chris hanretty

New blog

2008-02-17T22:08:00.000Z

This blog is now dead. My new blog is here. Please update your bookmarks.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Veline

2007-07-14T14:00:00.000+01:00

Today' s FT has a piece about "Italy, the land that feminism forgot". It's deservedly critical of the role of women on Italian television:If you are home before the 8pm news on Rai Uno, Italy’s main television station, you will discover it is preceded by a quiz show called L’Eredita (“The Inheritance”). In the middle of the programme, four ritzy women interrupt the competition to dance. “My

How much information is complete information?

2007-07-12T13:33:00.000+01:00

The Italian communications watch-dog Agcom has told Rai and commercial broadcasters to give more coverage of the campaign to call a referendum on the current electoral law. The instruction is binding, though any penalty could easily be evaded; but what possible (non-normative) justification can Agcom give for this? Let's say Agcom finds out that 5% of time of news bulletins has covered the

We want more of the evidence we don't understand

2007-07-05T19:58:00.000+01:00

Quomedia reports that politicians in the parliamentary committee that supervises Rai are asking for equal-time limits on political appearances even outside of election periods. I'm not sure why politicians need to have these limits. The most obvious interpretation is that they' re worried that Rai will be captured by an interfering government. But, as I' ve shown in a recent paper, existing data

Things I would like to find out

2007-07-04T18:32:00.001+01:00

For any country,what's the average wage for a journalist?what's the average wage for a journalist working in the public service broadcaster?is there a trade magazine in journalism or communications?is there some magazine or annual agenda which shows the editors of the various television news desks? (Like Benn's Media in the UK, except better; more like Agenda del Giornalista in Italy)have there

The Consequence of Sarko

2007-06-21T11:11:00.000+01:00

Quick link to this thoughtful piece on the possibility and desirability of an independent media in Sarkozy's France - thoughtful primarily for recognising that the desirable level of media independence is not always the maximum level.

CBC President parody video taken down by House of Commons

2007-05-30T17:47:00.000+01:00

[Via Boing-Boing] The Canadian House of Commons asked YouTube to take down a parody video of Robert Rabinovitch's testimony to the House. Questions:why can't Canadian citizens get the rights to the video of their own representatives?what on earth did Rabinovitch say that might have been worth parodying?[Update: the answer to the second question is: nothing.]

Description of SVT's governance

2007-05-28T15:17:00.000+01:00

Establishment of public broadcasters by charters has its upsides and its downsides.Upsides: it maintains the independence of the broadcaster.Downsides: I have to read through Sweden's 1996 Television and Radio Law, the 2007 Licence Agreement, and the Supplement to the Licence Agreement, before finding that none of them contain anything on the governance of SVT.Thankfully, this document contains

Polls on CBC's independence

2007-05-28T09:21:00.001+01:00

No sooner do I complete my June paper (a 15,000 word research design for the thesis), than I find a new data point on perceptions of political independence by the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.The first poll is by Ipsos-Reid, and asksThinking specifically about the CBC...which of the following two statements is closer to your own opinion?StatementMay. 04Aug. 02The Prime Minister’s power to

Greek PSB governance

2007-05-24T22:41:00.000+01:00

I've been hunting for an English language description of the governance of the Greek PSB for a while now. I've found part of it:The government introduced the broadcasting Law 230/1975 which abolished EIRT and, in its place, created Hellenic Radio and Television (ERT). ERT was a limited company whose only shareholder was the Greek state. It is characteristic that when the Bill was discussed in

Bibliography on broadcasting in Slovakia

2007-05-24T17:27:00.001+01:00

Godarsky, Ivan, "Slovakia: Facing Reality", Transitions Online, 9th January 2006Milton, A.K, "Bound But Not Gagged: Media Reform in Democratic Transitions", Comparative Political Studies, Vo. 34, No. 5, pp. 493-526Pavlik, Petr, and Shields, Peter, "Toward an Explanation of Television Broadcast Restructuring in the Czech Republic", European Journal of Communication, Vol. 14, No. 4 (criticises the

Bibliography on broadcasting in Slovenia

2007-05-24T14:53:00.000+01:00

These are, in large part, publicly available. God bless George Soros-funded organisations...Gaube, Ales, "Slovenia: a Government Mouthpiece?", Transitions Online, 26th September 2005; deals with a reform of RTV Slovenia following a 2005 referendum; the referendum substitute a German-style corporatist board for a parliamentary appointed board. Gaubes, Ales, "Slovenian Media: the Politics of

The governance of public broadcasters

2007-05-17T17:09:00.000+01:00

Most of the time, I look at public service broadcasters (PSBs) as exquisitely political creatures.Most of the time, I think that's the right perspective.Recently, however, I've been looking at PSBs as corporations, with all the associated paraphernalia of corporate governance. The results have been interesting.PSBs can be divided into two types: dual board, or single-board.German PSBs have dual

