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British Studies Web Pages MediaHOME | MAIL | EVENTS | INFO | LINKS | QUESTIONS | MATERIALS |
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British Studies Web Pages MediaHOME | MAIL | EVENTS | INFO | LINKS | QUESTIONS | MATERIALS |
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There
are many direct links here to media websites as well as websites on
the media. If the media itself, rather than the information available
through it, is your interest - here is where you will find the links. What we
give below is just a selection. For a brief introduction to the UK media try the Christ the King Sixth
Form College site - a state Catholic school for students aged 16-19 (similar in
function and students to a Liceum) - www.ctksfc.ac.uk/social/Sociology/main.htm
- click on No 6 Datasoc 2002 and choose Media from the menu for a
downloadable word document. They are serious but not too long - designed for
sixth-formers doing A-Levels, therefore Liceum level. Many other
background articles on social issues are available here too e.g. culture and
identity, education, family, work and so on.
Keeping up-to-date
The media is changing so rapidly much of what we are presenting will need updating very quickly -
because of success failure, or yet further new developments. The extracts from
the FCO booklet in Background Information on the media are very optimistic - check these sites for some critical
views and to see if the expectations expressed there actually come true.
The Media Guardian media.guardian.co.uk is the Guardian supplement which
carries the news on the media each week, and functions as a professional site
as well as providing commentary, e.g. including many media job adverts. Among its
main headings are Advertising/ Television/ Radio/ Press and publishing/ New media (largely
the internet)/ and so on. It also has Monkey
for gossip, Jobs, and Special Reports where you can find a series of articles on a particular
theme e.g. digital TV, the BBC, tobacco advertising and many others.
There
are a series of lectures on the future of the media, TV in the Digital age:
towards 2014 by Barry Cox, Professor of Broadcast
Media at Oxford University, which can be found on the Media Guardian media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast
- look down the page for the link. Ofcom www.ofcom.org.uk the new UK broadcasting regulator
which will take over the roles of a number of the other organisations on this
page in 2003. The
BBC www.bbc.co.uk - to the original Entertain, Educate
and Inform it has added Innovate and Enrich, and as the
site shows is doing so with a vengeance. A wealth of information not
only about itself but on the media in general - though not a critical site. For
radio go to www.bbc.co.uk/radio
- for TV, www.bbc.co.uk/tv. There is plenty of
discussion on the BBC’s plans for the new technologies of digital TV, freeview
and interactive TV www.bbc.co.uk/digital as well as
a huge number of connected websites giving information on very many themes -
often programme connected. To
find out how to get the World Service on radio go to www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice,
or BBC World on TV www.bbcworld.com.
Neither however will tell you much about Britain as the BBC sees itself as a
global player. Ukonline
www.ukonline.gov.uk see website review. The British government portal - run from the Cabinet Office. Big and
complex. Best for its search engine and
will turn up the media links in government departments other than the DCMS
below.
General Links
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) www.culture.gov.uk - this
government department is promoting the expansion of the media very strongly,
especially in terms of the current media technological and organisational
revolutions. For up-to-date news and debate on such as digital broadcasting,
press regulation and the law of privacy go to www.culture.gov.uk/creative/index.html Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) www.dti.gov.uk - this department will be taking over some responsibilities for the media from the DCMS (see above) The Campaign for Press and
Broadcasting Freedom www.cpbf.org.uk a pressure
group which usually has a critical view of government policy. Here you will
find alternative views to some of those in Background Information. Index on Censorship www.indexonline.org
a well-established organisation committed to free expression and including of
course the mass media. Founded by the poet Stephen Spender, it includes such
people as Vaclav Havel, Noam Chomsky, Salman Rushdie, Nadime Gordimer and
Umberto Eco.
