m e d ii a sto0ory

Channel 4 names documentaries chief

The Channel 4 executive behind City of Vice and the broadcaster's controversial investigation into the death of Princess Diana has been named the station's head of documentaries.
Hamish Mykura replaces Angus MacQueen, who resigned last month to return to film-making.
Mykura is currently the head of specialist factual at Channel 4, overseeing the channel's history, science and religion output.
His commissions include Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel, which caused controversy last year when it used pictures of the crash that killed Princess Diana despite a personal plea from her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Another Mykura commission, Martin Durkin documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, also sparked a row when it criticised the consensus on global warming.
Mykura's more recent credits include five-part historical drama City of Vice and feature-length documentary, Day of the Kamikaze.
He will continue to report to Channel 4 head of programmes, Julian Bellamy.
"The range and quality of Channel 4's documentary output tends to be a leading indicator of how effectively we're delivering against our broader public service remit, so I'm delighted a commissioner of Hamish's experience and insight is eager to take up this key role," said Bellamy.
Other Mykura commissions include The Human Footprint, Richard Dawkins' Enemies of Reason, historical parenting series Bringing Up Baby and feature-length historical drama The Relief of Belsen. He was also responsible for Nuremberg: Goering's Last Stand and 9/11: The Falling Man.
Mykura said: "The documentary brief at Channel 4 is one of the most exciting and varied commissioning roles within television, ranging from popular innovations like The Secret Millionaire and Meet the Natives to feature-length landmarks like the Lie of the Land. It represents an irresistible new challenge."
He joined Channel 4 in 2001 as commissioning editor, history, becoming head of history in 2003 and later taking on additional oversight of the channel's religion and science programming.
Mykura previously worked for independent producers Blakeway Productions and Mentorn, and spent 10 years at the BBC.

Guardian Story

British reporter kidnapped in Basra
Michael Howard
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday February 12 2008

Iraqi security forces in Basra were today engaged in "an intensive hunt" for a British reporter and his Iraqi interpreter who were abducted from their hotel by a gang of masked and armed men.
Basra police said the two men, who work for the US television network CBS, were seized at Basra's Sultan Palace hotel on Sunday morning. Police sources said one man had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the raid.
CBS yesterday confirmed that two of its journalists were missing, but it did not name them. The network appealed to other media "not to speculate on the identities of those involved" until more information was available.
In London, a foreign office spokesperson said she was aware that western citizens had been reported missing in Iraq, and that the FCO was looking into the matter "with some urgency".
The news of the kidnapping came as the bullet-riddled body of a young Iraqi journalist was found on the streets of Baghdad, two days after he had left his office to buy supplies.
Hisham Michwit Hamdan, 27, had not been seen by colleagues since leaving the offices of the Young Journalists League, an independent media watchdog, to buy stationery at a market in the Bab al-Mudham area.
The murder and the kidnapping were a reminder that despite recent security gains, Iraq remains the world's most dangerous country for journalists.
According to a report by Reporters Without Borders, 47 journalists lost their lives in Iraq in 2007, up from 41 in 2006, while 25 were kidnapped. The vast majority of the victims were Iraqi citizens. The only foreign journalist killed last year was a Russian photographer who was killed in a bomb blast north of Baghdad. Most of the hostages were freed unharmed, Reporters Without Borders said.
If the accounts of the latest kidnapping in Basra are confirmed, it would be the first abduction of a western reporter in Iraq since Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor was seized and her driver killed in western Baghdad in January 2006. She was released two months later.
The British army transferred security in Basra to Iraqi forces in December. Since then, Iraq's second largest city has been generally quieter, but there are occasional eruptions of violence as Shia political parties, militias and criminal gangs continue to battle each other for dominance.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said three journalists had been abducted in Basra since 2004. Freelancer James Brandon was released, but Steven Vincent, also a freelancer, and Fakher Haider of the New York Times were later found shot dead.
The Basra office of the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al Sadr today appealed for the release of the CBS staff. "We condemn such events and we call on security forces to help in their release," an official said.

