tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/content-production-19102/articlescontent production – The Conversation2020-08-27T10:27:16Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1450802020-08-27T10:27:16Z2020-08-27T10:27:16ZBritish TV drama may look world class, but coronavirus has exposed a darker reality<p>The BBC has been heavily trailing four-part JK Rowling adaptation <a href="https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-08-25/strike-lethal-white-cast-characters/">Strike: Lethal White</a>. The crime drama, which follows private detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott, is the fourth instalment in Rowling’s Robert Galbraith series. It starts on BBC One on Sunday, August 30.</p>
<p>Yet Strike: Lethal White is a pre-COVID production, having <a href="https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-08-12/strike-lethal-white-release-date-bbc/#:%7E:text=Filming%20began%20back%20in%20September,Silkworm%20and%20Career%20of%20Evil.">wrapped up filming</a> before the pandemic got underway. Many other productions were put on hold, including series ten of cheery crime drama Death in Paradise. So it was striking to see that it recently became one of the first BBC drama productions to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/death-in-paradise-filming#:%7E:text=Cameras%20are%20rolling%20on%20the,to%20start%20filming%20since%20lockdown.">restart filming</a>. </p>
<p>Filmed on French Caribbean island Guadeloupe, the show relies heavily on external shots showcasing the exotic backdrop. There are few intimate scenes, so this prime time show is both soothing for an exhausted UK audience and logistically easier to film at a social distance – making it a good choice for restarting production early.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, there have been substantial changes to filming, including employing a full-time COVID-19 supervisor to make sure safety protocols are followed correctly. Originally thought likely to air in January, the launch date is unclear at present, but viewers will be glad to see that at least some new drama is being lined up for the months to come. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, the news is not so good. Many productions still haven’t resumed because everyone, including actors, has to be tested for the virus and create a bubble for the period of filming. Often actors are booked a year in advance, as are some directors. There have also been issues securing insurance. So we’re still not at a point of being anything like back to normal.</p>
<p>This knock from COVID-19 will have long-term implications for the TV drama sector. It has also thrown into sharp relief problems that were there all along but used to be easier to ignore. </p>
<h2>The price of TV drama</h2>
<p>An abundance of British-made content, including Killing Eve, Bodyguard and His Dark Materials, appears not only on UK channels but also globally via Netflix, Amazon and BritBox. This suggests a sector in rude health – but it masks a harsher reality for workers in the sector.</p>
<p>The industry is hugely dependent on freelance workers, who earn a living by being paid per production. This allows for cost-efficient and mobile filming - hence why Guadeloupe can appear on our screens. But moving from one project to another means that many workers experience fallow periods with no income. This lends itself to inequality and to some extent diversity, since who can afford not to work for weeks or months at a time?</p>
<p>This precarious work situation has been exacerbated during the pandemic because the UK government does not fully understand that this is how the industry now works. </p>
<p>Trade union BECTU, for example, <a href="https://bectu.org.uk/news/changes-to-income-support-schemes-fail-to-provide-for-freelancers-again-says-bectu/">noted how</a> creative workers had fallen “between the gaps” of the government schemes to help UK workers during the pandemic. Because many production workers hired on PAYE fixed-term contracts were not on the books as of February 28, they were considered ineligible for the furlough scheme. </p>
<p>The many in the industry who operate as sole-person limited-liability companies did not qualify for support either. The industry has made it normal for ordinary production workers to work in this way, to professionalise the sector and be as tax-efficient as possible. But this was thanks to decades of successive government policies that encouraged “flexible” working and cultural entrepreneurship at the cost of contractual certainty and employment rights. </p>
