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Anthony Lilley on New Media
Tonight, the BBC finally got around to airing the RTS Huw Weldon Memorial Lecture recorded in September. The speaker this year was Anthony Lilley talking on issues relating to social media and ironically given the subject of his talk, no online archive of the talk appears to be available. For all the embracing of “The Me in Media” – as the talk was titled – and the power of the network, we on the network are not allowed to see it.
No matter. The point, the thesis, the element, is quite communicable: we the audience are now in charge. What’s more, Lilley makes a compelling argument that this isn’t a sudden and new development, but something that happened the moment the audience started to appear on screen from quiz shows to our scribbles being sent to Tony Hart.
The power of networked media is considerable, and it’s pretty odd to see a bunch of network TV executives try and grasp the content that they, their ideas, their employers and their money don’t matter much any more. Within 10 years, Lilley hinted that networks like UKTV which mostly show repeats will essentially be pointless with the advent of VoD and PVR systems being widespread. Within 20 years the people being asked to pay the license fee will have no real memory of broadcast media. Within 30 years… who knows?
I was minded of a certain cartoon and then thought about how the BBC Innovation Labs is on again this year. I wonder how daring the BBC and others want us to be. Personally, I think they’re just outright scared.