Guardian Sto0ory

ITV1 lost prime time share in January as its new-look schedule bedded in, but Channel 4 was the biggest ratings loser among the five main networks.
There was better news for ITV1 across the day, with the network averaging an audience share of 18.1% between 9.30am and 1am last month, only slightly down from 18.2% in January 2007, according to Barb/Infosys figures seen by MediaGuardian.co.uk.
Channel 4 fell from 10.4% to 8.1% compared with January 2007, or to 8.7% if the new +1 channel is factored in, between 9.30am and 1am. BBC1 went down from 22.3% to 21.6% year on year.
In prime time - between 7pm and 10.30pm - ITV1 suffered a bigger fall in share than BBC1, down from 26% to 24.2%; while BBC1 was down one percentage point from 23.8% to 22.8%.
However, in relative terms Channel 4 took the biggest prime time ratings hit last month - not surprisingly, given the absence of Celebrity Big Brother. Channel 4's share in prime time fell from 10.3% to 8%, or 8.5%, including the +1 service.
These figures suggest that ITV1's daytime programming is propping up the network's overall audience share, while its new look primetime schedule finds its feet, complete with the resurrected News at Ten.BBC2 saw its 9.30am to 1am share fall from 8.7% to 8.3%, compared with January 2007. In prime time the network almost held its own, down from 8.9% to 8.8%.
Channel Five kept prime time share stable at 5.2%. But Five lost half a percentage point between 9.30am and 1am across January, down from 5.4% to 4.9%.
Channel 4's decline stems mainly from losses in the 9pm hour, the berth of the highly controversial Celebrity Big Brother last year.
Share on Mondays to Fridays fell from 16.1% in January 2007 to 12% last month in the 9pm hour, with the network's audience share among 16- to 34-year-olds almost halving from 25.8% to 13.1%.
Closer analysis of the crucial 9pm hour on weekdays shows that, year on year, ITV1 has closed the gap with BBC1, although it is losing out to its chief rival on three nights out of five.
In the past four weeks, ITV1 shows have averaged 4.3 million viewers and an 18% share in the slot, compared with BBC1's 4.4 million, also an 18% share, according to data compiled by MediaGuardian.co.uk.
The comparable period a year ago saw BBC1 average 5.7 million viewers and a 23% share, while ITV1 averaged 4.7 million and 20%.
Some of ITV1's new shows - The Palace on Monday, Ladette to Lady on Tuesday and the pairing of Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach on Friday - are failing to deliver ratings to match BBC1's shows.
But ITV1 is a thumping winner on Thursday, with returning drama Trial & Retribution averaging nearly double BBC1's Fairy Tales.
Honours are almost even on Wednesday night, when ITV1's new Amanda Redman drama Honest has just about edged out BBC1's offerings, which have varied from live FA Cup football to Crimewatch and a repeat of Mel Gibson film What Women Want.
While BBC1 regularly wins with Mistresses on Tuesday night and New Tricks repeats on Friday, it is suffering in comparison with last year, when Waking the Dead, Judge John Deed and Five Days all fuelled its ratings success.

Branagh to star in Newsnight Iraq films
Mark Sweney and Tara Conlan
Thursday January 24 2008