Rai round-up

2007-05-16T18:52:00.000+01:00

On Saturday, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Finance Minister, writes to Rai saying that he no longer has confidence in Angelo Maria Petroni, the Finance Ministry's representative on the Rai board. Petroni was nominated by Padoa-Schioppa's right-wing predecessor. Petroni claims that the move is purely political, and has no legal foundation. Petroni is partly right: the move has no basis in the Gasparri

Public attitudes towards government intervention in the media

2007-05-10T15:05:00.000+01:00

"People have clear views about how their health should be provided for, the economy should be managed, and the environment be protected, but attitudes towards government intervention in the communications field appear fitful and unfocused. Perhaps it is more difficult for people to have well-formulated views on the organization and control of institutions and technologies which are both remote

Daily Mail loses libel case

2007-05-10T13:23:00.000+01:00

When I speak to Italian friends about the differences between Rai and the BBC, I often say that there are simply not so many newspaper articles about the BBC as there are about Rai. When newspapers do publish things on the BBC, they try (usually) to select issues of genuine public interest and (usually) try to be truthful.That's why I was pleased to see that my friend Thea Rogers has won her

Why governments don't manage public broadcasters

2007-04-26T16:56:00.000+01:00

"I want a situation without censorship, because I do not want to be responsible for whatever they may say" - Napoleon I, letter to M. Fouché, Jun 1, 1805.Source: Baker, D. (ed)., Political Quotations (Gale: Detroit), 70

Journalists' partisan leanings in Sweden & SVT

2007-04-24T16:30:00.000+01:00

I'm currently waiting on the data from Journalist '05, a regular (every five years) survey of Swedish journalists, which are as I write being turned into book form by Prof. Kent Asp and colleagues. In the meantime, here are some results from the 2000 survey: Public Journalists SVT Journalists Left 15 31 33 Social Democrats 32 27 23

Lieutenant Chiti

2007-04-24T11:36:00.000+01:00

The 'Bonsai' column in Repubblica has, over the past few months, been painting a wonderful picture of Vannino Chiti - Minister in charge of relationships with Parliament - as a type of electoral Lieutenant Columbo. From Wikipedia:Columbo's signature technique was to exit the scene of an interview, invariably stopping in the doorway or returning a moment later to ask "just one more thing" of a

Public attitudes towards Rai

2007-04-17T14:24:00.000+01:00

In my thesis, I claimed that "there is no available polling evidence on whether Italians believe Rai to be independent of the government". That's not quite right. There's no public polling data, but I've hit the jackpot through trawling through the catalogue of the Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale: I've got Rai's own internal data.Granted, it's from 1986. But still, it's tremendously useful. I

More on the independence of French journalists

2007-04-15T22:23:00.000+01:00

Even better data from this 2003 CSA / Marianne poll on l'image des journalistes: 23% of French people think the media are independent of "political power", Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, Jean-Pierre Pernaud, and Claire Chazal are cited as particularly independent. Cross-tabs are included!

Journalistic independence in France

2007-04-15T22:11:00.000+01:00

Via a long chain of googling too tedious to repeat, I find a wonderful poll on public attitudes towards French journalists. My interest was drawn to the question on public perceptions of journalistic independence. Two questions are asked, one on independence from political parties, and one on independence from economic concerns. Here's the time-series on independence from political parties. Only

Costs of Italian democracy

2007-04-14T16:41:00.000+01:00

From Today's Repubblica (Vladimiro Polchi, "I costi dello stato", p. 9):"How much does a parliamentarian earn? The calculation is not easy given the number of different headings to add. Senators and deputie take home euro 14,000 per month net of taxes. To the exemption of 5,486 euros (reduced by 10% with the 2006 budget) one adds: 4,003 euros "for the reimbursement of costs incurred staying in

The 'bozza Chiti' and the effective threshold

2007-04-05T18:46:00.000+01:00

From repubblica.it comes information on the size of constituencies in the new electoral system proposed in the 'bozza Chiti'. They will be 'sub-provinciale', at most, 'provinciale'.Let's assume conservatively that the constituencies will be equal to the number of provinces.Let's also assume, as a simplifying measure, that the constituencies will all be given the same number of members of

Rai approves new service contract

2007-04-05T17:18:00.000+01:00

Rai today agreed a new service contract with the Communications Minister Paolo Gentiloni. According to this write-up, the contract was extensively modified after parliamentary hearing. The one big word to take away from the process (or two words, for Ritchie-Bartlett watchers)? Unfunded mandate: Il problema e' che secondo un conteggio 'interno' alla Rai, queste modifiche al contratto potrebbero

Agreement on electoral reform in Italy?

