Bectu the future

Broadcasting union Bectu has attacked ITV for its continuing series of redundancies while it pays massive salaries to its celebrity 'talent'. See the Guardian's coverage of the row here.

You have to say Bectu have a point, and there's a more general relevance too. For most theorists who first noticed/heralded the birth of an information society, the expansion of the cultural industries was a definitive factor.

But for the more enlightened, quantitative growth alone was not enough. The crucial qualitative factor was important too. Okay, so you might still call what we have an information society, but it's nothing to email home about.

Why is reality TV so prevalent? Because, put simply, it's cheaper. Why are imported (US) shows so prevalent? Because, put simply, they are cheaper. I don't deny either of these has a place in the broadcasting landscape, but we all know it's far too much. Daniel Bell never thought things would be like this.