Commissioning scenarios
by Andrew Chitty, Managing Director, Illumina Digital
Genie
Beyond a current affairs approach to science and technology decision making.
Some of the most challenging political issues of the next 10 years are framed in terms of choices grounded in scientific evidence - access to drugs for cancer therapy, implementation of biometric and DNA profiling, the benefits of stem cell research and perhaps most significantly environmental issues whether they be energy policy, climate change or habitat depletion. These are hot and complex topics. But despite their prevalence in the media the gap between the beliefs of scientists and policy makers and those of the public has never been wider.
Genie is one of a number of fixed period PSP projects that will use participatory media to bridge the gap between 'expert' groups and lay citizens; bringing them together in a deliberative process that seeks to forge common ground and communicate the results to the wider population. This last element elevates Genie beyond any citizen jury process yet tried out.
The objective of Genie is to devise a consensus on the right options for UK energy policy. The project is launched with a series of professionally produced media 'kits': authored films representing various positions and associated information resources devised with the support of partner organisations like the Royal Society, Welcome Trust, Institute for Fiscal Studies and so on. These are distributed across a variety of online destinations possibly including a PSP supported destination such as Civic Commons.
The media kits are used as an invitation to recruit a citizen's panel who want to take part in the process. Initial reactions are sought and posted online prior to a series of online and face-to-face events. These encounters are documented and made available to the wider audience. From events around the UK, mixed teams of lay people and policy makers are formed to investigate particular aspects and concerns: nuclear storage; energy security; feasibility of renewable technology etc. These mixed teams produce a second wave of media kits which are distributed, debated and annotated online. This iterative process culminates in a final media document (or film) which is launched online and through a broadcast partner with responses from politicians and those involved.
The key to Genie is the bringing together of "experts" and citizens in this iterative process where each side not only begins to understand the other's motivations and beliefs but in the process opens up this mutual education to a wider audience of their peers. Genie has many media outputs, some of which may well be aired on television but Genie is not making television "about" the decisions facing us as citizens. It is a participative process in which the decisions are actually being taken.
But surely PSB's could do the same job producing a hard-hitting documentary and current affairs season culminating with some form of debate-come-interactive event? Undoubtedly the BBC or Channel 4 can and will do this as ITV once did with landmark shows like Central's seminal Can Polar Bears Tread Water? But the Genie approach goes far beyond red button voting on a fixed menu of policy options based on an adversarial view of the world. It is about a mutual exchange between experts and citizens - about devising new options - and this takes time, a commodity that television is notoriously short of. Hitherto Public Service Broadcasting's remit has been to analyse the world; the ambition of this kind of Public Service Content is to create a framework for deciding how we want to change it.