Robert Paterson's Weblog

What I think is really at stake if CPB and Pub Media is Defunded

On the surface the attack on Pub Media is based on the idea that the state should not be in the broadcasting business and that this is especially true if the broadcaster is aligned to one point of view.

There is a point to this. Imagine my fellow Pub Media fans if Fox was to now get government funding - you too might go nuts!

But I think that the reason for this attack now is deeper than that.

And I think that the attack is based on the most human of responses. When something new and true and so dangerous arrives on the scene - we laugh at it. But as the new and the true and so the threat to the status quo gets its feet, the power people in the status quo get an insight. 

They can tell at a cellular level that this new thing could be their doom. And their response?

Please let me explain what I think that THEY see and why THEY have started the Inquisition to root out Pub Media.

In the last 5 years, Public Radio and Public TV have started to find a new role for themselves and it is this new role that scares THEM.

This role of course is a Public Service Media organization that gives people who have no voice a voice in the issues that concern them.

CPB is funding a number of experiments that are having results in this key area of informing more than the news cycle and giving people a say. None of this is done in commercial media.

For instance NPR is running a project called Argo - that has picked a number of issues that mean a lot to us the public and created nodes that roll up into a national network - so for instance WBUR in Boston is hosting a local/national conversation about health and healthcare. Or KPBS in San Diego is convening a discussion about the issues of being a military base Town. Or KPCC in southern CA is doing this on Immigration. 

All of this is largely web based - so the stations are also learning how to expand their horizon beyond the "air" and broadcasting.

There are 12 stations involved and the point is to find out how best to do this - to become a rich centre of information outside the news cycle that can be both local and a national resource. Where the public can find the best information and the best conversation about things that concern them. AND SO be truly informed and SO have a real say.

The new is full of music labels complaining. Not only about piracy but of the tight grip just a few large outlets have on what gets played and the costs of getting air. Well guess which media outlet gives the Indie labels the best opportunity for air at the least cost? NPR Music! Here is how the Hollywood Reporter ran this story.  This idea came directly out of the work done back in 2005/6 by all the stations to find a starting point for offering the music audience a place based on their taste and their time rather than simply playing what the station wanted. The music audience and the musician's interests are well served here. Both sides win. This does not happen on commercial media where the interests of the station those that own it rule.

CPB has also backed TV stations like KETC in St Louis who have been exploring how to put the public onto TV and how to offer the public a safe place to have the conversations that are otherwise impossible in America today.

Now known as the Nine Network for Public Media, KETC has a media school, the Nine Academy,  that is turning out hundreds of citizen videographers,. Giving the people the tools to have a voice of their own. 

In 2009 KETC hosted a national project involving more than 30 markets worst hit by the housing crisis to learn how each local TV and Radio stations could work together to offer people help that they could trust. In each market the stations worked to bring together w ide ranges of resources into local networks of trusted help. This is all but impossible for a commercial station. 

In 2010 KETC has been experimenting in how to host a year long "Conversation" about an explosive topic that normally collapses into rhetoric - Immigration. Most of the content is local and much of it made by grads of KETC's school. KETC is learning how to offer people a civil place to hod string views and how to switch the power from the station to the people. Impossible for a commercial station. 

This year KETC is co managing a project that will also be nation and is highly controversial - On how we might improve our schools. 

What THEY fear the most is that this kind of new role for Public Radio and TV may end up with 

• You being better informed - you will have escaped the sound bite world and in music the play list that THEY want
• You will be better engaged - because you will have the real opportunity to have your voice heard and you will have learned the skills to do this well 
• You and your local community will have more power to change things

THIS is what THEY fear.

We may feel that we could and should have made more progress - but THEY can see it.

They care not about Morning Edition, Car Talk or Masterpiece Theatre.

They do care that you may become more informed and more empowered. Public Media is on track to pull this of and so must be stopped. 

I don't see this as a Left or Right Issue. It is do you want to be part of the solution or be passive?

