A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE: THE HANDMAID'S TALE

A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE: THE HANDMAID'S TALE

A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE: THE HANDMAID'S TALE

Institutions: The BBC

From The Guardian.

The BBC Trust says that 'the case has not been made' for digital station's closure – but no reprieve for Asian Network

In pictures: who's who at 6 Music

A vocal campaign to save BBC 6 Music from closure was rewarded today when the BBC Trust said the digital music station will stay open.

The trust said it was opposed to a proposal put forward in March by the director general, Mark Thompson, as part of a wide-ranging strategy review.

However, the BBC Trust said it would accept a formal management proposal for the closure of 6 Music's digital sister station, BBC Asian Network, provided that it included alternative plans for meeting the needs of this ethnic minority audience "in different ways".
It said 6 Music was encouraging the take-up of digital radio among listeners, describing it as a "highly distinctive" service that represents "value for money" and is "well liked" by its audience.
The BBC Trust said there had been "significant public support for the service" and that 78% of nearly 50,000 online responses to a consultation on the BBC's future focused on 6 Music. The trust also received more than 25,000 emails and nearly 250 letters about the station, "the great majority" of which opposed the closure plan.

It said BBC managers should be increasing 6 Music's average audience of around 600,000 weekly listeners rather than shutting the station down.

The trust also said 6 Music does not represent a threat to commercial competitors. "Throughout the period of our consultation we have received no evidence from the commercial radio sector to suggest that 6 Music represents any kind of threat either now or in the future, so long as it remains true to its distinctive remit."

BBC executives should consider the future of 6 Music as part of a wider examination of how best to improve the performance of its network of digital radio stations.
"The trust concludes that, as things stand, the case has not been made for the closure of 6 Music," the trust ruled. "The executive should draw up an overarching strategy for digital radio. If the director general wanted to propose a different shape for the BBC's music radio stations as part of a new strategy, the trust would consider it. The trust would consider a formal proposal for the closure of the Asian Network, although this must include a proposition for meeting the needs of the station's audience in different ways."

Ruling on the other elements of Thompson's strategic review of the BBC's activities, the trust said it endorsed the proposal to cut the corporation's online budget by 25%, contingent on being able to "understand and approve the editorial changes involved".

"The BBC should sharpen online's focus so that it is truly distinctive and has clearer editorial vision and control," the trust added.

Thompson's plan to close Blast!, a cross-media service aimed encouraging the creative skills of teenagers, was supported by the trust. The BBC's governing body said it would leave the decision on the future of BBC Switch, the cross-media brand providing content for younger viewers, to management.

On Thompson's proposals for the BBC's TV networks, the trust said it saw no need "for radical changes to the current portfolio". "But the BBC needs to identify future tipping points where reassessment of the structure will become necessary, such as full digital switchover in 2012 and 50% of viewing on a non-linear basis. The BBC has more to do to ensure programmes are truly high quality and distinctive."
Sir Michael Lyons, the BBC Trust chairman, said: "The director general presented us with a thoughtful set of proposals earlier this year in support of a clear future vision for the BBC – a vision the trust supports because it is rooted in the BBC's enduring mission to inform, educate and entertain audiences with programmes and services of high quality, originality and value.
"In order to deliver that vision we have concluded that the BBC must accelerate changes to its behaviour, leading to a clearer definition of the boundaries within which it operates as it makes the transition to the digital future.
"The end result will be a BBC that focuses on its two main obligations to the public – to provide distinctive public service content and to use their money wisely."

A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE: THE HANDMAID'S TALE

http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/atwood/handmaid.htm

Link to excellent resource site for the novel.

A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE: THE HANDMAID'S TALE

Link to BBC Radio4 interview with Margaret Atwood on "The Handmaid's Tale".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/atwoodm1.shtml

A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE: THE HANDMAID'S TALE

Visual essay on some of the novel's themes.

A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE: THE HANDMAID'S TALE

A series of interviews with Margaret Atwood to complement your studies.

AS MEDIA STUDIES: AUDIENCE THEORY - BABY ALBERT EXPERIMENTS

AS MEDIA STUDIES: AUDIENCE THEORY - ALBERT BANDURA AND THE BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT

THE GREAT JOHN SPARKES FROM HIS SHOW BARRY WELSH IS COMING

TRIBUTE TO CHRIS SIEVEY AND FRANK SIDEBOTTOM ON THE DAY OF THEIR FUNERAL

Institutions: OFCOM

From the Guardian.

OFCOM prepares for cuts and job losses

Budget review likely to result in 'significant reduction', says chief executive Ed Richards, who is taking 10% pay cut

Ofcom has begun a review that will result in "significant" cuts to its £142m annual budget and staff, and its chief executive, Ed Richards, has decided to take a 10% pay cut.