2007-04-04T17:04:00.000+01:00

Repubblica and the Corriere both report that the centre-left majority has reached agreement on electoral reform. The reform will replace the current law with a system similar to that used for regional elections. The text therefore is close to joint position of the centre-right, which augurs well for its chances of quick passage. By including constitutional reforms in the reform package, however,

The best 'Dear Joergen' letter ever

2007-04-02T20:18:00.000+01:00

Jeppe alerted me to a brewing storm in the Danish media. Former director of Danmarks Radio (DR) Christian Nissen has, in his new book about his time with the broadcaster, reproduced an email from Culture Minister Brian Mikkelsen complaining about DR's coverage of the Iraq war, and threatening to private DR instead of already announced plans to privatise the second broadcaster TV2. The text of the

Reading list on Rai

2007-04-01T22:09:00.000+01:00

I haven't blogged in some time. In part, that's because I've been in the Biblioteca Nazionale (sede di Firenze) reading books about Rai. A tentative bibliography of essential reads is below. There are some I haven't included, some of which I've cited in my M.Phil thesis, some of which I am certainly ignorant of :)

Twin fallacies of Italian institutional reform

2007-03-01T13:26:00.000Z

Recently, the debate about electoral reform in Italy has begun to move quite quickly. A number of parties - including the pivotal UDC - seem to favour the German mixed-member system. Rocco Buttiglione, in yesterday's Repubblica, claimed that such an electoral system would leave Italy with four parties - radical left, centre-left, centre, and respectable right.Buttiglione's comment - and support

The deeper malaise that bedevils the Italian electoral system

2007-02-27T21:12:00.000Z

Today's FT publishes a letter written by David Hine, Alan Renwick and me, on the issue of the Italian electoral system, recently the object of much debate:Sir, Alexander Stille's analysis of Italy's current troubles focuses on the electoral reform rushed in by Silvio Berlusconi ahead of last spring's election ("Prodi and the problem of Italy's electoral system", February 23). He calls it

Croatia's HRT to get new boss...sometime

2007-02-25T15:38:00.000Z

Legal uncertainty about procedure for replacing PSB boss. So much for the quality of the draftsmanship of media legislation, the object of much comment from EU 'experts'. (Of course, the idea of eliminating interpretative uncertainty is chimeric).

State funding of Italian newspapers

2007-02-24T08:40:00.000Z

Following a tip [thanks Costanza], I found a wonderful transcript of an episode of Report on the state funding of Italian newspapers. The state spends 667 million euros a year to subsidize newspapers; the intention behind the subsidies was originally to help struggling 'newspapers of ideas'. Instead, with a 1987 law permitting two deputies to certify that such-and-such a newspaper is the in-house

The election will not be televised [not by Duhamel, that is]

2007-02-19T08:43:00.000Z

Interesting story last week about Alain Duhamel, respected French television journalist who was sacked for revealing who he would vote for in the upcoming presidential election. Here's the story, as recounted by someone more familiar with the case than I [thanks Ben!]:Duhamel writes editorials for newspaper, he is a journalist and a political interviewer on RTL (the French radio with the largest

State funding of Italian parties

2007-02-07T20:27:00.000Z

Recently, I've been looking at the system of state funding of Italian political parties. I'm interested in the subject because of the incentives it may create to form new parliamentary groups (since they qualify for funding), and the way funding systems interact with the new electoral system.The history of state funding is pretty shabby. In 1993, an abrogative referendum repealed parts of the law

New CEO for Norwegian broadcaster

2007-01-24T16:28:00.000Z

Board of public broadcaster NRK names Hans-Tore Bjerkaas as new top executive. Bjerkass succeeds John G. Bernander, who resigned in October of last year.

Observational equivalence

2007-01-22T16:13:00.000Z

One of the measures of PSB independence I'm looking at is the turn-over rate of PSB directors-general, and specifically whether they often change within six months of a government change. The idea is that, if directors-general are appointed only for two years, or if they know they'll be fired with a government change, they can't be independent of politics.So, if turnover is low,that means the

France 2, director of programmes sacked

2007-01-21T15:13:00.000Z

[Thanks to Michael for the link] : Jean Baptiste Jouy sacked as director of programmes for France 2. Culture shock at moving from Canal+ a factor.

Weekly round-up: BBC, RTVE, RAI

2007-01-20T12:50:00.000Z

Three items this week, in descending order of importance, increasing order of triviality:The cost of a BBC licence fee was set for the next six years. The fee will increase 3% for the next two years, and 2% for the four following years. The figures roughly follow projections for CPI, but there is no inflation link. The BBC is annoyed, because they think the settlement is below RPI (which is below

Dyke didn't jump but was pushed

2007-01-13T16:27:00.000Z

Minutes of the BBC Governors' meeting of the 28th and 29th January reveal that Greg Dyke was sacked by the Board of Governors, rather than resigning. As Torin Douglas wrote,For those who have read Greg Dyke's book Inside Story, there are few surprises in the minutes of the BBC governors' meetings.Still, nice to have it confirmed officially.

