Multimedia convergence: Breaking the silence · Multimedia convergence and changes in the...

Multimedia convergence:Breaking the silence

Labour Education 1998/1-2Nos. 110-111

Editorial V

In memoriam VII

Sounding the depths of convergence, by Adriana Rosenzvaig 1

Convergence and content in the information society:The Canadian experience, by Barbara Motzney 5

Multimedia convergence and changes in the production systemand in working conditions for musicians: Implications for adoptinga cultural policy. The case of Japan, by Shinji Matsumoto 12

Information Society 2000. The German experience of multimediaconvergence, by Jürgen Warnken 16

Convergence and flexibility in the media industries call for a neworganizational logic of businesses and social actors, by Peter Leisink 24

Intellectual property rights in terms of performers,by Katherine Sand and Jean Vincent 30

Authors’rights and multimedia convergence, by Anne Louise Schelin 35

Health hazards in computer work and new organizational options:Experience in the media industry, by Klaus Pickshaus 40

Media convergence and journalism, by Aidan White 45

Technological convergence and some of its effects on workers in Brazil,by Carlos Alberto de Almeida 50

Multimedia – a vocational training opportunity? by Frank Werneke 54

The contingent workforce and its implications for organized labour,by Tony Lennon 60

Teleworking: a review of recent literature 64

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Contents

What silence? It might seem absurd to many to address the ques-tion of multimedia convergence as the process affects workers in terms ofb reaking the silence. For such silence has become strident, and surro u n d sall the issues connected with the process of convergence.

The columns which follow are part of the ILO’s efforts to ensurethat the discussions which took place during the ILO Symposium onmultimedia convergence (27-29 January 1997) be addressed in furtherdepth by experts who are close to workers’ everyday experiences of con-vergence. The very nature of the workforce and its contingent character;its growing isolation as a result of more and more institutionalized tele-working; the mismatch between the old forms of trade union org a n i z a-tion and the new work processes and the urgent need to develop newforms of worker protection; novel concepts of industrial relations; theneed for vigilance in terms of situations brought about by converg e n c ewhich may lend themselves to exploitation of vulnerable groups; thequestion of authors’ rights; and of course the need to adopt a cultural pol-icy with re g a rd to the implications and spread of multimedia conver-gence are all questions which, needless to say, have not been addre s s e dor even posed at the same pace at which the multimedia converg e n c eprocess has been spreading. These matters are only just starting to be for-mulated properly and placed on the trade union agenda, if at all.

Workers find themselves shouldering greater and greater burd e n sof hidden costs. Although the evidence that history repeats itself is onlytoo abundant, there can hardly be any justification for marking time andshelving the issue of the protection of workers’ rights. Trade unions todayface new challenges in terms of organizing teleworkers and all those whomake up the contingent workforce in multimedia industries and services.The work processes involved in convergence pose serious challenges toconventional employment relations, collective bargaining, legal re g u l a-tion and communications between the parties involved in the labourmarket.

Apart from our intention to sum up in a nutshell and disseminatefor the benefit of our constituents the thinking of experts who are in dailycontact with the twists and turns in the diff e rent tableaux of converg e n c e ,it is our hope to pin down a fast moving target and to study it at closerange for the purpose of coping with its immediate and long-term effectson the workforce. Above all, as with all new technology, however all-embracing or revolutionary – and the question of who enjoys access to itis far from settled – the worker must find himself or herself again at thec e n t re of the work process rather than the fringes or even in the shadows.P roduction must not be left to take precedence over any worker ’s fullsense of belonging and sharing in a productive process. In other words,multimedia convergence processes must be placed at the service ofsociety rather than be made to drag humanity down in an abyss of lostidentities and a poorer and poorer sense of citizenship.

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Editorial

In the same way that regional integration has so often revived localc u l t u res and development, it is to be hoped that globalization, larg e l yfacilitated by multimedia technologies, will paradoxically restore societyto human proportions. However, workers the world over can hard l ya ff o rd to relax their vigilance with re g a rd to the application of interna-tional labour standards, and the shaping and adopting of new and rele-vant ones, since new technology now invests work as such with a newmeaning for both workers and employers.

I extend special thanks to all the International Trade Secre t a r i a t swho pooled their efforts in support of this project, in particular the Inter-national Graphical Federation (IGF), the International Federation of Jour-nalists (IFJ), as well as the International Committee of Entertainment andMedia Unions (ICEMU).

I also pay tribute to all the experts who have so faithfully con-tributed to this modest effort which, I have reason to believe, only marksthe first stirrings of an international thrust to bring society, through itsworkforce, back on an even keel.

Giuseppe QuerenghiDirector

ILO Bureau for Workers’Activities

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VII

The Editor and all the staff of the ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activi-ties pay tribute to the memory of Chris Pate, former General Secretary ofthe International Graphical Federation (IGF), who passed away last Sep-tember after a short period of illness. This issue of our journal on thetheme of multimedia convergence had been carefully planned in June1997 in direct consultations between our Bureau and the IGF. L a b o u rE d ucation is deeply indebted to Chris Pate for the advice and expertise heextended in the production of the articles which follow. He had expre s s e dthe wish to publish in this issue a joint IGF-IFJ-ICEMU round-table dis-cussion, but events were to take another course. This edition there f o reremains incomplete, as if a cornerstone has been forgotten. It can only behoped that all those who remain faithful to the memory of Chris Pate willbefore too long mend the broken link in the chain by fulfilling his project,so that his proposed round table takes us a stride forward in coping withc o n v e rgence in the same spirit of commitment to the cause of workers forwhich we all remember him.

In memoriam

The redistribution of knowledge

The new electronic technologies haves p read like wildfire through our daily lives.Wo rds which until recently meant absolutelynothing to ordinary people are invading ourvocabulary: cyberspace, information super-h i g h w a y, Internet, World Wide Web and others– and which “initiates” must use – are beingadopted daily by a circle which, small at fir s t ,is constantly growing.

Marshall McLuhan has already explainedhow any new technology gradually creates atotally different environment in which humanrelationships are profoundly affected. Wegraphics workers are only well aware of theprocess.1

The “invention” of printing in Europe byG u t e n b e rg in 1440, which made it possible toproduce books cheaply, was an unprecedentedrevolution in the way human knowledgebegan to be spread. Until then, a tiny gro u phad a monopoly on information and knowl-edge and that same tiny group could re f u e litself and increase its capacity for control, pre-cisely through their control of the store ofknowledge. The press was to democratizeaccess to knowledge, although the process wasnot immediately of benefit to most peoplesince only a few could read and write.

The first divide, which separated the mas-ters of written information from those unableto accede to most of it, began to be bridgedwith the arrival of the press.

The second divide, which drew the linebetween those who could read and write andthose who could not, unleashed a debate onthe redistribution of knowledge and informa-tion which, although still not resolved today,led to profound economic, political, social andcultural changes.

Robert Fulford, a Canadian expert in cul-t u re analysis, refers to the process as “bookideology” and says that it is characterized by acommitment that knowledge should be uni-versally available. A c c o rding to this ideology,knowledge is public property and the extent to

which it can be spread is critical for the cul-tural, economic and political development ofpeople in a democratic and open society.2 T h es p read of knowledge is ensured by universalpublic education, support for the dissemina-tion of all forms of written matter, and thedevelopment of policies to protect authors’rights, which take into consideration in a bal-anced manner, among other measures, theinterests of both consumers and creators.

The debate on the redistribution of knowl-edge still rages, nor has there been any lull inthe row over what shall be channelled thro u g hthe millions and millions of printed pageswhich are in circulation on the face of the planet.

Added to the foregoing is the fact that mil-lions of illiterate people still remain beyond thepale of the revolution which took place fourcenturies ago: hundreds of groups have notfound their rightful place in the panoply ofwritten literature which abounds the worldo v e r, inasmuch as the predominant valuesborne by this literature are those of the domi-nant sectors; and the contours of the dividetwist and turn according to diff e rent patterns:and this gap has been and still is made up ofm o re illiterate women than men, more Blackpeople than White, more indigenous peoples.

It is true that any major stride made bymankind does not mean that all groups enjoyimmediate access to it; this is a process inwhich diff e rent forces, embodied by the vari-ous social actors, endeavour to ensure that thel a rgest possible number of people can enjoyand benefit from the redistribution of re s o u rc e sof any type. The history of mankind is also thehistory of such tension, sometimes expre s s e din antagonistic ways, sometimes in moreenlightened ways.

What is clear at this stage is that mankind’srevolutionary strides are being concentrated infewer and fewer hands.

And this concentration is undoubtedly ano ffshoot of the awesome development of newtechnologies which, like all those which con-v e rge in the multimedia industry, have beenthe cause of the breakdown of frontiers. In the

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Sounding the depths of convergence

Adriana RosenzvaigRegional Secretary,

Latin American Graphical Federation

global market there are already no fro n t i e r sbetween countries, and frontiers between dif-f e rent enterprises and diff e rent types of workare also fading fast.

The re p e rcussions that these technologicalinnovations have had in the various areas ofsocial intercourse are far- reaching and are any-thing but over. The starting point is that in thep roduction processes the predominance ofhuman labour has had to give way to the tech-nological factor which thrives strategically oninformation and knowledge. This drift, in turn,has given rise to new forms of org a n i z a t i o n a llogic, not only in the area of production but a l s ot h roughout society (and societies are org a n i z e don the basis of how their method of pro d u c t i o nis organized), in step with the globalizationp ro c e s s .3 Trujillo holds the view that, when allis considered, power which is daily more con-centrated and in fewer hands, frontiers whicha re boundless, the lack of regulatory mecha-nisms for the collective interests of mankind,and unprecedented scientific and technologicalp ro g ress (mankind has acquired divine power:the capacity to create new forms of life or tod e s t roy all existing ones, including itself, to citethe Cuban philosopher Juan Antonio Blanco) inan economically polarized world will, if thep resent inequalities between the industrializedand the developing countries are maintained,shift from mere injustice to inhumanity.

And here we return to the question of thegreat divide: as frontiers recede, chasms yawnwider and wider.

This paradox cannot fail to generate sub-stantially critical situations for the collectiveinterests of mankind.

The central issue is, again, to determinehow these unprecendented strides in knowl-edge will be spread; but the more burning oneis to know how the pro g ressive social forc e swill organize themselves to intervene and pro-mote these redistribution processes, despitethe declarations which proclaim “the end ofhistory” or “the end of Utopias”, and are partof the set of values which surround the pro c e s sof the development of information technolo-gies, and which reflect the thoughts and prior-ities of those who invent and develop them.

Men and women workers in the massmedia industries, of which entertainment is asubstantial part, must be at the centre of theseconsiderations which embrace both concre t e ,everyday trade union issues and others associ-ated with our commitment as citizens, menand women, in the defence of pluralist anddemocratic societies.

Workers dealing in knowledge

“Knowledge-based industries, such as to-day’s entertainment and mass media indus-tries, will be among those which surge to theforefront of tomorrow’s economy. The changesnow occurring therein may thus serve as har-bingers of developments in the twenty-firstc e n t u r y, revealing to us what it means to liveand work, produce and consume in the infor-mation society”.4

It is clear to us all that information and itshandling by “workers dealing in knowledge”will lay the ground for the economy in the nextmillennium. But which workers – men andwomen – will have access to vocational trainingto enable them to acquire the competence nec-essary to cope with the demands of the enter-prise? What jobs will be created and where ?What will be the most suitable skills for entryinto the labour market? How can this frag-mented labour force, without an identity of itsown, defend its interests? And, consequently,will these same men and women be able to con-tinue to identify with common intere s t s ?

S e e m i n g l y, most of these questions shouldbe answered only by the trade unions, sincethey relate to their ability to survive as re l e v a n tsocial entities. And yet, although it is clear thatwe in the trade unions must re flect – and are sodoing – on how we must re p resent the inter-ests of our members in times of intense change,these questions do not involve only workers’organizations.

As the ILO paper states, we are askingquestions about the future, about work, aboutthe survival of mutually supportive re l a t i o n-ships, about collective identity, and about af u t u re which, as the Mexican writer CarlosFuentes affirms, lets us believe that “pro g re s scan continue progressing”.

The reality before us today, in the context oftechnological progress regulated only by mar-ket needs, is that the concentration among thevarious business groups and the subsequenttertiarization of a major part of pro d u c t i o nhave given rise to production lines with highlyqualified workers at the top and a labour forceat the bottom turning out, for example, com-puter components. This latter labour force con-sists largely of women who most often work invery poor conditions, unprotected, and with-out any possibility of organizing in unions.

T h e re are few men workers – and evenfewer women – at the top of the pyramid; asthe pyramid widens, jobs are worse, pay isp o o r, and insecurity and exclusion are the

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order of the day. Below is the assembly line onwhich thousands and thousands of workers,especially women, labour long, hard days, fora pittance, with no hope of forming unions toobtain better living and working conditions. A tthe end of the line are teleworkers who dotheir jobs in far-flung places, connected to cen-tralized production and marketing sites.

The entire production line is involved withthe same product and it is there f o re essential toestablish legal priorities and collective barg a i n-ing for all those who are part of the informa-tion society, if not the base of the pyramid willbecome even wider, and the wages and livingand working conditions of the better qualifiedwill be dragged down.

To prevent the fissure caused by massmedia convergence from becoming a yawningdivide, it is essential to know “which jobs maydisappear, where new jobs will be created andwhat will be the best way of adapting tochange and promoting increased employmentand better living standards (…) The socialimpact of the information society should besubjected to critical analysis. Legal prioritiesand collective bargaining must be estab-l i s h e d : (a) to provide a legal and normativeframework to protect the social and labourrights of teleworkers and outworkers in iso-lated locations, connected to centralized pro-duction and marketing sites; (b) to ensure thatall employees – part-timers, full-timers orthose with an atypical profile – are allowed tobenefit from national, European or interna-tional social legislation; (c) to provide that t r a d eunions represent the interests of all employees,including those who work in remote places; (d)to ensure that changes in training or labouro rganization are conducted through negotia-tions with trade union re p resentatives and thatthe necessary training programmes incorpo-rate a development focus”.5

A new literacy process

What is certain is that the computer revolu-tion is giving rise to new fis s u res and makingit impossible to bridge the old ones. In practice,it calls for a new literacy process: what is notyet clear is whether the battle for re d i s t r i b u t i o nwill be won by those of us who maintain thatthe technological revolution must be a univer-sally shared asset, or whether the pro fit motivewill prevail, exacerbating marginalization andexclusion to hitherto unsuspected levels.

So far, it is undeniable that access to com-munication and information technologies has

been extremely uneven among the variousgeographical regions and diff e rent socialgroups, both in regard to its use as a source ofinformation and to the development of abilityand skill in using it.6 It is obvious that thedeveloped countries will little by little claimownership of these breakthroughs. But even inthe richest nation’s appropriation, the claim toownership will not take place equally if theexpansion of communication networks is car-ried out solely on the basis of free competition.Such an approach will result in nothing butfurther exclusion for the most vulnerable strataof society, an increasing concentration ofpower in urban/metropolitan society, the pro-g ressive isolation of people in far- flung are a sand a widening of the gap between rich andpoor.7

In this respect, if multimedia convergence isto lead to stronger democratic societies, weshall have to build a broad social consensuswhich supports the close interre l a t i o n s h i plinking the right to information and communi-cation, the right of access to technology and theinfrastructures which support it, and the rightto education, as a collective asset.8

A new paradigm

As we have said, communication and infor-mation technology reflects the thinking andpriorities of its inventors and developers. Ulti-m a t e l y, its outcome is, among other features, ag rowing concentration of mass media, moreand more takeover of information and culture ,an attempt to impose “one-track thinking”, fur-ther job cuts along with the creation of new jobsin extreme conditions of exploitation andu n regulated by any protective measures what-s o e v e r, virtually complete redefinition of theconcept of work and the workplace whichimplies, inter alia, the transfer of jobs to othercountries and to diff e rent areas within a coun-t r y, and the tertiarization of various pro d u c t i o ns e c t o r s .

But it also poses a brave challenge for thoseof us who must and can formulate a new socialpact designed to construct another paradigm,one to counter the attempt to impose “one-track thinking”. Such a paradigm would inpolicy and economic matters call for participa-tion in culture pluralism, responsibility in thearea of ecology, solidarity in ethics, and justicein the social sphere.

The breach produced by convergence canonly serve to aggravate exclusion and inequal-ity, which imperil mankind’s very future.

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But convergence also implies buildingbridges, if we can still place trust in the pro-found rationality in which solidarity, justiceand pluralism are steeped.

Notes

1 Marshall McLuhan: Understanding media – the extensionsof man, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964.

2 William Birdsal: Lecture at the Dalhousie Universityo f Canada on The Internet and the Ideology of InformationTe c h n o l o g y, 15 April, 1997.

3 Osvaldo León Trujillo: Alai, Ecuador, Servicio Informa-tivo (Information Service) 248-249, March 1997.

4 Symposium on Multimedia Converg e n c e. Discussionpaper, ILO, Geneva, 1997.

5 The Information Society: Policy statement by the Interna-tional Committee of Entertainment and Media Unions (ICEMU),Geneva, 8 June 1995.

6 Data published in El Diario Clarín of Argentina shows:80.5% of Internet users are from the United States, 7.09%f rom Canada and Mexico, 6.84% from Europe, 3.1% fro mOceania, 0.63% from South America, 0.37% from Africa, and0.16% from Central America. The same research reveals that91.84% of users are English-speaking. While the UnitedStates has 1,248 daily newspapers on line, the rest of theworld has a total of 1,154; the United States has 1,108 peri-odicals on line, the rest of the world has 565. (Research car-ried out by Patricia Kolesnicov and Marcelo More n o ,published in El Diario Clarín, Argentina, 7 October 1997).

7 ICEMU, op. cit.8 See paper of the Confederation of Communication

Workers’ Trade Unions (CSTC), Argentina, presented at theSymposium on Multimedia Convergence, ILO, Geneva,27January 1997.

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The construction of a Global InformationI n f r a s t ru c t u re (GII) and the emergence of aGlobal Information Society (GIS) are creating alinked and interdependent world. In such aworld, products and services which have tra-ditionally flowed through physical cre a t i o n ,p roduction and distribution are rapidly beingreplaced in many sectors by the digital transferof data and information within and acro s sborders.

The GIS is, however, much more than amass of technological developments which cre-ate new ways of doing business: it holds thepotential to transform fundamentally the waywe live, work and play. Governments have re c-ognized the importance of this change: in 1995,the G7 member countries agreed to the follow-ing Eight Principles for the Information Society:• promoting dynamic competition;• encouraging private investment;• defining an adaptable regulatory frame-

work;• providing open access to networks;

while

• ensuring universal provision of, and accessto services;

• p romoting equality of opportunity for thecitizen;

• p romoting diversity of content, includingcultural and linguistic diversity;

• recognizing the necessity of worldwidecooperation with particular attention toless-developed countries.

These principles have since been supportedin spirit by the Action Programme for Eco-nomic Cooperation (APEC) and over 30 coun-

tries at the Information Society and Develop-ment Conference in South Africa (May 1996).The issues they raised have also come to formthe foundation for ongoing work in manyo rganizations facing the challenges of techno-logical convergence, such as the Org a n i s a t i o nfor Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD), APEC, and the World Bank which fol-lowed up with the Global Knowledge Confer-ence in June 1997. Their common visionrecognizes that in order to realize its full poten-tial, the Global Information Society must beinclusive as well as reflective of all people.Technology is not a neutral or independentf o rce – it is a tool which can be harnessed toachieve economic, social and cultural ends.The GIS is characterized by three key factors:• Deployment of information and communication

technologies (ICTs ). The rapid diff u s i o n ,development (i.e. digitization), and conver-gence of communications technologies( b roadcasting, cable, satellite, telecommuni-cations) are increasing the technologicalcapacity and capability around the world.

