Just A Minute

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From: David <drling0@...>
To: just-a-minute@...
Sent: Friday, 31 August 2012, 0:16
Subject: [just-a-minute] Re: Is the BBC our friend?

Thanks for the replies.  Just to add my perspective:

1 - I love the BBC.  As I live in South Korea I mainly access the BBC through the website - which in my view is second to none.  Sunday morning I check the football results, it has fantastic resources for my students, of course I listen to radio shows etc etc.

2 - Yes the BBC is a business........but I suspect it is a special kind of business.  Not all of its shows are made because they are big money earners.  There are sometimes educational issues, symbolic things.  What I means is that there are more concerns than say CNN or Fox News.  Sometimes (and for me this is strange) things are not done because we are told that this should be done by a commercial enterprise.  Stopping something because it is too popular is still very strange to me.

3 - My feeling is the BBC is BIG and so therefore there will be contradictions between different decisions and different departments.

4 - The BBC changes through time.  I too am still waiting for the release of the BBC digital archive.  Things like the Desert Island Disc Archive is fantastic - I just hope that there are more things like that to come.

5 - I hate controversy but here goes.  It could be argued that as a state broadcaster the BBC is owned by the British people.  It is not like paying a subscription service to a commercial venture.  This is a possible area where people can argue about recording and distributing shows.  Personally I grew up recording pop songs from my little portable radio and then I started doing the same with comedy shows.  To be fair I feel that the BBC has been very tolerant of people like us sharing shows.  However, something deep inside me tells me that this may change

6 - Finally I feel that maybe the BBC is like the university where I work.  At my university there are the professors and the administrators.  The professors have great ideas and then the administrators tell you why there is not the money to do it.  You have to work within the constraints imposed upon you.  This can make you more creative and it can also make you very frustrated.  However, if you do something newsworthy on your own they love the reflected glory.  Maybe this is a common structure of many large organizations.

Anyway, thanks for your comments.  I hope that the BBC continues in its current format even though I know that change is inevitable.

Love as always, David