The Garret Tree
Monday, August 22, 2005
  CBC lockout XV: Notes of a blog war correspondent 4


A very interesting post from Matt May at Podcasting today, so I decided to link to this one early.

Matt May reports on the plans for CBCunplugged. (May, you will recall, was the person who last week suggested that the NHL create a podcast.)

Some excerpts from his post CBC workers make a podcast of their own:


CBC has already been on the leading edge when it comes to podcasting (and in Quebec, baladodiffusion), so they're not exactly pushing the envelope, as I recommended of the NHL. What's happening in this case, however, is even more advanced: these reporters are circumventing their own medium. And what an opportunity to do so: 5,500 producers, technicians, writers, and on-air personalities are on the picket lines

And May says

I can't help but wonder what would happen if the lockout goes longer than a month or two. With the Canadian Media Guild counting their volunteer work on this project as part of the labor action, this new entity could be Canada's largest news-gathering operation overnight. In only a couple weeks' time, they could organize their own labor against their current employer (as newspaper workers have done when they are locked out), and produce their own programming as they see fit. They would only get a fraction of the CBC's audience to begin with, but over time, the listeners' loyalty to a given host or show would accrue to this new network, not the CBC. They have an opportunity not only to endure a protracted labor dispute, but to come out on the other side having reprogrammed their former network. CBC management may not notice this now, but once they do, they could realize what kind of trouble they're in.

Note May said "former network." That reminded me of a bunch of people who once threw together a little tabloid newspaper beside (or was it above?) a car wash on King Street in Toronto thirty years ago.

Will those Guild time sheets, sometime in the future, be the basis for stock allocation? Naaahhhhhhh.

But the right would love us, even though it would be the same people.

Monday's links

From CNET News
Canadian broadcasters wage labor war on the Web

(More soon)




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I write in a renovated garret in my house in a part of Toronto, Canada, called "The Pocket." The blog is named for a tree can be seen outside the window of my garret.

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Name: Robin Rowland
Location: Toronto, Canada

I'm a Toronto-based writer, photographer, web producer, television producer, journalist and teacher. I'm author of five books, the latest A River Kwai Story: The Sonkrai Tribunal. The Garret tree is my blog on the writing life including my progress on my next book (which will be announced here some time in the coming months) My second blog, the Wampo, Nieke and Sonkrai follows the slow progress of my freelanced model railway based on my research on the Burma Thailand Railway (which is why it isn't updated that often) The Creative Guide to Research, based on my book published in 2000 is basically an archive of news, information and hints for both the online and the shoe-leather" researcher. (Google has taken over everything but there are still good hints there)



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