• Global economic integration. Trade liberaliza-tion combined with the burgeoning of neweconomies are together engendering highlycompetitive world markets and shapingboth national and international policy andregulatory environments.

• Cultural diversity. Accompanying the stro n gf o rces of economic integration is world-wide concern for the maintenance of cul-tural sovereignty and diversity.

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Adopting a cultural policy

Convergence and content in the informationsociety: The Canadian experience

Barbara MotzneySenior Policy Analyst, Broadcasting Policy Branch

Department of Canadian HeritageGovernment of Canada

The content industries – harbingerof the future

The traditional arts and culture industrieswhich constitute the source of content for theinformation society are also considered inmany countries to have, in addition to theireconomic significance, a unique role as cre a t o r sand conveyors of cultural identity, and are per-ceived as a force contributing to social cohe-sion. It is broadly acknowledged that in ord e rto participate fully as producers and con-sumers in the information society, people mustsee themselves reflected in its content. The cre-ation and dissemination of locally originatedand relevant content will encourage the usageof on-line services by geographically basedcommunities and bring together communitiesof interest. Similarly, the growth and develop-ment of indigenous content industries willhave a significant impact upon our ability toachieve the cultural and linguistic diversity inthe Information Society envisaged by the G7Principles.

It follows, there f o re, that the evolution ofthe industries which make up the content sec-tor are a harbinger of the future. They are, bytheir very nature, knowledge-intensive andbased upon the ICTs whose deployment is sorapidly increasing the capacity and capabilityof countries around the world. Digitizationand convergence are globalizing these some-what ephemeral industries at a rate which faroutpaces those based in more physical pro d u c-tion. It is widely acknowledged that the con-tent (the value-added products and services)p rovided through the infrastru c t u re will be thestrongest source of future growth in the infor-mation economy.

Examining challenges facing the contentindustries as a fore running “case-study” willp rovide important indications for the emerg-ing post-industrial, information-based econ-o m y, showing us what it means to live andwork, produce and consume in the GIS. Thisarticle will attempt to provide an overview ofthe Canadian approach to the informations o c i e t y, and of the role of the content industriesas it has been developing in Canada.

Canada’s cultural policy framework

Canada is a small and geographically dis-persed market, in very close proximity to theworld’s strongest international player whose“entertainment” sector is the dominant playerin all of our cultural and content sectors. The

objectives of the policy which pro m o t eCanada’s cultural sector have always been to:• e n s u re the presence of Canadian voices and

Canadian choices;

• facilitate cultural expression, participationand exchange to build and share commonexperience and values among Canadians;and

• foster an environment in which Canada’sarts and heritage are preserved and appre-ciated by audiences at home and abro a dt h rough access and support to cre a t o r s ,cultural organizations, industries and insti-tutions.

To achieve these objectives, Canada has setin place a framework of institutions, policies,laws and regulations, programmes and tools toe n s u re a Canadian presence in the cre a t i o n ,p roduction and distribution of cultural pro d-ucts. Within this framework, partnership oper-ates as the key principle to ensure the in-volvement of provincial and local govern-ments, private business people and the non-profit cultural sector.

This policy framework, together with itsg e o g r a p h y, history and diversity, have helpedto make Canada one of the world’s most openmarkets for cultural products. Foreign culturalp roducts have widespread access to Canada’sretail stores, distribution systems, film screens,theatres and airwaves. In 1994:

• m o re than 80 per cent of English languagemagazines on Canadian news-stands wereimported;

• 88 per cent of new releases in record storeswere foreign content recordings;

• f o reign films occupy about 95 per cent ofCanadian screen time; and

• in 1995, foreign content made up 61 percent of total programming available onCanadian television.

The essential objective of Canada’s culturalpolicy framework, that of promoting culturaland linguistic diversity of content, is now con-sidered a cornerstone of the GIS and remains afundamental element in creating the Informa-tion Society in Canada.

The content industries in Canada

The growth of vibrant, creative and com-petitive indigenous content industries willcontribute strongly to the information econ-

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o m y. Creative talent manifested in its diverseforms – be it as painter, computer pro g r a m m e r,or actor – will be integral to the production ofweb sites for rock bands which incorporatetext, sound and video images, to the 3-D imag-ing and digital cataloguing of cultural artifacts,or to the construction of attractive user-friendly on-demand banking services over theInternet. These new products must be pro-duced, created and developed. They must then– like all goods and services – be distributed,marketed, retailed and purchased. However,all this will take place in a new value-addednetwork, linking players from many diff e re n ttraditional sectors as they come together todeliver new products and services.

The GIS will offer creators and entre p re-neurs around the world the opportunity todevelop information and content products andservices for domestic and international mar-kets. Today’s producers of cultural contentsuch as broadcasters and audiovisual pro d u c-ers are entering new markets and off e r i n go p p ortunities whenever they create comple-mentary products to their traditional activities,develop new content-based business and suc-cessfully face the challenge of cultural diversity.These new forms of content and informationa re already starting to exercise a certain impacton innovation, investment, economic gro w t hand job creation.

If the arts and culture sector, as traditionallyd e fined and including new content industries– like multimedia – is to become a catalyst forcultural and linguistic diversity of content, itwill also serve as an important economic andemployment engine for Canada. A c c o rding to1993-94 Statistics Canada estimates, in Canada:

• The direct impact of the arts and culturalsector reached $29.5 billion, with dire c temployment totalling 900,000 jobs.

• Expanding the above definition to measureCanadian content in the information society(culture and information services) – includ-ing relevant aspects of the telecommunica-tions and computer services sectors – thevalue increased to more than $50 billion or9 per cent of the total economy, andemploying some 1.25 million people.

The broadcasting and cable industries

In 1993-94, Canadian broadcasting cre a t e d54,700 jobs and contributed $3.5 billion to theG D P. Including indirect impact, this incre a s e sto some 81,000 jobs and $5.5 billion. The bro a d-

casting and cable industries provide bro a d-casting services to households. Ten years ago,this meant that broadcasters created, pro d u c e dor acquired television and radio programmingthat was scheduled and provided to house-holds over the air or through cable. Today thissector includes programmes and services: con-ventional; pay; pay-per-view; and specialtyp rogramming distributed over the air, bycable, through direct-to-home satellite, or othercommunications technologies. In five years,b roadcasting and cable technologies maydefine a range of audio/video/digital pro-grammes, services and transactional undertak-ings from around the world that can be accessedby households through a selected technologicall i n k .

The broadcasting and cable industries havea critical strategic advantage for the informa-tion society: the technological link into thehousehold. Te c h n o l o g y, which traditionallyused to provide one-way programming, isbecoming the household connection to a rangeof products and services. This strategic advan-tage will not last long: the broadcasting andcable industries must be organized to meet thechallenge. To compete effectively in the GIS,Canadian broadcasting and cable industriesmust have the human and financial re s o u rc e sto: exploit the potential of new technologies(i.e. digital video compression); face increasingcompetition from existing and new distribu-tion technologies; adapt to a revenue basechanging from advertising to subscription rev-enues; and diversify into new markets, bothgeographic and those created by new tech-nologies and new market segments. The GISprovides a particularly critical opportunity forthe Canadian broadcasting industry which hastraditionally faced the challenges of a small,sparse population base over which to spre a dhigh costs and risks of programme pro d u c t i o n .Companies, particularly small and mediumenterprises (SMEs), will need to define, iden-tify and access the skills and expertisenecessary to develop export and investmentreadiness.

The multimedia sector

“Multimedia” is the name given to thespace where creative and cultural content arebeing brought to bear in “non-traditional”a reas and new product extensions. For exam-ple, the new global broadcaster WETV workedwith Apple Computer to provide interactivecoverage of the Habitat II Summit from Tu r k e y

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in 1996 via television and the Internet to permitongoing coverage of the conference to re fle c tthe input of viewers and “surfers”.

In Canada, this young industrial sector isg rowing at a rate which outpaces the generaleconomy. To illustrate:• In 1993-94, the direct impact of computer

services and of cultural and communicationssectors on the economy totalled just over $1billion and created some 123,000 jobs.

• In the five years ending 1993-94, the tradi-tional cultural industries most closelyinvolved with CD-ROM production – bookpublishers and exclusive agents (distribu-tors with exclusive Canadian rights) – haveshown revenue growth of 16 per cent, andfilm producers reported a 71 per centi n c rease in revenues during the samep e r i o d .

• 1994 estimates for Canadian householdsshowed that two-thirds of computer own-ers had a CD-ROM, with an average of 4.2CD-ROM titles. Among Internet and on-line users this number more than doubles.

The dynamism of this sector is exemplifiedby the Canadian software company Corel Cor-poration. In 1994 Corel accounted for some 80per cent of its sales from “Coreldraw” soft-w a re. Since then it has added new pro d u c t sranging from interactive children’s entertain-ment to computer-aided design. When askedwhat the common thread was, its chairmanreplied “multimedia software tools anyone canuse to communicate creatively”.

R e s e a rch on Canadian multimedia compa-nies has only recently begun, but pre l i m i n a r yresults show that Canadian multimedia com-panies are:

• Relatively young (60 per cent under 5 years).

• Privately held (86 per cent).

• Involved in a wide range of activities, anda re marginally pro fitable (53 per cent indi-cate profits, although profit may also comefrom other than multimedia activities).

• Multidisciplinary project-based consortiabringing together traditional contentindustries and new players (e.g. computerindustry).

• Focused on business, education or govern-ment markets.

In questioning these companies, the follow-ing key success factors have been identified:

• Ability to conduct re s e a rch and develop-ment to ensure early access to rapidlyevolving underlying technologies.

• Domestic and international market re s e a rc hand intelligence (e.g. digital literacy, aware-ness, available infrastructure).

• P e rception of product in meeting needs,and of “Canadian” products (domestic andinternational).

• Access to production financing (i.e. invest-ment capital, strategic alliances).

• Qualified and skilled technical and man-agerial personnel.

It is interesting to note that the multidimen-sional and project orientation of these compa-nies – bringing together creative, technical andadministrative talents – are similar to that oftraditional Canadian cultural industries. Thisnew segment of the content industry is notvery different from its predecessors.

Convergence and the Canadian workerin the content sector

This complex and dynamic environment isre flected in the increasingly professional andhighly skilled broadcasting workforce. In 1996,preliminary work was undertaken by the Gov-ernment to examine employment in the ICTindustries. This pioneering work, based on themost recent available census data (covering theperiod 1986-91) crosses traditional sectorallines and, while not definitive, indicated thatover the period 1986-91:• The number of people working in the

broadcasting field grew by 14.5 per cent.

• Employed workers without trainingbeyond high school dropped from 44 percent to 38.5 per cent of the workforce.

• Employment of those with college certifi-cates grew by 26.4 per cent and of thosewith university qualifications by 24.6 percent. This growth in employment of thosewith more than secondary-school trainingwas felt in both the management and cleri-cal fields.

Similar employment and enviro n m e n t a lt rends are evident in the emerging contentindustries. The content industries are lookingfor skilled, educated and flexible workers whowill contribute effectively to the projects athand. Knowledge – current, and strategicknowledge of ICTs and their implications for

8

the content industries – is a key attribute, andindependence and flexibility the re q u i re dapproach.

The cultural workers appear to meet therequired profile according to an analysis of the1993 Canadian Cultural Labour Force Surveyundertaken in 1996. The survey questioned asample of Canadian cultural workers (includ-ing the full range of artistic and culturalemployment categories) and found that:

• 22 per cent more cultural workers havepost-secondary education, and 24 per centm o re have degrees, than in the generalCanadian labour force (55 per cent of work-ing Canadians have some post-secondaryeducation, 17 per cent have degre e s ,w h e reas in the cultural labour force 77 percent have post-secondary education, 41 percent have degrees); and

• 30 per cent of cultural workers work exclu-sively as self-employed, and 25 per cent dosome work on that basis.

However,

• 65 per cent of the cultural workers sur-veyed reported that technological change(e.g. in the form of the computer) hada ffected their involvement with the culturalsector, but 30 per cent had not received anytraining in response to the change;

• t w o - t h i rds of the respondents did notreport a need for training;

• the most effective training forums werecited as: on-the-job, professional develop-ment and university;

• the primary reasons for not pursuing train-ing were the constraints of cost and time;and

• in many cases, the occupational gro u p smost likely to have expressed a desire fortraining, but did not receive it, were thesame groups who are most often self-employed (musicians, writers, painters,actors, dire c t o r s / p roducers, crafts peopleand designers).

These findings, although pre l i m i n a r y, high-light critical issues for employment in the infor-mation society: there is a clear re q u i rement for as t rong academic foundation and a broad rangeof technical and interpersonal skills which arecontinually honed and updated. Among thechallenges to be faced will be reconciling thesere q u i rements with the increasing incidence of

contingent forms of work. How can the self-employed worker with no training budget ortime allowance, and with little access to “on-the-job” training, remain curre n t ?

A new partnership

The traditional value-chain describing pro-duction in the industrial society, in whiche a c h linear step in the process added value, isbeing replaced in the information society by acomplex, open and constantly changing“value-added network”. The keys to successwill be:• e ffective individuals able to participate

actively as citizens, consumers and employ-ees using and producing with new tech-nologies, their knowledge and skillscontinually updated and honed;

• high-performance teams which bring theright people together from many disci-plines acting flexibly and innovatively atthe right time to serve the needs of clientsor accomplish a task; and

• organizations as a platform for innovationwho flexibly and innovatively re c re a t ethemselves through extended enterpriselinking to achieve and maintain strategiccompetitive advantage.

These innovative organizations and high-performance teams arising in or between com-panies, or involving self-employed workers,will only be effective for all participants if theyoccur within a working environment whichrespects and fulfils the needs of all. Realizingthe three objectives for achieving the desire demployment environment will depend upon aframework which includes:• access to information and technology,

including physical and technical access top roducts and services; aff o rdable access toinformation networks and indigenous con-tent; education, skills and aptitudes (digitalliteracy);

• recognition and support for non-tradi-tional forms of employment which re l a t eto the information society; and

• collaboration between business, workersand their unions, and government t oexplore opportunities for training and con-tinual skilling.

L a s t l y, this framework also demandsanother success factor:

9

ing to the Minister of Labour. Although thep rocess was not designed to provide re c o m-mendations, several common themes emergedin the two reports issued in 1997:• Investing in people is the key to Canada’s

f u t u re, and the responsibility of all socialpartners.

• The social impacts of new technologiesmust be understood and addressed toe n s u re a common base and the delivery ofbasic human rights.

• T h e re is a need for national vision and toe n s u re that public policy and re g u l a t o r yi n s t ruments facilitate the achievement ofobjectives.

• T h e re is no single, universal solution asi n t e rests and needs are diverse and some-times conflicting. Ongoing mechanisms fordialogue among all social partners onissues related to the changing workplaceare required.

Conclusion

The GIS is all about linkages – the linking ofnetworks, content and people through a vari-ety of technologies and in a variety of newways. In the GIS there is also a link betweenthe smooth functioning of the workplace andp ro d u c t i v i t y, competitiveness, and the pro f-itability of corporations.

The needs of all social players must bea d d ressed in a global context in order to de-velop an information society in Canada whichachieves the Government’s strategic objectivesto: create jobs through innovation and invest-ment; re i n f o rce Canadian sovereignty and cul-tural identity; and ensure universal access at areasonable cost.

N o w h e re is the GIS “appearing” eitherfully operational or integrated. The movementtowards a Global Information Society in whichthe full potential social, cultural and economicbenefits accrue to all who seek them willinvolve significant structural and org a n i z a-tional adjustment, and a rethinking and recast-ing of the roles of all actors in society. Thechallenge for the Government is to find the bal-ance to stimulate this new cross-sectoral econ-

omic activity while advancing social and cul-tural policy objectives. Linkages are also thefoundation of the way forward – linkagesamong industrial sectors, governments, thesocial partners, companies, institutions andindividuals.

Bibliography

Durand, Michel G., John, Gordon: “Economic impact of thec u l t u re and information services industries in Canada:The value of Canadian content”, Culture Statistics Pro-gram, in Statistics Canada, Sep. 1996.

C h e n e y, Terry: Perspectives on training in the cultural sector:Drawing implications from the 1993 Cultural Labour Forc eSurvey, Working document, Cultural Human ResourcesCouncil, Summer 1996.

“Citizen gates”, in The Economist, 23 Nov. 1996, pp. 69-70.

Tapscott, Don: The digital economy: Promise and peril in the ageof networked intelligence, McGraw-Hill, 1996.

Bagnall, James: “Making sense of the noise at Corel”, inOttawa Citizen, 16 Jan. 1996.

DJC Research: “IMAT: The multimedia industry in Canada”,May 1995.

Chair’s conclusions, G7 Ministerial Conference on the Infor-mation Society, G7 Ministerial Conference Summary,B russels, 25-26 February 1995, Office for Official Publi-cations of the European Communities, Luxembourg.

The Angus Reid Group: Canadian households in the informa-tion age, June 1995.

Neice, David: Information technology and citizen participation,Department of Canadian Heritage, Autumn 1996.

Hansen, Wendy: “Information and communications tech-nologies: Initial re s e a rch results on skills and employ-ment linkages – Computer services, telecommunicationscarriers, telecommunications broadcasting”, in IndustryCanada, June 1996.

Information Highway Advisory Council: Connection, com-m u n i t y, content: The challenge of the information highway,Information Highway Advisory Council, 1995.

—: Report of the Canadian Content and Culture Working Group,Information Highway Advisory Council, 1995.

—: Building the information society: Moving Canada into the 21stcentury, Government of Canada, 1996.

—: P reparing Canada for a digital world, Final Report of theInformation Highway Advisory Council, Sep. 1997.

The information highway and workplace issues: Challenges ando p p o r t u n i t i e s, National Forum, Collective Reflection onthe Changing Workplace, Final Report, Government ofCanada, July 1997.

Collective reflection on the changing workplace, Report of theAdvisory Committee on the Changing Workplace, Gov-ernment of Canada, June 1997.

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12

It has been said that multimedia will stimu-late the artistic and cultural sensibilities of peo-ple and create a new world of communication,that it could become the key industry for thetwenty-first century in Japan. To d a y, digitaltechnology makes it possible for musical per-formers to use and enjoy multimedia. Beforethe 1970s, it would have been normal for 50performers, including soloists, to assemble forthe purpose of making a re c o rding in a hall or astudio at the same time, to perform simultane-ously under the baton of a conductor, and toi n t e r p ret a piece of music. Such music was thejoint creation of a composer, singers and per-formers, communicating with one another andsharing time and space. Even a sense of soli-darity reigned among them because they col-laborated with one another in performance andp roduction. At that time, studio musicians werecommonly employed by re c o rding companies,while broadcasting companies engaged theirown orchestras under exclusive contracts.

The whole dissolves into parts

H o w e v e r, as technology advanced, thepractice of such simultaneous re c o rd i n g sbegan to decline. Gradually, re c o rdings cameto be made by each instrumental group sepa-rately: percussion, strings, wood wind or brassg roup, for instance. After such partial re c o rd-ings were made, sound engineers merg e dthem to make an accompaniment track onwhich song was then recorded and the perfor -mance was completed. As a result, performersstarted to convert the score of their own partsinto sound without necessarily getting hold ofthe whole partition. At the same time, musi-

cians under exclusive contracts were re p l a c e dby freelance musicians.

