Workshops
New Media: Time Machine for the 21st Century
Organized by European Broadcasting Union
11 December, 2003.
New Media is a "Time Machine" which points to the future media and cultural world. Media evolution, like economic development, does not occur uniformly across the world. Challenges that some countries face today, wait for tomorrow to confront others. But, sooner or later, all nations need either to influence the media world they inhabit or to be prepared to take what comes.
Content
Programme
1. The shape of things to come
What are the new media that will transform society... and why?
Chair:
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Jean Stock, EBU Secretary-General
Panel:
- Patrick Griffis, Microsoft
- Virginie Carniel, Swissinfo
- Gerhard Stoll, ARD/ZDF/IRT
- David Wood, EBU
2. The day of the comet
How and when will High Definition change the media landscape?
Chair:
Panel:
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Masaru Ikeo, NHK
-
Michel McEwen, NABA
-
Gabriel Fehervari, Euro1080
3. When the sleeper wakes
How can the human experience of multimedia be improved by interactivity?
Chair:
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Jonathan Marks, Critical Distance
Panel:
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Andreas Weiss, ARD
-
Graham Dixon, BBC
-
Martin Sandelin, Nokia
4. The food of the Gods
How can we ensure that new media adds to the quality of life?
Chair:
-
Arne Wessberg, EBU President
Panel:
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Werner Rumphorst, EBU
-
Carole Croella, WIPO
-
Michel Mol, NPB
-
Andrew Onalenna Sesinyi, URTNA
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Report
by David Wood, EBU
The WEMF workshop on New Media and Broadcasting brought together an interdisciplinary group of individuals from all parts of the media world. The discussion began with an examination of the far horizons of new media, continued with high definition television and its role in society, how the human media experience can be improved by interactivity, and finally considered a range of public policy issues concerned with new media. The intention was to provide attendees with the background they need to take part in national discussions of new media and broadcasting policy.
A wide range of ideas emerged from the discussion, only some of which can be summarized here:
- Media sound and video will continue to evolve. The users' sense of involvement will increase with higher picture quality and sound quality. Listeners and viewers will feel, to an ever greater extent, that they are 'present' in an activity, rather than onlookers. This will have a social effect, particularly in areas like the impact of news footage, and an effect on programme making.
- Media delivery means will continue to evolve. Digital broadcasting systems have the potential to play a critical role in bridging the digital divide as simple low cost infrastructures. In the long term future, 'fibre-optic' networks will interconnect the planet. New transmission technologies for fibre optic networks will offer almost limitless capacity, and will eventually remove today's capacity constraints on the Internet. The physical means will eventually be available to provide everyone everywhere, whatever they request, as they request it. The 'World Wide Wait' will be the 'World Wide Waterfall'. This will change society - but first the systems have to be made universally available.
- Media delivery technology will continue to evolve. The interconnection systems used in offices today ('Ethernet' etc), will be used to link up individuals and homes, and wireless connections will allow users mobility. A large IT company suggested that the developing countries could 'leapfrog' the developed countries by using the airwaves hitherto planned for broadcasting for such 'wireless Ethernet' services. There were a range of views about the viability of such an approach, and no consensus was possible. The relative use of broadcasting and 'wireless Ethernet' needs to be studied carefully.
- High definition can provide a window on the world of great clarity and impact. HD can play a role in bringing true perspective to the world. The majesty of the real world (seen in Session via HD pictures of an eclipse of the sun in the Antarctic) can be made apparent, and against this, the relative insignificance of human conflict becomes clearer. The world could be a 'better place' if HD is available.
- The world needs a greater understanding of the elements that shape the media future and the way they interact with each other. New technology does not just arrive as a gift ; it is the result of positive and connected actions. Society will be able to shape its own future if we understand what kind of a world we want. New media forms should be designed around the way people live and interact with each other, rather than around the technology.
- One of the great treasures of mankind is, and will always be, the archives of media material, which illustrate our past lives and our cultures. New media need to be able to use this material, and new thinking is needed about copyright arrangements to allow this to happen. Copyright arrangements should never be designed to deprive rightful owners of income, but equally they must not prevent the use of material on new media. Copyright arrangements must be sufficiently open ended to allow for content to be used on evolving media systems.
- Though 'content is king' in the sense that it is not the electronics but the programmes which shape media experience, it is important to realise also that 'context is queen'. The world needs reliable information from sources that are trustworthy. The context in which the content is created is important. Furthermore, the 'context' of the user must be taken into account is the preparation of content.
- Providing Internet information or broadcast information about current events does not necessarily mean that the public is well informed. Media seem to demand headline information that can be rapidly assimilated, and that shocks or stirs the viewer, listener, or reader. The public of the past, more tolerant of length and time taken, may actually have understood the world better by reading more lengthy content. This potential of the new media world for a 'bias against understanding ' needs to be considered along with the merits of the information society.
- A limited choice of meaningful and useful content is better than an infinite choice of meaningless content. The substance of the content must come before the volume of content. The world does not need an infinite choice of bad things. It needs a real choice of good things, even if limited.
- When deciding on ways to bridge the digital divide it is critically important to appreciate that the divide is not created by different levels of media delivery infrastructure alone. The divide is created by the different levels of availability of content. The delivery infrastructure is merely wires and cables. These alone do nothing. It is what they contain which influences lives and societies. Societies must not only be helped to develop technical infrastructure for the information society, they must also be helped to create professional local content. The purpose of the information society must not be simply to create markets to supply technology or content from the developed world, it must be to allow the developing world to define, by themselves, who they are through content. Furthermore, society needs to ensure that new media forms are not used as blatant instruments of social policy by administrations, but are rather used to enhance the quality of life.
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Conclusions
New Media and Broadcasting are elements of a world media 'ecosystem'. Like a natural ecosystem
they feed off each other and interact with each other. Society will be changed by the evolution
of new media in a number of ways. It will need to develop the creative skills to make professional
local media products, and these skills will need to be brought to the developing world. New
thinking will be needed about the relationship between Internet delivered services and broadcast
services. New legal frameworks for content will be needed. High definition television could have a
useful role in society. In the longer term we can look forward to media which bring an experience
closer and closer to being physically present at events. Author and historian H.G. Wells, the
titles of whose works formed a backdrop to the workshop, argued that technical progress is
inevitable and unending. "Rest enough for individual man, and we call it death".
For new media and broadcasting, there will certainly be no rest.
Notes for a Broadcasters' Action Plan
- Going digital can bring great benefits to all media.
- Digital interactive broadcasting can play a critical role in bridging the digital divide.
- New technologies will not concern each broadcaster at the same time to the same extent, but each has to prepare for change.
- A new relationship is to be developed between Internet and broadcast services,
- Archive copyright issues must be solved in view of new media opportunities
- Wireless Ethernet may be an opportunity, particularly in the developing world, for more efficient and economical use of available frequencies through a common IP infrastructure for broadcast, telephony and Internet.
- Although requiring costly investments, the HD perspective must be kept in mind.
- In the 21st century as before, the essential problem is content.
- Funding of new media infrastructure must be complemented by equivalent or larger funding for local content creation.
- New media forms should be designed around the way people live and interact and not the other way round.
- The context is central: the media context must give credibility to the message, and the viewer/listener’s context must be taken into full account by the message.
- 24-hour instant news must not lead to a “bias against understanding”.
Guillaume Chenevière, Executive Director of the WEMF
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Resources
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