The Oxford Media Convention

My day in Oxford at the handsomely endowed Said Business School was fascinating – I’ve written a comment piece about it for The Guardian. Although billed as a conference on ‘public service communications’ in general, the meat of the thing was television and its fate once the Communications Bill is law and Ofcom up and running. If there was a dominant theme it was the clash of the old school, quality-obsessed producers (the luvvies) and the scary men with clipboards from the new regulator. The language of ‘quality’ sits uncomfortably with the largely economic language of the clipboardistas. The next year or so should be very interesting. Below this entry you’ll find some more of my notes on the event (illustrated with photographs from my camphone).