The BBC has signed up Kenneth Branagh, Harriet Walter and Art Malik to appear in a series of special Newsnight mini-dramas, called 10 Days to War, marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
Due for broadcast in March, the 10- to 12-minute films will run in Newsnight's regular slot on BBC2 at 10.30pm.
Kenneth Branagh: will star as Colonel Tim Collins. Photograph: AP They will be followed immediately by special editions of Newsnight, which will allow the current affairs show to question "the real players about the events of 2003", according to the Newsnight editor, Peter Barron.
A total of eight short films, which will air on BBC2 between March 10 and 19, will chart the countdown to the eventual military action in Iraq.
The mini-dramas are a collaboration between Newsnight, BBC Vision and the BBC factual department.
10 Days to War was today described by BBC2 controller Roly Keating at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch as "the most schedule-testing thing" his channel is doing.
Each drama will be 10 to 12 minutes long and the series will tell the story of key events including the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, the political manoeuvring in the lead-up to the decision to invade and the tense build-up to the invasion itself.
Branagh has been confirmed to star as Colonel Tim Collins, the British Army officer who uttered the famous lines "We go to liberate not to conquer... if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory" in a speech to his troops as they prepared to invade Iraq in March 2003.
He will appear in the final mini-drama of the series, while Malik and Toby Jones will star in the second film, which will be about Iraqi exiles.
Another of the short films will feature Harriet Walter and focus on two Labour MPs battling with issues of loyalty and personal conscience during the crucial House of Commons vote on the war.
The BBC describes the series of dramas, the first collaboration of its kind between BBC Vision and BBC News, as "part thriller, part political drama".
No details have yet been revealed on the other films in the series.
The dramas have been penned by writer Ronan Bennett, the writer behind Hamburg Cell and Face, and executive produced by Colin Barr, who has previously worked on The Secretary Who Stole £4million.
BBC drama productions has also announced details of the BBC1 adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorritt.
The production, from Sense and Sensibility and Bleak House writer Andrew Davies, stars Spooks actor Matthew Macfadyen as Arthur Clennam. The rest of the cast are yet to be revealed.
The 15-part series, commissioned by the BBC Fiction controller, Jane Tranter, will begin filming in April and is directed by Adam Smith.

Guardian Media Story!

Musharraf finally lifts ban on TV news channel
Julian Borger, diplomatic editorTuesday January 22, 2008
The Guardian

Pervez Musharraf lifted a ban on Pakistan's most popular television station yesterday, less than a month before parliamentary elections which could be pivotal in the country's return to democracy.
Geo News and its sister sports channel began broadcasting at 6pm yesterday, just hours after the Pakistani president began his eight-day EU tour in which he is seeking to reassure Pakistan's partners that the democratic transition is still on course, despite the assassination of Benazir Bhutto last month.

Speaking in Brussels, Musharraf referred to what he called the west's "obsession" with democracy and appealed for Pakistan to be given more time to improve its record on human rights and civil liberties.
"While we believe in democracy and human rights and civil liberties please allow us time to reach what you have reached. And you have taken centuries to reach it," he said. "We are determined to hold free, fair and transparent elections ... There is no possibility of it being rigged."
Musharraf had been under pressure from Europe to lift the ban on Geo News, one of the restrictions left after a six-week state of emergency ended last month.
But the news channel, which had intensively covered his stand-off with the Pakistani judiciary last year, had to agree to a code of conduct, limiting criticism of the head of state, before going back on air.
Geo had also been forced to drop shows by journalists unpopular with the regime, claimed Reporters Without Borders. "This constitutes yet further evidence that censorship is unfortunately still the rule just a few weeks before the elections scheduled for February 18," the Paris-based organisation said in a statement.

An advertisement for "the deeply superficial series" Nip/Tuck.

The image is set in an operating theatre which provides the audience with generic conventions for a hospital/surgical drama.
The two lead male characters are seen suited, which could be a reflection of their wealth and their social class, being professionals they are in social bracket A. This could imply that the audience is similar to the chracters with B's and aspirational C's. From their facial expressions they seem sinister and serious which could reflect their characters as well as the nature of the show. Such beauty based series are usually targetted at females however the main characters here are men, this shows that males are being targetted for this show, as well as reflecting the changing society, which accepts that the modern man,"metrosexual", can also be concerned about his appearance.

The men also seem very casual despite having two women wearing little just walking around and laying on the operating table, this could imply that they are used to such behaviour, which could suggest there are sexual elements within the show, therefore being targetted at a more mature audience.

In the shot we see two women who are "scantily clad" in their skin tone bra and underwear. The costume implies nudity and being completely bare and ready for change. Their poses are quite dramatic which could mean that the show is full of drama and seeing as it is not an everyday thing to see women in a theatre like this could imply people in the show do not live an everyday type of life.

The woman on the operating table has some sort of operating equipment through her chest which shows the programmes strong surgical theme and that the characters are willing to die for the sake of vanity.

