Abstract: We are currently experiencing a plethora of crises – separate but interrelated. And while crisis is an overused word in today’s circumstances it is entirely appropriate. Dominating the political landscape is a global economic crisis of a magnitude we haven’t seen for decades. With forecasts of a double dip recovery, those green-shoots on which the bankers are hallucinating may well turn out to be an illusion. For the two and half million jobless (and, if David Blanchflower’s predictions are right, hundreds of thousands more yet to be added), it will be some time before illusion becomes reality. Here in Britain, scandalised bankers have been reprieved by scandalised politicians. Details of MPs’ expenses have brought shame upon themselves and the contempt of the public. A political crisis unprecedented in scope and scale as it affects the entire political class, although importantly not every politician. (A crisis not helped by the release by the House of Commons authorities of blacked out documents – ‘redacted’ in the jargon – a presentational disaster equalled only by the Prime Minister’s announcement of an inquiry into the run up and conduct of the Iraq War. Instead of an announcement that should have provided some respite for Gordon Brown, under attack on all fronts, siren voices turned the correct decision into a publicity blunder because a former Prime Minister wanted to protect his reputation.) To add to the plethora we have a crisis in journalism brought about by technological challenges that have transformed the joy of serendipity of a newspaper into a media dubbed the ‘Daily Me’. ‘Point to point’ technology of the internet, Twitter and so on, and the ‘many to many’ of the traditional mainstream media, are colliding and converging. And economic challenges have resulted in declining advertising revenues to add to the financial woes of an industry already witnessing declining newspaper sales. It is for these reasons that there are demands among media owners for greater deregulation that would result in even greater concentration of media ownership. In a democracy this concentration creates a risk that points of views are monopolised into a single direction when what is required is the precise opposite – media diversity. For deregulation does not allow fresh independent voices into the mix. It does instead create the conditions for non-media conglomerates to enter the system, making scrutiny of the powerful (not only of government which is a necessary default position, but also of business) less likely.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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