Digital Media: Jobs For The Boys?

Our session at the Lighthouse in Glasgow (invited by the lovely people at Urban Learning Space) went really well. Some of the attendees even said they'd been inspired to go off and kickstart their own related projects!

See the full write up here.

Time for some positive action

Last year, Women in Film & Television responded to a DCMS inquiry into new media and the creative industries by asking the government to do the following to increase women’s contribution to the new media economy:

a.Research and map the employment of women in new media sectors

b.Encourage the establishment of women only networks

c.Encourage women-only training courses and mentoring schemes

d.Encourage the establishment of an online media resource for women to access knowledge, training and information

The DCMS report has now been published. Sadly there's no mention of women's position in digital technology, let alone a suggestion of any legislation or even guidelines to rectify the situation.

Why does this government persist in being 'light touch' when it comes to industry, yet so heavy-handed when it comes to our personal lives (cf. smoking, drinking and when babies should be playing with their toes)?

There's clearly an imbalance.

On a positive note, it's good to learn from the DTI that they are planning to launch a knowledge transfer network for the creative industries - in theory, this will provide a forum for debate and, hopefully, precipitate some positive change.

I'll be reviewing Technical Change and discussing ways to promote women to leading roles in digital media at The Lighthouse in Glasgow on 21 June. The seminar is open to all and further details can be found here.

The web - a powerful force for democracy, not

Andrew Keen really does seem to have tapped some sort of zeitgeist (as if he needs any more publicity for his book, The Cult of The Amateur). In his rather bleak vision, Keen says that online communities gather to confirm their own prejudices, while knowledge of history and literature is drowned in a flood of self-obsessed blogs.


The internet is maturing, so it's hardly surprising that it's becoming tainted with many of the problems of old media (as well as creating some new ones of its very own). The same old hierarchies are playing out, the same voices are dominating.


If a woman does rise to the top, she tends to be like Tila Tequila. If a black man gets profiled, he's probably a rapper (although it's true, Barack Obama does have 100,000 friends on MySpace).


Despite all pretensions otherwise, the dominant voice of the web is still too white, male, middle-class and middle-youth.


If you want to give me some support (or throw tomatoes), I'll be speaking on the social value (or not) of social networks at 11.30am next Wednesday, 13 June, at the NMK Forum.


Hopefully we'll get the chance to give Technical Change a plug.

Is thirty per cent the tipping point?

I recently took part in a live chat at FT.com asking why there aren't more women in the boardroom. The chat stemmed from a comment piece by London Business School's Lynda Gratton, who argues that 30 per cent of senior positions need to be held by women before an organisation can fully realise its potential female talent. Although Professor Gratton's background is financial, her argument would seem to make sense for all sectors, including media.

Oh, the irony!

Word reaches us that a new TV quiz show called Win My Wage is finding it hard to secure female contestants - especially in technical areas.

No big surprise there, then.