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MEDIA AND
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❯OPINION:! ❯
❯!#!$! 110 Britain in 2011
Feature | MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT
Online
environments
have become
the spaces
where people
gather
and where
community is
built
The era of
e-friends
NICK STEVENS Do people actually need digital
social media like Twitter or Facebook?
ALEKS KROTOSKI" ! !#&
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'% #! &"(!'! &" &"
!!&" NS Can digital media ever replace physical social
interaction? And if they can, is that a good or a
bad thing?
AK!! &%!!
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Britain in 2011 111
MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT | Feature
0$%2'0,))+0"-!+-"%,-!-+(
NS Do you worry about digital inclusion and the
"'-+,--(-!-!(&&.'"-2
fact that some sectors of society that don’t have
'(-!+1&)%","),-&-"
access to technology may be held back?
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tangibility
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threatened by how comfortable
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/(""''&"%(+('%"'('/+,-"('2(. ,'(%+ '+-"('('-+'-.,+,
much online content?
',-"%%!/-!-/+2)+,('%('/+,-"(' !/,-.&%-!+(. !'+--!
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digital social media – when it all becomes too
&,.+-!-"-5,'"-%2 ("' -(!/+% )+-".%+'0,))+.,"-",%" '
much to stay digitally connected?
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Aleks Krotoski writes for the Guardian and Observer and hosts Tech Weekly, their technology podcast
112 Britain in 2011
alekskrotoski.com
PA Photos
News | MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT
How much should the
public know about
terrorist activity
in Britain?
Right to know
A complex legal
framework
governs what
can be
published by
the media
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Britain in 2011 113
MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT | Opinion
3D cinema: the billion pound bonanza
IN 2009 CINEMA admissions increased by
six per cent. This was despite the recession,
despite the five per cent rise of ticket
prices, despite the increasing popularity of
videogames, and the availability of other
distribution formats such as DVD, Blu-ray,
video-on-demand and the internet.
How did this happen? First, a spate of hits
such as Slumdog Millionaire, The Hangover,
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,
Star Trek and Avatar drew more people into
cinemas. Second, the film exhibition industry
adopted a cost-reducing innovation: digital
cinema. Although they first appeared a few
years ago, the number of digital screens
doubled in 2009. Digital cinema lowers the
cost of film copies, shortens copying time
and makes switching films easier – although
contractual obligations and suitcase-sized
digital hard-disks driven to cinemas diminish
the advantage.
Third, the industry adopted a qualityenhancing innovation: 3D cinema. Originally
launched in analogue form in the 1950s, it
is now digitally reinvented, eliminating the
analogue drawbacks such as breakdownprone projection and headache-causing
asynchronous flicker. 3D was greatly helped
by the boom in digital cinemas, as most can
play it easily and cheaply, and the number
of 3D screens increased six-fold and 3D
revenue forty-fold.
Today, 16 per cent of admissions are for
3D movies, up from almost nothing in 2008,
and we were willing to pay more for them,
suggesting we find it an enjoyable qualityincrease, and that ticket prices might have
remained flat if we adjusted for quality.
Fourth, cinema-going has traditionally
Avatar became the highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing director James Cameron’s own Titanic
been recession-proof. In the 1930s it was hardly
Although you might think that new
On the production side, the British industry
affected, and it did well in every recession
distribution platforms such as postal DVD-rentals, also seemed to be made of Teflon®. Real
since about 1970. This is in sharp contrast to
music expenditure, which tanks in almost any video-on-demand, internet and mobile threaten expenditure increased by over 50 per cent in
2009, despite the financial crisis. Although British
recession. We replace more expensive activities the viability of cinema admissions, they have
actually achieved the obverse: a film release
independent film-makers are finding it ever
such as foreign holidays, luxury meals out,
has become a big marketing
more difficult to get cash, the lion’s share of
live musicals, with less expensive
A big wild
event meant to lift sales across all British production expenditure comes from the
cinema. Also, as wages moderate
platforms. If it bombs,
Hollywood studios, who profited from a falling
and available work declines, our
card is 3D. It
pound and generous tax breaks.
opportunity costs fall, as what we
could boost the the studio loses across all
platforms; if it wins, it yields far
Film production is one of only a few sectors
could have gained by not watching a
£900 million
more than box office revenue.
that immediately respond to these breaks.
movie declines.
