No abstract

Local television has existed in one form or another for several decades in the United Kingdom with the first licences awarded in 1972 and subsequent waves of licensing over cable and later broadband networks throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 2011, as the digital switchover drew to a close, the incoming coalition government launched a new framework to establish the United Kingdom’s first digital terrestrial network of local public service broadcasters. Building on decades of campaigning by pro-local media providers, but triggered by a withdrawal from local news and programming by the recently consolidated ITV plc, the then Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt M. P. argued erroneously that local TV markets in the United States were flourishing. At time of writing, 34 licences have been awarded (and the Birmingham licence re-awarded when the first licensee collapsed before launch); seventeen services have begun broadcasting; and several have failed to launch within the regulator’s two-year deadline. This article provides a brief history of local television in the United Kingdom, and describes the current policy, licensing process and early developments within the fledgling industry. It then presents an ethnographic case study of an emergent local TV service in the north of England, including interviews with practitioners, observations and analysis of broadcast content and schedules. The study argues that local TV has the potential to serve as a powerful engine of capital transformation, developing local stocks of economic, social, cultural and political capital, but that this potential is severely limited by inadequate funding regimes and heightened vulnerability to bias.

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This research paper shares innovative practice on a final year undergraduate module at a British university in which students create e-learning videos about key theories and concepts within their disciplinary field, Communication and Media. It analyses two student videos published on a class YouTube channel - one of them the most popular video on the channel, driving thirty times as many subscribers as the other - to develop understanding of factors affecting engagement. The videos use pencasting, an animation technique which has been shown to improve engagement, to visually represent and explain educational concepts and theories. This paper sets out current thinking on video as an educational tool, student video production, and the characteristics of engaging video content. Next, the module and assessment design are shared, together with an outline of teaching to support the pencasting production element. In conclusion, educators are encouraged to consider designing assessments in which students produce e-learning videos about key concepts and theories within their field of study, and five practical suggestions are offered for creators (both students and faculty) to improve engagement (1) create videos with a high proportion of visual representation, focusing on smooth, continuous flow approaches such as pencasting; (2) provide practical value through clear and simple explanation; (3) consider viewer emotional responses to the video; (4) create thumbnails that articulate the visual representation approach employed; and (5) employ an extensive range of tags to improve performance in search results.