Today, the means of producing records haschanged far more dramatically with the intro-duction of an electronic device, the synthesizer,which arrived on the market in the mid-1960sand made it possible for the producers ofre c o rds to exploit digital sources of sound. Per-formers who once had to be present andperform in the studio ceded place to thes y nthesizers and disappeared from the record-ing scene: the new form of talent re q u i re dcame in the form of the new skills of synthe-sizer programmers who took part in pro d u c i n gre c o rds. They made full use of synthesizers toe x p ress today through digital sounds whatcomposers wrote yesterd a y. Physical instru-ments which produced simple sound pulsew e re almost all replaced by synthesizers assampling technology developed and soundsc reated by synthesizers became more diverse.Synthesizers drew the curtain on the old musi-cal world. Nowadays, acoustic instruments arejust used to flavour synthesizer sounds or inorder to add to the depth of tone.

Professional status of performersthreatened

M o re o v e r, performers are now exposed toan even greater menace since MIDI 1 standardsw e re developed and computers have startedc o n t rolling synthesizers. As performers, theyhad spent a lifetime acquiring skills, investingimmense effort. Now, overnight, people with-out any professional musical skill can producesounds and harmonies easily by putting datainto computers and can take part in producing


Multimedia convergence and changes inthe production system and in working conditions

for musicians: Implications for adoptinga cultural policy. The case of Japan

Shinji MatsumotoGeneral Secretary,

International Federation of Musicians’ Union of Japan

13

musical re c o rdings, with the result that theprofessional status of instrumental performersis increasingly threatened.

Today, sound tracks of cinema films, musicin commercial films, dramatic performances,computer games and sound sources forkaraoke are all produced in the afore m e n-tioned circumstances, although pro d u c t i o n susing synthesizers or computers as substitutesfor acoustic instruments fig u re poorly amongthe best-selling re c o rds. Many studio musi-cians there f o re find themselves at a loose endwith dim prospects for employment.

Synthesizers items of householdfurniture

Meanwhile, the few synthesizer pro g r a m-mers who had initially superseded performersdid not keep their privileged status for longbecause synthesizers became cheaper and startedfeaturing as a common item of household fur-n i t u re, so easy to be handled by everyone. Sowithin a short space of time the programmers’function, too, has also become “de-skilled”.

The working conditions of studio musi-cians have been enormously influenced bythese changes, which in turn have led to threep roblems which may be identified as follows:

1. Recording fees have depreciated as a resultof both union and individual negotiationsto safeguard jobs. Although the annualincome of orchestra players increased by5 3 per cent on average during the lastdecade, minimum scales for studio musi-cians in producing broadcasting pro-grammes and re c o rds rose only by 35 and20 per cent respectively.

2. F reelance musicians never benefit fro msocial security systems or provisions, norf rom unemployment insurance which otherworkers enjoy, so they cannot make a livingwhen they lose their job.

3. The third problem involves the question of“neighbouring rights”, i.e. whether or not itis possible to define the synthesizer pro-grammer and the sound producer makinguse of computers as performers in copy-right law, and as beneficiaries on the basisof neighbouring rights.

Poor employment opportunities

It is also essential to examine how perform-ers’ jobs have changed in the era of multi-chan-nel broadcasting making use of multimedia

and satellite. CD-ROMs have been pro d u c e dabove all to be used through computers. A l lmultimedia products dealing with informationa re involved, ranging from phonograms toimages, texts and graphics, but as far as per-formers are concerned, this convergence doesnot increase employment opportunities.

That is to say, it is almost always the casethat Compact Disc (CD) sounds are used forthe sound component of CD-ROMs, but if onlysounds need to be specially created for a CD-ROM, the work would be done by a smallnumber of persons making use of the applica-tions of new technology.

Just re-broadcasts of run-of-the-mill

M o re o v e r, digital television broadcasting ontelecommunications satellite has come intopractice but almost all of the programmes arere - b roadcasts of usual TV programmes orb roadcasts of foreign films or programmes pur-chased from abroad. From the musicians’ per-spective, the only good news is that the numberof concerts broadcast has increased slightly.

Multimedia producers and bro a d c a s t i n genterprises maintain that the contents of thep roducts are very important, although theirstrategy is not to encourage creating newworks but instead to make use of former prod-ucts as cheaply and easily as possible, oracquiring products made in foreign countries.As a result, neighbouring rights granted to per-formers have come under attack. It very oftenoccurs that producers of broadcast pro-grammes bring pressure to bear on performersto transfer their rights at the time of conclud-ing contracts so that they sign them over for allf u t u re uses of the programmes in which theyperform only once.

These practices are not unique to Japan butwidely prevail all over the world.

Fell short of expectations

The new World Intellectual Property Orga-nization (WIPO) Performances and Phono-grams Tre a t y, on the agenda since 1993, wasadopted by the Diplomatic Conference held inDecember 1996. The new treaty fell far short ofexpectations: although performers all over theworld expected the Treaty to be an instrumentfor protecting their rights in the era of multi-media, they found it both anachronistic andvoid of any provisions for securing any rightsre g a rding performances accompanied by othermultimedia affiliations.

What is indicative in the recent phenomenais that social communication has changed dras-t i c a l l y. Instead of re flecting on social issues andspending the time necessary to develop thed i ff e rent arts and cultures, the most pre s s i n ggoal today seems to be to find ways of savingtime and money rather than enjoy cultures intheir essence. Furthermore, technological inno-vations do not always contribute to the devel-opment of human ability.

On the other hand, re s e a rch and disserta-tion are made far easier by searching variousdata through easy access to Internet or CD-ROMs, importing them into a word pro c e s s o rand merging them.

To expedite business

No one will challenge the claim that newtechnology holds infinite promise and thathumanity has been galvanized into a new eraof civilization as a result of the electronic chip.Yet a nagging doubt remains: is human intelli -gence really being marshalled to serve theupliftment of the moral and social condition ofmankind, or merely to expedite business andcheap forms of entertainment?

S i m i l a r l y, the psychological consequencesof computer games on children are still to bem e a s u red. A spate of media reports over thepast five years have justifiably aroused alarm,in particular about the ability of young chil-d ren to distinguish between the real world andthe virtual world. It is not yet apparent whetherthe computer generation in the making will beequipped with the same perception of theirrole in society as the previous generation. Inother words, the scales may tilt in favour ofstrictly temporal values as opposed to the sub-tle and spiritual energies from which springlasting creativity.

It can hardly be claimed that morals inJapan draw any particular inspiration fro mreligion; nor that democracy has shaped Japan-ese culture in any depth.

Glued to the screen

Such a society makes light of life itself aswell as the dignity of individuals. Recent evi-dence shows that many Japanese people havebeen developing the attitude that those whocannot make full use of the latest computer andmultimedia technology can hardly be classedas “human beings”. Such an attitude is becom-ing more and more widespread in a societyw h e re an alarming proportion of Japanese chil-

d ren have stopped communicating with theirfamily and friends and, glued to k e y b o a rd ands c reen, are wholly and solely devoted to thevirtual world. It is urgent to re flect on the fullcultural implications of this attitude: what kindof adults are being pre p a red for tomorro w ’ sworld? A re adults today inculcating them withlasting human values or will they be left to driftmorally and spiritually?

Learning from history

When the television and the telephone wereinvented, much had been staked on them asi n s t ruments of education, culture and democ-ratization. No doubt there are lessons to belearned from an audiovisual history that havenot yet been fully placed at the service of pol-icy-making at the highest levels. It might stillnot be too late to recover lost opportunities.

We face a paradox: as time-space barriersfall with the daily advance of computers, wea c q u i re the illusion that our horizons are re c e d-ing and that our playing-field is transcendingall frontiers. The humble reality may well bethat we are caged in computers in such a waythat artistic and cultural growth are re s t r i c t e dwithin the confines of the computer and itss o f t w a re, producing an environment which sti-fles sensibilities and where creativity cannotflourish. The result is a flat, monotonous soci-ety where every object is a replica of the other.

Too outward-looking

P reserving traditional cultural form is notsolely a cause for concern by our counterpartsin the developing countries. Originally, Japanalso tended to assimilate foreign culturea n d technology unconditionally. Recoveringrapidly from the effects of the Second Wo r l dWa r, Japan has pro s p e red economicallybecause it has been keen to adopt technologyand innovative know-how from foreign coun-tries, commercialize them and export the com-m e rcialized pro d u c t s .

As in the case of developing countries, oure fforts to create our own arts and culture areh a rdly visible, while many of us enjoy musicf rom abroad as well as feature films. As far asmusic is concerned, half the number of CDspublished yearly in Japan are produced in for-eign countries. A quarter of the number of clas-sical concerts held in Japan each year areperformed by foreigner ensembles, and halfthe total amount collected in admission fees istaken out of Japan.

14

15

Japanese swampedby foreign culture

M o re re c e n t l y, with the advent of Internet,f o reign cultures are being imported more andm o re massively into Japan. The opportunitiesfor Japanese musicians to perform in order tolet Japanese culture flourish have beend e c reasing steadily because of insuff i c i e n tsupport for cultural activities from the Gov-ernment and a market dominated by fore i g nc u l t u re, a situation which re p resents a farm o re serious problem than that of mechanicalu n e m p l o y m e n t .

Like any other technological development,the computer needs to be acknowledged as ani n s t rument at the service of communicationand information, but to envisage a societyw h e re interpersonal face-to-face communica-tion has ceded place to communication withvirtual interlocutors rightly sounds the alarm.

Technology no substitutefor human activity

Performers have throughout the ages beenappealing to people’s artistic and cultural sen-sibilities. Musical performances have nurturedpeople’s urge to live; those very people in turnhave encouraged musicians to keep on cre a t-

ing. Centuries of such effort have pro d u c e dartistic works which have contributed to theadvancement of civilized societies. So technol-ogy, however sophisticated, should not be per-ceived as a substitute for human activity. Lifeitself could not be lived without artistic formsof expression. Artistic activity is one of themain distinguishing factors of mankind. Ibelieve multimedia society will not matureunless the emotions of human beings arere s t o red to their rightful place as humanity’smost valuable possession.

We must not be controlled by any form ofnew technology, however powerful or attrac-tive. We must demand social standards withhuman beings at the centre. Social policy mustbe shaped so that new technology is only are s o u rce to be drawn on and is by no meanstendered as a substitute for individual humancreativity.

Note

1 The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) stan-d a rds decribe how to build electrical interfaces to interc o n-nect diff e rent musical instruments and sequencers, whicha re devices to store and replay music information. The MIDIstandards describe a file format for how sequencers shoulds t o re music information so it can be transported amongsequencers: that format is the usual MIDI.

16

The path leading to the informationsociety

New information and communication tech-nology is a key generator of radical change ineconomic stru c t u res and of increasing global-ization. On the information superh i g h w a y,national boundaries as barriers to the forg i n gand expansion of business relations have fadedinto insignificance. The meteoric pace of tech-nological progress and rapidly falling prices inthe information and communication technol-ogy branch promote the emergence of new ser-vices and far-reaching changes in the technicaland organizational stru c t u res underlying thep roduction of both goods and services. Newtechnology will also change the consumptions t ru c t u re of private households – in interactionand combination with traditional media suchas print, sound and image data (multimedia).

This stru c t ural change is compounded bythe fact that all actors involved in the informa-tion business are aware of existing opportuni-ties to amalgamate communication, informationand entertainment items in a multimedia pack-age. A l t h o ugh efforts to integrate diverse indi-vidual markets seem – as yet – to be p ro c e e d i n galong less than revolutionary lines, all actors –both globally and, for example, in Germany –are engaged in a process of securing their terri-tory for future operations. This is true not onlyof services, for example the combination of tra-ditional information and entertainment pack-ages with added-value services, but also of theoutput of commodities, as reflected in the con-test to produce a television set or multimediaPC incorporating specific new functions that isdestined to become the ultimate in standardequipment for future multimedia households.

All these circumstances with their associ-ated synergies and enhancement of eff i c i e n c y

a re bound to have implications for employ-ment, entailing substantial changes in workingconditions and exerting a major impact on theway in which activities are stru c t u red in theworkplace. Impressive evidence of these tre n d sin Germany has been provided by the Labour-Market and Occupational Research Institute inN u re m b e rg, which estimates that 50 per cent ofthe German workforce is currently employed ini n f o r m a t i o n - related activities. With the adventof the new millennium, this percentage isexpected to increase further, reaching about5 5 per cent by the year 2010 (see Fig. 1). Similarestimates exist for the United States of A m e r i c a .

An intensive debate has been taking placein recent years, both globally and within coun-tries, on the impact of the information society,inter alia at a Conference of Ministers of theG roup of Seven Countries (1995) and in thecontext of an European Union (EU) Task Forceheaded by Commissioner Bangemann, whose1994 recommendations have served as thebasis for a European programme of action.

Policy-making bodies in Germany are alsoa w a re of the structural task confronting them.In 1996 the Federal Government issued areport entitled Info 2000 – Germany’s path to theinformation society and the German Parliamenthas set up an Investigation Committee on “TheFuture of the Media in the Economy and Society.”

Notwithstanding persistent uncertaintiesre g a rding future developments, particularlyi n employment, a consensus has developedamong re p resentatives of political and eco-nomic circles and trade unions concerning theneed for an industrial nation to face up to thechallenges of the information society if itwishes to defend its competitive position,t h e reby creating new employment opportuni-ties and securing existing jobs. In a nutshell,countries that move at full speed into the infor-


Information Society 2000. The German experienceof multimedia convergence

Jürgen WarnkenFederal Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare

Germany

17

mation society will enjoy a higher- t h a n - a v e r-age share in its prospective benefits in terms ofgrowth and employment.

We shall briefly describe below the areas inwhich the German Federal Government is cur-

rently seeking to support progress towards theinformation society, specific re q u i rements foraction in the fields of educational, labour andsocial policy, and areas in which successeshave already been scored.

Fig. 1. The four “sectors” model (1882-2010). Share of the “sectors” in overall employment

Source: IAB (Institute for Employment Research)

Relative figures (percentage of employees)

Year Sectors Information Totalsector

I II III IV

1882 46 30 12 12 1001895 39 34 14 13 1001907 35 35 15 14 1001925 30 36 20 14 1001933 29 37 22 13 1001939 26 38 22 15 1001950 22 38 22 18 1001961 13 41 25 23 1001970 8 40 24 29 100

1980 5 34 21 40 1001982 5 32 22 41 1001985 5 31 23 41 1001987 4 30 24 42 1001989 4 30 24 43 1001991 3 29 24 44 100

1995 3 25 21 51 1002000 3 23 21 53 1002005 2 22 22 54 1002010 2 21 23 55 100

Editor’s note: Slight total differences due to rounding of figures.

The Federal Government’s “Info 2000”action plan

The transition to the information societyp resents policy-makers with two challenges:• A p p ropriate basic structural conditions

must be created;• Policies should assist in turning scientific

and technological advances to account inthe form of practical innovations at enter-prise level and in securing acceptance onthe part of the individuals concerned (speed-ing up rates of dissemination).

The measures proposed under the FederalGovernment’s “Info 2000” action plan (seeF i g . 2) focus on the following two objectives.(The plan itself is the result of extensive analy-sis designed to achieve pro g ress along the pathinto the information society as swiftly as possi-ble in order to enhance international competi-tiveness.)

1. With a view to establishing basic stru c-tural conditions, a multifaceted potential for leg-islative investigation and action was created. Thisrelates, inter alia, to legislation on competition,the media, data protection and security, andprotection of consumers and young people.

An important milestone on the journey intothe information society was reached in July1996 with the passage of a Te l e c o m m u n i c a-

tions Act. The communication network markethas now been opened to all service pro v i d e r sfor more than a year. From 1998, the market forvoice services, i.e. telephone services, will alsobe opened up to private operators. A l a rg enumber of actors are currently taking up posi-tions in the expanded markets through com-pany re s t ructuring processes and theformation of strategic alliances. National fron-tiers are disappearing at an accelerated pace.To ensure that the transition from a re g u l a t e dto an open market occurs as smoothly as possi-ble, a newly established independent re g u l a-tory authority will begin to operate in 1998. Itwill be responsible, inter alia, for ensuringt h rough its licensing policy that the supply ful-fils high-quality criteria and safety standard s .

A further important milestone was the pas-sage this summer of an Information and Com -munication Services Act which came into forceon 1 August 1997. The Act is intended, in par-t i c u l a r, to eliminate obstacles to the free play ofmarket forces in the new information and com-munication services sector. Providers of on-lineservices and information of all kinds in thee l e c t ronic business are to be off e red a re l i a b l econtext in which to operate. In addition, regu-latory action was necessary in the areas of datap rotection, digital signatures and other are a s .The clarity thus created in the situation forinvestors in the new markets was generallywelcomed.

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1. Strengthening of the market-basedregulatory frameworkDevelopment of the legal framework

1.1 Liberalization of the telecommunicationsector

1.2 Legal framework for new information andcommunication services

1.3 Regulation of competition1.4 Data protection1.5 Labour law1.6 Consumer protection1.7 P rotection of young people against illegal

and harmful contents1.8 Protection of intellectual property1.9 Security of information technology systems

and telecommunication infrastructure1.10 Crime prevention

2. Dialogue with business and other sectors ofsociety

3. Education and training system

4. Promotion of research and development

5. IT strategy in public administration

6. Norms and standards

7. Applications7.1 Business activities7.2 Applications in industry and the public sec-

tor (e.g. telecommuting, tele-cooperation;communication networks for education andscience; telematic applications in the trans-p o rt system; preventive health care andhealth services)

7.3 Private applications 7.4 Pilot projects in the area of multimedia ser-

vices7.5 Transnational projects

8. Intergovernmental cooperation8.1 E u ropean and international org a n i z a t i o n s8.2 Group of Seven States8.3 Bilateral action

Fig. 2. Federal Government Action Plan. “Germany’s path to the information society”

Areas of action

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The drafters of the action plan also investi-gated the need for action in the area of labourand social security legislation. However, noprovision has been made for labour and occu-pational safety and health regulations in theabove-mentioned framework legislation. TheFederal Government sees no need for legisla-tive action under these headings for the timebeing since the existing provisions of labourlegislation are – still – sufficient to provide anadequate framework for working conditions inthe case of multimedia providers and users.This does not mean, however, that re m e d i a laction will not be necessary in individual areasif we apply a broader definition of the work-place. But this need for adjustment must bediscussed in the first place between unions andmanagement or at company level and this isw h e re the search for solutions must also be ini-tiated. The Federal Ministry of Labour andSocial We l f a re is there f o re engaged in intensivediscussions with employer and employeeorganizations and business circles with a viewto stimulating vigorous action to regulate thesituation.

2. A second – and at least equally impor-tant – task for policy-makers consists in pro-moting the spread of practical exploitation ofe m e rging opportunities in the economy andtheir acceptance by the individuals andemployees concerned. The action plan pro-poses numerous initiatives to this end, ofwhich we shall mention only a few by way ofexample:

• Action will be taken to intensify the exist-ing dialogue between scientists and policy-makers. The Federal Government hasa l ready been engaged for several years indiscussions with leading industrialists oftopical issues relating to information tech-n o l o g y. To ensure that the transition to themultimedia era proceeds as smoothly aspossible in social terms, re p resentatives ofemployer and employee org a n i z a t i o n shave also recently been drawn into theset a l k s .

• In the context of an “Info 2000” foru mlaunched in autumn 1996, the Federal Gov-ernment has been promoting dialogue insociety in general and in the workplace onthe impact of the use of modern communi-cation technology. At an inaugural event,over 150 leading voluntary associations inGermany expressed an interest in partici-pating. Representatives of these bodies are

c u r rently involved in discussions of exist-ing practical models with experts and prac-titioners in diverse working groups, inwhich they also examine blueprints foractive shaping of the information society ofthe future. The working groups addre s stopics such as:– Working in the information society;– The information society and stru c t u r a l

change in the economy;– Training and media skills;– Application of telematics in the health

system.

