Author Archive for Judith Townend

Blog, Journalism, Regional and local

New report: The State of UK Hyperlocal Community News

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Today we have published our findings from an extensive survey of the UK hyperlocal sector, the product of a research collaboration between Prof. Steven Barnett, Judith Townend (University of Westminster),  Dr Andy Williams (Cardiff University) and Dave Harte (Birmingham City University), with help and advice from TalkAboutLocal.

This research was conducted by two different AHRC-funded projects: the Media, Community and the Creative Citizen project, based at Cardiff and Birmingham City Universities; and the Media Power and Plurality project, based at the University of Westminster. Although not originally planned as a joint enterprise, our combined resources have enabled us to produce the most comprehensive empirical analysis to date of the current practices, funding, staffing and outlooks of those who run hyperlocal sites.

We have created a special open access site, in an attempt to make the research as usable and accessible as possible. Alternatively, download the report here or here. More detailed analysis and discussion of the findings will follow in due course.

More information at http://hyperlocalsurvey.wordpress.com/

 

Blog, European policy, Media plurality, Media policy, Submissions

Recommendations on plurality to the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications

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After wide-ranging discussion at a seminar at the University of Westminster involving leading figures in media policy, law and regulation, a group of academics reached agreement on a number of policy reforms. Our recommendations, set out below, were sent for consideration to the House of Lords select committee inquiry on media plurality, which is due to report in January 2014.

[A more detailed overview of the discussion is available to download here – PDF]

 

  • There should be periodic plurality reviews more often than those proposed by Ofcom.
  • The scope of media involved in such reviews – and in the current PI/merger regime – should be broadened and not tied to old technologies.
  • A sliding scale of market concentration (with soft rather than hard caps) should  be considered, with discretion to impose behavioural remedies on those with the largest share.
  • Parliament needs to set guidance on sufficiency, and on regulatory discretion.
  • Decision-making discretion on individual mergers or whether a PI inquiry has been triggered should be invested in an independent board/body rather than Secretary of State.
  • That might be a statutory Board of Ofcom, of equivalent status to the Content Board.
  • Data gaps in relation to measurement need to be addressed by Ofcom.
  • Plurality also needs financial support. Ideas might include some kind of consolidated fund, subject to contestable funding bids for media start-ups in local, regional areas.
  • New ideas for revenue-raising should also be considered, based on media subsidies and transfer of resources (within reason) from new technology companies which have benefited from the creativity/journalism of others.
  • Ways of harnessing BBC expertise should be sought without top-slicing the licence fee.

 

Steven Barnett, Professor of Communications, University of Westminster

Natalie Fenton, Professor of Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London

Tom Gibbons, Professor of Law, University of Manchester

Peter Humphreys, Professor of Politics, University of Manchester

Martin Moore, Director, Media Standards Trust

Horatio Mortimer, Consultant, Sovereign Strategy

Stewart Purvis, Professor of Journalism, City University London

Justin Schlosberg, Lecturer in Journalism and Media, Birkbeck, University of London

Damian Tambini, Director, LSE Media Policy Project

Judith Townend, Research Associate, University of Westminster

Lorna Woods, Professor of Law, University of Essex