HERT-ATTACK year 2

Media students, under the guidance of Chris Haydon, CTVT Director, launched a local media website in Hertfordshire along CTVT lines.

hertattack01In September 2008 media students, under the guidance of Chris Haydon, CTVT Director, launched a local media website in Hertfordshire along CTVT lines. The notion of twinning local life with a ready-made unpaid student workforce is an obvious ‘BIg Society’ gambit. No wages to find, but the trick is building the relationships that make this do-able. Here are sample comments from the second year National Diploma students who clearly responded to the idea of using the classroom to produce material that had a role in the real world outside:

– “I would love this production to last” – Tulin, prod mgr

– “I am very happy with the style of the video and its success on YouTube” – Adam, producer

– “It was a good idea to get experience from creating something real in the media world” – Chris/Dez Hunter, reporter

– “I am enjoying this project and would like “Hert-Attack” to be well known and very popular in the near future” – Melissa, research & marketing

“This whole project has been a learning experience for me, I have never been part of something as big as this. I feel proud and privileged to be a part of it” – Lisa, researcher

Hert-Attack used assessable FE college National Diploma course work to build and run a live site that is intended to inform, entertain and link local people. That’s the trick that is ‘beyond the mainstream’. Students have used video well – filming at Leicester Square film premieres, shooting around town centres and across the college. A spoof journalist has been born who has TV potential, look out for Dez Hunter, the world’s Number One reporter.

The URL is: www.hert-attack.net

Take a look.

DDR – Digital Dividend Review Reviewed

Ofcom’s determination to auction off spectrum released by Digital Switchover has been evident for a long time.

media001The local TV lobby has pushed and pushed and frankly got nowhere. Ofcom’s determination to auction off spectrum released by Digital Switchover has been evident for a long time.

ofcom-logo-lgIn recent times the CMA, Community Media Association, has engaged energetically with the world of community and TV; Community TV Trust has lined up with the CMA lobby on behalf of those promoting local TV (in the broadcast model) despite its own clear preference for the broadband option of delivery; even Parliament has started to pipe up with a growing understanding of what community media can offer to the individual … yet to no avail.

At a meeting held at Ofcom’s riverside offices in Southwark on 14th January 2008 it was clear that local TV while supported in statistics as a clear preference of the surveyed public was not to be favoured by the regulator or Government.

Whether spectrum is considered as an asset to sell for money or as a resource to treasure, share and ensure, local TV will not be supported in real terms by Ofcom.