And who are THEY? Follow the money.

Euan Semple - How can you best create a conversation on the web?

I interviewed Euan last week and asked him how we at KETC - or any TV station for that matter - could do a better job at having real conversations with our community. Our concern is that the media mostly seems to inflame or leave us helpless - the larger context then is what could we do to help people who do have differences find a common pathway.

Here is a opening snip of my synthesized precis of his response. 

 

Engagement can only take place between equals. It can only take place between humans and never with an institution.

The media relies on a large power difference. The media is jealous of its power and allows no equals. The media see people as marketing segments to be manipulated.

Within the powerful institutions of the media, journalists see themselves as “professionals” who are above us as well. To fit into their profession, they deliberately obscure their own humanity. They are aloof, omniscient, even pompous.

They seek perfection in an imperfect world. In this context, things are right or they are wrong. People are good or bad. They make the judgment.

We, the public, respond to this use of power as children often do to over protective parents. We act out. We feel helpless. We get angry. We blame.

So long as they hold onto this power and there can be no conversation. Without a conversation, there can be no engagement. With no engagement, there can be no learning. With no learning there can be no progress. All there can be is anger and so more polarization.

This then is the context for our politics.

With anger and polarization, we are stuck. We cannot see a pathway to any solution. We can only widen the breach or deepen the wounds.

He then goes onto to talk about what would work better and what we or YOU can do in particular.

 

Posted via email from Rob's posterous

News & Media - The Technical/Social Connection = Trust = Success

NPR showed us that how you connect to content is key to audience growth - so far they and I have focused on the the connection as being web and social media based.

But there is an even more important "Connection". That is Trust.

Do we trust the source of the content? What is the Social Relationship between the News Source and the Public? What are the Power issues? What is the motivation of the new organization? Whom do they serve and why? All these relational issues affect Trust.

So what is the central connection between the news source and you?

Here is how Craig Newmark thinks that this issue will play out.

 

HT to John Bracken for the clip.

At KETC we have made this issue of the relationship with our members and the wider public in St Louis our central concern.

We keep asking ourselves the question of how can a local public TV station establish the Trust that we need to become vital to our community? While this is our own question - it is also the broder question that will affect all news sources.

We agree with Mr Newmark that we have a start based on our non-commercial model. But what do we have to do to make this more real?

No station on their own is smart enough to come up with the answers. For this demands a revolution in mindset.

Fortunately for us, 3 Wise Men turned up with gifts. Gifts of wisdom about this issue of Trust and Relationship. They showed up because they care deeply that the answers are found. 

Euan Semple, Doc Searls and Jay Rosen have kindly agreed to be interviewed and we start a series next week on their advice for

• Why the current model for news is not helping the nation solve our problems
• What would be a model that would
• What KETC - or in fact any public station can do to enact this better model

More soon

Albums to iTunes - Schedule's to iTunes?

One thing we know about the new media is that we don't buy the Whole Album any more.

Our old normal was that we had to buy the whole album. We also had to go down to the store to get it.

Now if I want a Beatles song, I download it when I want. I buy song by song, on my time.

So what! You know all of this - this is not new! No it isn't but isn't this a pattern that will apply to everything.

As NPR is finding out by its research - content remains vitally important but what makes it valuable to day is how we get it.

This pattern of the connection being as important as the content will soon apply to all radio and to all TV.

Currently KETC, my great client, offer as wide a choice as possible conventionally - they have 4 channels and they have something for most of us most of the time as a result. This is surely a "good thing" and a lot better than most.

But then I don't have a TV and more and more and more people don't either. Like my music I want good content but it is how I get it that is the point. I look for an easy and legal connection. I don't mind paying for good content either. 

 
This is how I get my TV content the same way I get my Music. For instance, last night after Tony  Curtis' death I rented Some Like it Hot too.

This is where I watch it too - much better than my TV

Now I am not everyone. I am not even part of a large group yet. But as new web streaming devices get better, then most of us will get our TV and Radio content the same way that most of us now get our music.

