Tele K model and local television in Spain
Francisco PÉREZ (ES) Manager -- TELE K (Madrid)
Tele K is an important reference for local television in Spain. It has, since 1992, developed into a model of economic and informative independence.
In addition to being a channel, it is also a television school, where professionals of large companies and television producers are formed. All this was possible thanks to economic contributions of neighbours, the management of small companies and associations of the industrial neighbourhood of Vallecas, located in the suburbs of Madrid.
The background, organisational structure, financing sources and programming formula will be explained in detail.
A panorama of the local television sector in Spain will, at last, be explored, from its origins and legal regulations, to the current status, characterised by the incorporation of large companies in the field of communication.
Canal 20 - for young people, by young people
Edith FARINE (FR) Manager -- Maison de l'image (Strasbourg)
The Maison de l’Image (Image Centre) was founded in May 1999. There are three partners, the City of Strasbourg, the Video Association, «Les Beaux Jours», and the Regional Cooperative of Cultural Cinema. They decided to share their resources and their competences to create an educational project related to images. The aim of this public institution is to make it possible for each and everyone to have access to the audiovisual environment so that they may have the opportunity to represent the world in image and in sound.
Create a channel of expression for and with the young.
As we were attached to the service for young people, «Jeunesse Education Populaire», it was our wish that the young participate in this project.
Five associations have, since the summer of 1999, been proposing television broadcasts which do not cease to develop. Two new associations have joined forces with us and two other associative organisations are working also on a broadcasting project for «Jeune Public».
We broadcast, every evening on Canal Info. Strasbourg, a programme lasting 30 minutes, aimed at the 15 - 25 age group. This programme consists mainly of pieces of entertainment dealing with the latest news in the world of cinema, life in Strasbourg ; the subjects are treated in a somewhat lighthearted and humorous manner, and yet with seriousness and sensitivity.
A new mode of expression which frees itself of codes?
We have noticed that young people have an incredible passion for expression and a growing need to create. In France, however, the television system does not yet appear to reply to this need, apart from the conventional structures of commercial broadcasting.
How do innovations find their place and how does one avoid that an original creation is formatted according to television standards?
The aim of the «Maison de l’Image» is to be a small-scale free expression laboratory, which reveals a person’s sensitivity and assists in constructing an awareness of the world outside.
It puts the accent on creativity and the art of image writing.
The young people who take part in the project, although born of the tv generation, are working for a freestyle tv which is totally detached from the figures imposed by sttandard television. There is still the problem of image interchange, which limits the project’s further development. Thanks to the «Maison de l’Image», the audiovisual landscape has, nonetheless, developed in Strasbourg. Furthermore, several young directors who made their début at Canal Info. Strasbourg, assist regularly with different broadcasts on other regional channels.
What is the role of local tv?
Springboard ? Bridge?
It is our wish that local television be a tool of expression which inrtegrates also associations and the public but many questions are in abeyance.
How does one take the local public’s opinions into account?
How does one go about making young people express themselves?
How does one teach them to step back and take a critical look at a televised speech?
When will there be a real local citizens’ television, accessible to many people, which privileges dialogue, debates, and which creates a social link and projects a feeling of local belonging?
Local television can contribute to demystifying the aura which surrounds television and bring the viewers closer.
Young people want to be able to express themselves freely, subjectively, on matters which concern them; their images reveal a genuine wealth both from a living and imaginative point of view.
As I see it, over and above the task of media coverage, it is necessary to undertake a work of mediation, which, alone, will allow for the generating of democratisation, not only demonstration. A long-term job which should encourage new forms of expression and social communication.