Conference: Audiovisual media – now and in the future. Helsinki 5 October 2006

Welcome to a conference on Thursday October 5th 2006 from 1 p.m. to – 5.30 p.m. at the Auditorium of the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s headquarters, Radiokatu 5, Helsinki, Finland.

The conference will be simultaneously translated to English and Finnish.

PROGRAMME

1.00 Will public service broadcasters maintain significance in the multi-media world?
Right programmes for the right audience at the right time – this is the problem that all parties and rivals in the European audiovisual sector wish to solve.
Mr. Arne Wessberg , EBU President 2000-2006, YLE CEO 1994-2005

1.30 Our multicultural future
What is the role of multiculturalism in the Finnish media in the future? When will we see a newscaster wearing a veil, or a black person as the CEO of a Finnish media company?
Ms. Jonna Roos, researcher

1.45 Year 2015 now
How do media look like in the year 2015? Will internet make the old media fortresses to crumble? Will journalism become individualistic and journalist  a Personal Correspondent? Viewpoints to the future media work by media students Joonas Juutilainen and Vilja Rydman

2.15 Coffee break

2.45 Public service broadcasting - the last decade and the future: Lessons from the BBC and the UK.
The BBC is emerging from a decade of the most challenging transformations since its birth: organisational changes including the rise of powerful marketing, strategy and market research wings, as well as cuts to production, and an unprecedented commercial direction. In an era of continuous media expansion, what is the outlook for the BBC and other PSBs given the unending crusades by their commercial and political antagonists.
Ms. Georgina Born, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Cambridge University, author of the definitive study of the BBC and British television industry in the last decade “Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of the BBC”

5.30 Panel discussion
Speakers of the day and the audience

4.30 Light buffet - refreshments

Chairperson: Mr Timo-Erkki Heino, personnel representative at the Administrative Council of the Finnish Broadcasting Company

Registration
By October 2nd 2006 to e-mail address: [email protected]

Additional information
Timo-Erkki Heino, e-mail: [email protected]  or telephone +358-09-1480 2655, mobile +358-40-749 1472,

Presenters
Ms. Georgina Born is Professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Music in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Emmanuel College. She is the author of the definitive study of the BBC and British television industry in the last decade: “Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of the BBC” (Vintage, 2005). She is active in media policy on the BBC and Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) in Britain and Europe, as well as advising UK public cultural organizations on cultural policy and their relations with the broadcasters. She has researched the public service broadcasters' strategies for digital television and new media, as well as the sociology of music and information technologies.

Mr. Arne Wessberg is internationally the most experienced Finnish television professional. After a career in journalism Mr. Wessberg worked as the director of the TV-channels TV1 and TV2 of the Finnish public service broadcaster YLE and as the CEO of YLE in 1994 – 2005, and as the President of the European Broadcasting Union EBU in 2000 – 2006. Now Mr. Wessberg continues in leading capacities in several international television organisations.

Ms. Jonna Roos has researched multiculturalism, immigrant issues and racism. At the moment she is doing research for her doctoral thesis on multiculturalism at YLE.

Ms. Vilja Rydman studies journalism at the Helsinki University and Mr. Joonas Juutilainen graphic design and new media at the University of Art and Design Helsinki

The conference is organised by the Union of Radio and Television Journalists in Finland, in cooperation with the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, and MTV- and Nelonen-commercial television companies.