How long does TV and Radio have before Wifi and the Web are pervasive?

The new NPR research is clear to me. If you create a beach head with the webby folks now - you will be ready. NPR not only grew their audience by expanded into the 35 year old cohort who loved the content but did not listen to appointment radio.

Public TV has an audience that is in their 60's! But they do have a ton of great content. Time surely to make it very easy for me to get it when I want to. Maybe a Netflix kind of deal - so much a month gets me so much content?

But where does this leave the local station? That is what KETC and other stations that accept that this is coming are working on right now. 

This is not easy. Frankly we know the direction to take but the unknowns are in the why, the what and the how. I help them think about this - but I am not that smart so we have asked for some help. 

Next week 3 wise men offer their advice. You know them. I am stunned by their insight. I know you will be too. Stay tuned!

Why we need a new media model - Complexity!

Are you frustrated by how our politicians cannot seem to get anything done anymore? I am mad as hell! I hate how they just seem to score political points off each other? Don't you?

Does it worry you, as a consequence, that we cannot seem to make any progress on important issues such as energy, education, health, global conflict and now immigration? Does it seem to you as it does to me that each issue seems to about only competing slogans and yelling and name calling?

If you share my concerns, do you wonder why our political process is so polarized into conflict?

I suspect that the answer is that how our media works is big part of this.  They live by headlines and by circulation. This is their model. So fear making and conflict is how they make their money. Conflict sells papers and pulls in eyeballs and ears.  So they offer all of us - politicians and us - a view of what is going on that is binary - Us against them - Me against You. 

Maybe this worked better in a simpler world where our problems were in our community and we could all experience the context. Then a headline was OK because we we the local experts. We knew and experienced what was going on.

But now we live in a such a hyper connected world many of our problems are outside of our experience. How could you know that the noble idea of "Bringing democracy to Afghanistan" is an insane idea? What do you know of the place - you have no context. No we can have a furious debate about this with no one knowing anything real about the context. Such debates can never end.

What do you know about the pressures that have driven millions to risk their lives to cross the border to work in terrible conditions? You and I don't and we can't - so instead we can take sides in an artificial debate about legal or not - secure border or not - racist or not - and never come close to understanding enough to make a valid decision about what to do.

What do you and I really know about oil reserves and how much time we really have before there never will be cheap oil again. What do you and I really know about how our food supply depends utterly on cheap oil and how we might starve if this is not available? We cannot - so we engage instead in a furious and futile debate about whether there us global warming or not.

So if the media only gives us headlines - if it always drops a story when there is no "News" - if it never helps us find the context what then?

Don't we need to find a better way that can help us understand the complex issues?

What would this mean? What would better mean?

This is a "no-context" storm - this image shows us how it feels to be In the storm of "no-context". We just get tossed about. We are helpless. We get scared. 

But this is the Pattern - all hurricanes look like this if we can find the right perspective. As you can see from this POV there is structure, order and meaning. We can't stop them but we can work with them because we know how they work.  

We can also know the tracks that they take - not precisely - but we can mitigate the damage that they do.

No meteorologist will ever tell you that she can predict the precise actions of a complex system like a hurricane but we can learn how to live with them. We can do a lot to redice our risks because we do understand their pattern and their habits. 

Now imagine if your media could help you see the patterns in our complex challenges? Surely we would do better than we do now? Would that be a project that would excite you?

THIS is what we are trying to do at KETC in our project on the most binary topic of our time right now - Immigration. A topic that gets us all easily into name calling and so into a dead end where NO progress is possible.

Immigration is a topic that the media don't even pretend to offer us a pattern. Here is the Pattern of Patterns that will show you the nature of a problem and how you solve them.