The surgical instrument in the womans chest could be considered to be a phallic symbol. As women perfect themselves they will become more attractive as well as incharge, so with this instrument the men are reasserting their dominance. Also the women in order to gain perfection have to go to male surgeons, so it is the man who perfects the women, again enforcing a patriarchal society.

The lighting is very dark to show the serious tone of the program. The lighting creates a very dark side to the show and creates drama. The lighting focuses on the men and only their faces can be seen clearly showing their importance and telling us who we should focus on in the show.
The two womens faces are shaded so obviously they are not characters but are just there to show the role of women within the show, women are the ones that seek surgery. This could imply it is women who who are vain and want surgery to gain "perfection".

The title "Mean Girls" is placed vertically just under half way across the page. This can be seen as unconventional as the majority of film posters have the title horizontally and placed at the top. This could insinuate this movie is an unconventional teen movie and different from the rest. The title is written in a purple font which connotes feminism as it is not a harsh purple, also if the title was to be written in a stereotypically feminine colour such as pink it might not work as powerfully and the audience may just assume the film is another "girly" teen movie, a style of film which was dominate during the 90's.


The word mean is also written in bold lettering which makes it the more significant word in the title. The word emphasises the nature of the girls within the film as well as dennoting their characteristics. However the word mean also connotes child like qualities as it is a word often associated and used with childish fights and children. This could imply the rivalry and competition between the girls is childish and petty and almost superficial like the characters themselves.


One of the main images is of the lead, Lindsay Lohan, who is standing to a side looking over her shoulder. Her facial expressions shows her to be in almost fear of the girls behind her, although she is standing straight which could connote confidence her position is seen as insecure compared to the other girls on the page. This could be reflective of her character and the relationship between her and these girls within the movie, they are more secure and dominant than her in the film. Also standing with her back to them could symbolise a sense of "back stabbing" which is associated with teenage girls and could be a theme within the movie. Her costume is simple and is a red top with a pair of jeans. The red of the top could be a reflection of the trouble to come concerning the character. The jeans connote a more comfortable and casual nature which is missing from the other girls in the shot. Her being the main image and significantly bigger than the other three girls on the page could show the movie is using her to further sell it. Lindsay Lohan who is often associated with teen movies, rebelliousness and being a teen icon in Hollywood is having her public image used to attract girls who may admire or aspire to be like her to watch the film. Lndsay Lohan is also often type cast in these teenage movies which further sets up generic conventions for the film. Her name is also positioned on the poster above her head showing her to be a key selling point of the film.


In the background there are the other three girls, who although smaller in size to Lindsay Lohan, are assumed to be key in the film as they are the only other characters presented to the audience. The main girl is standing in a confident and domineering position all the while appearing to be passing judgement on you. Unlike Lindsay's character she is looking directly at the audience which makes it seem she is passing judgement on the audience. This is relatable for teenage girls, who are clearly the target audience of the film, being a relatable situation further draws the audience and attracts them to the film. The two girls shown behind her are also in a similar position which makes it seem like they are almost ready to attack, which could explain the facial expression of the lead. The fact that the other two girls are stood behind her rather than alongside her shows that she is more signifcant than them and is probably the leader of their group within the movie. Unlike Lindsay Lohan's character they are dressed more feminine, attractively and somewhat superficially with their short skirts and high heels. The way they are dressed could reflect their characters within the film and sets up character expectations of them being "stuck up" and superficial and image based. But also attract this type of image concerned teenagers to watch the movie.


The catch line at the bottom in bold says "Watch Your Back" which confirms any movie and character expectations the audience may have had about the idea of "back stabbing" and female rivalry, the leads fear of the girls and the three girls dominant position.


At the bottom we see the name of another actress within the film, Tina Fey, unlike Lindsay's name this name is written in white which could show her distance from these girls as well as her neautral character. She is not shown on the poster which could show that she is not a key character, but also could show her name is so well known the audience do not need to see who she is to be aware of her previous works. Tina Fey is known as a comedian as well as actress so her starring in the film provides the audience with the assumption that the movie is a comedy.