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The Media Show

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

This is the programme about a revolution in media.

Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this is the programme about a revolution in media.

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The Media Show: TV Soaps; DAB radio; The Mail and Miliband

TV Soaps; DAB radio; The Mail and Miliband

02/10/2013

BBC Radio 4 - The Media Show, TV Soaps; DAB radio; The Mail and Miliband

Is the Mail breaking any regulations with its Ralph Miliband story?

Is the Mail breaking any regulations with its Ralph Miliband story? Are TV soaps losing ground to talent shows? And edging closer to an announcement on radio's digital switchover.

The Mail has been caught up in a storm of criticism over its Ralph Miliband stories and how it responded to Ed Miliband's demand to reply, but is there anything the current press regulator could do with complaints over cases like this? Would the situation differ under any of the systems being considered following the Leveson report? Is there a clear enough distinction between fact and opinion? That's to be discussed by Brian Cathcart, director of Hacked Off and Peter Preston, former editor of The Guardian. 

Following TV's digital switchover, an announcement's expected for the switchover of network radio from FM to digital. Culture minister Ed Vaizey's said we'll hear by the end of this year. Will a date be set? Ford Ennals, CEO of the Digital Radio UK, is in charge of making the change happen and is confident there'll be progress. Gillian Reynolds, the Telegraph's radio critic, is not convinced. 

And how concerned should TV networks be about the viewing figures for soaps? There's been a marked decline over the last ten years but figures appear to be stabilising at a lower level - in the case of Eastenders, occasionally lower than Emmerdale. Stephen Price, broadcast consultant, looks at the competition that's grown up since the soaps' heyday. David Liddiment, former executive producer of Coronation Street and Lisa Holdsworth, who wrote for Emmerdale, look at what, if anything, is going wrong.

Presenter: Steve Hewlett
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Editor: Andy Smith.

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