Cynefin Dave Snowden

The curent media is stuck in the Simple. It pretends that we and they live in the "Known Realm" The Simple Realm (Laying Bricks or Stacking Wood) where cause and effect are directly linked. They don't even go to the "Knowable" or Complicated Realm (Designing a Jet Engine)

They operate in the Simple Realm when nearly all that confronts us is Complex or Chaotic. Using the rules of the Simple to deal with Complex and Chaotic leads to confusion and disaster. 

Nearly all our challenges are in the Complex or Chaotic realm. These are the realms nature herself. So for example this is how Hurricanes are structured. They are Complex. In the Complex Realm we have to get enough perspective to find the hidden and inevitable order in the patterns. These patterns are the same but different. They are predictable in how they operate but only in a general sense. For instance all turbulence of a certain type for instance looks like a hurricane. The water going down your plughole and a galaxy all share the same pattern. They have internal rules that are consistent that enables us at least to understand them. Whereas if you are in a storm, all you can do is hang on and hope. 

Chaos is even harder to "see" but it too has patterns and order that have structure but they are very hard to "see" as a lot of time has to pass before the pattern emerges.

In Chaotic Realms, small things have to iterate over time until a shape is settled. So, think of a seed becoming a small shoot, then a plant then a sapling then a tree and then a copse and then a wood and then the full ecosystem of a forest. At each stage the shape changes but you can only see the complete pattern at the end.

That is how Chaos evolves into a knowable pattern. All acorns have the potential to become not just a tree but a forest. 

If you only saw an acorn and did not know it could become a forest, you would have to wait for a thousand years to see the connection. You still might never see this. Most only see the obvious end state as a tree. But that is not the real end state. The Climax Forest is the end state.

But now we know the pattern, it will always do its best to reach its potential. We can help an acorn become a forest by helping it have the best environment for each stage of its development along its trajectory. So we cannot control it. We cannot be assured that it will reach its potential but we can give it a very good chance. It is like this with our children.

Seeing the patterns then is the way to understand Complex and Chaotic system.

So then how can a media organization do this? Well first of all it has to know that this is the work. Not itself a small thing when all the real media lives in a different mindset!

This is what we have decided to do at KETC. Call us mad! Most called Columbus mad. No one would finance his voyage to the west for decades. Everyone knew that the world was flat! It took a Queen to make the investment. Columbus also did not have a lot of fun along the way either. This is not fun being out there on a limb with everything at risk. But it is maybe our destiny. We sure can't turn back now.

So sorry about the lecture but I don't know how else to show you our context.

This is where we are at KETC.

I would like to show you an example of how we are using "pattern seeking" to make sense of immigration. If we can do this then maybe we can make sense of a lot of other things.

Mea Culpa - We have not cracked this.

We are very much still finding our way and do not claim to have solved this. We feel like Columbus must have felt weeks into his voyage as the supplies were running out and the crew getting scared. I think we have seen the odd gull and a few logs in the water. We sense we are close to land but not sure. And we still don't know what to do if we get to land.

You can help us by telling me more about how we might improve this process. You will see things that we can't - please pile in and help!

Here is the process that has emerged from our work - with no prior plan. It has just emerged into our own vision this week! It is offering us a pattern for rooting an issue into pattern of its own that has structure and so meaning.

1. We go out to the community in St Louis and ask people in the street what they know or think about an issue - In this case the Dream Act - we do this to find out where we are starting from - do people have a view, do they know much anyway, what is the local temperature? We start with our local reality and experience with the issue. We let them speak not us. 
2. We go out to an expert - who does know a lot about what ever is the issue - in this case an immigration lawyer in St Louis - she provides her professional opinion of what is the context. We find out the facts from a person who knows a lot more than we coud ever know. We let her speak not us. 
3. We go out to a person who is directly affected by the issue and get her experience. We find the impact of the issue not from a pundit but from a person who is affected. We let her speak and not us
4. We mine the web for the related national stories on the topic - This is where I am using Darwin to help me find patterns globally on the web related to Immigration This link will go deeply into the help that this tool is providing in seeing patterns in the chaos of the web - a whole new kind of search based on pattern emergence. We extract the larger patterns from the chaos of all the headlines. We let them speak and not us.