British postThe antique delivery system drags Expenditure rose to almost £1 billion. Similar
Ever since cinema emerged
along the new high-tech channels sectors include videogames development
opportunity costs rises have dwarfed production
in its slipstream.
(£625m) and media post-production (£900m).
ticket price hikes. Since 1934,
sector
It is not surprising therefore
In little time, huge amounts of foreign resources
real ticket prices have more than
that the total consumer expenditure on films
can shift to Britain, resulting in significant
doubled, while opportunity costs (linked to
in 2009, £3.7 billion, was a multiple of box
services exports. While the last government
the wage rate) have almost quadrupled.
office revenue. That compares to £2.9 billion
was sinking money into cars, incentives for
Given the latter’s almost continuous lead
on video games and £1.3 billion expenditure
creative industries may have had a more durable
on the former, cinema should become everon music.
economic impact, plus a real immaterial benefit.
more recession-resistant.
114 Britain in 2011
Twentieth Century Fox
We replace
more expensive
activities – with
less expensive
cinema
Getty
News | MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT
xxxxxxxxxxx
Ever since 2005, when the WTO (World
Trade Organisation) made cultural industries
an exception, countries have waged tax wars
to lure them to their territories. One of the
stalwarts is Quebec. The Canadian province
offers a layer cake of different tax breaks,
leading to an influx of videogame makers and
other creatives. Three different tax incentives
also rescued Hollywood from the doldrums
between the early-1970s and mid-1980s.
So what does the future hold? The
previous government set up the UK Film
Council (UKFC), an industry body distributing
subsidies and administering tax incentives, and
promised a videogame tax break. The current
government has axed the latter as well as the
Council itself, but kept the film tax incentive.
Uncertainties lie ahead, depending on what
will replace the UKFC, whether the pound
goes up or down, and what tax breaks other
countries have up their sleeves.
A big wild card is 3D. It could further boost
the burgeoning £900 million British postproduction sector, and will undoubtedly further
increase admissions. However, the industry
is still holding its breath to see whether 3D
remains a fad.
Two billion-dollar questions are whether
cinemas can offer non-film live events in
high-quality 3D, and whether anyone succeeds
in developing technology that converts old
2D films into a top-of-the-range 3D quality,
drawing us into cinemas again and enticing us
to buy DVD versions for our new 3D televisions.
The latter is the ultimate wild card: it
could lead to an almost unimaginable boom
in cinema-going and a renaissance of the
industry surpassing the CD boom in the music
industry. One need only think of re-releasing
Harry Potter parts one to eight, or all of the
James Bond films in 3D, to see the enormity
of it. Several venture-capital backed postproduction companies are gambling on it,
GERBEN
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Finding religion
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News | MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT
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Britain in 2011 117
MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT | News
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Navigating the moral
maze of embryo science
DR JOAN HARAN at the ESRC Centre for
Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics has
been researching media representations of
embryo science in Britain since 2004. Central to
both embryonic stem cell research and
infertility treatment, embryology has been
consistently newsworthy over the last decade.
In March 2010, a London-based fertility
clinic was the subject of Radio 4’s live debating
programme Moral Maze when it offered a
118 Britain in 2011
donated human egg and a free cycle of IVF
as a raffle prize. The controversial contest
was open to potential clients who attended
a promotional seminar for a prominent
US genetic profiling and fertility clinic; this
international collaboration appears to have
been a way to circumvent the regulation to
which infertility treatment is subject in Britain
under the terms of the Human Fertilisation and
Embryology Act (HFEA) 2008.
The existence of such collaborations, the
media storm they create and an alleged surge
in fertility tourism are used to justify calls for an
increase in compensation for the provision of
donor eggs in Britain by those who believe this
is the way to tackle their scarcity.
