Is Media Studies at University a good idea?

This is a question I am regularly asked and my answer is "don't!".

Let me explain, in my opinion most media degrees are all about theory and don't actually prepare you for a career in the media. I have some evidence to back this claim up. Firstly, I have delivered and then improved the technical units of a City & Guilds Media Induction course which is described as.....

"This qualification is for new entrants to audio visual industries, both freelance and employed, or those who are looking for their first role in the field. You don't need any previous experience and you don't need to be working already. "

We delivered this 9 times in a year and for at least the first 6 or 7 most of the students were media graduates who routinely told me that "they had learnt more about the media industry in 10 days than there entire 3 year degree course".

Secondly, I am the NVQ assessor for the Advanced Media Apprenticeship scheme that has been piloted here in Manchester as is now in its 4th year. It is now being rolled out nationally. It was the industry itself that have driven this programme forward because they haven't been getting enough new entrants into the industry with the correct knowledge and experience.

These apprentices get practical and relevant knowledge based study at college as well as real work based placements in a wide range of industry placements for up to 12 weeks at a time where they undertake real jobs and so get experience, and build up a reputation in the industry.

The apprentices go on and get real jobs in our industry because they have a proven track record and an qualification respected by the industry because they have been involved in forming and developing it. That said I think there are a few careers paths where a degree is still useful like Journalism for example. But remember most people get work in this industry by being able to prove then can do the job and being known by key people.

Here is a video completed from star to finish by a team of the apprentices...

Integrated household survey reveals how religious your area is

Simon Rogers in The Guardian has just published a report from the Office for National Statistics

With typical timing, the report has come out the week after the Pope's visit to the UK. But nevertheless, it's an enormous survey: some 450,000 respondents asked questions about their beliefs, sexual identity and health. Besides the findings which show that 1.5% of the population is gay, it includes lots of other details:

• 71% their religion is Christianity
• 4% say their religion is Muslim
• 21% have no religious affiliation
• Slough has the highest level of religious belief in England - 93% - whilst Brighton and Hove has the lowest at 58%
• Inverclyde has the highest level of religious affiliation in Scotland at 92%
• Flintshire has the highest level of religious affiliation in Wales at 81%

It also provides an interesting breakdown of ethnicity and health. Are there any links between any of the datasets - between good health and religious belief, or high ethnicity and high religious belief? Here are some completely unscientific findings:

• 33% of Blaenau Gwent is in poor health, the highest percentage of people in the UK. Only 67% have a religious affiliation, one of the lowest rates in the country
• Slough, besides having the highest religious percentage in the country also has a very high number of people in good health - 81%

Do those two figures tell us anything meaningful?
Although the report is published as a PDF (of course), the ONS has given us the spreadsheet of results and you can download them below. What can you do with the data?

DATA: download the full spreadsheet

It was interesting that one of the early comments on The Guardian page says...

Given that the question asked by the ONS was "What is your religion, even if you are not currently practising?", it's not really possible to work out how religious an area is - just that loads of people still lazily tick the 'Christian' box without thinking about it. It's a shame that the ONS couldn't have chosen a question that actually asked about religious belief.

I look forward to seeing what people can do with this data and whether it can be used to identify needs in a community.

Thought provoking post from Dave Perry on his Visual Theology blog

Dave wrote.....

On Thursday I got into a fascinating conversation with the chatty young stylist who was cutting my hair, my regular guy being off sick. She asked what I do and so I said that I was a Methodist Minister. As someone who never goes to church herself my answer lead her to ask a series of great questions about weddings and churchgoing. She was genuinely interested in what the experience would entail and why anyone would choose it. "Isn't it hypocritical getting married in church if you don't go?" she asked. I found myself turning the question around and saying that perhaps the reason people don't go is that we have made the experience unattractive and irrelevant to her generation. In other words it isn't their fault but ours. This unexpected lack of blame and acceptance of responsibility seemed to get good traction with her and I went on to say just a little bit about faith as love which changes the world, shifting the focus away from church going as such to a more engaged kingdom-centric view of discipleship, but without any of the jargon. 

To read the rest of what Dave had to say please go to his excellent blog.

Details of the last "What's The Point Of" now available

The BBC has now published the details of the last of the series of 4 on The Kennel Club, which I finished editing and mixing last Thursday. As promised in my previous post on this series here are the details...

It has a fine dining room and a celebrated collection of canine art. It has a charitable trust and organises the greatest dog show on earth. That doesn't stop Quentin Letts asking, "What's the point of the Kennel club?" The kennel club was founded in 1873 by twelve Victorian gentlemen who liked dogs and dinners in equal measure, and wanted to bring some discipline into the world of dog breeding and showing. It's struggling to do that today. Some breeders and showers are in open revolt against Kennel Club health regulations. Others from the welfare lobby say the Kennel club hasn't been doing enough to tackle the suffering caused to dogs by generations of inbreeding. Quentin enjoys the sunshine, spectacle and order of a dog show in Worcestershire, goes for a walk with a breathless dog suffering a range of genetic disorders, and enters the hallowed halls of the Kennel club Clarges street as he considers whether this British institution still has the teeth needed to improve the lot of dogs in this country.

There are some strange 'goings on' in the doggie world and it appears OK to show dogs with major health issues but not OK to breed from them. But how do you get the next generation of dogs to show if you don't breed from them? Tune in or use the iPlayer to hear for yourself.

