February 2016 Newsletter

Welcome to IBT’s February newsletter with an update on our work and relevant news from the media industry.    (DownloadPrint this Newsletter)

This month’s briefing with CNN

Later this month we’ll hear from Victoria Eastwood, Head of Planning at CNN. This is the first time we’ve heard from CNN and a great opportunity to get an inside track on how their London office works and the sort of stories they would be interested in. London is the biggest CNN’s bureau outside the US and a key hub for stories from Europe and Africa. The briefing will take place from 10-11.30am on Wednesday February 24^th. If you’d like to attend please register now via the IBT website.

Last month’s briefing with The Independent and The Daily Telegraph

We had a good briefing last month with two newspaper Foreign Editors, David Wastell from The Independent and Hannah Strange from The Daily Telegraph. Both said they were keen to receive ideas from NGOs – and gave useful practical tips on how to pitch to them and their colleagues and the sort of stories they were looking for. A more detailed note on the briefing can be found on the members’ page of the IBT website.

News analysis

We have now completed the first stage of our news analysis, looking in detail at coverage across UK TV, radio and online, for the two week period January 11-24. Several international stories featured prominently including Syria, the refugee crisis in Europe, Cameron’s negotiations with the EU and the Zika virus. One of the aims of the study is to look at the range of international stories covered. Now that the big international story of the day is more dominant, we’re also keen to examine whether this has this resulted in a narrowing of the range of stories covered by mainstream new bulletins. Another issue that we will be looking at is the range of voices – it appears that NGO voices are not being heard as much as we might expect. The next stage of this research is to gather opinions from news editors, NGOs and other commentators. If you would be interested in being interviewed for this research please let me know.

Reporting on refugees and the terrorist threat

Later this month Polis, the LSE media think tank, will be hosting a debate on media coverage of Syria, the refugees crisis and the terrorist threat. They will be asking what responsibility journalists have and whether coverage of these issues has been fair and impartial. The panel debate takes place at 7pm on Thursday February 11^th.

Tickets here: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2015/12/04/migrants-terror-and-the-media-reporting-and-responsibilities-on-the-front-line/

Public Voice update

We have now had the first steering group meeting for Public Voice and we will soon be launching a major recruitment drive. Public Voice is a civil society coalition which we have set up to help secure the future of the BBC and Channel 4 as public service broadcasters. Both are under threat. Channel 4 may be privatized and the BBC may find that some licence fee income goes to other broadcasters. We will be holding a public event for anyone interested in supporting Public Voice – look out for an invitation to this. In the meantime, if you’d like to find out more about Public Voice, please contact Sophie Chalk, our Head of Advocacy: sophie.chalk@btinternet.com

Climate change on BBC3

Last month we held a round table on the subject of climate change. A group of commissioners and producers from BBC3 met with experts and young people to brainstorm ways in which the new look BBC3 could engage its target audience with stories related to climate change. Now that BBC3 is going online there are many new opportunities for short form content and a season of programmes on climate change is now under active consideration.

Best wishes

Mark