Government interference

2007-01-11T17:02:00.000Z

I've belatedly found a wonderful survey from May last year on trust in the media. As usual, the relevant cross-tabs are buried behind several links. The juiciest information for my purposes comes with the agree/disagree responses to the statement, "The government interferes too much in the media in our country". The question isn't ideal for gauging the actual level of interference - one may think

Rai to become a public foundation

2007-01-09T20:24:00.000Z

Minister for Communications Paolo Gentiloni today unveiled a blueprint for the future of Italian public service broadcaster Rai. Rai is to become a public foundation which shall nominate the executives of the company and decide on the value of the licence fee in conjunction with the government. Public service and commercial broadcasting will be entrusted to distinct divisions; these two, and a

Countries that need to fix their media systems

2006-12-28T20:18:00.000Z

I've been doing some research for a term paper on comparing democracies. Using Coppedge and Reinicke's Polyarchy and Contestation data-set, I've identified those countries which would be perfect polyarchies were it not for their media systems, where government information is privileged. They are:AlbaniaBotswanaCape VerdeCroatiaDominican RepublicEcuadorGuyanaHondurasIsrael and the occupied

Invented story leads to real investigation

2006-12-06T20:57:00.000Z

About two weeks ago, Enrico Deaglio alleged that the centre-right had attempted to steal the 2006 election by counting blank and invalid ballots as votes for the centre-right. Deaglio's argument didn't add up: the centre-right only had control over the projections at the Ministry of the Interior; the real votes were summed from the sub-totals of the several regional electoral commissions. Indeed,

Newspapers didn't disappear; television might

2006-11-30T21:38:00.000Z

Online video 'eroding TV viewing'

Rehearsals for departures

2006-11-28T20:42:00.000Z

One departure, one arrival, and one return from the brink:Michael Grade left the BBC. The decision was broken, as I understand it, in the Telegraph, and confirmed this morning. No news yet on salary, but it may top £2m. No news yet on how how he will be replaced. A former surgeon, acting Chair Chitra Bharucha looks unlikely to step up to the top seat. I suggest the BBC will go from someone

News from Flanders

2006-11-23T20:36:00.000Z

Variety has the most ridiculously over-blown style. Here it describes the sacking of VRT CEO Tony Mary after the Flemish government got pissed off with Mary's sale of a popular TV show to a pay-per-view competitor. Piet Van Roe replaces Mary.

Directors-General of European PSBs

2006-11-23T20:30:00.000Z

Measures of central bank independence have sometimes used the rate of turnover of Central Bank Governors as an indicator of de facto independence (which, it turns out, is reasonably strongly correlated with de jure independence). How does it work for PSBs? The following table gives the average time in post of a number of PSB Directors-General.Public broadcasterAverage tenure of DGNRK [Norway]9

Five ways to get the right answer from your independent review of coverage

2006-11-23T18:52:00.000Z

The BBC announced today a review of its coverage of business. The review - which follows previous reviews of coverage of the European Union and the Middle East - will be conducted by a panel of six of the 'great and the good', and forms part of the new Trust's ongoing Impartiality Project.These reviews are an invaluable source of data, and, assuming their investigative reach is great enough,

Political balance = balance of politicians?

2006-11-21T13:19:00.000Z

The centre-right is annoyed with Rai thanks to two programmes: Fabio Fazio's hosting of Finance Minister Padoa-Schioppa on Che Tempo Che Fa, and Lucia Annunziata's hosting of Enrico Deaglio on Ballaro. Padoa-Schioppa took time to explain the left's budget; Deaglio, a journalist, argued that the centre-right was ready to stuff the ballot boxes in last April's general election. In both cases, the

Distribution of screen-time on Today

2006-11-20T17:54:00.000Z

I'm just back from the PSA Media and Politics Group conference in Sunderland, where I presented a paper on the screen time given over to Italian politicians. Whilst there, I found out that Guy Starkey has compiled similar data [Powerpoint] on the screen-time given over to different parties on the BBC's Today programme during electoral periods. The trend revealed over the period 1997 - 2005 [not

Meet Ze Monsta

2006-11-10T19:18:00.000Z

Senate President Franco Marini today defined the new electoral law ¨a monster¨. The law, passed in December of 2005 and already dubbed a ´piece of rubbish´ by its author was criticised for delivering different results in the Camera and in the Senate and for using closed party lists. ¨Citizens are no longer the referees¨, said Marini.Leaving aside the issue of closed party lists, on which I´m

