Making the Media

S2E11: Take It on Trust What do media and tech companies need to do to fight disinformation and what are the dangers to journalism and journalists if they do not? In this episode of Making the Media, host Craig Wilson talks in-depth with disinformation expert and former BBC executive Jessica Cecil. Our Guest This Episode Jessica Cecil Jessica is a leading media industry figure and an expert in the field of disinformation, currently working as a consultant to media and tech companies. She founded the Trusted News Initiative(TNI), the world’s only alliance of major international tech companies and news organizations to counter the most harmful disinformation in real-time. The TNI’s membership includes Meta, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft, alongside the BBC, AFP, AP, Reuters, and other leading global news providers, and its members have a fast-alert system to counter the most harmful disinformation. Jessica’s media industry leadership experience was honed over a 30-year career at the BBC, which serves an audience of 450 million people around the world. As chief of staff to four Directors-General, she had a track record of creating and leading global alliances responding to the changes tech is having on audiences’ lives Jessica’s background is as a news journalist and documentary maker. She was an international news producer and assistant editor of BBC Newsnight. She is an Emmy nominee for the prime time TV science documentary, Human Instinct. Jessica is also a trustee of the University of Bristol, where she chairs the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Oversight Committee. She sits on the Council of Advisors for RAND Europe and is an adjunct fellow of the Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs at Chatham House. More Resources For more on this topic, check out: Making the Media, S1E15: Do You Trust Me?  – Discover the work of Project Origin and its bid to authenticate media. The Rise and Future of Social Storytelling – What are some of the new ways news is being source and told? Contact Us Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: makingthemedia@avid.com or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid. Credits Host: Craig Wilson Producer: Matt Diggs Social: Wim Van den Broeck Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S2E10: The Sky’s the limit What do broadcasters need to do to capitalize on the streaming revolution? And what skills do their staff need in order to deliver continuous innovation? In this episode of the Making the Media podcast, host Craig Wilson talks in-depth with former Sky executive Darren Long to get his take on the hot topics. Our Guest This Episode Darren Long After graduating from Brunel University, Darren spent seven years working at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) teaching students in television production and helping to run the NFTS TV department. Darren worked with many talented students including Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit), David Tattersall (Die Another Day, Star Wars (Episodes I, II and III) and Michael Caton-Jones (Memphis Belle, This Boy’s Life). After leaving NFTS, Darren spent a year working in the TV industry as a vision engineer before joining Sky at the birth of the company back in 1989. He was one of the pioneers changing the way the world watches sport, overseeing the technical, operational developments and innovations across Sky Sports—from simple ultra-motion replay, HD and 3D, through to today’s interactive and digital developments that now appear in most sports broadcasts. Darren was the stakeholder in the conception and development of the UK’s first sustainable broadcast facility, Sky Studios, which has fourteen production studios, over 77 post-production suites, and one of the biggest integrated tapeless systems in the world which runs all of Sky’s linear, online, and OTT playout. In November 2012, Darren took over the leadership role for Sky Production Services (SPS). Darren was responsible for 760 full-time employees split across four groups that deliver key production services to all of Sky’s content creation teams—production studios, post-production, content services, and business planning & programming. The department encompasses a vast range of skills including cameras, sound, lighting, media management, graphics, and video and audio post-production. Darren was also responsible for setting the vision for Sky’s group content operations workflow in its strategic IP program for content distribution. This program is moving all Sky’s group content operations and processing systems into the cloud and integrating into the wider Comcast businesses, ensuring everything Sky does is done in the most efficient and timely way. Darren’s last role at Sky was as group operations transformation design in CT&I, looking at how we transform the operations as we move into these new workflows and align our business models. Darren is also a board trustee for the British Forces Broadcasting Services (BFBS) and is on the board of the Avid Community Association. More Resources For more on this topic, check out: Secure collaborative cloud editing and storage through SaaS and subscription – Discover the flexibility of Avid | Edit on Demand All Things AI – Is AI a threat or opportunity for the newsrooms of the future? Contact Us Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: makingthemedia@avid.com or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid. Credits Host: Craig Wilson Producer: Matt Diggs Social: Wim Van den Broeck Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S2E09: Capital Ideas How do you cover the seat of the United States government, the White House, the Pentagon, the Supreme Court, cooperate with competitors, discover exclusives, keep