Please look at what we have done behind the links.

In part 2 of this post I will offer up the pattern that I have seen - but for now - what do you see if anything?

 

The Media - Want trust & traction - Get a tribe or offer a Spicy Soup

Terry Heaton wrote a cool post about this slide:

Trust in the media is shrinking rapidly. Something is not working and it is getting worse just as the issues that confront us all need to be reported better.

Terry of course asked the big question of Why? Why is trust in the media falling? He thinks that Jay Rosen's concern about the "Voice from Nowhere" is part of this and adds a strong additional argument that a media source that only has one point of view - its own - feels more and more like a shill. Who trusts a shill?

I would like to add a bit more to both Jay and Terry's arguments. I think that if we go deeper into how culture shapes us and how Tribal culture is we can see more clearly how to react to this situation.

I have been looking at the issue of Cultural Cognition - or the filters that we use to make meaning of the world. Dan Kahan's thesis is that most Americans fit into a set of cultural tribes that determine how they process information. Walter Russell Mead also thinks a great deal about this form of filtering by culture and has defined a set of easy to understand labels to capture the biases of the larger groupings.

Let's jump to the real world of the media to illustrate what this cultural filter means in practice.

In spite of the overall decline in the trust in the media - there are some paradoxes

• NPR is surging - with huge increases in listeners - they say it is because of the demand for sound news - NPR is highly trusted but.....
• Fox is surging too and it too is highly trusted
• CNN is sinking and is not trusted

Why is NPR and Fox rising in numbers and trust while most of the media is falling?

I think that the answer is that both play to the cultural bias of two very important cultural tribes in America

• Fox to the Jacksonians
• NPR to the Jeffersonians
• Rachel Maddow plays to the more liberal wing of the Jeffersonians. Rush Limbaugh to the more extreme wing of the Jacksonians.

If you play to no tribe such as I think is the case for CNN - you get no traction. If you are the voice from nowhere - you will not have people attach strongly to you. 

Dan Kahan's research shows how the cultural fit works.

First of all - The Tribes exist - they can only see what is going on through their filters. They are waiting to attach or to attack what fits or does not fit. If you think that people are not tribal and are not culturally filtered then you miss it all.

Second - no matter what the content! They can sense if the messenger is one of them. No matter what he or she says - the cultural fit of the messenger is the starting point of acceptance or rejection. So at the extreme ends - Rachel is the ideal messenger as is Limbaugh. If you offer no cultural fit for the messenger, then you have missed it all. No one is neutral. Neutral has no power.

Thirdly - how the issue is Framed increases the attachment or the rejection. The lead, the POV, the context all mean that the content - that can be the same in the 2 camps is perceived and reacted to entirely differently. So how you frame is another pivotal issue. You must frame with a tribe in mind.

But suppose you want to bring the tribes closer together? What could you do if you choose not to either Fox or NPR?

• You can tune into several tribes - Terry is going there and I know that Jay is too - Have a big pond with fish that all like swimming in it. Dan Kahan's research has shown that you can get the tribes closer by mixing the messengers up - have messengers that are tuned into a tribe tell the other story
• Create a rich and spice soup with lots of different chunks - in the good old days PBS had William F Buckley as well as Bill Moyers - mix it up but have strong cultural positions and messengers. 
• The closing of gap comes from the mix

The choice is porridge or curry.

If you want to know more about Dan Kahan's thinking here is a neat video series

Is Evil real ?- Is Mainstream Media - its Agent?

Does "Evil" exist? Debatable. But for sure, "Evil Behaviour" exists. And what could be more Evil than manipulating people's fears? 

There is a lot of that going around now - and regretfully the mainstream media helps these people have power to build a platform based on these fears.

They do this in the name of a good idea 'Balance". But how do you balance truth and lies? "Truth or Lies? That is a bit strong Rob?" Well.... The proof is in the pudding. What do many people believe to be true today and how did this happen? Do they believe the truth or lies?