Mediaset fails to buy ProSiebenSat

2006-11-09T17:49:00.000Z

Mediaset has been excluded from the short-list of companies competing to buy German TV group ProSiebenSat. Reuters, citing an anonymous source, claims that the exclusion was made on political grounds.It is not uncommon to argue that Berlusconi's business success is built on political connections rather than business acumen. The contrast between Berlusconi's failure to make headway in the French

Music for today´s bar fiasco shift

2006-11-08T23:50:00.000Z

artistalbumtrackboards of canadageogaddi09 The Smallest Weird Numbercantago mago02 - Mushroomairthe virgin suicides09 - Afternoon Sisterclinicinternal wrangler03 - Internal Wranglerboards of canadageogaddi14 Alpha And Omegathe knifesharp cut12 Got 2 Let Uthe arcade firefuneral02 Neighborhood #2 (Laika)boards of canadamusic has the right to children07 Turquoise Hexagon Sunstereototalmusique

A Democratic Party for Italy?

2006-11-08T21:10:00.000Z

As their American brethren celebrate considerable success in the mid-term elections, Italy's 'Democrats' - who so far only exist in theory - are having considerable difficulty forming a single party of the centre-left. Repubblica has run two articles in the past two days on the prospects of the Partito Democratico. They outline the positions of the key actors, which can be summarised as follows:

Academic jobs in the UK, Canada

2006-11-05T22:20:00.000Z

I was at a departmental retreat this weekend, and talk turned to careers. We realised that it might be a good idea to pool information about the academic job market in our own countries, especially in those still-rare cases where vacancy notices are posted on the internet and genuinely competitive.So, for anyone who's interested in jobs in social and political sciences, here are the two big

Business as usual

2006-11-05T15:52:00.000Z

Whilst the BBC struggles to clarify its position on news-readers wearing the veil, Rai nominates a number of office-holders. In short, business as usual. For completeness' sake, here are the nominees:Luigi Meloni (Unione, allegedly) - vice-director, HR;Alessandro Zucca (CdL, allegedly) - vice-director, HR;Valerio Fiorespino - vice-director, TV Resources;Giancarlo d'Arma - vice-director,

Worst. Minister. Ever

2006-11-01T19:32:00.000Z

One can tell something about Italian journalism by the way in which Italian newspapers and television news bulletins treat editorials from the Financial Times and the Economist, two papers with deserved reputations for straight-talking. Yet when these editorials reach Italy, they quickly become sensationalized. And so, when the Financial Times published on its website a ranking of Eurozone

Accusations of bias against Tg1

2006-10-27T07:05:00.000+01:00

"Anche questa sera e' andata in onda una edizione del Tg1 sfacciatamente faziosa". Lo afferma Giorgio Lainati, capogruppo di Forza Italia in commissione vigilanza Rai. [Repubblica]

Music for tomorrow's Bar Fiasco shift

2006-10-25T19:51:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd post the music I wanted to put on at my shift in bar fiasco tomorrow night...NameArtistAlbumYearSomebody Dance (Sven & Friends edit)The Killers vs David Bowie2006Emotional RescueThe Rolling StonesForty licks (Disc 2)1980Life o' The PartyPrinceMusicologyHey LadiesThe Beastie BoysThe Sounds Of Science (Disc 2)1999Concrete SchoolyardJurassic 5Jurassic 5 - J51998The Don of DonsThe

Leaked BBC minutes on impartiality

2006-10-22T10:54:00.000+01:00

This is London takes up this story about the BBC's 'impartiality summit'. The paper's spin is that the summit was an admission that the BBC is 'biased'. In particular, "the BBC is dominated by trendy, Left-leaning liberals who are biased against Christianity and in favour of multiculturalism".If the minutes of the meeting are accurate, and if the quotes reported are correct, and if they are given

Marco Follini leaves the UDC

2006-10-18T18:41:00.000+01:00

Marco Follini, former secretary of the UDC, has decided to leave the party, founding his own group, l'Italia del mezzo.This was not unexpected - Follini had left his post as party secretary a while ago, and had carped about his party's policy and Berlusconi's leadership of the centre-right. What is surprising, at least to me, is the willingness of Italian politicians to found new parties which

RTÉ responds to government's proposed media reform

2006-10-17T18:12:00.000+01:00

In response to the previously announced government consultation exercise, RTÉ has responded to the government's draft broadcasting bill with a fair amount of red ink. Politically relevant concerns are the following:In order to fall under companies legislation, RTÉ is to be constituted as a single-shareholder company with one shareholder, a cabinet minister. RTÉ argues that this would mark the

Trust and politicians' ability to leave things be

2006-10-17T17:28:00.000+01:00

As a sideline, I've been reading about trust in governing institutions. Does the political independence of broadcasters depend on whether politicians trust the broadcasters to report truthfully or accurately? If so, might existing low levels of trust prevent an improvement in the relationship?Working through one wonderful article on LBJ's psychology, I came across the term 'sinister attribution

New Director-General for Sveriges Television

2006-10-16T22:58:00.000+01:00

Eva Hamilton, SVT's Head of Fiction, was last Friday appointed Director General of the Swedish public broadcaster. With experience in SVT's News department, she comes to SVT after having worked for Aftonbladet ("independent social democrat") and Svenska Dagbladet ("independent, conservative") [Source for these judgements: BBC Media monitoring].