Despite its planned demise, the HFEA
is to conduct a public consultation on its
policies relating to donation of eggs, embryos
and sperm in early 2011. In spite of a press
statement which claims that ‘the Authority has
not made any decisions about which options
to undertake consultation on’, the policy review
is understood to be considering whether to
increase the ‘compensation’ paid to egg donors.
Indeed an unnamed spokesman for
the HFEA was quoted in the Daily Mail
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The importance of embryo science means that it
is rarely out of the news
as speculating about whether it might
be appropriate to increase monetary
compensation to the level of benefits in
kind – said to be worth several thousand
pounds – received by women who ‘share’
their eggs in exchange for free or discounted
fertility treatment.
One of the key arguments raised in
support of such an increase is the risk to the
health – and potential knock-on costs to the
NHS – of British women who travel abroad
for fertility treatment to countries where it is
easier to obtain donor eggs. By increasing the
compensation to British donors, the argument
goes, these health risks will be minimised.
Less consideration is extended to the
overseas egg donors who may be risking
Today, young
people do not
need recording
studios full of
equipment to
create. They can
do it with their
home computer
or mobile device
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www.ncl.ac.uk/culturelab
www.rcukdigitaleconomy.org.uk
their health to donate eggs for more affluent
women. Important issues which need to
be addressed include whether positioning
the limited supply of eggs for infertility
treatment as a question of consumer – and
indeed producer – choice limits serious
debate about the commodification of
reproduction and the potential harms to
donors and their offspring.
Further, will a focus on the ‘choice’ of
women to donate eggs, for the benefit of
infertile women or couples, obscure the
professional and financial interests of the
infertility clinics – the key beneficiaries of this
donation or trade?
www.genomicsnetwork.ac.uk/cesagen
Britain in 2011 119
MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT | Opinion
Containing a crisis
MEMORIES OF ‘STATIC KILL’, ‘top kill’, ‘junk
shot’ and ‘top hat’ attempts to stem the
oil-flow into the Gulf of Mexico may be
receding, but the Deepwater Horizon oil
spill raises several key challenges for risk
regulation and management, not least as other
jurisdictions embark on even more complex
deep water offshore drilling exercises.
The consequences of the three monthlong attempt to contain the oil spill, apart from
the tragic loss of life and the economic and
ecological impact, will be felt for a long time.
Yet the implications of Deepwater Horizon go
far beyond the oil industry and the world’s
dependency on oil itself; they point to the
manner in which events can give rise to
contagion effects which cut across regulatory
systems – something which was also evident
in the recent global financial crisis.
Conventional wisdom suggests that
successful responses to such crises are
marked by three key elements. However the
Deepwater Horizon incident points to the
Media coverage of the oil spill highlighted the difficulty of crisis communication
inherent limitations of these orthodoxies.
emphasis on learning systems and on enhanced, to disaster: better communication, more
First, the widely held view that risk
de-centralised resources to cope more quickly
communication is key in successfully
redundancy and better risk management. The
with the implications of a major accident.
dealing with such emergencies is challenged
accident also points to further key conundrums
by the Deepwater Horizon experience. Studies Promises have been made to provide more
affecting risk regulation in contemporary
autonomous units within the industry to offer
of accidents in highly complex industries that
economic and political life.
enhanced long-term planning and capacity to
deal with considerable uncertainty highlight
One is the contagion effect of major
develop alternative plans for action.
the problems that emerge when errors are
accidents and events in complex industries.
Yet although redundancy has been a longtolerated and deviations from agreed norms
As the political temperature in the US rose,
established recipe to provide for resilience, it
become accepted and amplified. History
markets reacted and BP holdings in the
comes at a considerable cost. At a time when
provides many instances where warning
pension funds of millions of people became
signals were ignored or overridden, and where governments, regulators and shareholders are
devalued, creating an unexpected kind of
demanding greater cost-efficiency, debates arise solidarity with the fishermen of Louisiana. Or,
professional judgement and communication
about how much redundancy is necessary and
was biased towards the view that things
in the case of the banking crisis, the solvency
through which mechanisms.
cannot fail.
of individual banks became a problem for
The third widely held view that risk
Deepwater Horizon points to the
the solvency of nations and subsequently
regulation matters has also unravelled. One
inability of even the most well-trained
a problem of personal solvency for citizens.
of the first responses to Deepwater Horizon in
corporate reputation management machine
Indeed, many societies experienced a form of
the US was the renaming of the
to successfully respond to political
shock at the realisation that large institutions
In a hostile
disgraced Minerals Management
and media attacks. When things go
like banks are not autonomous entities, but
Service as the ‘Bureau of Ocean
wrong, industry – especially when
are deeply embedded in society (as economic
political
Energy Management, Regulation
it involves a chain of fragmented
sociologists have always maintained).
environment
and Enforcement’. Along with
contractors and sub-contractors as in
These examples call for greater attention
other organisational reforms,
the case of Deepwater Horizon – will risk
to the inherently complex connections in
not unite and share expertise, but
contemporary market societies in which failure
communication this sought to deal with, at least
temporarily, the often-diagnosed
is likely to distance itself, hoping to
and regulatory responses in one industry have
turns into an
problem of ‘regulatory capture’ via repercussions for the economic and social
avoid any blame and liability. Indeed,
impossible job revolving doors, cosy relationships, well-being of citizens in other countries and
in a hostile political environment
gift-giving and the completion
that demands certainty and quick
economic sectors. Such interdependencies
of safety-critical documentation by industry
responses, risk communication turns into an
between sectors – and dependency on the
workers rather than inspectors. However, the
impossible job. As we all saw, when a highly
well-being of key industrial sectors – point to
wider unresolved question is how to combine
complex technology goes wrong, it is not
the inherent limitations of any single regulator
demands for strict and error-intolerant oversight or regulatory strategy, and to the need for
easy to fix.
with continuous pressures for ‘light touch’ and
The second widely held view, namely
regulatory networks to somehow mirror the
‘industry-friendly’ regulatory interaction.
that redundancy matters, has also been
interconnectivities of the regulated domains.
Deepwater Horizon has therefore shown
challenged. Unsurprisingly, the immediate
Deepwater Horizon raises a wider
industry response has been to place a greater the limitations of the three standard responses
conundrum. As society remains structurally
120 Britain in 2011
Rex
dependent on cheap oil, it necessarily relies
on increasingly risky drilling activities. Yet at
the same time, many elements of society
are both sceptical about the interests of
major industries and also intolerant and
precautionary regarding potential major
disaster. So the debate about future energy
portfolios must confront the problem of
communicating trade-offs to a risk-intolerant
media and political system, and must
make clear the choices between the cheap
availability of highly risky energy sources and
the potential unpalatable consequences any
particular choice might incur.
Finally, one of the key debates in
risk management has been the extent to
which it is possible to create and maintain
‘high reliability organisations’. These are
organisations that sustain an error-intolerant
organisational culture that, against the odds,
succeeds in avoiding major accidents.
The standard recipe for achieving high
reliability is an organisational pre-occupation
with, and institutionalised curiosity about,
failure. This involves the constant challenging
of information, an organisational commitment
to resilience, and the empowerment of
professional judgement. Emphasising these
methods is said to mitigate the likelihood
of a ‘normal accident’ having major
disastrous consequences.
However, whether such strategies are
actually capable of avoiding major disasters
in international and fragmented industries
remains a major question. Indeed, it also
raises a further question about whether
regulators have the ability to impose
such systems in an age of financial
austerity and likely industry mobility to ‘light
touch’ jurisdictions.
The wider implication of Deepwater
Horizon is therefore not to raise the politically
undesirable question as to which kind of
complex technologies society wishes to
tolerate. It raises the even more troubling
question as to whether there are some highly
risky and complex industries upon which
modern society has become over-dependent,
therefore having to live with ever growing
risks of failure and disaster. www.lse.ac.uk/collections/carr
MARTIN LODGE (top)
MIKE POWER
!
#
Channel 4
News | MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT
Big Brother,
which finished in
Britain in 2010,
has been a prime
time hit in over
70 countries
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Britain in 2011 121
Corbis
MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT | News
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www.lse.ac.uk/collections/bhu