Here is Robert Reich's perspective:

Many Americans (and politicians who the polls) don’t want a mosque at Manhattan’s Ground Zero.

An increasing percent believe the President is a Muslim.

Most Americans approve of Arizona’s new law allowing police to stop anyone who looks Hispanic and demand proof of citizenship.

Most would deny citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who are here illegally.

Where is all this coming from?  

It’s called fear. When people are deeply anxious about holding on to their homes, their jobs, and their savings, they look for someone to blame. And all too often they find it in “the other” – in people who look or act differently, who come from foreign lands, who have what seem to be strange religions, who cross our borders illegally.

Americans who feel economically insecure may even become paranoid, believing, say, that the President of the United States is secretly one of “them.”

Economic fear is the handmaiden of intolerance. It’s used by demagogues who redirect the fear and anger toward people and groups who aren’t really to blame but are easy scapegoats.

The mainstream media is being manipulated by these people in the name of "Balance". The outcome is that Ignorance is winning over Truth. I am seeing that the best of intentions are creating the worst of outcomes. 

The lies and the fallacies are winning. The "Simple" is crushing the "complex". There is no room for the Complex in Mainstream Media - so the "Simple" and Wrong gets the play.

Why is this happening? Is it just the poor economy? I think it is because the world has become more complex as it has become more connected. Most people can only cope with the simple or the complicated. They have to know the answers. But with Complex situations the answers cannot be known in advance.

Are we then stuck? Stuck in a social world that is complex but in a society that cannot cope with complexity? Is our media simply a product of a simple world that has simple issues?

Richard Gayle.

Many things in the world are changing very rapidly. Heuristics and rules of thumb that used to work – simplifications once true because they were in alignment with the real world – no longer provide a useful function. So people use confirmation bias and other rational fallacies to prop up something – anything – that can explain things in a way that gives them comfort.

A changing world is extremely uncomfortable. Toffler wrote about this in Future Shock, one of the great books of the 70s. This shock, like culture shock, leaves many people disconnected and stressed. So, it is natural for people to seek the comfort of just-so stories that can support their replica of the real world

What seems to be happening, though, is that the media, instead of promoting understanding and stifling ignorance, is actually facilitating it. The MSM just does not want to puncture any bubbles supporting Cargo Cult Worlds.

The MSM is actively working then to prevent us from finding solutions. It does not want to inform people of the underlying principles needed to solve many of our problems.

Thus, a lot of the people know that TARP happened after Obama took office. That Social Security cards tell you which bank owns you.That humans were created in their present form 10,000 years ago. That germs do not cause disease. That Cordoba is a purely a symbol of Islamic conquest. That Einstein’s theories of relativity are disproved by Jesus’ action-at-a-distance. That a bike share program is going to lead to increased abortions. That vaccines do more harm than good. That humans are apparently alive and at work on Mars. That climate scientists are wrong about the warming of the world. That Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the world. These are just from the last 2 weeks.

There actually are people of all political persuasions that want to promote understanding, that value ideas over ideology, that are willing to admit that the world is often more complex than we would like.

But these people seem to have smaller and smaller soapboxes in the public arena. And the MSM does everything it can to make them disappear.

If we hope to overcome our problems we have to work for greater understanding and work to overturn Cargo Cult Worlds. Otherwise, we will see a continuing disconnect from reality with an increasing inability to understand the principles underlying our real world problems

Is the media Evil? No I think they are prisoners of a dangerous idea - that all ideas are worthy and that all points of view demand support.

So what about those that exploit our fears? Are they evil? What motivates them? What is the outcome of their work?

I leave you with the story of their ancestor, Father Coughlin. It was he who worked so hard to incite anti semitism in America in the 1930's that meant that America closed its doors before the holocaust. It was he that used the then new media power of radio to capture a large audience of "believers".

