Tuesday 13 October 2009, 7pm, The Frontline Club, London
The BBC College of Journalism and the Frontline Club held an evening debate looking at what the future holds for international coverage in the digital age.
Phil Harding, the former senior BBC editor and author of The Great Global Switch Off, chaired the discussion with Ed Braman, commissioning editor for News and Current Affairs at Channel 4, responsible for Unreported Worldand foreign coverage, Clive Edwards, Executive Editor and Commissioning Editor, BBC TV current affairs, and Steve Barnett, professor of communications, the University of Westminster.
The discussion, I think it's fair to say, started quite defensively - both Clive and Ed setting out how the BBC and Channel 4 are continuing to invest in in-depth, analytical international reporting. Unreported World, This World, Panorama, Despatches and the mainstream news coverage were all used as examples.
But, as Steve Barnett put it, the elephant in the room is not what Channel 4 and the BBC are doing; it's what ITV, Channel 5 and the other broadcasters are not. International coverage has all but disappeared from their schedules. He made quite an astonishing point: the vast majority of ITV's international material now comes from I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
So how can global news survive in the changing digital world? Both Ed and Clive were adamant that it's a vital part of what Channel 4 and the BBC do - so yes. That optimism wasn't shared by many members of the audience; not a huge surprise considering the venue. There were calls for greater access via the internet, more web-based material and a regular weekly international current affairs programme on the BBC.
I'm not sure the debate came up with too many answers; it often became an attack and defend discussion and there was certainly no consensus at the end.
However, one really interesting aside to the core debate was the interchange about how we watch content. Steve Barnett seemed adamant that TV is here to stay; the internet isn't replacing it. Certainly not the opinion of a many members of the audience.
Brian Condon also covered it on scribblelive - have a look.