Richards said today that the review would lead to a "significant reduction" in expenditure, with "job losses likely".

The media and telecoms regulator, which employs 873 staff and has a budget of £142m for the year to the end of March 2011, intends to complete the first phase of its review in late summer.

Speaking to staff today, Richards said that the organisation would have to make "some very tough decisions". This would ultimately see Ofcom "do more for less", he added. "We will redefine how we do things to deliver the same capability but spend less money doing so."

Ofcom, and Richards, attracted criticism from the Conservatives when they were in opposition last year. David Cameron singled out Richards's pay as an example of inflated public-sector salaries.
Richards had a total remuneration package of £392,056 in 2008/9. In the 12 months to the end of March this year that dropped to £381,713.
He revealed today that he would take a 10% cut, more than £38,000, to £343,541 in the coming year to the end of March 2011.

The Ofcom chair, Colette Bowe, who was paid £200,000 in the year to the end of March, will also take a 10% pay cut.

However, while Ofcom's top management has not taken bonuses in the past two years no decision has been made about bonuses for the current financial year.

It is not known how deep the cuts to Ofcom's budget will be, or the number of jobs that will go. However, in the emergency budget on 22 June the government indicated that it was looking for cuts of around 25% from all departments.

"These are very challenging times for the entire public sector," Richards said. "All public organisations need to face up to the challenge of playing their role in reducing the budget deficit while protecting the most critical services. Like everybody else, we at Ofcom must make our contribution."

Ofcom had a budget of £136.8m in the year to the end of March. This has been raised to £142.5m as the media regulator has been asked to take on additional responsibilities such as establishing regulations and processes relating to illegal file-sharing.

"We have an excellent track record, our work on broadband speeds and securing agreement of companies to reduce their termination charges are just two very recent examples," said Richards. "While we will have to make some very tough decisions we will continue to strive to deliver the best outcomes for citizens and consumers across the UK."

Ofcom also today published its annual report for 2009/10.
Despite Richards's salary falling, the report shows that overall payments made to Ofcom's executive committee rose year on year. In 2008/9, a total of £1.6m was paid out, while in the year to the end of March it was £1.98m.
Ofcom said that the figures have been affected by "various arrivals and departures". Payments have been made to 10 committee members in total over the past year, with a more accurate measure of annualised figures coming out flat at about £2.1m.
According to the annual report, Ofcom reduced the amount paid to its board by 11% from £537,247 in 2008/9 to £476,336 in the year to the end of March 2010.

Ofcom's content board saw total remuneration remain almost flat year on year at £364,806.
Total staff costs actually increased year-on-year from £58m to £62m. According to the report the average number of employees for the year to the end March 2010 was 865 - up on 817 from 2009. As at 31 March Ofcom employed 873 staff.
The annual report shows that Ofcom received income of £132.7m for the year to the end of March.

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Institutions: ITV - ITV consider charging for some of their services and content

From Variety — The new chairman of battling U.K. terrestrial giant ITV, Archie Norman, has given his clearest indication yet that the web is considering a move back into pay TV.

Asked in an interview with British newspaper the Daily Telegraph if changes likely to take place at the web involve an element of pay, Norman said: "I think it is very likely."

He added: "As people consume their television off different platforms — Internet-enabled TV or off your iPad — for some of the content that ITV own or others own, people will pay."

Despite being hit hard by a weak advertising market, Norman's predecessor, Michael Grade, who stood down at the end of 2009, avoided erecting a pay wall for any of ITV's channels or programs.

The broadcaster's last pay venture, ITV Digital, resulted in the loss of more than £1 billion ($1.5 billion) when it was forced to close in 2002 following a crippling battle with BSkyB, the dominant U.K. satcaster.

Norman, in what is his first one-to-one interview since starting at ITV in January, also signalled further economies at the web.

"We can be a much more efficient and successful business. The more successful we become, the more people we can employ and the more money we can put into programs. Is ITV lean and mean? No."

Under Grade and his chief operating officer, John Cresswell, ITV cut hundreds of jobs and introduced annual savings of up to £245 million ($368 million).

Norman has initiated a wide-ranging strategic review of ITV and its activities, but no decisions will be taken until the arrival of new CEO Adam Crozier, who starts work at the broadcaster April 26.


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Institutions: The popular press

Times paywall goes up tomorrow

TheTimes.co.uk and SundayTimes.co.uk will move to pay-only access with an introductory offer of £1 for 30 days

The Times and Sunday Times will start charging for their online content from tomorrow.
News International unveiled new-look Times and Sunday Times websites and introduced online registration in late May as a precursor to introducing pay-only online access.

From tomorrow, web users who are not already subscribers to the print editions of the two papers will have to pay £1 for a day's access or £2 for a week-long subscription.