How would we apply the ideals of "Balance" to him? What was the price of him not being called out? Was this America's finest hour? I think most can agree that what he did was evil. So how will history judge us?

So what to do? Our media is not designed to cope with complexity. Nothing makes a complex situation worse than by trying to cope with it using the rules for simple.

So the real future, as I see it, for media is not the use of Facebook etc Is not going online etc But is finding out how best to offer up a platform for engaging in complexity. In creating a space where the process that can offer solutions to complex issues, discovery, can take place.

The Cynefin framework is a great place to start

 

The Cynefin framework has five domains. The first four domains are:

• Simple, in which the relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all, the approach is to Sense - Categorise - Respond and we can apply best practice.
• Complicated, in which the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application of expert knowledge, the approach is to Sense - Analyze - Respond and we can apply goodpractice.
• Complex, in which the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance, the approach is to Probe - Sense - Respond and we can sense emergent practice.
• Chaotic, in which there is no relationship between cause and effect at systems level, the approach is to Act - Sense - Respond and we can discover novel practice.

The fifth domain is Disorder, which is the state of not knowing what type of causality exists, in which state people will revert to their own comfort zone in making a decision.

More later.

What Next for the CBC? What next for us? What about Public Radio and TV on the Border?

The financial crunch is in full force at the CBC and next week staff and the public will hear the new plan.

My bet is that it will look like this:

• CBC will cut costs by further centralization and consolidation - Such as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI will be served by one main office with at best stringers. All production will be focused in Toronto and Vancouver

• While cuts to the front line will be extensive - the bloated head office will be less affected

• Ads maybe on radio

• CBC will be on a death spiral

I think that death is inevitable for the CBC because the real challenge for the CBC is not the government. It is not the economy alone but it is in fact its culture and hence its unresponsive structure. Being a top down, one city focused bureaucracy, it cannot be saved. There is no one to talk too who can make changes who wont hold onto power in the old way.

Here follows a quick rant and then two paths that I think may offer a future - for the audience that is!

It is already run by fiat from its Toronto bureaucracy. The local stations have no local control at all.

It is a Broadcaster - it pushes out - it sets the agenda - it is the sole taste-maker - it prohibits any kind of local innovation - it is hardly open at all to participation in a real way by the Canadian public.

It's approach to News is very conventional - No Planet Money kind of offering of real context - No Bill Moyers - No All things Considered.

It's approach Magazines (10 - 4pm) is beyond sad and low brow - failed Oprah.

It's approach to music is authoritarian - Here is the Canadian Content that we choose.

It has alienated its loyal audience in search of a youth segment at does not exist and that laughs at what is on offer.

So what is to be done? I don't see how the CBC as a central bureaucracy can be saved or redeemed. The bureaucracy will defend itself to the death.

But there are two related ways forward that would offer Canadians a really excellent local and national public service. But this idea is based on a paradox as you will see.

The 30 million plus people that live in Canada live close to the US Border. Along that border just a few miles south is the best public radio and TV system in the world. Already in some markets such as Buffalo, Canadians are the largest audience and WNED TV has an office in Toronto!

I think that the border pub radio stations offer a platform that we can build on in Canada.

If the border stations were to have a web based Canadian strategy, my bet is that they could do the following - let's look at one undeserved Canadian city and one US border station to se what might be done.

Kingston has a population of about 100,000 plus maybe another 50,000 in the hinterland. CBC does not serve them. The most local they get is Ottawa. Kingston is a university town with one of Canada's leading universities, Queens and Canada's "Westpoint" RMC. NCPR serves upstate New York and has a very special team in place at the station. NCPR already has some strong support in Kingston.

What if NCPR set up a web based hub in Kingston that acted as an attractor for the local bloggers and neo citizen journalists? By Hub, I mean it offers its brand, NPR and its local content (The API will enable this anyway) And support services to a local Canadian Kingston Pub Media COOP. Like Visa and a local bank. The two are separate. The local group is LOCAL. But Visa offers the access to a larger system.

