Category: News

Over the past few weeks, we at Better Media have been working on putting together a submission to the Culture, Media and Sport committee in response to their call for input to the government’s draft Media Bill. The Bill, drafted in March, is intended to update the Communications Act 2003 and provide new guidance for the development of public service broadcasting (PSB) in a time of major change throughout media. Our submission was completed and submitted on 11th May.

In 2017, a now famous Guardian Long Read by Sam Knight brought the “secret” plans for the death of the Queen, long-rehearsed by palace, government and media, to the attention of much of the public. Knight reported that maintaining these highly-detailed and pre-approved plans “is a practice that makes some journalists uncomfortable.” A week into their execution, we can see why.

Better Media is a campaigning co-op run by members. We are looking for a part time worker to lead the fight for media reform and media justice by helping people to be the media, know the media, and change the media. ROLE: Campaign Coordinator CONTRACT: Part-time freelance contract, 1 day a week for 12 months…
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THINK BACK: if you were around at the turn of the century, how much do you reckon you were spending on media each week? On a couple of papers a day, magazines, or (heaven forbid) pay-TV? What d’you reckon? £20 a week in today’s values? Perhaps more? So what do you spend that £20 on…
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Ultimately, what Better Media becomes will depend on what our contributors collaboratively do and decide together. We want a more diverse, democratic and accountable media, but how can we get there? As a starter for five here are the headings of the main proposals in this Media Reform Manifesto (.pdf), the output of a broad…
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There is a severe lack of diversity, democracy and accountability in UK media, which is dominated by a handful of corporations. As co-founder of the Media Reform Coalition Des Freedman has explained, the UK media landscape is: “characterised by the domination of attention, audiences and agendas by a relatively small number of very powerful companies…
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We need to think bigger if we are to achieve the sort of media that the public want and need.