staff safe, and deliver to multiple platforms? In this episode of Making the Media, host Craig Wilson talks in-depth with Andrea Owen, Director of the Washington D.C. Bureau for ABC News. Our Guest This Episode Andrea Owen Andrea Owen has been director, D.C. Bureau operations at ABC News since April, 2015. In that role, she oversees all newsgathering operations from Washington for both in the field and the bureau’s studios and control room operations. Owen leads a large team of managers, crews, engineers, studio crews, and editors covering the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court, and all aspects of Washington D.C. coverage for ABC News, as well as large-scale live productions. As a 30-year veteran of ABC News, Owen has always kept a hand in the editorial side and another in the operational side. She began her career as an intern in the ABC News London Bureau. Since then she worked as an assignment editor, both an editorial and graphics producer for World News Tonight, operations producer for This Week and World News Tonight, anchor producer, special events producer, and managed training, digital operations, and new workflows. Owen has transformed every aspect of the Washington operations team, while also serving as the backbone of many D.C. special events, such as the inauguration of President Biden, the January 6th riot on Capitol Hill, Senate Impeachment hearings of President Trump, Overall US Network Pool Producer for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Black Lives Matter protests in D.C., the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, including US Network Pool coverage of the ceremony and lying in state at the Capitol, four State of the Union Addresses with a full, new set builds each year, 130+ special reports in one year for mostly President Trump’s first year in office, the state funeral for President George H.W. Bush, the National Service for Sen. John McCain, the Inauguration of President Trump, Pope Francis's visit to Washington, and a Town Hall with President Barack Obama, pulled together in 78 hours with live studio audience. Owen is a graduate of York University in Toronto and the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Broadcast Journalism program. More Resources For more on this topic, check out: Making the Media Podcast – Moving the Media – Discover how one news channel is moving its entire operation thousands of miles, while staying on air. What Can Newsrooms Gain From the Cloud– Find out more in a new e-book about the news business Contact Us Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: makingthemedia@avid.com or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid. Credits Host: Craig Wilson Producer: Matt Diggs Social: Wim van den Broeck Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S2E08: Here is the News Story versioning, remote collaboration, using web-based tools in the cloud, sustainability, story-centric ways of working, delivering for diverse audiences, developing new services with innovative technologies—these are just some of the challenges facing the UK’s largest news provider. In this episode of Making the Media, host Craig Wilson talks in-depth on all of these subjects with Morwen Williams, Head of UK Operations for BBC News. Our Guest This Episode Morwen Williams Morwen Williams is director of UK operations for BBC News, leading the technical and studio teams of BBC News. She is responsible for creative technical news gathering, as well as all news studios in London and Salford at MediaCityUK and editing in London—a team of more than 750 people. She is the bridge between the BBC’s journalism and technology, using technology to its fullest to tell stories better for audiences. Previously she was BBC News’ deputy UK editor and led on major special (particularly royal) events in the UK, and has worked as a program output editor and producer in the BBC Regions. She is chair of the WBU (World Broadcasting Union) International Media Connectivity Group, working with other broadcasters to find common solutions in this area. She recently completed the Media Transformation Challenge at Harvard University’s Kennedy School as well as visited Stanford University to share learning there. Morwen is a keen supporter of the BBC’s apprentice schemes to deliver new and more diverse technical talent in the BBC, as well as working with BBC News’ Women in Technology program. She’s been a mentor for RISE Women in Broadcasting and the John Schofield Trust for young journalists.  She is proud to have been named RISE Women in Broadcasting Woman of the Year 2019 at IBC. Morwen is married, with two sons. A keen road cyclist and loves swimming and skiing, she comes from a family of award-winning cheesemakers in Cheshire. More Resources For more on this topic, check out: Making the Media Podcast – Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes – Discover how BBC News deals with change management Making the Media Podcast – Rise Up – Find out more about an innovative scheme to support diversity within the media industry Contact Us Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: makingthemedia@avid.com or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid. Credits Host: Craig Wilson Producer: Matt Diggs Social: Wim van den Broeck Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S2E07: Talking Trends News organizations must invest in innovation to attract new audiences and retain those they already have, but face doing so against a background of massive disruption within the industry. In this episode, we talk to Nic Newman, from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism about the key trends facing media companies in the year ahead—including business disruption, the potential of the cloud, remote working, the challenge of new