Past appointments in RTVE

2006-10-16T22:11:00.000+01:00

Now that RTVE Director-General Carmen Caffarel is calling on politicians to name high-quality independent members of RTVE's future Board, I thought it might be useful to see whether, in the past, Directors-General have frequently been tossed out by over-mighty boards. I finally found this list of previous Directors-General. Let's have a look:Fernando Castedo (Jan '81 to Oct '81)Carlos Robles (Oct

New Italian media law announced

2006-10-12T21:08:00.000+01:00

Event:The Prodi government has agreed changes to Italy's framework media law, reducing generous antri-trust limits set by the previous Berlusconi government.Significance:Public broadcaster Rai and private corporation Mediaset - owned by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - enjoy a de facto duopoly over Italian television. Each has three of seven national terrestrial channels, and their

CSA creates a new category

2006-10-10T18:40:00.000+01:00

Earlier this year, the CSA found it had a problem when considering UDF deputies who were dissenting from the government line. Did they count in the government's share of screen-time according to the 'rule of three thirds'? The 'sages' have now resolved the difficulty, with the creation of a new category - neither government, nor opposition. This new category will not, it seems, be relevant for

RSS feed about the BBC

2006-10-10T18:10:00.000+01:00

I've only just noticed that the BBC Press Office has an RSS feed for news about the BBC itself. It contains links to notices on appointments and other useful things.The current items are rather confusing, because many of the 'appointments' are either (a) posts which have been re-named as part of Mark Thompson's re-shuffle; or (b) posts which replace existing posts. The proliferation of titles -

Are public service broadcasters important? Will they be so in the future?

2006-10-07T15:23:00.000+01:00

Five years ago, a number of contributors to OpenDemocracy - largely drawn from the UK - discussed the merits of public service broadcasting (PSB), compared explicitly against the market and implicitly against some ideal broadcasting service which delivers just the right amount of merit goods. The key questions were normative - ought PSB exist, and ought it to be funded in the way it currently is

RTVE Administrative Council and election coverage

2006-10-07T10:03:00.000+01:00

This article detailing election coverage in the Catalonian elections is interesting for two reasons. First, it's another reminder to Britons that the debates about the distribution of party political broadcasts is astonishingly conflict-free - or at least appears that way. Second, it's the first time I've seen reference to the (national) RTVE board of administration, and, significantly,

Must satire be parti pris?

2006-10-04T23:02:00.000+01:00

Luttazzi: non mi vuole neanche la Rai di sinistra - La Stampa Web: Daniele Luttazzi, persona non grata at Rai ever since Silvio Berlusconi's 'editto bulgaro', has this to say about the politics of satire:«The satirist must be interested in who is in power: who is there is there. The right argues that the satirists make left-wing satire: no, the satirist is of the left, and makes satire from his

Rai - filo-governativo and disrespectful in one smooth package

2006-10-02T22:22:00.000+01:00

RaiNews24 reports that four left-wing politicians (Giorgio Merlo, Margherita; Gennaro Migliore, RC; Loredana de Petris, Verdi; Esterino Montino, DS) have complained to Rai about the broadcast of the 'Prodi rap' during a news bulletin. The centre-right, in the shape of Altero Matteoli, accuses the left of stamping out 'liberty of expression', which presumably Rai enjoys.At the same time, however,

Update on Italian politics

2006-10-02T20:39:00.000+01:00

A friend recently asked me to give the five-minute version of what's going on in Italian politics. Here's my version, given in best Economist style:"Dear Anna,There are two major issues facing the Prodi government at the moment: the budget for 2006/7, and the government's relations with Telecom Italia.The budget decree was agreed in the Council of Ministers on Sunday and signed that same day by

Notes on Polish journalism

2006-09-30T18:01:00.000+01:00

Curry, J.L. (1990). Poland's Journalists: Professionalism and politics.

