Radical media, stop fighting the mainstream - instead, let's build the future

Radical media are wasting too much energy competing with the mainstream. They should return to their great strength: discovering new ways of 'doing' media in the service of progressive change.

By Open democracy

/ 25 Oct 2011

Rebellious Media Conference: leading the way in the information age

Radical media are far behind the mainstream in terms of readership and revenue. But when it comes to understanding media's future, the 'alternative' press are ahead of the curve.

By Niki Seth-Smith

/ 10 Oct 2011

Cross-media power regulation could return Britain to the 17th century

How do we regulate for news plurality in the UK? Beginning with audience share is a farce, and would undermine our democracy. Ownership must be our starting point.

By Open democracy

/ 6 Oct 2011

The BBC is, and always has been, part of the problem

The News International hacking scandal has led the UK to re-assess her media. While private corporations are in the spotlight, there is also a pressing need to probe whether the BBC is fulfilling its duty to the British public.

By Tom Mills

/ 3 Oct 2011

Press regulation: issues, ethics, options

What is the future of press regulation in the UK? A group of distinguished editors and parliamentarians met last week to discuss this most crucial of questions. David Elstein reports, and offers his own map for change.

By David Elstein

/ 3 Oct 2011

Murdoch and Berlusconi: the fall of two media empires and the network multitudes

The simultaneous fall of the Murdoch and Berlusconi media empires – symbolic of an epoch – is not a coincidence but part of a deep global change in which the exponential growth of horizontal communication networks plays a central role. In this global epoch, despite the thin line between new democr

By Open democracy

/ 30 Sep 2011

The BBC is not part of the problem raised by Hackgate

A strong, constructive response to Dan Hind's call yesterday for a democratic media policy and not a defense of the BBC - as the debate over Britain's inquiry into the future of its media get's hotter.

By Des Freedman

/ 20 Sep 2011

The Hunt Trap: the UK's minister of culture wants to disable democratic debate of the media

The Levenson Inquiry has been created to look at the media in Britain. Many want to seize the opportunity to limit the influence of those like Murdoch. Now the Tory minister has brought the BBC into play. Democrats should beware of resisting this, if so they will be trapped and destroyed. The BBC

By Dan Hind

/ 19 Sep 2011

The Guardian, the Public Interest, Official Secrets and the scandal of British power

In an extraordinary attack on the Guardian for breaking the Murdoch hacking scandal, the police are demanding the paper reveals its sources, threatening it with the Official Secrets Act as if it has committed treason. The Act itself forbids appeal to the public interest, a long-term outrage that m

By Anthony Barnett

/ 19 Sep 2011

Who owns the news?

In response to the Murdoch 'Hackgate' scandal Westminster has created the Levenson inquiry to look at how the media in Britain should be governed. A Co-ordinating Committee for media reform has been created to give evidence and argue for a democratic outcome. One of its leading organisers sets out

By Natalie Fenton

/ 18 Sep 2011

Media Reform: The time is now, and a new group are seizing the opportunity

The News of the World hacking scandal has given Britain an opportunity to reform its media. openDemocracy has joined a broad group of organisations and individuals who have come together to help develop a democratic media with the public interest at its heart

By Dan Hind

/ 10 Sep 2011

The media's wilful ignorance over England's riots

A brave speech from the football editor of The Times attacks journalists' collective failure to get to the truth behind the riots that erupted across England earlier this month.

By Open democracy

/ 19 Aug 2011

Power and the Media