• The relevant federal ministries support thedevelopment of new scientific and techno-logical options and their rapid implemen-tation in the workplace as part of theiraction to promote innovation and thro u g hspecial promotional programmes in thea rea of information and communicationt e c h n o l o g y. In particular, they seek to pro-vide small- and medium-scale enterpriseswith the means of survival in the face ofdomestic and international technologicalc o m p e t i t i o n .

• The federal, Länder and local authoritiesplay an important catalytic and multiplierrole along the path into the informationsociety through pilot projects (e.g. telecom-muting, tele-cooperation) and their owndemand (in public administration or thehealth system).

• Any comprehensive strategy to speed upthe spread of new technology must, ofcourse, also involve the dissemination ofinformation. A responsive attitude on thepart of the general public to the new infor-mation and communication technology is abasic pre requisite for a successful moveinto an information society. To that end, al a rge number of public information initia-tives have been undertaken. The Ministryof Labour and Social We l f a re and theclosely related authority dealing with occu-pational health and safety and health pro-tection have also contributed through thepublication of bro c h u res. Their aim is toassist in dispelling misgivings and also todraw attention to the need to preserve stan-d a rds of social security protection as thenew technology is introduced into theworkplace.

It would be presumptuous for any countryto endeavour to address the problems single-handedly at a time of increasing globalization

of trade. As it is particularly clear that effectivestate action cannot be confined within nationalboundaries in the case of information and com-munication technology, the Federal Govern-ment is endeavouring, for example thro u g hintensive dialogue or joint events with the EUCommission, to promote early and eff i c i e n tc o o rdination of its activities at the Euro p e a nlevel as well as international cooperation. It isa welcome development that the Euro p e a nCommission and Council of Ministers – takingtheir cue from the Bangemann report – havelaunched a whole range of initiatives andfocused on the impact on employment and thesocial and cultural implications of the use ofmodern information and communication tech-nology in their discussions on the fifth EUFramework Programme for Research andDevelopment. The EU Commission has pro-duced a Green Paper on Living and Wo r k i n gin the Information Society, emphasizing in thetitle that a people-centred approach to the sub-ject should be adopted at all times.

Against this background, intensive discus-sions are also under way in Germany on theimplications of the transition to an informationsociety for the employment system, the org a n i-zation of work and the social security re g i m e .

Impact on employment and jobs

Nobody can yet predict with certainty whatkind of impact on employment may beexpected from the transition to an informations o c i e t y. Optimists – for example industrialists –assume that large-scale new job creation will bepossible through the opening up of new mar-kets. They are contradicted by those who –undoubtedly with some justification – point outthat job creation through the opening andexpansion of new markets by suppliers ofinformation and communication technologyand new service providers may be offset by lay-o ffs in traditional media industries (e.g. print-ing) and rationalization-induced job losses inother sectors of the economy. In this connec-tion, mention should certainly also be made ofpossible synergy effects through converg e n c e ,in other words the amalgamation of hithertoseparately operating producers of goods andservices in multimedia conglomerates.

For example, recent scientific studies esti-mate that only between 150,000 and 180,000new jobs will be created in Germany by theyear 2010 (see Table 1). However, these fore-casts are based on the status quo. If we startf rom the assumption that an acceleration in the

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Table 1. Employment in the media and communication sector (1992-2010)

1992 2000 2010 Increase/Decrease

(in 1000s) (in 1000s) (percentage)a

Print media 416 393 366 -50 -0.7Electronic media 93 127 151 58 2.7Media as a whole 509 520 517 8 0.1Media and communication technology b 554 585 623 69 0.7Communication services 845 870 950 105 0.7Media and communication sector 1 908 1 975 2 090 182 0.5

a Annual average change. b Production and distribution.

S o u rce: Forecast of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) 1996; Institute for Information and Research cal-culations.

Employment situation and job impact by industry 1995-2010 (Figures in 1000s)

Industry Employment situation Job impact 1995 1995-2010

Telecommunications 380 30Information technology 260 80Media 530 75Electronics 130 -33

Total 1 300 152

Source: A.D. Little (1996).

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p rocess of dissemination of modern informa-tion and communication technology will occurand that changes in private and businessdemand will impart an additional stimulus tog rowth and lead to an expansion of markets h a res, the picture may look diff e rent. AE u rope-wide study estimates the potential forjob creation through new information andcommunication technology in Europe at 6 mil-lion, including 1.5 million in the FederalRepublic (see Table 2).

It should thus be clear that, despite existinguncertainties, there can be no alternative tospeedy exploitation by industrial states,including the Federal Republic, of the oppor-tunities offered by information and communi-cation technology.

Impact on qualifications and skills

The use of new information and communi-cation technology will call for considerableadditions to and changes of emphasis in exist-ing occupational skills. With the intro d u c t i o nof increasingly complex technological systems,employees will be re q u i red in many cases toaddress abstract problems.

It is unlikely that this change in demand foroccupational skills can be met solely thro u g hvocational training and further training. Thefoundations must already be laid at school. Anumber of initiatives have been launched in theFederal Republic (“Schulen ans Netz”, in-ser-vice teacher training) with a view to enhancingmedia skills and adapting the education systemto the new media by making it more flexibleand interlinked. Under the “Schulen ans Netz”p roject operated by the Ministry of Educationand German Telekom, over 6,000 schools havea l ready received advice and financial assistance

for the installation of their first hard w a re ands o f t w a re equipment. Schoolchildren are to beo ff e red the best possible opportunities to famil-iarize themselves at an early age with thepotential and technology of electronic commu-nication, for example through the Internet. Inaddition, steps are being taken to provide stu-dents with the widest possible range of educa-tional material through the development of ane l e c t ronic market in courseware .

S p e c i fic action to promote initial and furthertraining is, of course, also necessary, as follows:

• Against the background of changingre q u i rements, decision-makers in the Fed-eral Republic are endeavouring to revise orredevelop existing c a reer pro fil e s as swiftlyas possible. In the past two years, a numberof entirely new career profiles have beencreated, for example media organizer, com-puter specialist in systems integration orapplications development, and informationsalesman/woman.

• The range of instruments available under“further training and re t r a i n i n g” can be ofmajor assistance in adapting qualific a t i o n sto the requirements of the information soci-ety – not just to secure individual employ-ment prospects but also to promote aspeedier transition to modern technology inthe workplace.

• Business and employee organizations mustdevelop joint approaches to lifelong learning.On the employee side, the aim under thisheading is to enhance potential and moti-vation and the role of the State consistsbasically in stimulating dialogue to thatend. The Federal Government is doing so atvarious levels, particularly in the context ofthe Info 2000 forum.

Table 2. Production and employment scenarios in the EU (12) by 2010 a

EU(12) 1992 Rapid spread b Slow spread b

GDP (billions of ECUs) 5 421 8512 (+2.6%) 8314 (+2.4%)(at constant 1992 prices)

Workforce (millions) 154 180 (+0.9%) 180 (+0.9%)

Employment (millions) 139 166 (1.0%) 160 (+0.8%)

Unemployment (millions) 15 14.4 (–0.2) 20.1 (+1.6)

a In brackets: annual average incre a s e / d e c re a s e. b S p read of “advanced communications”, comprising both traditionaltelecommunication services and new networks services.

Note: Eurostat is the source of the figures for 1992.

Source: METIER Consortium (1995).

Impact on work organization

New information and communication tech-nology can provide effective support for org a n i-zational re s t ructuring and the implementationof new business and entre p reneurial concepts.T h e re is a close connection between technologi-cal and organizational innovation, which callsfor action at diff e rent levels.

• It is important to ensure continuing obser-vance of occupational health and safety cri-teria and to adapt existing regulations tonew circumstances in the workplace.Implementation of the EU Screen Directiveis a topical example.

• At the same time, it is possible through theuse of new information and communica-tion technology to sever the spatial andtemporal link in traditional forms ofemployment between job and workplace.In addition, the concept of the employee isbeing increasingly undermined. Both phe-nomena call for reflection in the mediumterm on the implications for labour andsocial welfare legislation.

Telecommuting, currently a hotly debatedtopic, is a good example of how new informa-tion and communication technology canchange the organization of work.

Telecommuting will undoubtedly assumeg reater importance in the years ahead as anemployment category of the future. Severalmillion people in the United States are alreadyemployed externally on a full-time or part-timebasis and are linked to the employing com-pany by modern communication networks.This type of employment is gaining ground inEurope too, although for the time being – withthe exception of the United Kingdom – re l a-tively few employees fall into this category. InGermany the number of teleworkers is cur-rently estimated at several hundred thousand.It may be assumed that many employeesalready represent their company externally (asbuyers and customer-service employees). Forthis large group, it is only a small step to full-scale telecommuting (mobile teleworkers).

The German Federal Government is cur-rently developing action to identify and elimi-nate remaining obstacles, thereby makingtelecommuting more acceptable.

A publicity campaign is the first stept o w a rds generating awareness. It will consistl a rgely of an advisory package designed toa d d ress the technological, business and org a-

nizational issues involved in telecommuting.The package will also review legal aspects oftelework and include the findings of an officialreport on the subject.

The Federal Government has, however,adopted a firm position on one point and isbacked up in this by the empirical findings ofthe report. Various legal approaches totelecommuting are conceivable: it may be sub-ject to the normal conditions governing gen-uine home-based employment or to theconditions governing persons in the self-employed or freelance category. The mostpromising option under present circumstancesseems to consist in treating telecommuting – asfar as possible – as a normal working relation-ship with the corresponding familiar stru c-t u res. Job security and hence the acceptabilityof telework are thereby enhanced.

Recommendations to employers, employ-ees and their re p resentative bodies must beformulated jointly by employer and employeeo rganizations so that misgivings, particularlyin small- or medium-scale enterprises, can bedispelled. Only then can we really begin tomobilize the employment potential inherent intelecommuting. We must strike a satisfactorybalance between maintenance of health andsafety standards on the one hand and of com-petitive freedom for companies on the other.An international consensus on this aspectwould obviously be helpful.

In a normal working relationship it is alsoeasier to take more vigorous action to addressmisgivings vis-à-vis telecommuting. Attentionis drawn, for example, to the solitary circ u m-stances of the teleworker, who is deprived ofthe social environment of an office or otherworkplace. Alternating telework, i.e. employ-ment in the office on certain days and at homeon other predetermined days, is clearly a par-ticularly sound solution to this problem since itallows employees to keep in touch with thecompany and their colleagues. Experience inimplementing this special category of telecom-muting has already proved favourable.

Others criticize the fact that teleworkersescape supervision. The proper response tosuch criticism is that the view of the world ofwork it re flects is oldfashioned. It is unneces-sary to place employees under constant super-vision. As a growing number of skilledactivities are performed through telecommut-ing, it is no longer a matter of whether tele-workers are properly supervised but ofwhether a project is completed, subject to spe-cific quality criteria, within the pre s c r i b e d

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time. Teleworkers themselves have a stro n ginterest in ensuring that this is the case.

In conclusion, attention should be drawn toanother related issue. As a concomitant oftelecommuting and of the increase in otherforms of tele-cooperative employment and pro-duction – also re f e r red to as the automation ofthe world of work, there is a tendency for the“traditional” concept of the employee to disap-p e a r. Employees who are no longer – perma-nently – associated with company-based jobs,who decide on their own working hours andwho in some cases work (perform services) forseveral diff e rent employers will gradually tend

to acquire formal self-employed status. Practi-cal relations of dependence will not, however,disappear in all cases: hence the risk of pseudo-self-employment. Political decision-makersmust keep an eye on this trend. Every individ-ual should have the opportunity to offer his orher skills and ideas – e.g. involving the use ofmodern communication technology – on anindependent and personally profitable basis.H o w e v e r, all persons must also – if they sowish – be given the possibility, in the event ofcontinued dependence on an employer despiteformal self-employment, of falling back on asystem of social security.

In no other industry is the transformation ofwork as pervasive as it is in the media indus-tries. The growth of an informational economyentails no less than the emergence of a newtechno-economic paradigm (Castells 1996;F reeman and Soete 1994), and the media indus-try where information is the core business e x e m-p l i fies this paradigmatic shift par excellence.

The changes are flowing from the converg-ing set of information and communicationtechnologies (ICT), which operate in interac-tion with economic, political and institutionalp rocesses, i.e. globalization, liberalization/dere-gulation and decentralization/fle x i b i l i z a t i o n .Their combined effects may be very disru p t i v e ,which is a good reason for a prudent approachby social actors; but even those authors whotake a more optimistic view agree that thepotential benefits are highly dependent oninstitutional adaptations, for instance in train-ing systems, in the management of companies,and in labour relations.

This article will first focus on the widerprocess of convergence of the media industriesand then examine the occurrence of the net-working logic and flexibility at the org a n i z a-tional level, which are both re g a rded asprimary effects of ICT. The article then pro-ceeds to discuss the issue of the regulation ofthe effects of the transformation process anda rgues for a flexible type of regulation whichstrikes a balance between efficiency and equity.

Convergence in the media industries

C o n v e rgence in the media industries isoften taken to be equivalent to the emerg e n c eof a “multimedia” industry. It is true; re c e n tyears have seen a growth of conglomerateswhich run diff e rent sorts of media. CapitalCities/ABC is an example; this conglomerateran magazines, newspapers and TV stationswhen, in 1995, it took over Walt Disney, which

exploits film production companies, cableoperators and entertainment parks. For mostmultiple media groups, however, their activi-ties are separate operations (Leisink and Va nDijk 1994). Thus the term “multimedia” con-glomerate in a broad sense does not meanmuch more than a corporation operating dif-ferent sorts of media.

H o w e v e r, with ICT a process of conver-gence has begun which has the potential ofreally integrating traditionally separate sectorsof the media industry. In addition, ICT has alsofacilitated the creation of a series of pro d u c tinnovations – multimedia products – whichare in themselves an integration of the variousmedia forms. In order to be able to pro d u c ethese multimedia products, companies whichhave their origin in diff e rent sectors of themedia industry have either engaged in strate-gic alliances with companies who have corecompetences in other disciplines of a multime-dia production or they have re c ruited theirown specialists. At this stage the profile of amultimedia company starts to emerge: itstands for the integration of previously sepa-rate disciplines and activities.

Multimedia convergence can be under-stood to be a converging set of information andcommunication technologies, one feature ofwhich is digitalization (cf. Baldwin et al 1996;Castells 1996; Freeman and Soete 1994; Va nDijk 1994). Through the digitalization of allsorts of data, these data – be they text, sound,still images or video – can be manipulated andintegrated on the basis of their common infor-mational stru c t u re. In addition, the develop-ment of optical fib re and satellite technologycreates the possibility of rapid transmission ofincreasing amounts of bits per second.

It is because of the convergence of thesetechnologies into an integrated system that theterm “network society” has been intro d u c e d(Castells 1996; Van Dijk 1994). The attractive-

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Convergence and flexibility in the mediaindustries call for a new organizational logic

of businesses and social actors

Peter LeisinkAssociate Professor of Labour Studies

University of Utrecht, Netherlands

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ness of this term is that it indicates that theintegration of information technologies goesalong with a convergence and integration ofeconomic activities. Castells (1996, p. 372) g i v e sthe example of the ending of the separationand even the distinction between audiovisualmedia and printed media, entertainment andinformation, which he attributes to the adventof the Internet.

This analysis explains why convergence inthe media industries is now qualitatively dif-f e rent from the more or less arbitrary conglom-erates of entertainment and media activities.Every “sector” will be affected by these infor-mation and communication technologies: themost fundamental effect is that the bord e r sbetween the diff e rent sectors of the mediaindustry have been dissolved. There f o re therewill be an increase of “multiple media compa-nies” – the term I prefer to use to designatethose companies which engage in activitieswhich used to belong to traditionally diff e re n tsectors of the media industry – and there willbe an entirely new range of multimedia compa-nies – the term I use to indicate companieswhich specialize in off-line products (CD-ROM,etc.) and on-line information services, whichfully integrate text, data, sound, still imagesand video and which allow for interactive use.

The convergence process is gradually re c-ognized by the traditional sectors (cf. ILO 1996Multimedia Convergence Symposium). A ninteresting case is the printing industry. In the1980s it was reluctant to recognize the eff e c t swhich Desk Top Publishing (DTP) would have,particularly on the pre-press area, but now theprinting industries have become sensitive tothe impact of convergence. Both the Americanand the European printing industries haveheld major conferences in the 1990s at whichthe effects of ICT were high on the agenda.Their analyses of the long-term trends clearlyrecognize the convergence of the media indus-tries (cf. PIA1994; PIRA1994).

Although the convergence process is evi-dently an uneven development, instances ofc o n v e rgence can be observed throughout themedia industries. Pre - p ress shops which havesurvived the DTP shake-out have innovatedand offer graphical design services, digitalp h o t o g r a p h y, database management and alsooffer their clients hardware and graphical soft-w a re consultancy and training. Publishers ofscientific and professional information havemoved into electronic publishing of materialssuch as scientific dictionaries on CD-ROM andarticles on-line. Newspaper and general inter-

est magazine publishers have allied them-selves with commercial broadcasting stationsand are preparing for all kinds of commerc i a lservices (teleshopping, video-on-demand, payT V, etc.). Nevertheless, the diffusion of multi-media applications has not been half as quickand massive as their prophets had expectedand even major companies such as TCI andPhilips are postponing their investments.

The networking logic and flexibility

A fundamental effect of ICT in combinationwith organizational and managerial innova-tions is the development of a new techno-econ-omic paradigm of which the networking logicand flexibility are key features (Castells 1996,pp. 60-63). The first characteristic of this newparadigm is that information is its raw mater-ial, which explains why this new paradigmimpacts on the media industries in particular.

Over the past two decades, a transitionf rom mass production to flexible pro d u c t i o nhas taken place in a growing number of indus-tries. The mass-production model was basedon productivity gains by economies of scale inan assembly-line based, mechanized process ofa standardized product. This pre s u p p o s e dconditions of control of a large market by a cor-poration, which itself was stru c t u red on theprinciples of vertical integration and institu-tionalized division of labour. However, whendemand became unpredictable, when marketsstarted diversifying worldwide and there b ywere difficult to control, and when the pace oftechnological change made single purposep roduction equipment obsolete, this mass-pro-duction system became too rigid and tooc o s t l y. The answer was, generally speaking,enhancing flexibility in production, manage-ment and marketing with the view of copingbetter with the uncertainty caused by the fastpace of change in the environment of the firm.This is where the networking logic comes in,because “the morphology of the networkseems to be well adapted to increasing com-plexity of interaction and to unpredictable pat-terns of development arising from the creativepower of such interaction” (Castells 1996, p.61). Through the newly available informationtechnologies, this networking logic can beimplemented in all kinds of processes ando rganizations. One organizational form of thenetworking logic is known as Toyotism, amodel with well-known elements such as just-in-time supplies, total quality control, workers’involvement through team work and a flat

management hierarc h y. Other org a n i z a t i o n a lforms are interfirm networking (well-knownexamples are Benetton and Nike) and strategicalliances of large corporations.

Examples of this networking logic and therelated feature of flexibility manifest them-selves in various parts of the media industries.Telling illustrations of the vertical disintegra-tion of mass-production companies and thec reation of a flexible specialized pro d u c t i o nsystem operating through network alliancesare provided by the US film production indus-try (Storper 1994) and the culture industries ofAustralia and the United Kingdom (Campling1995; Lash and Urry 1994; Markey 1996).

