The BBC Charter Review (sic)

The Guardian’s reference to the “BBC Charter Review” (i.e. the Ofcom PSB Review) complete with an online correction, provides a timely reminder that for many citizens the two terms - BBC, PSB - are inexorably linked. ‘Public Service Broadcasting’ is something of a cipher, a catch-all term for a number of loosely defined needs… a feeling the broadcasting ought to be ‘for something or other’. Although the (constructed) ignorance of the citizen - or citizen-consumer if you’ve been interpolated by Ofcom’s word-play - is a cause for concern, it might represent a foundation point for considerations about ‘media literacy’, and the formation of a coherent agenda, rather than a justification for the continually implied assumption that citizens, as opposed to consumers, are satisfied with today’s media diet.

Stephen Carter’s piece plays upon these instabilities, ending with the line “Television may not be quite as special as those who work in it sometimes think it is. But television is an important medium, interacting directly with the society we are and want to be.” My suggestion is that the BBC2 series ‘If…’ should have contained a show entitled ‘If Rupert Murdoch owned the BBC?’ (not to be confused with the Sparks song) a doomsday scenario that would foster some robust ‘water cooler’ discussion.