Stephen Lax

Access Denied in the Information Age

From the Publisher: Who is going to reap the rewards of new information and communication technologies? Focusing on a theme of exclusion, Access Denied in the Information Age dispels the myths of the information society. The authors here take a few steps back from the hype and consider the real place of these new technologies in society. Author Biography: Stephen Lax is Lecturer in Communications Technology at the Institute of Communications, University of Leeds.

The Future of Radio is Still Digital—But Which One? Expert Perspectives and Future Scenarios for Radio Media in 2015

The future of radio is now much less obvious and clear than it appeared 10 years ago. Instead of a transition from analog to digital audio broadcasting (DAB), there is a selection of alternative technological options for digital audio delivery. This article studies how 43 people in key positions related to the radio industry in four European countries and Canada view the future of radio and which delivery technologies they consider will be most successful. In addition, it analyzes the motives and reasons why certain technologies are seen as more promising. Finally, it presents different future scenarios for radio media.

DAB: the future of radio? The development of digital radio in four European countries

In common with most media and consumer technologies, radio is migrating from analogue to digital operation. Europe was the first region of the world to develop a digital replacement for traditional analogue broadcast radio. The Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) project began in 1987 and the first domestic DAB broadcasts began in 1995. However, DAB has made less progress than originally anticipated: some countries are at a relatively advanced level of development while others have not begun significant DAB services. This paper examines the development of the DAB service in four European countries, illustrating the variability in modes of development. The different digital policies adopted by each country is a key factor in these developments and we show how the existing state of analogue radio and the limitations of the technical system have shaped these policies.

The Prospects for Digital Radio Policy and technology for a new broadcasting system

Digital audio broadcasting is a major innovation in radio, one that is at its most advanced in Europe. It has the potential to deliver high-quality audio reception and to increase significantly the capacity of the radio spectrum, with the possibility of an expansion of both the range and diversity of radio programming. Nevertheless, in the UK and elsewhere it remains relatively unknown and under-adopted in comparison with other consumer technologies like digital television. This article examines the origins of digital radio, and considers how this technology is expected to become a mass communications technology, eventually supplanting analogue radio. However, in its present form, there is little that is novel currently being offered on digital radio, and the economic and political contexts in which it is being developed may encourage further concentration of ownership and reduce diversity of choice in listening. Unlike previous innovations then, such as FM broadcasting, there appear to be few compelling advantages of digital radio that will persuade listeners to adopt this new technology. If this new technological system is to succeed, alternative uses must be found for it, and one area for which it might be suited is mobile data communications. The article concludes by suggesting that this might mean that radio becomes of secondary importance to this potentially lucrative application of digital audio broadcasting technology.

The short future of public broadcasting: Replacing digital terrestrial television with internet protocol?

According to recent European estimates, the life expectancy of broadcasting as a free-to-air television platform is not more than 15 years. BBC, Yle and the UK regulator Ofcom have reached this conclusion in their reports about the future of news, media distribution and digital terrestrial television. Although broadcasting is seen as necessary until 2030, all three assume that digital terrestrial television can – under certain conditions – be replaced with delivery using internet protocol. However, it seems that the idea of IPTV taking over digital terrestrial television is just a sophisticated version of ‘black box fallacy’, driven by the expected growth of the new media ecosystem. The problems in replacing a socio-technological system have largely been neglected.

Information, Education and Inequality: Is New Technology the Solution?

The current UK government, like others around the world, has heavily promoted new information and communications technology (ICT) as the key to economic prosperity and individual betterment. It has funded a number of initiatives: promoting the use of new technologies for business transactions (e-commerce); ‘leasing’ recycled computers at low rates to poor families; and public ICT centres (e-libraries) where people can use (or learn to use) the technology. In October 1999 the Prime Minister himself, apparently embarrassed at his own lack of expertise, enrolled on a computer skills course in a north-eastern shopping centre. Perhaps the highest profile campaign among these government initiatives is the intention to connect all UK schools and public libraries to the internet by the year 2002.

The Future of Radio Revisited: Expert Perspectives and Future Scenarios for Radio Media in 2025

In 2005–2006 the research group DRACE (Digital Radio Cultures in Europe) performed a study on how 43 people in key positions related to the radio industry in 4 European countries and Canada viewed the future of radio and which delivery technologies they considered would be most successful. In addition, it analyzed the motives and reasons certain technologies were seen as more promising than others. Finally, it presented 4 different future scenarios for radio media. The study was published in the Journal of Radio and Audio Media, May 2008. In 2005 the future of radio was considered much less obvious and clear than it appeared 10 years previously. Instead of a transition from analog to digital audio broad- casting (DAB), there was a selection of alternative technological options for digital audio delivery. When looking back from 2015 and considering the results of expert interviews, the project group about Public Service Media in the HERA project: Transnational Radio Encounters found interesting perspectives in replicating this study—now looking forward to 2025. By using the same questionnaire and interviewing the same experts (or new persons in the same positions) they could compare the predictions with the present situation, looking for technological, regulatory, policy based, and user-oriented contexts. Furthermore, they could ask the experts to look 10 years forward to 2025. Besides from the interviews, desk studies were performed in order to explore the national similarities and differences as background for the analysis of the scenarios for the 2015 and 2025 studies. This comparative study involves Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, and the UK.

Different standards: engineers’ expectations and listener adoption of digital and FM radio broadcasting

As digital radio broadcasting enters its third decade of operation, few would argue that it has met all expectations expressed at the time of its launch in the mid-1990s. Observers are now more circumspect, with views divided on the pace of transition to an all-digital future. In exploring this mismatch between expectation and actuality, this article considers the introduction of FM radio in the 1950s. It too was expected to replace its forebear (AM) but, like digital radio, its adoption by listeners was slower than anticipated. An examination of published literature, in particular engineering and technical documents, reveals a number of similarities in the development of digital radio and FM. Assumptions about listeners’ needs and preferences appear to have been based on little actual audience research and, with continual reference in the literature to the supposed deficiencies of the predecessor technology, suggest an emphasis in decision making on the technical qualities of radio broadcasting over an appreciation of actual audience preferences.

Book Review: Digitizing the News: Innovation in Online Newspapers

might also be other explanations. It is, for example, possible that the differences in the broadcasting legacies and normative models alone provide sufficient explanations. It would have been interesting to place the British case in a European context. In spite of significant variations within Europe, European broadcasting models have traditionally followed a different trail from the US. Maybe some of the features Galperin explains with reference to the British form of state would also be found in other European states with other state systems – or maybe not? My point is that such alternative explanations could have been discussed further. But this is a small point of critique of an otherwise well-documented book. Galperin’s New Television, Old Politics is an interesting book. It is to be recommended to all interested in how digital technology affects the political economy of television in general – and to those interested in the specific developments in Britain and the US.