Book publishing

The publishing sector might appear to con-tradict the networking trend. The mergers andacquisitions of publishing multinationals suchas Reed-Elsevier and Wolters-Kluwer appearto corroborate the concentration trend, whichMacDonald (1990) presented as the overallt rend of the communication industry. How-ever, the autonomy which characterizes differ-ent publishing divisions and subsidiariesillustrate the same network-model, not b e t w e e nfirms in this case but within a single corpora-tion. Book publishing is a sector in which theeffects of flexibility have emerged along with ap rocess of re s t ructuring. A survey by Celia andJohn Stanworth (1995) of the book publishingindustry in the United Kingdom shows thatpublishing houses have increasingly external-ized proof-readers, indexers and editors, who,now self-employed, (net)work as home-basedteleworkers.

It is evident, however, that not all parts ofthe media industries are equally confro n t e dwith this trend towards flexible production ofd i v e r s i fied quality products, as happens to bethe case in national and provincial newspaperpublishing. Newspapers are mostly still a stan-d a rd product for a mass market. In such cir-cumstances, newspaper publishing firms maystill have the vertically integrated bure a c r a t i co rganizational form. However, the other keye ffect of the ICT revolution, the increase in fle x-i b i l i t y, can well be observed in the newspaperindustry (Leisink and Van Dijk, 1994). Multi-functional labour has been introduced simulta-neously with direct text input and electro n i cpage make-up. For instance, functional flexi-bility can be observed by way of the integra-tion of commercial and composition tasks atthe advertising departments.

Labour relations: striking a balancebetween efficiency and equity

The media industry is undergoing a trans-formation process and its effects on businessand labour are enormous, entailing substan-tial quantitative employment shifts. While theprinting industry will suffer a job loss of 12per cent, employment in electronic media isp redicted to increase sustantially by 62 percent in Germany between 1992 and 2010(Seufert 1996). There are also qualitativeemployment effects in terms of re q u i re m e n t sconcerning skills, flexibility and innovation.These quantitative and qualitative changescall for a new organizational logic of socialactors and a flexible type of regulation ofemployment conditions.

Free market does not mean absenceof rules

The media industries have always includedsectors in which company culture was more orless alien to collective bargaining, for instanceadvertising agencies and graphical art studiosin the Netherlands (Leisink and Spaninks1994). In fact, the last decade has seen ani n c reasing individualization of employmentconditions, notably in the United Kingdom( M i l w a rd et al, 1992; Smith and Morton 1990,1991). I think there is a mistake at the heart ofthis type of anti-regulation approach. This mis-take equates free markets with the absence ofany rules. However, markets, including thelabour market, can operate effectively, even inp u rely economic terms, with a certain set ofregulatory institutions only. This may be illus-trated by an example of vital importance to themedia industry: the issue of skills and compe-tences, which re q u i res a system of training andeducation that adapts to the demands of theindustry and the workers.

When the Dutch entertainment and audio-visual industry began operating incre a s i n g l yon a European market, the major pro d u c t i o ncompanies discovered that in order to be com-petitive they had to be not only cost-eff e c t i v ebut guarantee quality production. While in1990 they had turned down an offer by theDutch Ministry of Economic A ffairs and thestate-funded Manpower Service Agencies toinvest in an encompassing training system, in1993 the time was ripe for the foundation of ajoint institution of employers’ associations andunions aiming to set up such a comprehensivesystem of vocational training1 (Leisink 1996).

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The joint institution underlines Streeck’s obser-vation (1992) that collective investments intraining are more rational than singleemployer investments. This example illustratesthe mutual interest of both sides of industry in“ re s o u rceful cooperation”. Thus, as the enter-tainment and media industries becomei n c reasingly knowledge-intensive, there is ag rowing mutual interest in developing labourrelations of re s o u rceful cooperation which areconducive to creating, producing and exploit-ing cultural products.

Once it is acknowledged that some sort ofregulation is re q u i red, the question arises as towhich sort of platform would be adequate. Tr a-ditional platforms such as the industry basedpatterns of collective bargaining in the printingindustry appear objectively inadequate becauseof the nature of the convergence process itself.This evidence was borne out in the 1980s byD T P and the simultaneous spread of copiers.The latter has created a low-investment-costentrance into the printing industry for copy-shops and DTP-studios and have also off e re dmany business clients the opportunity to dographical work themselves. While traditionalo rganizations initially thought they could solvethis “problem” as it was then perceived to beby simply expanding the scope of existing col-lective agreements (ILO, 1990, p. 53), they even-tually failed on account of their very adhere n c eto the detailed and costly kinds of arrange-ments re g a rding manning, job demarc a t i o n sand overtime payments. However, apart fro mthe cultural diff e rences between the traditional“manufacturing” industry and the new com-m e rcial services which contributed to the fail-u re of this approach, the recognition waslacking that digitalization amounted to an ero-sion of the printing sector as a viable entity forcollective agre e m e n t s .

On the other hand, the idea of attemptingto arrive at an alternative platform for collec-tive agreements on the basis of the new “sec-tors” themselves or on the basis of the c o m p a n ylevel would not have come off either. First ofall, in the case of the new s e c t o r s a p p ro a c h ,it still remains to decide how to define the sec-t o r in question in order to distinguish it fro mthe traditional (sub)sectors, a difficulty com-pounded by the fact that in most cases re p re-sentative employer associations with whichunions could have started negotiations do notexist. Nor can the other alternative of a com-pany based collective bargaining platform bec o n s i d e red a viable basis, given the pre d o m i-nance of small and medium-size businesses in

the media industry and the sheer impossibilityfor unions to negotiate on a company-to-com-pany basis.

Thus, addressing in earnest the multimediac o n v e rgence process implies recognizing theneed for a media-wide arrangement of somebasic employment conditions. Only a media-industries encompassing agreement would nots u ffer from the aforementioned problems. Evi-d e n t l y, a media-wide agreement should notspecify all employment conditions in a uniformway for all sectors: although there is conver-gence, there also exists and will continue toexist diff e rences between s e c t o r s and companiesand between diff e rent categories of workers.T h e re f o re the type of multimedia agreement inmind should restrict itself to some basicemployment conditions, each module of whichshould lend itself to adaptation to the specificc i rcumstances of the s e c t o r or the company orthe category of workers involved. This meansthat ultimately employment conditions will benegotiated on the basis of multi-level interac-tion between employers’ associations and tradeunions and between management and theworkers themselves.2

L a s t l y, the flexible character of the type ofregulation to be adopted must be examined.The fact that some sectors of industry, such asadvertising agencies and graphical arts studiosin the Netherlands, have traditionally notengaged in collective bargaining does notimply that they are completely opposed tojoint regulation of employment conditions.However, the universal standard characteristicof collective agreements which re q u i res thatthey spell out for every type of job in a uniformway the levels of pay, hours of work, etc., con-flicts not only with the flexibility which agencyand studio managements are striving for butwith the culture of the workers in these sec-t o r s .3 H o w e v e r, joint regulation of employmentconditions would not be unthinkable in thesectors of industry re f e r red to under the fol-lowing conditions: if selectivity were possible;if certain items – for instance training or inva-lidity and pension schemes – were the issue ofjoint regulation, and others – for instanceworking hours – were not; and if joint re g u l a-tion were to take the form of agreements whicho ffer scope for tailor-made agreements atworkplace level that may deviate from the sec-torally agreed norm, pending the workers’own approval of such agreements.

The conditions re f e r red to recognize the cul-tural specificity which distinguishes the adver-tising and creative sectors from the traditional

industrial culture of the printing industry. Thiscultural diff e rence also surfaces in workers’opinions on the regulation of employment con-ditions. In a survey of workers in advertisingagencies (Spaninks 1992; Leisink 1995), no lessthan 86 per cent of all workers pre f e r red toarrange their wages on an individual basis asthey were used to doing, and there was littled i ff e rence between lower paid secretarial andadministrative staff on the one hand and artd i rectors and account managers on the other.Nevertheless, about two-thirds felt the need forcollective organization and joint re g u l a t i o n ,some in relation to the area of social securityand twice as many concerning issues such astraining and career policies.

When all is told, it must be acknowledgedthat if unions are not willing to experimentwith forms of à-la-carte collective agre e m e n t sthey will increasingly be out of touch with theculture of the multimedia workforce.

C o n v e rgence, in combination with the spe-c i fic re q u i rements and cultures of each compo-nent of the multimedia industry, lends moreu rgency to the demand for fle x i b i l i t y. In addi-tion, the pluralization of lifestyles calls for ad e s t a n d a rdization of the regulation of employ-ment conditions. Collective agreements whicho ffer some degree of selectivity and scope fort a i l o r-made regulation are in the interest ofbusiness flexibility and eff i c i e n c y. By includingp rocedural rules in the collective agre e m e n tconcerning, on the one hand, the rights andobligations of employer and workers’ org a n i-zations at industry and sector level, and, on theo t h e r, the rights and obligations of manage-ment and workers at workplace level, a balancecan be struck between efficiency and equity.

Bibliography

ABC (Audiovisueel Branche Centrum) (1996): Arbeidsmark-tinformatie. Hilversum: Stichting ABC.

Baldwin, T., Stevens Mc Vo y, D., Steinfield, C. (1996): C o n-v e rgence; Integrating Media, Information and Communica-t i o n, Thousand Oaks/London/New Delhi: SagePublications.

Castells, M. (1996): The Rise of the Network Society, Cam-bridge, Mass./Oxford: Blackwells.

Campling, J. (1995): “From rigid to flexible employmentpractices in UK commercial television: a case of govern-ment-led reform”, in New Zealand Journal of IndustrialRelations, 20:1, pp. 1-22.

Freeman, C., Soete, L. (1994): Work for all or Mass Unemploy-ment?, London, Pinter Publishers.

ILO (1990): Third Tripartite Technical Meeting for the Print-ing and Allied Trades, Security of employment and incomein the light of structural and technological change in the

printing and allied trades, having regard to other media,Geneva.

—. (1997): Symposium on Multimedia Convergence, Discus-sion Paper, Geneva.

Lash, S. and Urry, J. (1994): Economies of Signs and Space, L o n-don, Sage.

Leisink, P. (1995): `Autonomie en neiuwe arbeidsrelaties inde zakelijke dienstverlening’, in: J.J.J. van Dijck, E. Hen-derickx, J. van Hoof (eds.), Baas over de eigen (loop) baan .Houten: Educatieve Partners Nederland, pp. 62-76.

Leisink, P. (1996): “The wavering innovation of trade unionpolicy: the case of ecological and occupational issues”,in P. Leisink, J. Van Leemput, J. Vilrokx (eds.), The chal-lenges to trade unions in Europe: Innovation or adaptation.Cheltenham, Edward Elgar.

Leisink, P., Dijk, T. van, (1994): G rensverleggende activiteitenvan uitgeverijen. Utrecht: Universiteit Utrecht/STAB.

Leisink, P., Spaninks, L. (1994): “Arbeidsverhoudingen zon-der collectieve re g u l e r i n g ” , i n Tijdschrift voor Arbeid enBewustzijn, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 34-40.

MacDonald, G. (1990): The emergence of global multi-media con-glomerates, ILO, Geneva.

M a r k e y, R. (1996): “Marginal workers in the big picture :unionization of visual artists”, in Journal of IndustrialRelations, 38:1, pp. 22-41.

Milward, N. et al (1992): Workplace industrial relations in tran-sition, Aldershot, Darmouth.

P I A (1994): Bridging to a Digital Future. Pre p a red for thePrinting Industries of America and made available tothe delegates to the Comprint International Conferencein Cannes, 1994, 29 May-1 June.

P I R A International (1994): Communication 2000: Visions andStrategies for Printers and Publishers. Commissioned byInter graf for the delegates to the Comprint Interna-tional Conference in Cannes, 29 May-1 June, 1994.

Seufert, W. (1996): “Beschäftigungswachtstum in der Infor-mationgesellschaft?”, in Media Perspektiven, 9/96,pp.499-506.

Smith, P., Morton, G. (1990): “A change of heart: Unionexclusion in the provincial newspaper sector”, in Work,Employment and Society, 4:1, pp. 105-124.

Smith, P., Morton G., (1991): “New technology in the pro v i n-cial newspaper sector: a comment”, in British Journal ofIndustrial Relations, 30:2, pp. 325-328.

Spaninks, L. (1992): Arbeidsbeleving in de Reclamebranche.Doctoral thesis, Utrecht, Va k g roep Algemene SocialeWetenschappen.

Stanworth, C. and J. (1995): “The self-employed withoutemployees – autonomous or atypical?”, in I n d u s t r i a lRelations Journal, 26:3, pp. 221-229.

S t o r p e r, M. (1994): “The transition to flexible specialisationin the US film industry: external economies, the divisionof labour and the crossing of industrial divides”, inAmin, A. (ed.), Post-Fordism. Oxford, Blackwell.

S t reeck, W. (1992), Social Institutions and Economic Perfor-mance. London/Newbury Park/New Delhi, Sage.

Van Dijk, J. (1994), De netwerkmaatschappij. Houten/Zaventem, Bohn Stafleu Van Loghum.

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Notes

1 The platform commissions annual training and labour-market scans and on that basis can anticipate the skillre q u i rements of companies by initiating new trainingcourses. Thus the 1996 survey indicated that about a quarterof audiovisual companies had job vacancies in the area ofediting, operational production and commercial jobs whichthey find hard to fill because applicants lack adequate skillsor experience (ABC 1996).

2 This approach to a structural modernization of collec-tive bargaining has to some extent been followed by theDutch printing industry’s employer organizations andunions. The Grafimedia collective agreement which theyhave concluded will initially cover various graphical sub-sectors such as pre - p ress, newspaper publishing, generalprinting and silk screen printing. However, while the struc-t u re may accommodate other sectors of the multimedia

industry, its attractiveness, for instance, to advertising agen-cies and graphical art studios must still be proven. Indeed,apart from a structural modernization of collective bargain-ing, the culture of an industry must also be conducive tojoint regulation.

3 It may seem as if unions are not at all considering thekinds of flexible arrangements that I refer to here. However,interesting initiatives have been taken by the Danish actors’and artists organization which has concluded an agreementon commercials with the film producers, which includes var-ious provisions for arrangements which fit the specific needsof the production. Another example is FNV KIEM, the jointp roject of unions of artists, information makers and mediaworkers in the Netherlands, which developed a modelemployment contract which workers can use when theynegotiate their individual employment conditions with theiremployer and which also offers administrative and fiscalservices to self-employed persons.

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Exclusive rights

These rights are known as “neighbouring”rights to copyright (the author’s right). Theyp rotect the fixation (i.e. the re c o rding) of “liveperformances” (i.e. “unfixed performances”)and certain use of audio re c o rdings. (Actors infilms and television were not given similarrights due to opposition from film pro d u c e r s ’o rganizations.) Explained briefly, the perform-ers were given the possibility to prevent there c o rding of their live performance withoutpermission, and the re c o rding (or re p ro d u c t i o n )itself from being re p roduced or broadcast andcommunicated to the public without consent.These are known as exclusive rights. In addi-tion, a collective payment system known asequitable remuneration was awarded to theperformer and the producers of commerc i a lsound re c o rdings to compensate for the incre a s-ing use made on radio, television or othervenues of re c o rded music. This collectivea p p roach to the management of rights has c h a r-acterized the development of performers’ rights– through union agreements and the establish-ment of “collecting societies” to distribute theequitable remuneration to individuals.

Balance of power between producerand performer

It is perhaps important at this point to notethat rights conferred upon performers do notmake conventional collective barg a i n i n gunnecessary – indeed the only way that per-formers can enjoy any practical benefit fro mhaving intellectual property rights is thro u g hthe negotiation with the producer for the trans-f e r, assignment or licence of those rights. Thenature of the balance of power in the relation-ship between the producer and performermakes it impossible for all but the biggest starto negotiate such conditions individually. Theexistence of performers’ rights is therefore nota substitute for collective bargaining, but is infact an extra feature of bargaining, in additionto more conventional working conditions,health and safety, hours of work, etc.

The Rome Convention was subsequentlyadopted into national legislation in a number ofcountries (currently 53). On the basis of therights given, performers were able to negotiatecollective and individual contracts with the pro-ducers who had ensured that the various neces-sary consents were obtained for the re c o rd i n g sthey wished to make. Performers and re c o rdp roducers also received and continue to re c e i v e

“equitable remuneration” for the uses of theirre c o rds as previously described.

Contractual solutions

In some other countries in which performersw e re not given this level of legal pro t e c t i o n ,unions of performers still managed through col-lective bargaining based on comprehensive re p-resentation contracts and collective agre e m e n t sto ensure that adequate remuneration was paidand “consents” obtained for the re c o rding andsubsequent use of the work. This is true, forexample, for actors who were not given rights(except the right of fixation) under the RomeConvention, but who joined together to pro t e c tthemselves using contractual solutions.

Nearly forty years later, the Rome Conven-tion remains a useful and important interna-tional instrument for the protection ofperformers, continuing to attract new adher-ents in diff e rent parts of the world. That world,h o w e v e r, has changed enormously since theConvention came into existence, and as tech-nology has developed, so too has the conceptof performers’ rights.

Unemployment a constantfeature of life

The success or otherwise of the originalnotion of performers’ rights as a solutiont o technological unemployment is pro b a b l yimpossible to quantify statistically as re l i a b l eofficial employment figures for performers arerarely, if ever, available. What is certain is thatunemployment for performers remains a con-stant feature of life in the profession (becauseof, or even despite, the changing technologyinvolved in such work) which in many coun-tries is characterized by short-term, fre e l a n c econtracts.

Recognition of their creativecontribution

Most importantly, the Rome Convention didembed internationally acceptance of the princi-ple of the performer’s right to have a measureof control over the basic re c o rding of his or herperformance and its subsequent use. The rightscan then be obtained by the producer inexchange for payment and in this way per-formers have managed to negotiate paymentsfor themselves that permitted them to maintainc a reers in this uncertain profession. As theyears have gone by, those rights have come to

be seen not only as a compensation for some-thing lost (i.e. employment in live perfor-mance), but also as a recognition of the cre a t i v econtribution – the application of the per-f o r m e r’s talent – to the work, whether it bere c o rded in audio or audiovisual media. Per-formers’ rights are now widely seen not asbeing subsidiary to or even in competition withthose of authors, the copyright holders, but asstanding alongside the copyright of authors.Performers are seen now as having individualc reators’ rights and this is an important newdimension not only to the rights themselves,but also to the way that they are viewed interms of cultural policy and labour re l a t i o n s .

Moral rights

A key part of this recognition has been theinclusion in certain legislative provisions ofmoral rights for performers. Moral rights,unlike the other so-called economic rights con-tained in the Rome Convention, give the per-former as creator the right to have his or herperformance credited and the right to object toany distortion of that performance in a way thatmight be prejudicial to his or her re p u t a t i o n .Such rights are only justifiable if it is acknowl-edged that the performer does in fact invest hisor her individual creative talent in a pro d u c t i o n .

WIPO Treaty

What should perhaps be borne in mind isthat the Rome Convention provided a baselinefor the development of performers’ rights leg-islation throughout the world, and only inDecember 1996 was a further InternationalConvention established that exceeds the RomeConvention in terms of the level of pro t e c t i o nit provides to performers in sound re c o rd i n g sand to the producers of those sound re c o rd-ings. That Convention is known as the WIPOPerformances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT)and it adds to the existing protection of per-formers under the Rome Convention by givingthem moral rights and exclusive rental rights,distribution rights and, not the least, the exclu-sive right to control the digital “making avail-able” of recordings of their performances.

