Media Meeting Evokes Spirits Of The Past

Michael Hedges June 7, 2010 - Follow on Twitter

The media world is nagged by this shrinking feeling. After decades of more, more and more, the playground is spoiled by new bright, shiny toys. But when media people and policy makers meet the voices sound like different ages.

The Spanish Presidency of the European Union organized (June 4) a “European Media Meeting” meant to give broadcasters and publishers a sense of importance amidst the digital clamor. Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero opened the meeting at Madrid’s Cervantes Institute. Other luminaries followed with diverse anthologies of encouraging words and citations from times long past.

President Zapatero’s speechwriters dug deep to find a suitable keystone quote. Out popped the newspaper people’s favorite line from Thomas Jefferson: “If I had to choose between a country with a government without newspapers and a country with newspapers but without government, I would choose the latter.” Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States (1801-1809) and had a contentious relationship with the pre-Murdoch tabloid press of the time. President Zapatero isn’t exactly having a good time with Spain’s major newspapers, perhaps making the quotation rather fitting.

The full quote reads a bit differently: “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.” It was written in a letter to American military leader Edward Carrington in 1787 when Jefferson was Minister to France.

Media’s modern challenge, said President Zapatero, “concerns us all.” And he spoke in defense of “intellectual property and copyright, both collective and individual.” Again evoking the historical, he compared internet piracy with piracy on the high seas, “which was eradicated.”

All politicians make impassioned speeches supporting media and “quality journalism”. To do otherwise would conjure rattling from the deep. “We will not witness the end of the media nor quality journalism,” said President Zapatero, “but rather its transformation into the new digital age, globalized, interdependent, multipolar.”

“It is,” he said, “one of the most complex issues raised by today's world of communication.”

The European Commission was represented by Commission Vice President and Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani who took a distinctly pan-European path in remarks spiced with uncomfortable statistics. “Everyone should read more newspapers, watch more television and listen to more radio from other European countries.” Quoting EC reports he said only 7% of Europeans watch TV from countries other than their own. In France, he said, only 1% of newspapers sold were foreign. “The same story is treated with different nuances in each country and that helps present objectivity.”

“Certainly, knowledge of foreign languages plays an important role in this matter,” he offered. “However, the fact is that according to the Euro-barometer February 2006, 56% of European citizens can participate in a conversation in another language than their mother tongue.”

Sr. Tajani also complained about the shrinkage of news coverage from Brussels. “I think this is more necessary than ever, especially when we are experiencing an unprecedented crisis in our continent.”

Spanish and European-level broadcaster and publisher organizations presented their view of the new media world in less florid and more concrete terms. In a 20-point Madrid Declaration they asked for “targeted and limited action” from national governments and the EC as the digital world changes the “current structure of our industry.”

“Nobody knows how the media will communicate in 2020,” said the document’s introduction, “but there is little doubt that companies integrating multimedia and quality information will be well positioned to survive. All this offers new opportunities but also new risks that should be avoided.”

Hitting out at the increasingly dominant web-world the publishers and broadcasters reiterated the oft stated the battle lines. “The profusion of digital techniques that daily violate copyright and aggregation rules and reproduce without permission…ultimately hinders profitability… devalues the work of journalists…threatening the viability of these businesses.”

“Our sector is in reasonable shape and our main plea to regulators is not for public money,” said Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) General Director Ross Biggam, “but rather for regulatory forbearance and assistance in targeted areas like protection of content and fair competition against state-aided operators. If we have those elements in place, then our understanding of what viewers want to watch will deliver a vibrant, diverse European media landscape much more efficiently than any regulatory diktat.” (See ACT statement here)

In addition to asking for “concrete articulation of public service” and enforcement of the EC’s Copyright Directive, the Madrid Declaration signatories – all representing private sector media – asked for a review of television advertising limits, a painful issue in Spain, and eliminating value added tax (VAT) on newspapers.

Closing the European Media Meeting on a somber tone Spanish Vice President María Teresa Fernández de la Vega noted that media’s survival in “a precarious era” depends “on the values that prevail, on the objectives that we set, on the courage and firmness with which we face our challenges.”

The issues for the media sector are, she said, “undoubtedly complex, in some cases problematic, in others uncertain, but always important, not only for the media, but for society as a whole, because communication is the thread with which we weave the framework for the global community we live in.”

Thomas Jefferson lived in a far different time and he reflected the young American nation’s individualist spirit. But during his presidency, he was sharply critical of newspapers, writing to Swiss scientist and intellectual Marc Auguste Pictet (1803), “Our newspapers, for the most part, present only the caricatures of disaffected minds. Indeed, the abuses of the freedom of the press here have been carried to a length never before known or borne by any civilized nation."

Later, to John Norvell (1807), Jefferson continued his critique of newspapers: “The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.”

Sr. Tajani evoked even deeper history, ending his presentation quoting Cervantes’ Don Quixote: “He who reads much and travels much sees and knows very much.”

There is the appearance – appearances being meaningful – from the European Media Meeting that policy makers and the media sector – private sector, at least – live, if not in different universes, at least in different times. Drawing them closer is the real challenge.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Media Laws – New and Revised

Policy makers and politicians are writing and rewiting media laws and rules at a breakneck pace. As broadcasters and publishers grapple with changes brought about by digital development, new business models and financial distress, the new media is feeling rules tightening around it. From licensing and public broadcasting to privacy, piracy and copyright this ftm Knowledge file Media Laws – New and Revised summarizes new laws and revised laws from a media perspective. 135 pages PDF (December 2010)

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