Having reflected more on Dr Meadows's presentation and having received some interesting comments from fellow students I have decided to blog on the matter again. I'm afraid I am not one to let sleeping dogs lie.
A few people had the thought after the lecture that, whilst Dr Meadows was promoting the idea that everyone has a story to tell which they should have the opportunity to tell, he seemed to be overlooking the fact that not all of these stories would necessarily be very interesting.
With this I have to agree. However, what particularly struck me was the fact that the way the digital videos have been used itself suggested this. Dr Meadows made the comment, "I'm quite in favour of digital stories being used selectively". That is, whilst all of them get stored in an archive, not all of them make it onto the TV or radio.
To me this is in effect saying that everyone should have a voice but that some of them will be hushed up later.
Dr Meadows complained that the big media giants pretended to let their audience in with comments pages and blogs but that they were never really giving up any power. However, I wonder whether this is not the way things have to be? In even the most noble of projects surely someone will decide that certain people simply cannot have the chance to have a voice? Maybe the quality of the media depends on this?
Again I felt it was time to go into discussion with Dr Meadows. He said, "Ooops. Do I glimpse a rancid slice of something that looks horribly like snobbery here? ... If you believe in democracy (and the media's role as the fourth estate) then you must allow that every individual in our society is special: curious, interesting... wonderful even, anyway worth listening to".
I'm not sure whether I entirely agree with this. I know that I should but do I? I would love to get Dale, Meadows, Burton and myself together to thrash this one out.
Dr Meadows' response to the idea that the Digital Stories project was not abiding by it's own priciples was met. He noted that all the videos have an online audience which was all that could ever be promised. The TV and radio being a bonus. "Of course, if I had my way all the Capture Wales Digital Stories would go on terrestrial TV and at peak time too. But I don't have my way," he said. Still, he concluded, "We've come long way and, I think, we've brought a lot of people with us."
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