An absurd distinction

The continuing opposition of film pro d u c-ers to the notion that performers in audiovi-sual should also have rights meant that in1996, just as in 1961, an international conven-

tion was adopted for sound re c o rdings only(but this includes, we think, the sound part ofaudiovisual). The performers and their unions,both nationally and internationally, completelyreject the continuing discrimination betweenaudio and audiovisual re c o rdings, and it isclearly a distinction that is not appreciated bythe consumers who enjoy musicals as actors,dancers, etc., and which is increasingly absurdin an increasingly “audiovisual” world.

It is, however, interesting that despite themany years intervening between the develop-ments of these Treaties, national legislation hasin fact run ahead of international conventionsand in many countries performers’ rights arerecognized and provided for in legislation at amuch higher level than in the Rome Conven-tion or the new WIPO Treaty. That includes, inmany countries, the acceptance of performers’rights for audiovisual recordings. In the Euro-pean Community, for example, directives har-monizing performers’ rights have been imple-mented including performers’ rights foraudiovisual re c o rdings. Other compensationschemes have also been widely adopted fro mwhich the performers benefit along with pro-ducers and performers – in particular theadoption in a number of countries of “privatecopying schemes” to compensate the rightsholders for presumed loss of sales of re c o rd sand videos occasioned by the home video andaudio taping from TV and radio. The conceptof performers as workers who make a creativeinvestment in the productions in which theyappear is therefore widely recognized interna-tionally.

The purpose of the 1997 ILO MultimediaSymposium was to attempt for the first time anexamination in a tripartite discussion of thegroup of industries that, through the engine ofdigital technology, are converging and increas-ingly overlapping in their activities. The con-v e rgence of the telecommunications, bro a d-casting, computer, consumer electronics andmedia/entertainment industries is transform-ing to different extents the working lives of allthose employed within them, and none moreso than the performers, in particular in termsof their rights recognized in legislation andthrough collective bargaining agreements.

Digital technology is already making possi-ble the production of perfect second-genera-tion copies, the compression and manipulationof information and its dissemination over net-works through cable and via satellite, givingconsumers the ability to access specific mater-ial of their choice at a place and time of their

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choosing. It is already apparent that in terms ofthe specific provision of entertainment, digitaltechnology is revolutionary, creating new mar-kets and possibilities for production, use andmultiple re-use in a wide range of formats,interactivity – and all this increasingly withoutgeographical limitation. And like any newindustrial revolution, it presents a huge chal-lenge for performers who, while re c o g n i z i n gthe potential opportunities inherent in the newservices and products being created, can alsoforesee their rights and their traditional collec-tive bargaining models being severely tested.

Unlimited demand

In one way, one might imagine performersreacting to the new technology with unbridledenthusiasm. After all, one of the mantras of thenew digital age is that “content is key”: it issaid that in order to fill up hundreds of digitalb roadcast channels, to meet the demand formultimedia applications including video andmusic on-demand and to accommodate themyriad other technological possibilities, animmense amount of production will berequired, as well as the massive exploitation ofexisting material held in broadcasters’ and pro-ducers’ archives throughout the world.

Extend concepts of intellectualproperty rights

It is still hard to foresee exactly how thevarious services now possible – let alone thetaste of current and future consumers – willdevelop, but it is nevertheless clear that thep roduction and broadcast industries have acritical interest in producing more material andin exploring new markets for their originalp roduction. The challenge to the performers(and other rights holders) will be to extendtheir existing concepts of intellectual pro p e r t yrights protection to comprehend the new tech-nological possibilities and also to negotiate toadapt collective agreements which werealmost invariably promulgated on a very dif-f e rent industrial model, at a time when fewadditional uses of re c o rded performances werepossible or even envisaged.

Keep pace and match new uses

If performers are unable to adapt their leg-islative protections and bargaining demands tothe new uses made of their work, the re s u l tmay well be a severe diminution in their earn-

ings and possible digital “abuse” of those per-formances without any possibility of re d re s s .Performers’ remuneration in collective agre e-ments should ideally not take the form of ao n e - o ff payment, but permit the individual toreceive a proportion of the receipts for the dif-f e rent uses made of the production in which heor she has appeared. Therefore it is clear that ifperformers’ unions do not keep pace with thechanges or if they fail to persuade legislators toupdate intellectual property rights to matchnew uses that are possible, the performers’working conditions will fall behind.

So, what do performers need in terms ofrights?• They need to keep the control of the record-

ing and the communication to the public oftheir “live performances”, and to keep thec o n t rol of the content of their fixed perfor-mances, especially in the digital context.

• They need to identify all over the world,t h rough their unions and their collectingsocieties, the users of their performances.

• They need an appropriate and equitableremuneration for every use of their perfor-mances.

• They need, on occasion, the possibility ofp reventing uses of the re c o rdings whensuch uses directly replace live performance.

Agreed minimum term for all

Given the inequality in bargaining stre n g t h ,performers will often end up accepting termsin order to get the job. So the producers willmake a profit on the performances, often fordecades, without ever having to pay the per-former any remuneration; and it isn’t that per-formers are not pre p a red to be flexible. Ourunion agreements are often based on the possi-bility that the individual can negotiate specificconditions but with agreed minimum terms fora l l. This means that even big stars can workunder a union collective agreement and acceptthe basic conditions they contain.

Deals for fixing prices low

Further compounding matters is the phe-nomenon of problematic vertical integration inthe converging entertainment industry whichis causing problems for performers. When acompany controls not only production but alsodistribution, chains of movie theatres, sound-studios, publishers and even television satel-lites, rights become much more difficult to

enforce. One striking new feature for perform-ers’ unions is the non-arms-length dealsbetween producers and broadcasters (who willoften be owned by the same company) allow-ing programme prices to be fixed artificiallylow, which in turn affects the performers’ roy-alties. Another feature is the subcontracting ofp roduction to numerous small entities. Therights picture now is very complicated tounderstand and even to identify.

ILO support sorely needed

Governments must also understand this,and must set some standards for protection ofthe performers. It is absurd that a new WIPOt reaty has been concluded without coveringmost audiovisual rights, when we all knowthat the future is audiovisual! The Interna-tional Federation of Musicians (FIM) and theInternational Federation of Actors (FIA) insist

that the ILO must continue its longstandingwork in this area which is more appro p r i a t ethan ever now, and we thank them for theircontinuing support of these rights at WIPO.

Not a commodity

F i n a l l y, the dialogue that exists, within theILO itself, is extremely important. The work-ers whom FIM and FIA re p resent are ready forthe multimedia future, but they are alsoe x t remely vulnerable. Producers can just dipinto a pool of flexible and motivated talentand then drop the performers back in whenthey have finished with them. The re s p o n s i-bility must not be allowed to end there. Per-formers need respect for their rights byemployers and protection of their rights bygovernments. Only by working together tothis end shall we establish an acceptable m o d u sv i v e n d i in the digital era.

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T h e re is an extremely important linkbetween the moral and economic intellectualp roperty rights of authors and the ability ofeach individual author to live up to the highp rofessional and personal standards that arethe preconditions for high quality, authenticityand good press conduct. For this reason alone,journalists, writers, screenwriters, photogra-phers, instructors, composers, cartoonists,actors, musicians – in short all the authors andperformers who create the content of multi-media – are sharply focused on authors’ rightsin the information society.

The development in information technology(the common digital platform) has led to print,b roadcast and electronic media converging intoa new multimedia landscape offering citizensu n p recedented choice and access to a gre a t e ramount of information and entertainment thane v e r. At the same time the digital informationhighways such as the Internet has made globaltransmission of such works easy, at least from atechnological point of view. However, theimpact of authors’ rights on European cultureand competitiveness in the information society,to cite only a few areas, is one of many impor-tant issues that the European Commission hasbeen examining for some years now with aview to passing legislation that will secure alevel playing field in the internal market com-petitiveness within the European Union (EU)and foster European cultural values.

Publisher and producer campaignagainst authors’ rights

EU publishers and producers havelaunched a campaign against authors’ rights:they claim that authors’ rights’ protection mustbe lowered because of the need to compete in aglobal multimedia market. The campaignfocuses on three major points:• full ownership of the author’s rights of

employees and freelances who “work forhire”;

• moral rights that can be signed over to theproducer; and

• individual management of rights (by theindividual authors themselves) as opposedto collective management of rights (thro u g hcollecting societies set up by authors andperformers alone or jointly with publishers,p roducers, etc.) In short, the publishers andp roducers want continental Europe to adoptthe Anglo-American copyright system.

This approach on the part of publishers andp roducers denies the strength of the market-place of each individual country where diff e r-ences in culture, language and social traditionp rovide the best opportunities for commerc i a ldevelopment. Furthermore, it overlooks the factthat competition in the digital age will focus oncontent, the benchmarks of which will be origi-n a l i t y, quality, authenticity and integrity.

The demand for high quality and standard sis in fact the strongest argument for preferringthe continental European concept of authors’rights as the system that is best suited to meetthe challenges of the information society.

The continental European conceptof authors’ rights

A c c o rding to the continental European con-cept of authors’ rights, the rights originate withthe author. The moral rights (the right to benamed as author and the right of integrity)remain with the author always and can as ageneral rule not be signed over to publishersand producers. The rights to control reprogra-phy and distribution, public display and per-formance, broadcast, on-line transmission, etc.,a re called economic rights because these arethe rights that enable the author (or performer)to be paid for his or her endeavours. One couldsay that these rights are meant to be signedover by the author, but at a price.

H o w e v e r, when an author enters intoemployment, some rights are transferred to the

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Authors’ rights and multimedia convergence

Anne Louise SchelinAuthors’ Rights Expert Group

European Federation of JournalistsHead /Secretariat of the Danish Union of Journalists

employer by tacit or explicit agreement. Inmost European countries it means that rightsa re transferred to the employer to the extentnecessary for the employer to make use of thework of the employee in the media in question.The same applies to freelance, although a tacita g reement between a freelance and a buyerwill normally be interpreted more narrowly.

Publishers and producers in continentalE u ropean countries have no difficulties obtain-ing further rights from employees and fre e-lances; but they are re q u i red to ask either theindividual author or the organization that re p-resents the type of author or performer in ques-tion. Any number of rights (or all of them) canbe signed over either at the first contact or later.

The combination of moral rights that theauthor cannot be pressed into signing over anda system where the rights are not automati-cally transferred to the publishers and produc-ers from authors who work for hire is whatmakes it possible for authors to set conditionsfor the proper further use of the works.Authors who are willing to risk not getting ajob by demanding that certain conditions bemet are usually also the ones who are person-ally liable for the material they create and whofeel a strong obligation to uphold a high pro-fessional and personal standard. This is oftenthe case with journalists, television photogra-phers, documentarists, scientists, academicresearchers, etc. People who create intellectualor artistic works, whether during employmentor when commissioned as freelances, shouldnot by law be forced into accepting unknownand unimaginable future uses. Publishers andproducers are by far the stronger party. If theywant future rights of use they must be openlynegotiated between the contracting parties.

This demand on the part of authors and per-formers in Europe does not block further use:when publishers ask for further rights the nor-mal result is an agreement, either individual orcollective. There are already many agre e m e n t sin place which cover all forms of transmission.They are proof to consumers that dialoguebetween employers and creators is possible tos a f e g u a rd against unethical use and infringe-ment by third parties. (Readers interested incases instituted by journalists and photographersconcerning infringements that have a link withb reach of good press conduct will find a d e s c r i p-tion of such cases at the end of this article.)

As substantiated above, there is no need toerode the protection of authors’ rights becauseof the advent of multimedia convergence in theinformation society, on the contrary.

The need for centralized clearanceand a joint approach

The new multimedia uses, however, call fora centralization of existing clearance andadministration stru c t u res and the establish-ment of some new ones. Traditional diff e re n c e sbetween media outlets are disappearing. As aresult, traditional systems of administration ofauthors’ rights, each suited to the old divisionsof media into diff e rent sectors, will have tochange. The organizations re p resenting indi-vidual creators and performers are fully awareof the process and agree that it must be madeeasy for multimedia producers and users ofmultimedia works to acquire rights.

European authors and performers call for ajoint approach between publishers and pro-ducers on the one side and authors and per-formers on the other. Such an approach shouldbuild upon the systems of collection and man-agement already in place. Without a jointapproach there is little possibility of consumerfriendly and trustworthy access to the enor-mous amounts of material that will be madeavailable.

Until now publishers and producers havenot been disposed towards a joint appro a c h .Lobbying for EU legislation on sole ownershiphas been given priority. In the meantime,authors and performers all over Europe areworking nationally and internationally to setup one stop “information shops” and other ini-tiatives that will facilitate rights clearance bothfor multimedia producers, consumer gro u p sand individual creators.

Collective licensing counteractsmedia concentration

One further and very important advantageof a joint approach and collective administra-tion of rights is that it counteracts media con-centration. Collecting societies license rights toeveryone at the same price and on the sameconditions, as distinct from the practice oflicensing through individual (sometimes multi-national) media enterprises who may monopo-lize the rights and hinder free and equal accessto culture, science and information.

Extended collective licence schemes couldfacilitate clearance of rights for further uses ofspecial importance for public purposes. Theseschemes presuppose a joint approach betweenp roducers and publishers and their cre a t i v eand/or intellectual employees and fre e l a n c e sas a basis for entering into a joint agre e m e n t

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with groups of consumers. Once such ana g reement is drawn up between a major andrelevant group of rights holders and con-sumers, the agreement is extended to covern o n - o rganized and non-national authors whohave created similar works and made themavailable to the public. This is why legislationis needed. These authors are treated on equalterms with authors who are directly covere dby the agreement.

H o w e v e r, individual or collective agre e-ments between publishers and authors ortrade unions re p resenting authors remain thebest solution on the use of first rights.

The European Commission on authors’rights in the information society

The European Union is presently followingup on the Green Paper on Authors’ Rights andRelated Rights in the Information Society withspecial focus on the possible need to harmonizeauthors’ rights’ legislation of member coun-tries. A draft directive is currently the object ofconsultations at Commission level. A m o n gother things the draft is expected to harmonizethe authors’ rights of re p roduction, of publiccommunication and to introduce a commond e finition of the right of making works avail-able to the public on demand and online. Thedraft is also expected to harmonize the fre escope for exceptions to these exclusive rights.

The draft directive does not interfere withexisting legislation and practices concerningownership of rights, which means that pub-lishers and producers have not been grantedtheir wishes. On the other hand, authors whoa re employed or otherwise work for hire inGreat Britain, Ireland and to some extent Hol-land as well, must continue to suffer the nega-tive consequences of statutory transfer ofrights to the employer and a significantlylower protection of moral rights as well. Norshould any future directives drift away fro mthe continental European system of authors’rights. Indeed, if anything, there is a need tos t rengthen authors’ moral rights in the fewE u ropean countries that have adopted theAnglo-American copyright system.

The key to success in Europe

E u rope must avoid the confrontation andchaos which threaten those who follow theUnited States standard. Many creators in theUnited States and the United Kingdom arenow fighting courtroom battles to resist viola-

tion of their rights and to enhance moral andeconomic authors’ rights in the digital age.

To create harmony in Europe it is essentialthat the following requirements be met:

1. Authors must be guaranteed a legal frame-work within which they can freely negoti-ate the rights of use of their works whetherthe contract concerns employment or fre e-lance work.

2. Existing agreements should be maintainedand enhanced to take account of new com-munications technologies.

3. Harmonization of authors’ rights in theE u ropean Union should be brought intoline with continental law.

4. Existing collection arrangements systems ofcollective management of rights must bes t rengthened and developed for the future– cooperation is essential and it can work.

If, as many predict, the twenty-first centurywill focus on the individual, individual rightsand democracy, then there will be an enormousdemand for independent sources of informa-tion and for the highest level of pro f e s s i o n a l i s mand integrity of information. Europe’s gre a t e s ts t rength lies in the commitment and cre a t i v i t yof its citizens and in the quality and diversity ofits culture. Authors’ rights give journalists andall other creators and performers the opportu-nity to work with confidence, pro f e s s i o n a l i s mand integrity in the new digital enviro n m e n t ;but this will not be the case if publishers andp roducers succeed in destroying Europe’s intel-lectual property traditions.

Ultimately, the key to success is to invest inc re a t i v i t y, to protect what is best in Euro p e ’ srich cultural tradition and to put quality beforep ro fits in the exploitation of new informationtechnologies. Strong protection of authors’rights is a precondition for integrity of infor-mation and the future of media freedom. It isalso the key to high quality and standard si n l i t e r a t u re, re s e a rch, music, art and mediaentertainment.

Summary of cases involvinginfringement of authors’ rightsand press ethics

The legal proceedings in the cases belowhave been instituted by the individualemployee or freelance author in order top rotect his or her personal and pro f e s s i o n a li n t e g r i t y, and in order to protect sourc e sf ro m being portrayed/quoted in ways or

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c i rcumstances other than those to which thesources originally agreed.

Legal proceedings concerning damages forn o n - financial claims are most often combinedwith claims for compensation for financialinfringements.

One of the reasons why publishers and pro-ducers do not take the initiative to pursue suchcases themselves is that media management donot have the same personal involvement as theemployees and freelances in question, and thatthe media managements may be worriedabout ruining a good relationship with adver-tisers or other third parties who may be guiltyof the infringements concerned.

If the employees in the cases below had nothad residual economic rights and strong moralrights they would not have been able to insti-tute them.

The examples which follow are taken fromlegal rulings in Denmark in recent years.

1. Ruling of 21 February 1992 bythe Danish Eastern High Court(U92.549)

A p ress photographer had taken a photo-graph of a person during a reception held tocelebrate this person’s appointment to a newposition. Over one year later, the person wasaccused of sexual abuse of minors in the pre-vious job. A tabloid newspaper published thephotograph from the reception (the personwas smiling broadly and having a drink) sev-eral times over the course of several days,using a large-scale, somewhat blurred enlarge-ment. The photograph had also been cut so theoriginal context was no longer apparent.

The municipal and high courts both agre e dthat there had been an infringement oft h e integrity of the press photographer (edito-rial and press photographer integrity), anda w a rded DKK3,000 compensation andDKK2,000 damages.

2. Ruling of 4 July 1991by Glostrup Court

A journalist had written an article aboutvarious offers made by banks to young peopleand a cartoonist had illustrated the article. Abranch of the bank offering the best terms toyoung people, according to the article, enlarg e dthe article and drawing, changing the captionto its own advantage.

The court ruled that the enlarged articleand drawing clearly constituted an advertise-

ment for the bank concerned, thus re p re s e n t-ing an infringement of the integrity of the jour-nalist and cartoonist (editorial integrity, etc.).A total of DKK25,000 damages was award e d .

3. Legal settlement of 7 October 1991by Odense Court

A journalist who was a member of theBuilding/Cultural Committee set up by theDanish Ministry of the Environment had writ-ten an article under the headline “Forbyd plas-tvinduer i gamle huse” (“Plastic windows inold houses should be banned”), which waspublished in a national and regional Danishnewspaper re s p e c t i v e l y. A company that soldwooden windows printed the article using itsown notepaper and used it in a sales catalogue,giving customers and competitors the impres-sion that the journalist had recommended thecompany’s products.

The case was settled by the ruling of thecourt following payment of DKK10,000.

4. Legal settlement of 22 October1992 by Helsingør Court

Two journalists had described pensionpools in banks and car insurance policiesre s p e c t i v e l y, emphasizing the name of one par-ticular insurance company. An insurance agentf rom the insurance company then drew upsome sales material for pension schemes andcar insurance policies, using the two articles asappendices.

The case was settled by the ruling of thecourt following the payment of DKK5,000compensation plus the same amount of dam-ages to each journalist. The case tended to givethe public the impression that the editorialmaterial in question had not been independentof the company’s financial interests.

5. Ruling of 22 April 1993 by theMunicipal Court of Copenhagen

A wine expert contributing to a nationalDanish newspaper had mentioned one specificvintage of a named type of wine. A wine mer-chant then used a quotation from the wine arti-cle in his price list.