Defence, Press and Broadcasting
Advisory Committee www.dnotice.org.uk - a ‘D’ notice from the
government means an absolute ban on any publication and is used as an emergency
measure e.g. under The Prevention of Terrorism Act. A remarkable amount
of government information is permanently ‘classified’ anyway and cannot be
published. Media UK www.mediauk.com - a starting point for
literally hundreds of TV, radio, magazine and newspaper websites. In addition
to giving the website it also turns up recent news items on that particular
media company so you can get outside interpretations. See website
review . Also
Europe
Media Conglomerates
All kinds of media
are found gathered together today in single large companies - there are few independent
companies of any size. They are very large businesses, dedicated to profit,
increasingly global and often referred to as Empires. They have enormous influence.
News Corporation www.newscorp.com,
famous for its proprietor Rupert Murdoch (unusual in this rather anonymous
world), boasts of being the biggest. You will know of its products even if you
did not know News Corporation was the owner. In books: HarperCollins
a big publisher apart from its well-known dictionaries; in film: 20th
Century Fox, in TV: Sky television; in the press: The
Times, The Sun and the News of the World
Television
The
Media Guardian media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast
for up-to-date news and longer articles · BBC www.bbc.co.uk/tv including the new UK channels and discussion of digital plans· ITN www.itn.co.uk the supplier of news programmes to the ITV network
·
Independent Television
Commission www.itc.org.uk to find about the allocation of TV licences including UK regional
commercial TV companies + cable and satellite and digital TV
·
BSkyB www.sky.co.uk
Media UK www.mediauk.com/directory/tv
with links to 241 UK TV channel sites British Academy of Film and Television www.bafta.org the BAFTA awards are the UK equivalent of the Grammy and the Oscar. For TV ratings some idea can be got from the Media Guardian media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast -
look down the page Radio
The
Media Guardian media.guardian.co.uk/radio
for up-to-date news and longer articles
·
London Radio Service www.lrs.co.uk a supplier of radio news
·
Radio Authority www.radioauthority.org.uk - for finding out about
licensing radio stations,
Media UK www.mediauk.com/directory/radio
with links to 499 UK radio stations Ethnic media
The Commission for Racial
Equality www.cre.gov.uk/media/em_media.html
publishes an extensive list of media sites from the different ethnic groups in
the UK - and not only in English - try Arabic, Punjabi, Turkish and Chinese Internet
The
Media Guardian media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia
for up-to-date news and longer articles
Film
Though
it later diminished in importance with the rise of TV, in the earlier part of
the 20th c hugely influential through Newsreels, and to an
extent Documentaries too. Today largely confined to entertainment. The
Film Guardian
film.guardian.co.uk for
up-to-date news and longer articles on the industry - not just reviews. There
are a number of Special Reports (including one on Censorship)
bringing together a wide variety of articles - go to the bottom of the page to
find them.
British Academy of Film and Television www.bafta.org the BAFTA awards are the UK equivalent of the Grammy and the Oscar. Books
In
the past a significant medium for debate with pamphleteering being widely used
to disseminate ideas. Less so recently, though until the 70s Penguin
Specials, controversial books, usually on controversial themes, by often
controversial authors, were still widely read. Today book publishing is largely
absorbed in more general media empires. Surviving as an independent publisher
is not easy. An
example of the new publishing conglomerates is:
Advertisers
The
Media Guardian media.guardian.co.uk/advertising
for up-to-date news and longer articles
Polish equivalent sites For a site giving a large number of links to the Polish
media see Onet media.onet.pl where you
should be able to find what you want from 550 national, regional, and local
press titles, 350 radio and TV stations, and internet magazines Krajowa Rada
Radiofonii i Telewizji www.krrit.gov.pl the national regulatory body, also with information about public
and private broadcasters.
Polskie Radio www.radio.com.pl
a wide ranging site on many themes, and on which can be found
the Informacyjna Agencja Radiowa Centrum
Monitoringu i Wolnoœci Prasy www.freepress.org.pl
Stowarzyszenie
Dziennikarzy Polskich www.sdp.pl |
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