<p>As a result, many thousands of creative workers are on the breadline, facing uncertain futures and, in some cases, redundancy. Overall, UK television drama may be globally competitive and seen as a precious cultural asset – but the industry’s efficiencies weigh heavily on many workers <a href="https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/publications/report-projected-economic-impact-covid-19-uk-creative-industries">who feel</a> that the UK government has abandoned them. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354878/original/file-20200826-7211-1br5qpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Camera crew at work on a set." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354878/original/file-20200826-7211-1br5qpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354878/original/file-20200826-7211-1br5qpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354878/original/file-20200826-7211-1br5qpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354878/original/file-20200826-7211-1br5qpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354878/original/file-20200826-7211-1br5qpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354878/original/file-20200826-7211-1br5qpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354878/original/file-20200826-7211-1br5qpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Life has long been precarious for production crews.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/behind-scenes-video-shooting-production-crew-773440705">gnepphoto</a></span>
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<p>In the absence of robust government support, the industry pulled together numerous funds for those facing financial hardship. These included Film and TV Charity’s COVID-19 Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund, which in April distributed one-off grants <a href="https://deadline.com/2020/04/uks-covid-19-film-tv-emergency-relief-fund-swells-to-3m-now-open-for-cash-strapped-workers-1202902920/">totalling £3 million</a>. Funded by Netflix, the British Film Institute (BFI), the BBC, Sky, Warner Media and private donations, it offered stopgap grants of between £500 and £2,500 per person, and was oversubscribed.</p>
<p>The BFI, public service broadcasters, and national screen agencies also offered various bursary schemes. But again, these offered small amounts, making it clear that the funds at the industry’s disposal are very limited.</p>
<h2>The widening chasm</h2>
<p>From our many conversations with people in the industry, we know that drama producers are now dealing with new safety protocols, rethinking filming practices and renegotiating insurance arrangements. This has had a knock-on effect on production budgets, which were already struggling to keep pace with audience expectations, and local production costs <a href="https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/netflix-no-amount-data-tell-commission-next/1586932">being driven up</a> by rising demand from wealthy global companies like Netflix and Amazon.</p>
<p>In the UK, as we have <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137578747">discussed elsewhere</a>, the public broadcasters <a href="https://www.smallscreenbigdebate.co.uk/what-is-ssbd/ssbd-five-year-review">remain the biggest</a> investors in original drama, so workers heavily depend on them. But here too the pandemic’s effects are being felt. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/06/itv-suffers-steepest-advertising-fall-ever-covid-19-lockdown">ITV</a> and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8351521/Future-Channel-Four-threat-faces-biblical-cash-crisis.html">Channel 4</a>, for example, have reported substantial losses of advertising revenue. </p>
<p>Their <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/tv-radio-and-on-demand/media-nations-reports/media-nations-2020">cumulative revenues</a> had already declined by 3.5% in 2019 to £2.2 billion – and an expected decline in TV spot advertising of between 17% and 19% in 2020 will inflict considerably more pressure. Channel 4 has already cut its programming budget by around one-fifth and furloughed nearly 10% of its more than 900 staff. </p>
<p>With the UK broadcasters dependent on advertising revenues or – in the case of the BBC – the licence fee, the chasm in their content budgets compared to the big global players is likely to keep widening. The gap will be felt over the coming months and years, both by the independent production companies and the freelance labour force. But it may also be felt by viewers as they realise that the range and diversity of UK drama on their screens has become one of the invisible costs of the pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitriona Noonan receives funding from the AHRC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth McElroy is chair of Ffilm Cymru Wales and a member of Ofcom's Advisory Committee Wales.