The court ruled that this was not a legalquotation, and that the quotation tended toraise doubts about the independence of thewine expert. The court awarded non-fin a n c i a ldamages amounting to DKK3,000.

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6. Ruling of 4 February 1993 bythe Danish Eastern High Court

As part of an election campaign leading upto the municipal election in 1989, a townmayor inserted a full-page advertisement in alocal newspaper, with about two-thirds of thepage consisting of a collage featuring nine arti-cles accompanied by a photograph aimed atgiving electors a positive impression. Thenames of the authors of the articles were visi-ble in the case of most of the articles as well asthe photograph.

The journalist and press photographerexplained in court that they felt their indepen-dence had been infringed owing to this politi-cal use of their editorial material.

The high court decreed that the use of thearticles and photograph could not be regardedas an “authorized quotation”, and that eventhough only small excerpts of their materialhad been printed, the journalists and p h o t o g r a-pher were entitled to total compensation anddamages of DKK20,000.

7. Legal settlement of 7 July 1994by the Court in Arhus

In a new year newspaper designed to pro-mote sales, a company published a number ofarticles in which its name was mentioned inpositive terms. The nine journalists won theirclaim that this use was not covered by quotationrights, and that their integrity as journalists hadbeen infringed on by the use in question.

The company had to pay compensation anddamages amounting to a total of DKK50,000 tothe journalists involved.

8. Legal settlement of 5 January 1995by the Municipal Court ofCopenhagen

A housing investment company had per-suaded a number of customers to invest

i n F rench châteaux, among other ways byshowing them an article written by a journalistfor the Danish newspaper B T entitled “Købfransk slot for pensionen” (“Use your pensiont o buy a F rench château”) and an article writtenb y another journalist for the Danish newspaperB ø r s e n entitled “Frynsegoder kun for ak-t i o n œ rer” (“Fringe benefits for share h o l d e r so n l y ” ) .

The court settled the case by award i n gcompensation and damages to the journalistsamounting to a total of DKK16,000. The com-pany acknowledged that the use of the articleshad infringed on the rights of the journalists.

The following are examples of settlementsmade out of court.

9. Case against election newspaperin 1989

In connection with the municipal electioncampaign in A a b y b ro, Denmark, a politicalparty used several articles published by theDanish newspapers A a l b o rg Stiftstidende a n dVendsyssel Tidende.

The case was settled out of court by thepayment of DKK10,000 damages, because thepolitical party acknowledged that this use hadinfringed on the integrity of the journalists(editorial integrity, etc.).

10. Case against political partyfor young members in 1994

In connection with an annual meeting, apolitical party for young members produced anumber of T-shirts featuring an editorial/satir-ical drawing done by a newspaper cartoonist.

The political party acknowledged that thisuse of the drawing had infringed on the car-toonist’s integrity and agreed to pay damagesand compensation of DKK6,000.

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The debate on expected trends in the work-place ensuing from the digital revolution hasreached the area of occupational health ands a f e t ys t a n d a rds. To assess the risks, we shouldfocus primarily on changes that are alre a d ya ffecting former stru c t u res and which willp robably have an impact on future workingconditions.The media industry is an appropri-ate area of investigation.1 Viewed from theangle of occupational health and safety, thepossibilities of a holistic approach to workorganization may be explored.

The first step is to examine existing pro b-lems and shortcomings in order to stimulatedebate on which of the existing approaches toreform in the area of health and safety stan-d a rds must be developed and stre n g t h e n e d .We propose to base our argument on a series ofhypotheses. European Union (EU) legislationon the work environment, particularly theFramework Directive and Display Scre e nEquipment Directive, constitute a useful start-ing-point for the discussion. In the FederalRepublic of Germany, the EC directives onhealth protection were implemented with afour-year delay. The new Occupational Healthand Safety Act of August 1996 and the Screen-work Decree of December 1996 now pro v i d ethe legislative structure for implementation inthe workplace.2

New health risks and waysof handling them

First hypothesis: Digital technology acceler-ates the shift in stress and strain patterns to psy-chomental and psychosocial factors. This calls for ac o r responding change of emphasis in occupationalhealth and safety standards, for which the generalthrust and methodology of EU work enviro n m e n tlegislation provide a sound basis.

Existing multimedia literature fails toinvestigate possible health risks or else depicts

the technology as in all cases “clean” and“ h e a l t h y ” . A d m i t t e d l y, digitization can elimi-nate a number of traditional risks such as haz-a rdous substances in printing shops or thepreliminary stages of the printing process.

When domestic implementation of the ECS c reen Directive was discussed, employerspersistently disputed the very existence ofrisks and health hazards from screenwork andhence the need for regulations. The issue has inthe meantime been conclusively settled in legalterms: the Federal Labour Court – the highestlegal authority in the area of labour legislation– ruled in its judgement of 2 April 1996 that theEC Screen Directive and the grounds on whichit was based set forth “binding arguments forGerman employers to the effect that scre e nwork places employee safety and health atrisk, thereby necessitating the regulations setforth in the Directive”.3 Paragraph 3 of the newS c reenwork Decree explicitly includes mentalstrain among the factors to be ascertained andassessed in the case of screenwork stations.

S p e c i fic categories of health hazard must beexamined more closely. It may be assumed thatthe strain experienced by operators at com-puter work stations is increasing in at leastthree respects:

• F i r s t l y, the technological ability of digitalsystems to process increasing quantities ofdata in compressed form can re p resent amajor source of stress.

• S e c o n d l y, increasingly complex systemsmake growing demands on users sincefaulty decisions have an ever gre a t e rimpact. This is also a source of stress.

• Thirdly, the incorporation of diverse media(text, images, films, speech, etc.) in multi-media technology can lead to an increase inmultifactorial strain. An idea of the stru c-t u res that generate such strain may beformed from a glance at present-day work

Health hazards in computer workand new organizational options:Experience in the media industry

Klaus PickshausIG Medien

Germany

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stations for broadcasting staff, for exampleeditors or producers. Following an inspec-tion of electronic vision mixing work sta-tions in a major broadcasting corporation in1991, re p resentatives of the Federal Insti-tute for Occupational Health and Safetycame to the following conclusion: “Thes t ress at an editing work station must beranked considerably higher than at ‘tradi-tional’ screen work stations. This increaseds t ress is due to the specific demands of elec-t ronic vision mixing. Frequent pre s s u re oftime, deficient ergonomic organization ofwork stations, a probable risk from highmagnetic fields in the immediate vicinity ofthe work station and irregular workinghours are particularly hazardous.”

Despite these multiple sources of strain,broadcasting organizations held out for a longtime against recognition of the applicability ofthe EC Screen Directive to such work stations.4

In the meantime, even an informal publicationof the Federal Association of German Employ-ers’ Federations (BDA) has had to admit thatall “screens for the production and processingof moving images in film and television pro-duction or adaptation studios” are also subjectto the provisions of the new Scre e n w o r kDecree.5

This example shows clearly that c o m b i n a-tions of stress factors occur at screen work sta-tions – especially those involving multimedia –and that organizational factors such as worki n t e n s i t y, multiplicity of tasks, pre s s u re ofdeadlines and many others play a role along-side ergonomic shortcomings. Nervous disor-ders are often the first warning signs ofimpending chronic illness. Combinations ofs t ress factors are often also the root cause oftraditional physical disorders. The use of newtechnology has led in particular to incre a s e dhealth risks in the following areas:

F i r s t l y, there is a risk of visual imbalancecoupled with diminished physical and manuala c t i v i t y. Screenwork involves focusing on theselective re c o rding of data and signals, whilevisual skills such as holistic-pictorial perc e p-tion or relief of eye strain through free-floatingobservation are impaired. When combinedwith stress, this may become a fixed pattern of“visual behaviour” leading to asthenopic dis-o rders, muscle and skeletal disease and fatigueand exhaustion syndromes.6

S e c o n d l y, an increase in chronic disord e r sin the shoulder-arm area due to re p e t i t i v eactivities has led to wide public discussion of

what is termed “repetitive strain injury” (RSI),a concept which originated in Australia andthe United States of America and which is alsore f e r red to by other names such as “overu s es y n d ro m e ” .7 Connections with mental stre s s ,social strain, heavy workloads (e.g. intensivedata entry) and poor ergonomic conditions arediscernible in most cases. Generally speaking,it has not yet been possible to secure re c o g n i-tion of this disorder in Germany as an occupa-tional disease.8

O b v i o u s l y, the single-cause approach thathas generally been adopted in respect of thep revention of occupational accidents and dis-eases is of little use in the case of computer-assisted jobs – a category into which theoverwhelming majority of jobs will fall in thef u t u re. But such outmoded approaches are stilltypical of a large proportion of the occupa-tional health and safety regime. For example,duty periods for company doctors and special-ists in occupational safety are established, as arule, on the basis of accident hazards in thec o m p a n y.9 A reas exposed to “modern” cate-gories of risk and disease are therefore system-atically neglected.

In the meantime, a broad consensus hasdeveloped among German accident insurancecompanies – as reflected, for example, in thed e fin i tion of prevention used by the Union ofTrade Associations (Hauptverband der gewerb-lichen Berufsgenossenschaften) – that an exp a n d e dconcept of prevention, as re q u i red by the ECD i rective on Occupational Health and Safety,must be developed to serve as a compre h e n-sive shield against all occupational diseases.1 0

The new 1996 Social Security Code VII pro-vides a clear-cut legislative basis for the B e r u f-s g e n o s s e n s c h a f t e n p revention concept. It alsoe x p ressly includes topics such as reduction ofm o n o t o n y, lessening of mental strain, multiplejob strain and holistic organization of work.

Prevention-oriented work organizationcalls for participation

Second hypothesis: Prevention-oriented workorganization requires far more than control of basicergonomic standards. It cannot be achieved withoutinvolving employees as experts on their own case.This radically alters the traditional role concept inoccupational health and safety: monitoring of com-pliance with regulations is replaced by promotion ofcommunication and cooperation in the interests ofbetter health.

Although we may still be far from achiev-ing comprehensive compliance in everyday

working life with the basic ergonomic re g u-lations set forth in the annex to the Scre e n w o r kD e c ree, the most demanding task is clearlycontained in paragraph 5 of the Decree, whichcalls for a form of work organization thatallows for changes and interruptions in scre e n-w o r k - related stress. The response to thisrequirement for prevention-oriented organiza-tion of work will differ from one activity toa n o t h e r. It is precisely in cases involving a highp roportion of screen-assisted activity that“mixed work” becomes difficult. On the otherhand, variety and quality of scre e n - a s s i s t e dactivities, individual communication and qual-i fication periods and self-arranged breaks areof prime importance.11

At all events, such arrangements can onlybring about a reduction in stress if employeesthemselves are involved in their investigationand organization. In the absence of appro v a lby employees and the development of individ-ual responsibility for healthy behaviour, moste fforts – specifically among skilled brain-work-ers – will prove futile.

U p s t ream from the task just described,h o w e v e r, another problem, which in manycompanies is a source of considerable mentalstrain, disruption of work organization andeven loss of pro d u c t i v i t y, must be addre s s e d :we refer to deficient skills and lack of companytraining facilities, particularly in the use ofinstalled software. Even where costly trainingis provided, it may prove ineffectual if it isinadequately geared to practical work stationre q u i rements. Here again employees must beinvolved. Ongoing in-service training is a vitalresponse to rapid technological change, p a r t i c u-larly in the interests of pre v e n t i o n - o r i e n t e dwork organization as a means of re d u c i n go r avoiding mental strain. These new and ex-panded tasks call for approaches to companycooperation that transcend traditional re s p o n-sibilities.

E rgonomic software issues play an impor-tant role in the area of stress and work routine.W h e reas standard-setting for softwareergonomics in a “normal” office-based screen-work station have pro g ressed in accord a n c ewith the provisions of EU work enviro n m e n tlegislation, the development of multimediasystems is still almost exclusively determinedby the concept of the technologically feasible.F. Koller of the Fraunhofer Institute for Wo r kEconomy and Organization draws attention tothe danger “that the potential range of multi-media may itself lead to the overloading ofuser surface, thereby confusing instead of sup-

porting the user”. Very little heed was paid toissues of software ergonomics. He concludes:“The potential for cooperation between soft-w a re ergonomists, designers, media expertsand computer specialists has hitherto beeng reatly neglected. It is essential to exploit thispotential in the future”.12

The much-discussed need for a change inthe role of employees in the area of occupa-tional health and safety from being passivesubjects of protection to “experts in their ownright” also points towards the overstepping ofbounds. Two comments are called for:

• Many current business concepts in the areaof company restructuring and “business re-engineering” are predicated on the “activa-tion of internal re s o u rces”, in other word son employee skills and eff i c i e n c y. The factthat they are in turn, as already shown,very closely bound up with appro p r i a t ep revention-oriented organization of workshould be taken into account in the debateon such concepts.

• In addition, trade union initiatives in theform of surveys and questionnaires canhelp to set in motion a debate on workingconditions at screenwork stations. IGMedien has conducted such surveys inb roadcasting organizations and publishinghouses and supports appropriate company-specific projects.13

The demise of the traditional workenvironment and the need for newregulations

Third hypothesis: New forms of “mobile digi-tal work” are undermining existing occupationalhealth and safety standards which are geared to aspatial concept of the workplace. Alongside inde-pendent initiatives by unions and management,new regulations are needed to address pro s p e c t i v eworking conditions in the multimedia age.

Most organizational claims have hithertop e r f o rce related to the workplace as a spatialconcept. But what will happen when the digi-tal revolution leads to an unbalanced acceler-ation in the already discernible shift inemployment to small units, self-employmentand/or home-based telecommuting?

Given the enormous shortcomings thata l ready exist in the implementation of up-t o -date occupational and health and safetyp rovisions, the very question may sound dis-couraging. Half of all employees already lac koccupational safety and medical coverage and

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it will take years for new accident pro t e c t i o nregulations based on EU provisions to pro v i d eeven a partial remedy for these shortcomings.

The key requirement of the EC FrameworkD i rective – equal occupational health andsafety rights to begin with for all employees,including home employees and the self-employed – has not been fully realized in thenew Occupational Health and Safety Act. Forexample, paragraph 2.2.3 stipulates, in the faceof protests by the German Federation of TradeUnions (DGB), that the provisions of the A c tshall not apply to “homeworkers and personsof equivalent status”. However, where, forexample, telecommuting is undertaken undercontractual conditions of employment, theOccupational Health and Safety Act and theScreenwork Decree are applicable.14

Instead of deregulation, there continues tobe a need for re - regulation of emerging newcategories of working conditions so that stan-d a rds of occupational safety and health pro t e c-tion and basic ergonomic conditions are fir m l ys e c u red for all employees. W. Dostal of the Fed-eral Labour Institution’s Labour Market andOccupational Research Institute predicts that“with the emergence of multimedia the ‘normalemployer/employee relationship’ will virtuallycease to exist”.1 5 P recarious employment condi-tions, particularly a trend towards “pseudo-self-employment” – re flecting the incre a s i n g l ynomadic lifestyle of workers1 6 – are undermin-ing both social and economic stru c t u res. In theUnited States, a quarter of the economicallyactive population is already aff e c t e d .

The spotlight is currently on the rapidlyg rowing number of telecommuting jobs,although the burgeoning growth in announce-ments and press releases is in inverse pro p o r-tion to the actual increase in such jobs inGermany. The Bonn firm of technology consul-tants Empirica estimates that there are some150,000 teleworkers in Germany, whereas theDeutsche Industrie – und Handelstag ( G e r m a n yChamber of Industry and Commerce) puts thenumber at no more than 2,000.1 7 A l t e r n a t i n gtelework already predominates, i.e. alternatingin-house and home-based employment, whilepersons exclusively employed in telework israre and satellite office work more common. Ag reat deal has been written about generalimpediments and resistance to this mobile typeof digital work:1 8 it offers both greater potentialfor controlling work schedules, which meetswith resistance from management, and thepossibility of extensive self-exploitation, whichgenerates fear among employees.

Experimental models such as the wage andsalary agreement concluded between Telekomand the German Postal Union provide materialfor selective testing of this kind of telework.The following aspects are pertinent to our areaof study:• Voluntary arrangements provide solely for

a l t e r n a t i n g telecommuting jobs so that socialcontact with the staff is not severed. Alower limit is set for in-house employment,the aim being to counteract a trend towards“electronic reclusion”.

• Home-based work stations are fullyequipped by Telekom, which also provideso ffice furniture and an ISDN connection.Video technology will also be tested in thepilot phase.

• The home-based work station must complywith certain basic conditions and is subjectto inspection by representatives of Telekomand the Works Council. The latter hasaccess to the electronic communication sys-tem for its own work.

The union negotiators made additional spe-c i fic demands for implementation of the Scre e nD i re c t i ve 1 9 which are still under negotiation.

In a “Memorandum on the Structure of theInformation Society”, the Postal Union and IGMedien developed common standpoints ontelecommuting, including the need to ensurecontractually established working conditionsinvolving mandatory social security pro v i s i o n sand the applicability of wage and salary agree-ments and occupational health and safety pro-v i s i o n s .2 0 Similar criteria were agreed in theMultimedia Investigation Committee of theBaden Württemberg State Parliament.21

Under a staff agreement on telecommutingat the Federal Ministry of Labour, alongsideregulations governing the voluntary nature andcontractual nature of such employment, pro v i-sion was made, in agreement with the staff andwith possible Staff Council participation, for an“ e rgonomic inspection of home-based scre e n-work stations” with a view to ensuring compli-ance with occupational health and safetyp rovisions, including the EC Screen Dire c t i v e .2 2

Notwithstanding the agreement reached inthe foregoing examples on rights of access forergonomic inspections, the problem of how toc o n t rol and supervise such home-based workstations for compliance with occupationalhealth and safety standards will obviouslyg row as telecommuting becomes incre a s i n g l yw i d e s p read. In particular, professional and

trade association factory and technical inspec-torates, which are already hopelessly over-taxed, especially in small-scale enterprises,continue to be excluded from the whole sphereof telecommuting. Supervision of employmentfalling under the Homework Act has alre a d yp roved virtually impossible. Under these cir-cumstances, the duty of employers to informand instruct their staff, including teleworkers,in accordance with the provisions of EU worke n v i ronment legislation or the new Occupa-tional Health and Safety Act, is obviously ofthe greatest importance. In all cases, off - l i n eand on-line assistance for ergonomic andhealthy organization of work stations off e reffective support. Trade-union based advisoryarrangements could play a pilot role in thedevelopment of this type of service.

The organization of humane working condi-tions for all computer work stations willundoubtedly become a key trade-union policytask, requiring a broader definition of the tradi-tional concept of occupational health and safety.

Notes

1 See Pickshaus, K. 1994. “Medienbranche im Umbruch.Verschlafen die Gewerkschaften die digitale Revolution?”,in IG Medien Forum, No. 10, pp. 6 et seq.

2 See Konstanty, R.; Zwingmann, B. 1997. “Die Arbeitss-chutzreform. Ruckblick und Paerspektiven”, in van Haaren,K. (ed.), Arbeit im Multimedia-Zeitalter, Hamburg. See also IGMedien (ed.). 1996. Das neue Arbeitsschutzgesetz, Schriftenre i h eGewerkschaftliche Betriebsarbeit, No. 30, Stuttgart, andDPG/HBV/IG Medien (eds.). 1997. Die neue Bildschirm-arbeitsverordnung, Düsseldorf/Frankfurt/Stuttgart.

