Nostalgia for the days when important issues were thrashed out on The Late Late Show or integrated in to Fair City plot lines is misplaced. Photograph: Andres Poveda/RTE/PA WireStrategy documents are easily derided as nothing more than corporate blah, blah, blah. RTÉ's 2018-2022 strategy promised to “reimagine RTÉ for the next generation” by “radically restructuring” the organisation. We all know that didn’t happen.
There are promising signs in the strategy, including a commitment to increase children’s content and make it available in an ad-free, online space. RTÉ has a proud history of delivering excellent children’s television, but consumption habits have changed. According to Ofcom, the UK media regulator, one quarter of British 5-7 year olds have smartphones and 48 per cent have profiles on platforms such as YouTube.
For all the positives in content, the strategy is underpinned by more of the same in an important sense. The crisis that engulfed RTÉ last June was a crisis driven by commercial interests. Under the new strategy, those commercial interests will grow while the public sector side of RTÉ will be “streamlined” with “efficient workflows”. The 20 per cent reduction in staff is vaguely described as gaining “a new skills profile”.
Increased privatisation of RTÉ means greater precarity in the whole sector. That has implications for the diversity of the workforce. Most media have a poor record of hiring people from working-class backgrounds. Women also struggle in precarious sectors. While the RTÉ strategy includes a commitment to embed “good practice on diversity and inclusion”, stable employment is the best pathway to increased diversity.
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Source: IrishTimes - 🏆 3. / 98 Read more »