Lady Rutelli giornalista per Silvio

2006-09-30T10:43:00.000+01:00

Thanks to a national strike of journalists, there is no print news today. This event - which I can't imagine happening in the UK after Rupert Murdoch's move to Wapping - came as a pleasant surprise. No longer the rush to catch up with and synthesise the daily flood of information.In any event, there are some interesting stories. Francesco Rutelli's wife is going to work for Mediaset, which one

Alexander Stille - Silvio's Shadow

2006-09-29T18:19:00.000+01:00

There is but one lacuna in Alexander Stille's otherwise excellent piece 'Silvio's Shadow': it is not true that Berlusconi "occupied an incredible 50 percent of airtime on the state-owned newscasts". Data from the Italian communications watchdog show the figure for the three state-owned channels was closer to 20%. The quite remarkable figure of 50% of political coverage is, however, achieved, by

Notes on Swedish, British journalism; Italian parliamentary supervision of the media

2006-09-28T21:17:00.000+01:00

Stromback, J., and Nord, L.W. (2006) Do Politicians Lead the Tango?Malinconico, G. (1996). La commissione parlamentare di vigilanza sulla Rai a vent'anni dalla riforma della radiotelevisione pubblicaAldridge, M., Evetts, J. (2003). Rethinking the concept of professionalism: the case of journalism.

Lottizzazione for the naughties

2006-09-27T22:57:00.000+01:00

There was a certain moment in the nineties when it looked as if the era of lottizzazione - of the division of posts in Rai along party-political lines - might come to an end. This wonderful piece from l'Opinione suggests it hasn't. It includes three classic elements of pre-1992 lottizzazione:Bizarre names to refer to methods of allocating posts: "Once it was called the Cencelli method; or if not,

2006-09-26T12:49:00.000+01:00

Thesis:UK journalism is becoming professionalised, not in a trait-based sense, nor in a market closure sense, but as part of a managerial project designed to ensure control over members using minimally coercive methods of myth cultivation.Background:Disagreement about the professional status of journalism dates back to the emergence of the occupation.It can be seen in the 1907 split between the

BBC NEWS | Politics | Ex-Brown aide regrets BBC battle

2006-09-26T09:56:00.000+01:00

BBC reports that a former Brown aide now believes that the row over Gilligan damaged trust in the government. Now there's a shocker. Quick, someone investigate whether ursine animals defecate in woodland areas...

New book on the lack of pluralism, bias at RTVE

2006-09-21T08:48:00.000+01:00

Alicia G. Montano today publishes La manipulación en Televisión, a book on the "weakness of pluralism and independence" suffered by RTVE over the past thirty years.Technorati Tags: RTVE, bibliography, montano

Béatrice Schonberg and the 52 UMP deputies

2006-09-19T10:03:00.000+01:00

Weekend journalist is married to government minister. Journalist is suspended. 52 deputies belonging to the party of government support her. The journalists' union says to the deputies, bugger off, this isn't your fight. Excellent reply. I must learn more about the Société des Journalistes.Technorati Tags: france+televisions,, beatrice, schonberg,, france, 2,, societe, des, journalistes,, unions,

Beppe Grillo's Blog

2006-09-13T17:47:00.000+01:00

In the same week that two key nominations are made "in full autonomy", according to Petruccioli, "nomine politiche", according to La Russa, Beppe Grillo writes about another route to power in Rai: nepotism.Technorati Tags: grillo, riotta, lottizzazione, nepotism, appointments

Irish broadcasting reform - consultation online

2006-09-13T13:02:00.000+01:00

The Irish government launches an online consultation exercise on reform of broadcasting legislation. More to follow on the details of the reform...Technorati Tags: rte, ireland, legislation, e-democracy

Radicals, Rai

2006-09-11T11:20:00.000+01:00

Daniele Cappezzone, secretary of the Italian radicals last week broke the news of a list of names for the positions in rai's news bulletins. Now, he gives us a very entertaining schematic of how politicians value these posts. It's incredibly detailed, and, if true to the facts, would show an astonishing level of interest and interference in Rai. (The title of the second article is a reference to

New resources

2006-09-06T14:45:00.000+01:00

I'm as happy as a pig in mud trawling through the EUI library for new books for my research. Have found that the library has an excellent reference guide for the French Media, called MédiaSIG - this should be useful for calculating rates of turnover in France Télévisions and seeing whether they follow what might be termed a 'political logic'.Technorati Tags: France+Télévisions, EUI, guides,

List of Rai nominees found circulating in Parliament.

2006-09-06T08:35:00.000+01:00

Awful, unsurprising.Technorati Tags: lottizzazione, rai, riotta, ruffini

Late-summer Games kick-off at Rai

2006-09-01T09:03:00.000+01:00

Fighting over Rai's future direction has increased in tempo over the past few days. There are two levels: first, the administrative council, where the Treasury's representative, Angelo Maria Petroni, has been subject to some pressure to resign. Il Giornale talks of 'the operation to take-over Rai', and quotes Sandro Curzi, left-wing member of the Council. It's unclear however whether this '

The BBC's "Green Book"

2006-08-27T20:20:00.000+01:00

"Extreme care should be taken in dealing with references to or jokes about - Pre-natal influences (e.g. 'His mother was frightened by a donkey')". This wonderful quote from The BBC's "Green Book", or the Policy Guide for Writers and Producers of Variety Programmes. The Guidelines, which date from the fifties, are extremely, unwittingly, entertaining.Technorati Tags: bbc, humour, comedy,

Who did Prodi want for Rai DG?