platforms, trust in journalism, and more. Our Guest This Episode Nic Newman Nic Newman is a senior research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, and lead author of the annual Digital News Report, the world’s largest ongoing study of consumer behavior around news. Nic also authors an influential annual report on media and technology trends. He is also a digital media consultant and has recently worked with companies such as the Financial Times, Globo, BBC, and News UK on product, data, and audience strategies. Previously, Nic was a journalist and senior editor at the BBC and was a founding member of the BBC News website. Later, as Head of Product Development and Engineering for BBC News, he helped introduce innovations such as apps, blogs, podcasting, and on-demand video. More Resources For more on this topic, check out: News Production from Anywhere - Webinar Series – Discover all you need to know about creating and delivering news from anywhere, including moving workflows to the cloud. Making the Media Podcast - What’s Next? – How are Europe’s biggest broadcasters addressing the challenges ahead? Contact Us Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: makingthemedia@avid.com or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid. Credits Host: Craig Wilson Producer: Matt Diggs Social: Wim Van den Broeck Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S2E06: The Digital Dimension Europe’s public service broadcasters are being challenged on many fronts to remain relevant to the audiences which fund them. In this episode we focus on a pioneering project to enable the easy sharing of digital stories, and how AI technology is enhancing their delivery to attract new and younger viewers. Our Guests This Episode Justyna Kurczabinska is leading the News Strategy and Development of Eurovision News at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)—the world’s leading alliance of public service media. Until recently, she was also the Head of the Eurovision News Exchange, where she provided EBU Members with ‘round-the-clock access to live and edited news stories as well as eyewitness media, as they happen, across the globe through the unique network of over 70 public service media newsrooms operating in over 50 countries and specialized verification team. The most recent initiative she has been championing as Project Owner aims at redefining digital news online collaboration among the PSM organizations with the objective of providing audiences across Europe with powerful and relevant public service journalism through the project called “A European Perspective,” embedded in the Monitoring News Intelligence Platform for PSM journalists, developed by the EBU in 2020. Since 2017, she has also been overseeing the Public Service Journalism Initiative aimed at strengthening and supporting independent trusted news. Sébastien Noir  has been active since 2012 in the Broadcasting industry, first at RTS, the French-speaking Swiss National Broadcaster as a software developer, and later evolving to lead the development of multiple digital products and mobile applications. He then became the Product Manager of the VOD Platform PlaySRG for Switzerland, coordinating development teams and delivering multilingual products for the different linguistic region. In 2017, he joined the European Broadcasting Union to work as Product Owner for PEACH, the personalization and recommendation system developed by Broadcasters for Broadcasters. He now acts as head of Software Engineering in EBU Technology and Innovation Department, coordinating teams and development efforts of innovative Services like PEACH, EuroVOX, and the EBU News Pilot (monitoring tool and EUropean Perspective). More Resources For more on this topic, check out: Making the Media S1E08: Attracting New Audiences – Discover how NBCLX in the USA and RTE in Ireland work to deliver tailored content on every platform MediaCentral | Publisher – Unify your newsroom and distribute your stories easily to social and online platforms Contact Us Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: makingthemedia@avid.com or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid. Credits Host: Craig Wilson Producer: Matt Diggs Social: Wim van den Broeck Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S2E05: Local Heroes The importance of trusted, local news drove audiences in the United States higher through the pandemic, and they operate in a market worth billions of dollars. But with station groups consolidating, an increasing need to deliver on digital platforms, and the rise of distributed newsrooms, how will news stations adapt for the future? In this episode we focus on the key challenges of delivering compelling stories to local audiences. Our Guest This Episode Gary Brown most recently was the Senior Vice President of Content for the Meredith Local Media Group. Overseeing news, marketing, and digital content for the broadcast group. An experienced broadcaster and digital executive with almost three decades of experience, he has launched content initiatives to drive brand recognition, ratings, and revenue growth throughout his career. Before joining Meredith in 2018, he was Vice President of Talent Development for the Napoli Management Group. Prior to that, Brown was Vice President of News for Newport Television, where he oversaw television stations in 22 markets. Brown began his television news career as an intern at age 16 in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio. He quickly moved through the ranks holding news director positions across the United States. More Resources For more on this topic, check out: MediaCentral | Collaborate – Avid’s solution for story-centric news workflows MediaCentral | Publisher – Unify your newsroom and distribute your stories easily to