fry’s Podgrams, which are basically random musings by Stephen Fry, who I’ve always found intelligent and witty in equal measures, a rare combination. I’m met him too and he is very down-to-earth. Anyway, this isn’t a Stephen Fry fan blog, I have a serious discussion point to raise, so without further ado..
Podgram #4 “Broadcasting” consists of Stephen delivering a speech that he gave in response to OFCOM’s proposal that the UK TV licence fee should be shared between the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and five. (For more info on this, check out these links – [1],[2],[3]). This is a worthy topic for debate in its own right, I can see both sides but ultimately think it’s a bad idea and would agree with the point of view “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”
The thing that I found most thought provoking though, was not the licence fee issue, but the idea that “Content is King”. Stephen talked a lot about this; the idea that we have completely changed the way we consume recorded content – be it television, film, radio, podcasts, music or audiobooks. He makes the point that we do not think in “channels” any more, thanks to 24 hour channels, digital TV and its hundreds of niche channels, PVR systems, DVD-rental-by-post services, digital downloads, torrents, podcasts, iPlayer and the like.. As viewers we simply seek out the content we are interested in, get hold of it in whatever form we can, and watch it. In general, we do not care about a channel in its own right, we are far more interested in particular shows or types of shows that appeal to our interests. Hence the phrase “Content is King”.
Stephen argues (I hope I’m summarizing his view correctly) that this is not a good direction for television, and that the BBC is one of the last channels that people have brand loyalty to because of its reputation for good quality programming across a wide range of areas – not just the big audience “entertainment” shows like Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing, but wildlife shows, current affairs, documentaries, science, religion, arts, music etc. He argues that this would be eroded by the so-called “top-slicing” of licence fee revenue, because we then would be totally abandoning the idea of channels, abandoning the BBC as a viewing destination in its own right and reducing it to a producer of public service content.
He paints a picture of a future world where there are no broadcast channels – everyone has their own “narrowcast” personalised channels, with only those shows they like, catered to their exact demographic and interests, with advertising tailored to them.
Read MoreCloser to Truth
http://www.closertotruth.com/topics/technologysociety/102/102transcript.html
Excellent article about the possible effects of the Internet on society
Read Morehttp://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000599.html
Yahoo opens up its search data so you can build your own? Now that is breakthrough thinking! Expect to see some exciting new search apps pushing the envelope soon!
Read MoreNumbers Radio Stations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZVJMq0rYPs
I’ve heard these sometimes.. mysterious radio stations with a childs voice counting in German and a musical carousel-like tune.. very strange. More on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
Read MoreNPR Podcast Directory
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php?type=main
Looks to be a good source of non-commercial podcasts. Not tried and tested yet
Read More