This brings to a close the third series of What's The Point Of.  Rosie Dawson, the producer and I have worked on all 3 series and it never ceases to amaze me how my clients, like Rosie for WTPO and Dawn Bryan for The Choice  keep coming up with new ideas to better the previous series, much respect and thanks.

Another example of my work - "Divided Britain" on BBC Radio 4

On Friday I finished editing and mixing a continuing documentary "Divided Britain" with producer Sally Chesworth for BBC News & Current Affairs to be transmitted on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 31st August at 8pm and repeated on Sunday Sept 6th at 5pm or find it here on the iPlayer.

In 2006, Radio 4 was given access to a ground breaking education scheme in East Lancashire which aimed to improve GCSE results and break down divisions in an area where white and Asian families live separate, parallel lives.  Following the disturbances in Burnley in the summer of 2001, schools were identified as having a crucial role in promoting community cohesion. Lancashire County Council was given the go ahead to close 11 schools and reopen them as 8 new community colleges each with the aim of being a hub for the neighbourhood, where Asian and white families would come together and get to know each other. The last of those £25 million buildings are due to open in September.
Marsden Heights Community College in Nelson moved into its new facilities after Easter. Head teacher Mike Tull is excited by the opportunities that the building brings and hopes it will help engage parents in the area. But what are the challenges he faces in breaking down cultural barriers in the former mill towns of Brierfield and Nelson?  Since the scheme began his school has gone from being 60% Asian students to nearly 80% and he says many white parents choose other schools for their children because of prejudice not standards of education. Locals already describe Marsden Heights as "the Asian school". And now a charity is looking to open an Islamic girls school nearby which many say threatens to further segregate young people. Can these new "superschools" make a difference or are racial divisions becoming more entrenched?

Some interesting quotes from the programme, one teacher saying "she grew up in a council house with no phone and no car". In one generation a mobile phone is now considered a necessity, not a luxury. Also the stories of bullying are horrific.  This is well worth a listen.

Details of the 4th programme of The Choice on BBC Radio 4 now available

As promised in my previous post here are the details of the 4th programme of the current series of The Choice on BBC Radio 4...

On The Choice this week Michael Buerk talks to Frank Evans, a butchers boy from Salford who dreamt of becoming a bullfighter after a holiday in Spain. The decision to become a matador meant he had to fight his way into the most dangerous and controversial sports in the world. It brought him ridicule and condemnation along with injuries in the ring and death threats out of it. But it was a choice he kept making despite a fearful wife and family and eventually despite ailing health.

A very interesting story about a guy determined to follow his dream.

Independent radio producers say BBC Trust has not gone far enough

John Plunkett in The Guardian has reported the initial responses from the radio independent producers to the publication of the report into the BBC's treatment and quotas for indies in the radio sector.

Independent radio producers have criticised the BBC Trust's review of BBC radio commissioning, saying it was "short-sighted, complacent and contradictory". While giving a cautious welcome to the tone of the trust's report yesterday and its decision to extend the amount of BBC programming available to independent producers with a 10% window of creative competition, the Radio Independents Group said it was "very disappointed" by the scale of the change. The group had asked for a 25% minimum independent quota and a 25% window of creative competition. The trust said the minimum independent quota should remain at 10%.

The Radio Independents Group's (RIG) statement continues...

We welcome the introduction of a WOCC (Window Of Creative Competition) of 10% across all networks and are confident that, provided the appropriate commissioning structures are in place and monitored effectively, RIG members will compete effectively and win the majority of open tenders.
We are however very disappointed by the scale of change. We had proposed an increase in the quota (currently around 8.4% in real terms) to a statutory 25% and the introduction of a 25% WOCC. This would have been consistent with TV commissioning which works well for the benefit of license fee payers. The trust states that radio audiences register high levels of appreciation and increasing the indie quota risks adversely affecting this. We believe this is short sighted, complacent and contradictory to some of the trust's own recent network reviews. We believe that maintaining the status quo offers a greater risk. Any organisation wishing to equip itself for future challenges would seek to move forward, rather than protect it's current position – the licence fee payer would expect no less.

I am completely with RIG on this. It is OK for TV to have a 25% quota and a further 25% WoCC but The Trust saying

a reduction in the BBC's in-house operations to a guaranteed minimum of 50% of output "would cause great instability"

is crazy. Why will it cause instability for the radio sector and not the TV sector. Surely the issues were very similar when these quotas were introduced into the TV sector, and it is still here!  Also it wouldn't be a guaranteed minimum of 50% of output, the guarantee is only for 25% with the opportunity to pitch for up to another 25% but that is by no means guaranteed.

"We believe that maintaining the status quo offers a greater risk. Any organisation wishing to equip itself for future challenges would seek to move forward, rather than protect it's current position – the licence fee payer would expect no less."

Absolutely if the independent sector isn't given the oportunity to grow it will never get out of the 'cottage industry' status that it is currently. It is very hard to make a viable business out of independent radio programme making. The BBC is the only client in town and David Liddiment, chair of the trust's audiences and performance committee, said

the BBC's radio services were both popular and distinctive [and] make a vital contribution to the public purposes. However, this review has shown that the BBC's approach to commissioning from the sector does not always work as well as it should. Putting more of the programmes up for grabs will help promote competition for the best ideas, wherever they come from. That will be good for licence-fee payers, whose interests the trust is here to serve. And we are particularly keen to see a much more open and fair approach to commissioning from the independent sector."

If you want to increase the diversity and make it open and fair you need a large pool of smaller independent producers. In order to have a sustainable business they need a reasonable number of commissions to get some form of economy of scale. This level of quotas won't do it.