However, as an introductory offer, any customer who registers will get access to both websites for 30 days for just £1.
News International said that the iPad edition of the Times, which costs £9.99 a month, would continue to be charged separately.

"We have been very pleased with the response from readers since the launch of the new websites for The Times and The Sunday Times in May," said Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International.

"The new sites showcase our award-winning journalism in a very visual way, giving readers exclusive content and interactivity so that they can get even more from the news. We believe the new sites offer real value and we look forward to continuing to invest and innovate for readers."
When News International outlined its pay strategy in March, Brooks indicated that its red-top titles, the Sun and News of the World, would also move behind a pay wall at some point.

"This is just the start," she said. "The Times and the Sunday Times are the first of our four titles in the UK to move to this new approach."

Media studies: institutions

BBC Trust bows to pressure to publish star presenters' salaries

James Robinson
The Guardian News Thu 1 Jul 2010 10:36 BST
• Dramatic U-turn for trust as it orders BBC to publish salary details of top talent
• Senior executives will take an 8.5% pay cut for each of the next two years

The BBC's governing body has bowed to public pressure and ordered the corporation to publish more details of the salaries paid to its top presenters and stars.
The move could lead to some of the biggest names on television,
including Graham Norton, Jeremy Paxman and Jeremy Clarkson, being
publicly identified as members of an exclusive club of BBC talent who
earn £1m or more.

It risks opening a rift with BBC managers, who have fiercely resisted calls to publish details of individual contracts on confidentiality grounds.

Addressing a Voice of the Listener and Viewer seminar in London tonight, Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, also said senior executives will take an 8.5% pay cut for each of the next two years as the corporation prepares for an era of "severe economic austerity".
The BBC has already told staff paid more than £37,726 a year they will have their pay frozen this year, while those on less will get a flat £475 rise. It also announced plans to close its generous final-salary pension scheme to new employees by the end of the year, and reduce payments made to existing members.

Talks between unions and management over the annual BBC pay deal broke down , with warnings that staff anger over this and the pension proposals could lead to industrial action.
The decision to reveal the sums paid to some of the BBC's stars is a U-turn for the BBC Trust and Lyons. He had argued that making the figures public would place the BBC at a competitive disadvantage.

He said tonight: "You might try to characterise this move as a change of mind," but added that the trust, the BBC's regulatory and governance body, has listened to licence fee payers.
"We believe that this is one of a small number of areas where we need to recapture public confidence," he said. "We know licence fee payers appreciate on-air talent, but this must not come at any cost."

The BBC spent £229m, or 6.56% of the £3.5bn licence fee, on talent in the year to the end of March 2009. Its annual report, due to be published on Monday, is likely to show that figure has fallen slightly.

Lyons admitted that confidentiality agreements and other commercial considerations may make it difficult to release the full details of some stars' contracts.

"But we are challenging the director general [Mark Thompson] to work urgently on a plan to deliver greater transparency about who is at the top end of the talent pay scale. The trust is giving a clear signal that it wants to see change in this area. I do believe we should release the names of those who receive the biggest incomes from the BBC."
He added that did not necessarily mean "disclosing individual salaries".

In a speech designed to demonstrate the BBC will take action to curtail costs, Lyons said savings already identified had to be pushed through more quickly. "The context is one of severe economic austerity, with tax increases for many individuals, big cutbacks to come in many areas of public spending, and continued tough times for many commercial media operators" he said.

Plans to cut the total wage bill for senior BBC managers by 25% would now be implemented within 18 months rather than over three years, he said.
BBC directors, including Thompson, will work for a month without pay for each of the next two years, Lyons said, the equivalent of an 8.5% reduction in pay. They have already agreed to freeze their salaries until the beginning of 2013 and waived all bonuses.

A BBC management spokesman said that taken together, those measures amount to a pay cut of nearly 25%. "That hits wallets," he added.

Lyons said he had instructed BBC executives to publish the total amount spent on all on-screen talent in separate payment bands, ranging from under £250,000 to over £5m, along with the number of people in each band.

There were early signs that BBC executives may resist the trust's demands, however, opening a rift between the corporation's governing body and its executives.

A spokesman for BBC management said it would consider the proposals and respond in due course, but added: "We've been consistent in our view that revealing contractual details of BBC talent is problematic for reasons of confidentiality."

The BBC Trust is currently consulting on the findings of a strategic review led by Thompson, which recommended that a number of services, including BBC 6 Music, should be closed to save money. Lyons said its response to those proposals would be published shortly.

• This story was amended on 1 July 2010. The second paragraph was altered to make it clear that Sir Michael Lyons was asking for the identity of BBC stars in the highest salary band to be revealed, rather than their individual salaries.

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