</span></em></p>Decades of bad government policies have come to a head for TV workers unable to earn during the pandemic.Caitriona Noonan, Lecturer in Media and Communications, Cardiff UniversityRuth McElroy, Professor of Creative Industries, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/764262017-04-24T15:35:50Z2017-04-24T15:35:50ZFacebook Stories could end up driving younger users away instead of attracting them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166484/original/file-20170424-12468-1aktpuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you use Facebook’s mobile app, you may have recently noticed the sudden appearance of circles at the very top of the display. The social media giant has previously tried pushing this “Stories” feature into three of its other products: Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. This point wasn’t lost on many internet users, who quickly began <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-39514233">sharing memes</a> mocking Facebook’s addition of Stories to everything.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"849572972419526656"}"></div></p>
<p>What’s more, the Stories feature wasn’t even Facebook’s idea. It mirrors the central feature of another social media app, Snapchat, which also allows users to create short-form videos overlaid with a range of filters, images and text. Introducing its very similar function was Facebook’s way of responding to Snapchat’s explosive growth among teenagers, who have been <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/13/snapchat-is-king-among-teens-as-facebook-declines-in-popularity-survey-shows.html">using Facebook less</a> over the <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-suffers-drop-in-popularity-among-teens-says-study/">last few years</a>.</p>
<p>So, can Facebook compete with Snapchat just by offering the same features? Encouraging more users to create content for the social network may not be that easy, as I discovered when conducting research about media coverage of live events. After interviewing spectators involved in marathons and <a href="https://dl.acm.org/authorize?N24380">music festivals</a>, I found that there was high demand for individual views of an event, especially if the author was a friend of the reader or a celebrity. But I had mixed success in getting people to contribute their own stories.</p>
<p>What I learned was that creativity could be encouraged in a number of ways. First of all, it’s about making content creation simple. Snapchat does that by offering ways to combine personal content – captured through the user’s phone camera – with ready-made overlays. But this also involves creating a space that users find socially appropriate to publish in, which depends on having the right audience for your content and feeling confident enough to practice publishing. </p>
<h2>Encouraging creativity</h2>
<p>Snapchat encourages this confidence in two ways. Its interface offers a playful way to publish and receive immediate feedback that’s far from the complex and prescriptive interfaces of professional software. And its main proposition was that published content would disappear after 24 hours, meaning users didn’t need to worry too much about making it perfect (although it now has ways to save content).</p>
<p>Facebook has mirrored this ephemeral publishing idea with its Stories feature. But this is a completely different style of sharing content from the social network’s original format, where published content generally falls into a state of limbo. Unless it is explicitly removed, content stays visible forever, generally buried deep down on a user’s profile page and therefore enjoying little visibility, but sometimes <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/why-is-facebook-suddenly-blowing-up-old-posts">resurfacing unexpectedly</a>.</p>
<p>The other issue is audience. People share different content on different platforms based on who they expect to reach. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/326452/snapchat-age-group-usa/">Most of Snapchat’s users are young</a> (under 25) so they expect their content to be seen largely by people of their own age. On the other hand, Facebook’s demographics are <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/187041/us-user-age-distribution-on-facebook/">more spread out</a> and, importantly, it has the reputation of being a way for <a href="http://techland.time.com/2011/07/18/more-than-50-of-parents-use-facebook-to-spy-on-their-kids/">parents to watch their children’s</a> online activity. </p>
<p>Facebook has tried to address this issue by giving Stories creators more control over who sees their content, but this requires extra effort. The result is that Facebook Stories is more likely to appeal to older audiences who enjoy creating and viewing this type of content but wouldn’t bother using Snapchat because they don’t expect their friends to be on there. If this is the case, then Facebook Stories may end up cementing its appeal to older users at the expense of attracting younger ones – the opposite of what it was designed for.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166485/original/file-20170424-12468-js8j3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166485/original/file-20170424-12468-js8j3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166485/original/file-20170424-12468-js8j3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166485/original/file-20170424-12468-js8j3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166485/original/file-20170424-12468-js8j3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166485/original/file-20170424-12468-js8j3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166485/original/file-20170424-12468-js8j3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Wearing glasses has never been so popular.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>But if Facebook succeeds in making Stories popular, it may have another problem: making money. Whereas Facebook’s original format has made it one of the few companies to make <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/02/facebook-profits-triple-online-advertising-publishing">large profits</a> from online advertising, Snapchat <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/snapchat-lost-514-million-in-2016-warns-it-may-never-be-profitable-2017-2">is running massive losses</a>. How Stories will integrate meaningfully with Facebook’s model of interweaving user content with ads in a newsfeed is yet to be seen.</p>
