Post by Teddy Bear on Dec 5, 2013 17:08:39 GMT
The BBC aims double its global audience to 500 million people in the next decade to be available "everywhere, for everyone", the director of news has said, as he urges staff not to be cowed by criticism it is "too big".
Question is, does that have any importance to the licence fee payer who has to fund their hegemony?
I don't recall their charter requiring them to do what they can to expand into world media domination, as much as serve the people paying for it. But we have recognised for a long time how the output of BBC news is biased to keep as many countries as possible onside so the BBC can keep their offices there, particularly the more extremist Islamic countries and other despots.
Doesn't serve our values or the need for information relevant to our society though.
All the more reason to privatise them and let them get the 500 million they want to reach to pay for their output then.
Watching them fall screaming to their financial death would be justice indeed. Show them once and for all how little they understand the unprotected real world, instead of the bubble they’ve been living in.
Telling staff that “81 per cent of people in this country come to us for the news”, he added: ” I defy you to find any news organisation in the world that is doing as much and as well as the BBC.”
So why are they so worried about being privatised?
Put your money where your mouth is BBC!
Question is, does that have any importance to the licence fee payer who has to fund their hegemony?
I don't recall their charter requiring them to do what they can to expand into world media domination, as much as serve the people paying for it. But we have recognised for a long time how the output of BBC news is biased to keep as many countries as possible onside so the BBC can keep their offices there, particularly the more extremist Islamic countries and other despots.
Doesn't serve our values or the need for information relevant to our society though.
All the more reason to privatise them and let them get the 500 million they want to reach to pay for their output then.
Watching them fall screaming to their financial death would be justice indeed. Show them once and for all how little they understand the unprotected real world, instead of the bubble they’ve been living in.
Telling staff that “81 per cent of people in this country come to us for the news”, he added: ” I defy you to find any news organisation in the world that is doing as much and as well as the BBC.”
So why are they so worried about being privatised?
Put your money where your mouth is BBC!
BBC news defies criticism it is 'too big' with pledge to double its global audience
By Hannah Furness
The BBC aims double its global audience to 500 million people in the next decade to be available "everywhere, for everyone", the director of news has said, as he urges staff not to be cowed by criticism it is "too big".
James Harding, the new head of news and current affairs, said he wanted to make the BBC’s output available “everywhere, for everyone, now” with a range of new digital products.
Telling staff they must not be “cowed” by criticism the corporation is “too big” and “too monolithic”, he added he aimed to see “more sports news, more consumer and personal finance news, more arts and culture news”.
His comments echo sentiments by director-general Lord Hall, who last week told a conference the BBC ought to be more “aggressive” in convincing the public it was worth the £145.50 licence fee.
The corporation has previously been criticised for its perceived domination of the British media, with Theresa May, the Home Secretary, suggested the “might of the BBC” could impact on local democracy.
Speaking last month, she told an audience the situation was “destroying local newspapers”, which she claimed was “as dangerous for local politics as it is for local journalism”.
Harding, who started at the BBC in August, has now told staff: “Of course, we have our critics.
“They say we are too big, too lazy, too wasteful, too left-wing – (a few say we’re too right-wing) - too monolithic, too insensitive, too white, too male, too old.
“And we have no business being defensive or, even worse, dismissive of such criticism.
“We must, genuinely, be alive to our critics, but we must not be cowed by them. Ultimately, our answer to them is and will be our journalism.”
He has now outlined plans for the BBC’s news output over the next decade, saying it had the ambition to “reach a global audience of 500 million people by 2022”, with 250 million already making use of its services.
“We can do some things by amplifying what we have got: we need to do more sports news, more consumer and personal finance news, more arts and culture news,” he said.
“To meet the expectations of audiences and licence fee payers, we will need to be available everywhere, for everyone, now.
“For that, we are going to need new products, new ways of working and new tools.”
Harding also pledged the BBC would strive to do more to "look and sound more like its audiences", with executives “very determined to address diversity on air and, equally, off it”.
He said: "We want the BBC to look and sound more like its audiences: while it’s been good to see Ritula Shah appointed to take over from Robin Lustig on the World Tonight, Laura Kuenssberg rejoining the BBC and Mishal Husain taking on Today, let’s be under no illusion that we are going to have to be very determined to address diversity on air and, equally, off it."
Telling staff that "81 per cent of people in this country come to us for the news", he added: " I defy you to find any news organisation in the world that is doing as much and as well as the BBC."
- The BBC aims to double its global audience to be available "everywhere, for everyone", as head of news James Harding tells staff not to be "cowed" by criticism is it too big
- The former 'Times' editor James Harding has the job of reinvigorating the output of an estimated 8,000 BBC journalists
By Hannah Furness
The BBC aims double its global audience to 500 million people in the next decade to be available "everywhere, for everyone", the director of news has said, as he urges staff not to be cowed by criticism it is "too big".
James Harding, the new head of news and current affairs, said he wanted to make the BBC’s output available “everywhere, for everyone, now” with a range of new digital products.
Telling staff they must not be “cowed” by criticism the corporation is “too big” and “too monolithic”, he added he aimed to see “more sports news, more consumer and personal finance news, more arts and culture news”.
His comments echo sentiments by director-general Lord Hall, who last week told a conference the BBC ought to be more “aggressive” in convincing the public it was worth the £145.50 licence fee.
The corporation has previously been criticised for its perceived domination of the British media, with Theresa May, the Home Secretary, suggested the “might of the BBC” could impact on local democracy.
Speaking last month, she told an audience the situation was “destroying local newspapers”, which she claimed was “as dangerous for local politics as it is for local journalism”.
Harding, who started at the BBC in August, has now told staff: “Of course, we have our critics.
“They say we are too big, too lazy, too wasteful, too left-wing – (a few say we’re too right-wing) - too monolithic, too insensitive, too white, too male, too old.
“And we have no business being defensive or, even worse, dismissive of such criticism.
“We must, genuinely, be alive to our critics, but we must not be cowed by them. Ultimately, our answer to them is and will be our journalism.”
He has now outlined plans for the BBC’s news output over the next decade, saying it had the ambition to “reach a global audience of 500 million people by 2022”, with 250 million already making use of its services.
“We can do some things by amplifying what we have got: we need to do more sports news, more consumer and personal finance news, more arts and culture news,” he said.
“To meet the expectations of audiences and licence fee payers, we will need to be available everywhere, for everyone, now.
“For that, we are going to need new products, new ways of working and new tools.”
Harding also pledged the BBC would strive to do more to "look and sound more like its audiences", with executives “very determined to address diversity on air and, equally, off it”.
He said: "We want the BBC to look and sound more like its audiences: while it’s been good to see Ritula Shah appointed to take over from Robin Lustig on the World Tonight, Laura Kuenssberg rejoining the BBC and Mishal Husain taking on Today, let’s be under no illusion that we are going to have to be very determined to address diversity on air and, equally, off it."
Telling staff that "81 per cent of people in this country come to us for the news", he added: " I defy you to find any news organisation in the world that is doing as much and as well as the BBC."