2006-08-27T17:05:00.000+01:00

Good gossip from Prima Comunicazione on the recent choice of Claudio Cappon as RAI DG. Apparently, Romano Prodi didn't want Prodi, but instead Antonello Perricone, MD of the editorial house that produces La Stampa. Prodi had counted on peeling off centre-right members of Rai's Administrative Council, but his point-man, Angelo Rovati, messed up his counts. So, the Margherita and the Democratici di

Politicians over-estimate media effects

2006-08-26T19:25:00.000+01:00

Nordicom Review 1-2/2004 - Publication: "Mass Media, Interpersonal Communication or Personal Experience? Perceptions of Media Effects among Swedish Politicians" - is an interesting article demonstrating that politicians are far more likely than the general population to be believe that the mass media is extremely influential slash decisive in forming people's political views - something I've long

Dissent within Rai CdA rumbles on

2006-08-24T15:51:00.000+01:00

For some weeks now, Rai Administrative Councillor Angelo Maria Petroni, one of the right-wing members of the Administrative Council, has been threatening to resign. Petroni, along with Chairman Claudio Petruccioli, was nominated by the Italian Treasury in 2005 under the centre-right government, and confirmed by the parliamentary committee which supervises Rai.Petroni's resignation threat causes a

RTE Business - TG4 independent from next year

2006-08-22T13:50:00.000+01:00

Ireland follows the Australian route of providing two (linguistically differentiated) public service broadcasters, as TG4 becomes independent from RTE. Concern for RTE must be that (visibly, incontrovertibly) non-commercial, public service remits are not cherry-picked from RTE, leaving the rump service poorly placed to defend funding through compulsory licence fee.Technorati Tags: rte, tg4, sbs,

Sveriges Television

2006-08-22T13:42:00.000+01:00

I'm hoping to include Sveriges Television as one of my cases in my PhD. I had thought that Nordic stoicism might make SVT less interesting than, say, Rai or RTVE. Not if Rapport keeps putting out news like this it won't be.Technorati Tags: sveriges+television, svt

Incredible data-mining project on US Senate

2006-08-10T23:42:00.000+01:00

Ars Technica has a fascinating report on a major data-mining project involving the Congressional Record. The project uses an unsupervised learning program to automatically code several million speeches as one of forty (automatically generated) categories. The authors show some interesting variation in agenda salience over time demonstrating this method, suggesting that the method is attuned to

Osservatorio di Pavia

2006-08-09T11:40:00.000+01:00

The media observatory in Pavia regularly collects info on politicians' time on screen on all Rai channels. Recently, it seems that certain on the right have been complaining about an absence of Berlusconi from Rai's screens. Mauro Mazza, director of Tg2 - not, I would have thought, a committed centre-left supporter - says some pretty sane things which show up the weakness of existing attempts to

Prodi government status report

2006-08-03T19:32:00.000+01:00

Quick update on the health of the Prodi coalition:The Camera has approved the executive's mini-budget. It goes tomorrow to the Senate, where it will again be the subject of a vote of confidenceThe government has already used votes of confidence on seven separate legislative items in three months (according to an interview with Gianfranco Fini); the Berlusconi II government used 29 votes of

Prodi lives to fight another day

2006-07-27T23:22:00.000+01:00

Two sighs of relief for the Prodi government. First, the Senate approves the Italian mission to Afghanistan after the government made it a vote of confidence. Second, the Camera approves by the required two-thirds majority amnesties for certain crimes - and the minister who opposed it, Antonio Di Pietro, doesn't resign.Members of the centre-right had left the Senate to deprive the centre-left of

More Thompson replies to politician's queries

2006-07-25T12:46:00.000+01:00

More Axegrinder 21.07.06 | Press Gazette: "BBC director general Mark Thompson put his foot in it with a Labour MP during his appearance in Westminster last week. Thompson was being assailed by MP Mike Hall about a BBC programme called The Secret Policeman, which, in Hall's words, used 'criminal elements' in its production.'If you'd care to write to me about it,' Thompson told the whingeing

SNP demands meeting over BBC job cuts — SNP - Scottish National Party

2006-07-25T12:43:00.000+01:00

SNP demands meeting over BBC job cuts.SNP Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon is asking for a meeting with director-general Mark Thompson after reports of a further round of cuts which could jeopardise flagship BBC television and radio output... Further budget cuts again underlines the need for broadcasting to be devolved to ScotlandIn what sense? A Scottish Broadcasting Corporation? Supervision of