<p>If Stories become another update in the feed, users may start feeling their content isn’t visible enough on Facebook and create it elsewhere. Compelling content doesn’t need video filters to be called a story, and people have been creating and sharing their own stories online for much longer than Facebook has existed. Facebook has also become more of a platform for sharing content than creating and storing it, thanks to the arcane algorithms that determine who sees what content in the newsfeed.</p>
<p>But social media is a world where the winner takes all thanks to what’s known as the “<a href="http://oz.stern.nyu.edu/io/network.html">network effect</a>”, where the more people use a service, the more attractive it becomes to other users. Building an audience is the hardest thing for both social networks and their users to do. That’s why Facebook’s existing popularity means that even outside content often ends up on there anyway. So if Snapchat can continue to steal users, its massive losses may only be collateral damage. Whoever wins the competition will get away with alienating its users, bombarding them with ads, and make money anyway.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76426/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raphael Velt has received funding from the United Kingdom's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), in partnership with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC R&D), to conduct the research mentioned in this article. This article does not reflect the views of the UK research councils.</span></em></p>Simply copying Snapchat might not be enough to keep the biggest social network relevant.Raphael Velt, PhD student in Human-Computer Interaction, Mixed Reality Lab, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/510562015-12-02T04:15:37Z2015-12-02T04:15:37ZWhy ‘binge watching’ is to blame for kids not learning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102824/original/image-20151123-18267-121nbao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Merely consuming digital content doesn't do much for kids. But digital tools can introduce them to new ways of creating.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Collins English Dictionary unveiled a thoroughly modern concept as its word of the year for 2015: <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-34723515">binge watching</a>. It usually refers to consuming endless hours of movies or series on Netflix, one after the other. But binge watching is about the more fundamental issue of the world’s obsession with content consumption. </p>
<p>A recent report on media use reveals that teens are now spending more hours consuming media <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens">than sleeping</a>. The average American teenager is spending about nine hours a day on entertainment media alone. Is this really the huge problem it’s made out to be? Partly, yes - because while they are engaging with a lot of information during those nine hours, they are creating barely any content of their own in this time. </p>
<p>This passivity is being replicated in classrooms. What will it take to replace these with engaged, active classrooms?</p>
<h2>Consuming - but not creating</h2>
<p>All too often, parents see their children on devices and say: “You’re wasting your time.”</p>
<p>There may be times when this is true. But today’s devices are not like the single function radios and televisions their parents grew up with. In the past if a child was spending lots of time in front of the TV it was obvious they were doing only one thing - watching TV. Modern devices allow for a wide range of activities from consumption to conversation to creation. Even sitting in front of a TV a child today could be doing anything from having a conversation, playing a game, watching a movie or creating a world in <a href="https://minecraft.net/">Minecraft</a>.</p>
<p>The problem arises when children aren’t doing any of these things during their nine hours of entertainment media. The research shows that on average, kids are spending about 40% of this time on “passive consumption” compared with just 3% of their time on content creation.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102819/original/image-20151123-18267-1srnzcg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102819/original/image-20151123-18267-1srnzcg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102819/original/image-20151123-18267-1srnzcg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102819/original/image-20151123-18267-1srnzcg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102819/original/image-20151123-18267-1srnzcg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102819/original/image-20151123-18267-1srnzcg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102819/original/image-20151123-18267-1srnzcg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102819/original/image-20151123-18267-1srnzcg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Children barely spend any of their time online actively creating content.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.commonsensemedia.org/census">Common Sense Media</a></span>