social and online platforms Contact Us Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: makingthemedia@avid.com or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid. Credits Host: Craig Wilson Producer: Matt Diggs Social: Wim van den Broeck Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S2E04: Moving the Media News never stops. And that is never more evident than when a major technology upgrade or station move is to take place. Going off-air is not an option, so how do you maintain your quality of service while delivering the infrastructure and new workflows you need for the future, and do that while moving your newsroom more than three-thousand miles? In this episode we focus on the key areas to consider for the newsroom of today and tomorrow. Our Guest This Episode Ali Husseini Ali is a seasoned TV executive with over 18 years of experience in broadcast business transformation and technology. He brings a wealth of expertise with particular strengths in areas such as transformation, mergers, centralization, business processes and both technical strategy and operational oversight. With an abundance of international experience, Ali has a strong understanding of various content generation, distribution models throughout America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Currently, Ali operates as Director of Broadcast Operations & Creative services at Fadaat Media, Al Araby Network, which he joined late 2019; his responsibilities include IT, broadcast engineering, broadcast IT, operations, information security & creative services. Prior to joining Fadaat Media Group, Ali oversaw numerous large-scale transformation activities during his 12 years with Al Jazeera Media Network where he served as the Chief Transformation Architect for the network, and where he held responsibility of broadcast operations expansions for multiple channels averaging $100M per project. With his contribution, Al Jazeera technical operations transformed from a mid-size broadcaster to a leader in the industry where they managed to deliver with his team of SME’s the network locations in NY, DC, London, Beirut, and the channels at the HQ in Doha. More Resources For more on this topic, check out: What’s Next – How Europe’s major broadcasters are facing the future. MediaCentral | Collaborate – Avid’s solution for story-centric news workflows. Contact Us Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: makingthemedia@avid.com or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid. Credits Host: Craig Wilson Producer: Matt Diggs Social: Wim van den Broeck Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S2E03: Safe and Sound The news, media, and entertainment industry is on a journey to the cloud, but if your media and applications are hosted in the cloud and not in your physical building, what are the implications for content security? In this episode, we discuss in depth the challenges of security in the cloud and pose the question that, in reality it may actually be more secure than what you have on-premises. Our Guest This Episode Joel Sloss is the Senior Program Manager for the Cloud platform Microsoft Azure. For the last 25 years, Joel has been on the razor’s edge of enterprise IT and security. He originally joined Microsoft in 1997 after having served as a Technical Editor for Windows NT Magazine, where he authored more than 100 articles and product reviews, contributed to several books, and annoyed many hardware and software vendors. While at Microsoft, Joel has managed product lines ranging from BackOffice to ISA Server, mobile services, and—more recently—security & compliance initiatives in the Azure engineering team. Also during this time, Joel wrote numerous white papers on topics such as data protection, network security, secure management, architecture fundamentals, and policies and processes. His focus now is on the Digital Media & Entertainment industry, its compliance objectives (such as security certifications), and privacy needs in the public cloud. Joel has been on the CDSA Board of Directors since 2016, was the [cloud] Technical Advisor for “Bobbleheads: The Movie” (2020, Universal Pictures), and is a frequent presenter at industry conferences. More Resources For more on this topic, check out: Do you Trust me? Contact Us Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: makingthemedia@avid.com or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid. Credits Host: Craig Wilson Producer: Matt Diggs Social: Wim van den Broeck Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

S2E02: Rise Up Women make up a small minority of the technical workforce in the media and broadcast industry. Why is that? And what needs to be done to change the situation for them, for people with disabilities, and for people from diverse backgrounds?  In this episode, we focus on a major new report which sets out the major challenges women face which need to be addressed. Our Guest This Episode Carrie Wooten is the Managing Director of Rise: the global advocacy group for gender diversity within the media technology sector.    Rise's ambition is to open up more opportunities for gender diverse professionals through delivering its global award-winning annual mentoring program, through celebrating the skills and achievements of brilliant women across the industry through its annual Rise Awards, and through inspiring, educating, and informing the next generation of talent through its Rise Up Academy program. More Resources For more on this topic, check out: Vive La Difference Contact Us Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: makingthemedia@avid.com or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid. Credits Host: Craig Wilson Producer: Matt Diggs Social: Wim van den Broeck Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin