Ask Charity Weblog

This morning on Radio 4's Woman's Hour there was a heated debate about parenting programmes on TV and the damage they may have on the children involved. You can listen again to the debate featuring Eileen Hayes of NSPCC and Hamish Mykura Channel 4 commissioner. On the 12th November the Royal Television Society is also hosting an evening panel debate called, I'm a little kid: Get me out of here! with Mary Macleod of the Family and Parenting Institute.

Both Mary Macleod and Eileen Hayes are members of the Media and Parenting Group and they're out to persuade programme makers that using young children in reality TV formats is both unethical and exploitative. You can read about their research and campaign in Fiona Millar's BJR article, For the sake of the children.

It certainly seems that change is in the air and Tanya Byron (whose programme, The House of Tiny Tearaways was one of the first of its kind in dealing with child behaviour) has now declared that she won't have anything more to do with TV programmes like these. You can read an interview with Tanya Byron in this Sunday's Observer.

Anyone can buy a ticket to the RTS event on the 12th November (www.rts.org.uk). It's an opportunity for charities that represent young children and families to have their say. Charity campaigners need to make sure their message about how children are used in the media reaches the decision makers: TV commissioners, broadcasters, programme makers and Ofcom.

Posted by Charity at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Before approaching journalists with a story it's always worth doing some research into their work. With this in mind have a look at the new Media Standards Trust website www.journa-list.com. It lists journalists giving details of media outlet, published articles, interests and how often they mention certain words or topics. This seems like a great way to find the interests and sympathies of the journalists you are trying to target. Users also have the option to have email alerts when their favourite journalists write new articles.

Director of the Media Standards Trust (www.mediastandardstrust.org) Martin Moore said: "Hopefully this site will help people filter through [the vast amount of information found on the internet]. It will allow people to find out more about who's writing the news, compare news coverage amongst journalists, and build up a team of writers they respect and trust"

Posted by Charity at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At this week's MediaGuardian conference on "Changing Advertising" the future of the Telegraph and the Guardian were discussed in detail. These two titles no longer consider themselves newspapers but multi-media broadcasters. The two titles' websites were refered to as "uber-platforms". Telegraph TV are commissioning original programming and showing the films on their website. They also want more user-generated content. They want audio and video to provide context to the articles being written by their newspaper staff. The Guardian spoke more about how they saw the need to engage with their readers: "consumers will trade the quality and reliability of traditional media for control, engagement, fresh content and a rich media experience". Both sites want to create their own social networks by providing the online space for their "like-minded" readers to discuss news and engage with each other. Have a look at the Guardian Film's Emmy award winning online documentary "A Doctor's Story".

Posted by Charity at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Labour Party are launching their own online TV channel. Campaigntv.org will bypass TV impartiality regulations and the conventions of traditional media. Labour's former chief press officer, Gez Sagar (gez.sagar@campaigntv.org ) has set up his own production company, Silverfish Creative, and will run Campaigntv.org. He's inviting people to send him their own content/ short films which they'd like to see shown on the "your films" section of the site. Weekly shows will include an interview with a leading politician or campaigner (the first is with Gordon Brown) and a debate show to discuss latest policies and campaigns. It could prove to be a great opportunity for charities to lobby government and engage with politicians. It could also prove to be a model which charities and campaigners adopt. How long before everyone has their own online TV channel?

Posted by Charity at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)