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<p>It would be easy to dismiss this if it only happened at home, in children’s own time. But there ought to be concern when this trend is picked up and implemented in classrooms. This is unfortunately exactly what’s happening.</p>
<h2>New tech, old methods</h2>
<p>Schools are making a headlong rush to <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/education-technology-spend-reaches-13-billion-2014-06-11">digitise the classroom</a>. The media is awash with stories about tablets being rolled <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2015/07/20/Over-300-Gauteng-public-schools-to-get-tablets">out</a>, <a href="http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?id=144795">smartboards</a> being installed or <a href="https://theconversation.com/youtube-a-valuable-educational-tool-not-just-cat-videos-34863">YouTubed</a> classrooms. All of these technologies have great potential - yet at their core they are all about consumption. They do little to move the learner from a passive consumer to someone who is actively engaged.</p>
<p>The result is fuelling our students’ “binge watching”, passive consumption diet. It is also leading to more and more <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34174796">studies</a> suggesting that technology is not working in the classroom.</p>
<p>However, maybe it’s not the technology that isn’t working, but the <em>way</em> we’re using it. There is no doubt that our education system needs a revolution. That doesn’t mean doing what we have always done and just <a href="https://theconversation.com/outdated-teaching-methods-will-blunt-technologys-power-40503">silicon coating it</a>. A revolution needs new approaches to teaching and learning. It must be based on activity, not passivity.</p>
<h2>Active classrooms are possible</h2>
<p>What is exciting is that the seeds for an activated classroom approach are already found in children’s current media habits. All that teachers and parents need to do is harness them. Another way to look at Common Sense Media’s <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens">research</a> is in terms of the active things children are doing with media. </p>
<p>While they may be spending 40% of their time on passive consumption, they are spending 3% of their time creating content, 25% on “interactive consumption” and 26% communicating. That means they’re spending more than half their time actively engaging with media. It is these activities that hold promise for the future of classrooms. </p>
<p>Teachers must encourage a move away from passive content consumption towards active engagement with media in their classrooms. For example, rather than providing students with prepackaged course content, students can source and curate their own content using tools like <a href="http://www.flipboard.com">Flipboard</a>. Rather than passively watching videos, students can be actively involved in creating their own videos about the content. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T3IU0danX6Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Students create a video to learn about chemistry.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather than simply reading content through books or ebooks, students can rather engage in conversations around the content, with tools like Google Hangouts.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eabYzQqoMwA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Using Google Hangouts for conversations.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Towards an activated classroom</h2>
<p>While the binge watching trend may signal a worrying focus on consumption, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2004.tb00809.x/abstract">research</a> shows that active teaching and learning approaches are good for students. The future of our classrooms relies on teachers harnessing this energy, combining it with the benefits of technology - then activating learning in the classroom. By moving students from passive readers and hearers to active curators and creators, teachers can significantly impact both students’ enthusiasm in the classroom and how much they learn.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Blewett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teenagers spend more time consuming media than they do sleeping. Most of this consumption is passive - a habit that’s creeping into classrooms, too.Craig Blewett, Senior Lecturer in Education & Technology, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/453622015-07-31T03:56:14Z2015-07-31T03:56:14ZTelstra on the TV casting couch to trump its telco peers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90371/original/image-20150731-10542-1tvkjle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">TVappa</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What we used to call television is changing before our eyes. </p>
<p>This week, Telstra announced it will shortly introduce a new streaming video set top box. For a number of reasons, this is a very smart move. </p>
<p>Australia’s largest media and telecommunications company has responded quickly to a series of local developments in a way that seems likely to consolidate its market-leading position. It is targeted at the 70% of Australian households that continue to resist signing up to Foxtel’s pay television service. </p>
