Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
- Date:
- 1996
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.
43/324 page 345
![23 April 1996] Baroness Hogg contd.} education it does seem to me there is a very important and traditional BBC role publishing packages and delivering services. The development of digital services will enable you to do this not just on the mainstream BBC channels so what I would like to ask you, if I may, is to what extent do you see a development of these services outside the traditional BBC channels and can that be carried on the licence fee or do we need to think harder about how the development of education services like the BBC would be funded or financed? (Ms Drabble) Lady Hogg, I think the critical importance of the BBC and its value in the eyes of consumers, and particularly I am thinking now of teachers, is its trustworthiness and reliability. The other crucial aspect of it is the access to the wealth of talent that the BBC possesses and its ability to be able to produce at the moment programmes but increasingly multiple media which enrich people’s experience and bring people into contact with the rest of the world. 485. Exactly. (Ms Drabble) I think it is very important that the BBC does not lose sight of the fact, therefore, that its main function is as a broadcaster and that will give it and does give it now a vast wealth of material and talent from which we can tap to use for the benefit of education. I would hope that what the digital environment will give us is simply more and more opportunities to take people from the broadcast environment into other services, some of which of course will be paid for, charged for, some of which will be commercial. Also it will enrich, if you like, the overall proposition but keep the BBC as a broadcaster at the centre of it. I think if we depart from that then we lose our central role. It is very clear from the work we have done so far on piloting Internet services in schools and so on that the BBC is regarded by teachers in particular as a trusted force. Of course, when eventually we are able to distribute videos through easy means like the Internet and of course broadband and cable and so on then all the wealth of the resource that we have at our disposal will become even more accessible to people. 486. It is a potential for you to be broadcasting on so many more channels and of course the nature of broadcasting itself will change presumably and become interactive? (Ms Drabble) Indeed. (Mr Phillis) If I may add to that, my Lord Chairman, I think Lady Hogg mentioned a very key word and that is interactivity. One of the things which the digital age and the superhighways will allow, and particularly important in both formal and informal learning situations, is for individuals and citizens to interact with that additional material as provided outside of a straight forward programme broadcast, whether that is an on-line service, whether itis a CD Rom, whether it is access to additional text or audio or visual material. Supporting a theme is, I think, one of the greatest opportunities that exists here. We are not simply in the learning field but more generally exploring how on-line on the Internet, off- line on the CD Rom or particularly looking at how digital television might provide additional opportunities to provide specific information. We are [ Continued developing a concept within the BBC where when we are able to make use of digital television transmission, terrestrially or by satellite, the opportunity to have additional—we are calling them side bands—where a programme may stimulate interest in a documentary or a learning programme of some sort, if the individual wishes to come out of that service to explore more detailed information in text or sound or vision, the range of the digital opportunity provides that facility. It is in that new dimension of interactivity, which allows us as citizens whether in formal education or more broadly wishing to expand our own knowledge of particular areas, that we think there is massive potential to be able to enhance that range of services. Lord Craig of Radley 487. Can we follow on from that. You are relying very much now on the Internet, you have some 7,000 pages on it. The Internet is being subscribed to by many, many more millions of people and more and more material is being put on it. Do you find it a satisfactory medium? If you do, are you satisfied it will continue to be? If it is not, what do you think ought to be done about it? (Mr Phillis) 1 think it is a hugely exciting medium with a potential not yet properly understood or defined in the way people use it or the way that it is paid for. I think it is a hugely exciting medium. I think there are a lot of questions that need to be answered in the way in which those services are paid for, be it by the individual consumer or by the institution or by Government or by advertisers or by subscribers. I think the long term economics of the Internet are still shrouded in a degree of mystery and uncertainty which needs a great deal of clarification. So the economic question I think needs to be refined and developed over time. I think the regulatory question also, and by that I mean access to pornography and those who choose to use the Internet in ways perhaps not envisaged by a Committee such as this, certainly raises the question as to what Government and governments can do to try to protect parts of our society from invasion of that sort of material. Again I am afraid I cannot offer answers to that question. We recognise at the BBC the need and the problem. The way in which it is to be addressed, I think, will be a mixture of technology on the one hand and of course regulation and legislation on the other, but they are very key issues that need to be resolved. 488. There are a number of issues here, and you have touched on two or three which are particularly of interest to us, the one about the content as to whether it is acceptable and it is not just the extremes of pornography or how to make an atom bomb but there are many lesser levels. To what extent do you think as the provider of material for entertainment or education you have a responsibility for marking it in some way to advise the consumer or viewer what is suitable or not suitable for the ten year old or the 25 year old or whoever it happens to be? (Mr Phillis) We are absolutely clear that any programmes or services we provide by whatever means have to meet those standards that we expect of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32218631_0043.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