I think that local groups will spring up anyway. But on their own - it would be very hard. But with the NCPR Brand and the staff and the programming behind NCPR, (A Kind of Visa Deal) I think a very good local Kingston "station" could emerge.

For NCPR, it could mean a doubling of audience in a couple of years. For NPR, if this happened along the border, it could mean going form 30 million to 40 million in 2-3 years.

Brandon Manitoba is the epicentre of this struggle to maintain a local news centre. Prairie Public Radio is juts a few miles away south. No Canadian wants to play.

The CRTC of course currently blocks conventional radio and TV. It also does its best to block web radio and TV from outside Canada. But if there is no local service, I wonder how long this position can hold?

In the interim I think that there is a work around that is good for all of us. In the next 5 years conventional "ait" is going to diminish anyway. All content will use the web. Radio and TV will converge and will converge I think locally.

For the border stations and NPR, PBS and CPB to experiment with an all web idea in Canada might offer up a beta that may work well back in the US and then offer a global solution to how best to keep the news, democracy and local local alive for the world.

I know that this is just a germ of an idea but what do you think?

I can see how for instance Maine Public Radio could offer "services" to PEI Public Media.

I can see how a group of us could set up a truly local system here on PEI if we had some help for MPR. I can see how some of the current staff of CBC could fit in. I can see that when the Guardian, our local paper, dies, that this local "station" could really thrive.

I would like to try this - would you?

XM/Sirius Merger - Doc is first

I have been searching for smart comment on the merger. Guess who is first?

Doc

Satellite is One to Many no matter how many channels

I feel that Satellite Radio is like the Cutty sark. The ultimate in an old approach.

What is Public Broadcasting - Voice Promo Girl?

Where is CBC Radio going? I see a worrying trend - the idea that if they only had more young voices on air that were cool that CBC would pick up audience and hence become more "Public. So we have Freestyle, we have Sook Yin Lee on DNTO and Brent Bambury on GO.

Is being a public broadcaster defined as being popular? Is seeking to be cool and attracting a younger audience as the prime strategy going to take CBC to more influence?

What has happened in the US is that as commercial radio has chased the ratings they chased either the trivial or the dogmatic. The result is that there is a kind of bipolar world of either Entertainment Tonight/Clear Channel of spoon feeding or a Fox News/Religious Right you are with me or against me dogma.

NPR have doubled their audience in the last 10 years to over 30 million because, I think, that people who wanted to hear both sides, who wanted to go deeper, who wanted discourse were desperate to belong to a community where civic discourse was still alive. NPR news is maybe the only news source in America that provides all sides of a story. Fundamentalists of all shapes and sizes hate it. So it is criticized for being soft on Palestinians but also for being in the control of the supporters of Israel. Music on NPR goes beyond the performance and offers the best possible commentary - whether it is Beethoven or Hip Hop, you have an opportunity to learn more.

What NPR have found is that if they aim for all those that are curious, that like to think, that have an open mind. They get a powerful audience both in terms of numbers and in terms of profile. They also have, as a by product, set up support for Civic Community in the US. The values of NPR represent that values of a society that is and thoughtful.

So here is my point. I think that Public Radio should be the voice of the culture of civic community. Its voice iterates with the voice of those that are inquisitive and engaged. This segment is the civic bedrock of a sound community. They are not just pointy head university grads but people from all walks of life who have an open mind.

My fear is that CBC's is drifting into trying to be popular and is therefore on a path of trivialization.

Promo Girl - what do you hear when you hear her voice? What is the message that you receive?

I hear "Corporate", "Trivial" and "False". I hear plastic and I hear scripted.

She is becoming the voice of the CBC. Worse, large chunks of the national space are going down the trivial route. FreeStyle is entirely surface. Go on Saturday morning and DNTO on Saturday afternoon take up most of the day and stay resolutely on the surface

Where does this take CBC?

More later