<p>Some see this as as another <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/telstra-launches-roku-to-take-on-apple-and-google-20150728-giltvh.html">nail in pay TV’s coffin</a>, and an indication that Telstra is having an each way bet on the future of television given its 50% stake in Foxtel. </p>
<p>Others say it could benefit the beleaguered commercial free-to-air incumbents and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/netflix-faces-fightback-from-telstra-tvs-coalition/story-e6frg8zx-1227462267116">“check Netflix’s encroachment”</a>. The argument here is that the subscription video on demand (SVOD) services of the free-to-airs will be able to leverage Telstra’s customer base - 3 million broadband subscribers, or over 40% of the Australian market - and use Telstra’s well-developed billing and customer service operations to their advantage. </p>
<p>Telstra TV has already claimed one casualty, however. Telstra’s T-Box personal video recorder will cease to be sold, although the company is promising to continue to support its existing 800,000 users.</p>
<p>In September this year, Telstra plans to make the Roku 2 set top box available to subscribers to its Bigpond broadband service. The new platform strengthens Telstra’s greatest competitive advantage - its capacity to offer bundled services combining home phone, mobile, broadband, pay-television and SVOD. </p>
<p>While it is similar in look and feel to the Apple TV box, the Roku 2 is a much more open system. Its US and UK versions boast thousands of apps and many more services than Apple’s equivalent. Its interface is customisable, and it allows users to search for films or content across multiple services simultaneously. </p>
<h2>Piracy not required</h2>
<p>This may prove to be a major selling point, particularly if all three of the main SVOD services - Netflix, Stan and Presto - are offered on the new Telstra TV box. It may also address one of the industry’s major bugbears: content piracy. After the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringment) Act entered into law in June, <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-better-ways-to-combat-piracy-than-blocking-websites-43701">commentators argued</a> that making content more easily accessible could do more than blocking infringing websites in preventing piracy. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/sites/g/files/net301/f/DeptComms%20Online%20Copyright%20Infringement%20Report%20FINAL%20.pdf">A recent survey conducted for the federal Department of Communications</a> covering the three months just before Netflix launched in March estimated that roughly a quarter of Australian internet users over the age of 12 had streamed or downloaded content illegally. Of those surveyed who admitted to illegally accessing content, almost 40% said they would stop if content was cheaper. </p>
<p>Almost 40% said they would stop if more legal content was available. And more than 60% said they would sign up to a (legal) movie subscription service if it was priced at $10 or less per month. The SVOD service Stan costs $10 per month, while Netflix is currently $9. It is therefore conceivable that, as in the UK, easier access to content through SVOD services and platforms like Telstra TV, may well lead to a reduction in piracy.</p>
<h2>Foxtel and sport in sight</h2>
<p>As the Telstra TV announcement indicates, the popularity of new SVOD services is clearly having an impact on free-to-air and pay television companies’ business models and strategies. Telstra has a 50% stake in Foxtel, the company <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-foxtel-most-at-risk-in-the-new-game-of-screens-39783">that may be most at risk</a>. In June, Foxtel made a bid for 15% of Channel Ten, shortly after the latter’s CEO warned that falling advertising revenues could see free-to-air fold. </p>
<p>Foxtel’s move - widely considered to have been instigated by its other major stakeholder, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp - will potentially allow Ten’s content to be included on Foxtel and Seven West’s flagging SVOD service, Presto. It could also place the three partners in the box seat to acquire the rights to major sports events, subject to the approval of various regulatory bodies.</p>
<p>And despite Telstra’s protestations that its interests in sports rights are confined to mobile, the Telstra TV box could indeed provide a platform for the company to launch future bids for online rights to major events. It has already been suggested that a “sports pass” will be offered to Telstra TV users that will provide access to Fox Sports channels. On one hand this could boost viewers of Foxtel’s flagship sports channels. On the other, it represents a further unbundling of the pay television service.</p>
<p>More than anything, though, the Telstra TV announcement reaffirms the company’s ambitions to be a major player in service provision, if not in content production. Just a few days ago, shareholders in the second largest Australian Internet Service Provider, iiNet, voted to approve a merger with the third largest ISP, TPG. The merged company will still have a smaller subscriber base than Telstra’s Bigpond, but it is a significant statement of Telstra’s intent that it has so quickly moved to unveil this new offering.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45362/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Goldsmith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Telcos are positioning themselves to be at the top rather than the bottom of the content food chain.Ben Goldsmith, Senior Research Fellow , Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.