3 Judgement of the Federal Labour Court of 2 April 1996,1 ABR 47/95 (quotation from the statement of grounds, p. 2 3 ) .

4 In 1994, the Deutsche Welle succeeded in negotiating as t a ff agreement on screenwork containing regulations gov-erning health protection in accordance with the EC Scre e nDirective which are also applicable to production work sta-tions. See Gäbert, J.; Maschmann-Schulz, B.: “Mitbestim-mung bei der Arbeit am Bildschirm”, in A r b e i t s recht imBetrieb, Nos. 6-7/1995, pp. 418 et seq.

5 K e l l e r, Karl-Josef. 1997. Die Bildschirmarbeitsvero r d n u n g .Ein Vorschlag zur praktischen Umsetzung, Bergisch-Gladbach,p. 17.

6 Forschungsverbund. 1994. A long-term re s e a rch pro-ject is being conducted under the Employment and Technol-ogy Programme on these work-related health hazard s .See”Arbeit und Sehen, Ve reinseitigung des Sehens alsUrsache arbeitsbedingter Gesundheitsrisiken – ein neuerAnsatz in der betrieblichen Gesundheitsförd e rung”, inErgoMed, No. 6, p. 172 et seq.

7 See Pickshaus, K.; Priester, K. (eds.). 1991. G e s u n d h e i tund Ökologie im Büro, Frankfurt/Main, pp. 70 et seq., and

Engel, M.; Sorgatz, H.; Weissenstein, C. (eds.). 1994. Präven-tion von Bewegungsschmerzen bei der Bildschirmarbeit ( re p o r ton a technical meeting in Darmstadt on 1 October 1993),Darmstadt.

8 See Osterholz, U. 1993. “Soziale Wahrnehmung undBewältigung arbeitsbedingter Erkrankungen: Das BeispielRSI”, in Jahrbuch für Kritische Medizin, Vol. 21, A r z t - K o n-s u m e n t e n - Ve rhältnisse, Hamburg, pp. 100 et seq. On initialsuccesses see “Durch Bildschirmarbeit krank geworden –E r f o l g reiche aussergerichtliche Einigung in Beru f s k r a n k-h e i t e n v e r f a h ren”, in Arbeit & Ökologie-Briefe, No. 3/1995,pp.7 et seq.

9 See Schmitthenner, H. 1995. Anforderungen an diearbeitsmedizinische und sicherheitstechnische Betreuung vonKleinbetrieben aus Sicht der Gewerkschaften, paper delivered atthe Kongress Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, Düssel-dorf, 7 – 10 November (hectographed manuscript).

10 See Board of the Union of Trade Associations (Haupt-verband der gewerblichen Berufsgenossenschaften). 1995.“Sicherheit under Gesundheitsschutz bei der Arbeit: Berufs-genossenschaftlicher Präventionsansatz”, report in W S I -M i tteilungen, No. 2/1995, pp. 137 et seq.

11 See Köchling, A. 1994. “Der Tägliche A r b e i t s a b l a u f(nach EU-Bildschirm-Richtlinie)”, in A r b e i t s m e d i z i n i s c h eAspekte der modernen Büro arbeit, series published by the Bun-desanstalt für Arbeitsmedizin, Meeting Report No. 5, Berlin,pp. 97 et seq.

12 K o l l e r, F. 1992. “Gestaltung von Multimedia-Syste-men”, in Ergonomie & Informatik, November, p. 7.

13 IG Medien (ed.). 1993. Gesundheitsschutz bei der Arbeitan Bildschirmen. Ergebnisse einer Umfrage in Hörfunk, Fern-sehen und filmtechnischen Betrieben, Stuttgart 1993, and ZATU(ed.), Gesundheitsschutz an Bildschirmarbeitsplätzen. Ergebnisseeiner Belegschaftsbefragung in 5 Betrieben der Druckindustrie,2 vols., Nuremberg.

14 See the new publication by the Federal Institute forOccupational Health and Safety and Occupational Medicine(Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin). 1996.Telearbeit – gesund gestaltet. Tips für gesundheitsverträglicheTelearbeit, Dortmund/Berlin.

15 Dostal, W. 1995. “Multimedia – Arbeitsmarkt vonmorgen?” in ibv-Publikationen, No. 41 of 11 October, p. 3547.

16 See, for example, the analysis by Welsch, J. 1994.“Zukunft der Arbeit: Neues Nomadentum oder auf demWeg zum Wi r t s c h a f t s b ü rger?” in Gewerkschaftliche Monats-hefte, No. 11, pp. 743 et seq.

17 See Fischer, U. 1995. “Telearbeit in Europa”, in C o m-puter Information, No. 9, loc. cit., p. 56.

18 See Welsch, J. 1995. “Multimedia und die Angst vordem Ende der Arbeit”, in Blätter für deutsche und interna-tionale Politik, No. 7, pp. 871 et seq.

19 For more details see A l t m e y e r, V. “Auf Eigeninitia-tiven setzen. Die sozialen Folgen von Multimedia in denBetrieben”, in van Haaren, K., Hensche, D. (eds.), in M u l t i-media, loc. cit., pp. 111 et seq.

20 The Memorandum is reproduced in IG Medien Forum,No. 6/1995, pp. 11 et seq.

21 See Schröter, W. 1995. “Innovation mit innovativenFormen”, in Frankfurter Rundschau, 26 October, p. 12.

22 See “Blüms Projekt”, in Computer Information, No. 9/1995, p. 28.

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I’m all for progress, it’s change I don’t like.Mark Twain

The conundrum of the information andcommunications revolution is that although itwill radically alter the way we live and work,neither citizens nor social institutions nor evenmost of the business world are really pre p a re dfor the changes new technologies will bring.Such a state of unreadiness is also found in jour-nalism and traditional media. Ignorance anduncertainty threaten to handicap our capacity togain the potential benefits of a converged multi-media environment – higher economic perfor-mance, more employment, enhanced standard sof journalism and dramatically improved levelsof pluralism.

Given the right choices, however, conver-gence can strengthen professionalism in mediaand improve the social and professional condi-tions in which journalists work. Among thepotential advantages are the following:• Citizens’ access to many more media

outlets, greatly improving the levels of plu-r a l i s m ;

• i n c reased economic activity and more workopportunities for journalists and othermedia-workers who are currently unem-ployed;

• an expanded vision of journalistic workinto new areas of on-line information ser-vices;

• enhancement of the media mission in soci-ety and improved levels of professionalismin journalism.

Underpinning democratic values

H o w e v e r, in order to achieve these advan-tages, policy makers preparing the legal andregulatory environment for convergence mustrecognize that the media product is not justlike any other product: media play a pivotalsocial and cultural role in underpinning demo-cratic values and, therefore, public policy mustre flect democratic and cultural imperatives as

well as create conditions for the economicexploitation of new markets. That is why, forjournalists in particular, it is important toe n s u re a balanced approach to convergence –respecting citizens’ rights to quality and re l i-able information sources while elaborating thelegal, social and economic conditions for mul-timedia convergence. The wrong choices canproduce undesirable consequences:• i n c reased concentration of power in rich,

m e t ropolitan society and further isolationof people in the regions and a widening ofthe gap between rich and poor;

• the loss of privacy for all and the exclusionof certain disadvantaged sections of society;

• even greater media concentration;• undue influence by media and telecommu-

nications groups on political institutionsand public opinion; media dominated byc o m m e rcialized programming of game-shows, sensationalist and violent tabloidtelevision, advertising and shopping.

So far people-centred

The convergence of information technolo-gies is just one element in the process of rapidtransformation of economic conditions glob-ally which are challenging community values.This concern has been succinctly expressed byG e o rge Soro s1 who, in considering the impactof globalization on human values, has said:

“ U n s u re of what they stand for, peoplei n c reasingly rely on money as the criterion ofvalue. What is more expensive is considere db e t t e r. The value of a work of art can be judgedby the price it fetches. People deserve re s p e c tand admiration because they are rich. Whatused to be a medium of exchange has usurpedthe place of fundamental values, reversing therelationship postulated by economic theory.What used to be professions have turned intobusinesses. The cult of success has replaced abelief in principles. Society has lost its anchor.”

This loss of balance will be reinforced if thep rocess of technological convergence in the

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Media convergence and journalism

Aidan WhiteGeneral Secretary

International Federation of Journalists

information and media sector leads to a reduc-tion in pluralism and diversity. The history oftraditional media – newspapers and bro a d c a s t-ing organizations – is rooted in the defence ofdemocracy and citizens’ rights. The publicinformation space has so far been largely peo-p l e - c e n t red, re flecting the pluralism and diver-sity of society, and providing a stru c t u re fordemocratic exchange and expression of com-mon values. It may be changing.

New concentration of industrial power

The media world is in a turbulent process ofre s t ructuring. Massive mergers and takeovershave created global media corporations richerthan many medium-sized countries. They haveenormous power. The companies now beingdrawn together, particularly in the field of mul-timedia, create a new concentration of indus-trial power. Concentration is the antithesis ofthe diversity necessary for democracy.

Danger of unfair monopoly

Journalists today fear that alliances whichbring together information carriers and contentp roviders raise serious questions of control ofaccess to the superhighways. The problem of“gatekeepers” – the corporate hand thatdecides who will or will not have access toinformation networks – is already causing aheadache for regulators. In Europe there is con-siderable concern over the fact that one or twocompanies may establish an unfair and poten-tially dangerous monopoly in the provision ofcheap satellite set-top decoders. This advantagecould allow one major player to determinewhich services may or may not have access tohome television. Many fear that competitorsmay suffer discrimination. Although industryleaders say that the market can regulate itself inthis area, journalists are among those whobelieve a new regime of national and interna-tional effective anti-trust rules is needed to limitconcentration of ownership of media re s o u rc e sto safeguard pluralism.

An avalanche of trivia?

One of the problems facing journalists andmedia organizations as they wrestle with themagnitude of change overwhelming the indus-try is that the pace of change is so rapid thatfew people are truly aware of the implications.C o n v e rgence means that society’s capacity tobe informed is dramatically widened. But

interactive television, with 200-plus channelsand an ever-expanding Internet may lead toinformation “overload” whereby the spirit ofinquiry is smothered by an avalanche of infor-mation, most of it useless, trivial and deeplyu n i n t e resting. The Internet, often praised forp roviding access to information and diverseopinions, can be a hotbed of rumour wherediscussion frequently degenerates into off e n-sive and tasteless exchanges and where mat-ters of fact are diminished by on-line prejudiceand ignorance. Cliff o rd Stoll, author of S i l i c o nSnake Oil, warns that the Internet can lead peo-ple into a non-existent universe where there is“plenty of human contact, but no humanity.”

Not yet a force for pluralismand democracy

Studies of current users of the Internetshow that the majority tend to be male, re l a-tively young, with high levels of income andeducation. There is a long way to go before theInternet can be claimed as a force for pluralismand democracy. Journalism, based upon well-established traditions of ethical and re l i a b l einformation, can provide a professional fil t e rwhich will help people to navigate through theuncharted waters of multimedia.

Because independent journalism is such akey to professionalism and quality, journalistsinsist that the case for public service funding ofinformation space in the converged mediae n v i ronment is as compelling as that whichestablished the public broadcasting industry. Ina world where the electronic media is incre a s-ingly dominated by international channels andp roducers, it is vital to continue with nationalpublic service radio and television systems. Thecontinuation of broadcast and production ofp rogrammes of high quality with re g a rd toethics, re s p o n s i b i l i t y, journalistic versatility andquality must be maintained. Whether or notthis will happen remains an open question.

New standards to control contentand quality

The problem of content control – whetheras a matter of journalistic ethics or the types ofservices on offer to the public – is one of thethorniest problems facing journalism in the ageof the Internet. Journalists and other mediap rofessionals strongly oppose attempts tomonitor and regulate their work by outsiders,particularly by legislators or others with avested interest in media performance. A legiti-

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mate worry concerns on-line pornography,racism and extremist political pro p a g a n d a .One of the problems about the virtual world isthat the control of content is much more diff i-cult than before. But many governments arelooking for new technical mechanisms toe n s u re that existing standards of re g u l a t i o nconcerning content and quality of informationapply in the new digital environment. Whetheror not this objective is feasible in the on-lineworld remains an open question. Freedom ofchoice and freedom of expression re q u i re thatflexible rather than intrusive systems of con-tent control should be considered.

The urge to collect information is stro n gwithin both the public and private sectors,whether for reasons of law enforcement or forc o m m e rcial exploitation. Media org a n i z a t i o n s ,too, for reasons of legitimate journalistic inquiry,j u s t i fiably seek access to personal information.Journalists cannot function unless they cangather information fre e l y. The need for journal-ists to be able to gather data without interfer-ence must be recognized simultaneously withthe development of privacy protection in infor-mation collection and retention systems.

A wealth of talent in journalism

Within media, the providers of information– journalists, audio-visual producers and otherc reators – face their own bumpy ride into thenew information age. Journalists are pro d u c e r sof much of the media product which is at thecentre of the information society. They are con-cerned with the content available in new con-v e rged information services and they have aninterest in the social dimensions of this revolu-tion as well as the financial performance of thecompanies in it. Journalists themselves – well-trained, aware of their ethical re s p o n s i b i l i t i e s ,and confident in their forms of employment –will play a crucial role in helping to developnew information services. Current mass mediacontains a wealth of talent in journalism, enter-tainment and broadcasting which can ensurepluralistic, high quality, and professional pro-gramming, as well as news and informationservices on a scale far greater than curre n t l yavailable.

Now less concern for trainingand ethical standards

H o w e v e r, the importance of the contribu-tion of journalists and other creators is notalways fully appreciated, even within tradi-

tional media. In the chaos of media restructur-ing and the drive for market prominence, notenough emphasis has been placed on theimportance of quality journalism for thefuture. There is less investment in professionaltraining, less concern for ethical standards andm o re journalists working in insecure jobs as aconsequence of cost-cutting to maintain com-petitiveness.

At the same time, the development of newon-line services means significant change inthe media labour market. There are new quali-fications standards re q u i red for journalists tomaintain existing jobs, while the future holdsout the prospect of many new jobs – in prepar-ing CD-ROM materials and in on-line re p o r t-ing, for instance. Many journalists are alre a d ypioneers of the “teleworking” age.

Information seen as a commodity

Journalists are being joined by thousands ofothers in the information processing business.T h e re is much competition to distribute infor-mation on-line. New forms of work are emerg-ing for on-line editing and data collection. Thisposes serious challenges to the traditionalw o r k f o rce in media. New forms of org a n i z a-tion and representation may be needed withinthe trade union movement to protect the inter-ests of these workers. Many of these newworkers are doing journalistic work, but oftenthey are not identified as journalists and theywork in companies which lack appreciation ofnotions of journalistic standards and ethics.While journalism has always been understoodto have cultural responsibilities to society,many new multimedia companies see informa-tion only as a commodity for sale.

On these points there needs to be a dia-logue between the collective bargaining part-ners in respect of socially acceptable rules togovern the conditions of convergence and theresulting changes in conditions of employ-ment. But who will be the collective barg a i n i n gpartner on the employers’ side in this newindustry?

Employer-employee relations not clear

The re s t ructuring of media means that thetraditional structures of professional organiza-tion are changing rapidly. Bro a d c a s t e r, pub-l i s h e r, cable company, telephone company,film-maker organizations are having toreassess their positions. The same is true fortrade unions and professional groups re p re-

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senting employees in the sector. The newframework for employer-employee relations isnot clear.

One of the first pressing questions will cer-tainly be how the industry will cope with thenew generation of employees in journalism,many of whom work in depressing and uncer-tain conditions. Many media org a n i z a t i o n snow rely heavily on a part-time or casualworkforce. Freelance work is the fastest-grow-ing sector of journalism. Media companiesoften find it cheaper to contract work out tof reelance journalists, particularly where thatcontracting can be made to low wage areas orlow wage countries. Very often these journal-ists receive few social benefits. It is an insecuree n v i ronment and not one which encouragesforthright or controversial journalism.

Structural overheads shoulderedby employees

Teleworking reduces the costs of off i c espace, insurance and other structural over-heads. Many of these costs are passed on toemployees who have to set aside space in theirapartment or house, sometimes having to paythe extra insurance that is re q u i red. The tech-nology involved in teleworking also enablesemployers to check when people are workingand their level of performance. As a re s u l t ,teleworkers may have to undertake intenseworkloads. In other words, the discipline ofthe office remains but without the benefits ofsocial interaction which comes from work.

Industry-wide agreements needed

If traditional standards of journalism andthe public interest role of media are to survivein the converged media and information en-vironment, industry-wide agreements on rulesand standards of training for journalists willb e re q u i red for gathering and disseminatinginformation electronically.

Above all, there is a need for reliable, accu-rate and professional content. New media ser-vices which fail to meet the challenge oftraining in journalism not only pose a seriousthreat to media standards but they underminepublic confidence in information sources. Thep roblem is that, far from investing in the fie l dof training, many media companies are impos-ing cost cuts which undermine training in theprinciples of journalism. Journalists arerequired to be multi-skilled – able to turn theirhands to word - p rocessing, sound re c o rd i n g ,

camera-work (moving and still pictures) andp resentation to camera or microphone asre q u i red. Many of these functions are nowc o m p ressed into one activity as a result of digi-tization. The business of creativity is beingm a rginalized in the drive to create all-ro u n dcapacities which suit the converged mediaenvironment.

Beyond strictly technical needs

Journalism training, like journalism itself,needs to adjust to take account of new condi-tions, but should not mean a sacrifice of stan-d a rds. Journalists re q u i re coaching in the trickybusiness of resolving ethical dilemmas; theyneed to be able to confront with confidence thep re s s u res facing them in their everyday work.Training focused only on technical needs atenterprise level or that which considers jour-nalism as an adjunct to the academic re fle c t i o n sof mass communication theory will not pro v i d ethe national infrastru c t u re needed to equippeople for the journalism of the future .

Convergence should herald a golden age ofg rowth, employment and equity in journalism,but that will not happen unless the convergedindustry provides sound employment oppor-tunities and socially-protected jobs for well-trained and confident media professionals. Aprogramme of policy backed up by legislationand regulation at national and internationallevel, both soft and hard, will be vital if every-one – consumers and journalists alike – are toreceive the re w a rds of growth, employmentand equity.

Guiding principles

C o n v e rgence can benefit both the commu-nity and the private sector, but it will only doso if the guiding principles are:

• the right of journalists to work in socially-protected and professional conditions;

• the freedom of information and right ofaccess to networks for public informationproviders to be on the network;

• the need for pluralism, diversity and qual-ity in information sources.

For journalists, the keys lie in a policy pro-gramme of five elements, as follows:• to identify and eliminate all obstacles to the

development of new information technolo-gies and to free existing media from formsof direct or indirect pressure;

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• to protect the public interest in plurality byregulating conditional access systems andsetting standards for fair, reasonable andnon-discriminatory access for all bro a d c a s t-ers and information service providers todistribution systems;

• to provide a framework to protect the socialand employment rights of teleworkers andthose working from remote locationsattached to centralized production andbusiness centres;

• to maintain protection for authors’ rightsregarding recirculation of information;

• to apply strict ownership rules to allp roviders of services, whether by satellite,cable or terrestrial transmission.

Finally, there is much that the Governmentmay do to create the best conditions for thedevelopment of media, but within the industryt h e re is also a need for action. Media pro f e s-sionals – whether journalists, editors, bro a d-casters or publishers – all have a vested intere s tin the information society. However, if it is toachieve its potential for more professionalism,t r a n s p a rency and democracy, stru c t u res fordialogue and more co-operation within mediais essential.

Note

1 See Soros, George: “The capitalist threat”, in A t l a n t i cMonthly, Feb. 1997.

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Multimedia technological convergence inBrazil, now partly effected, has already hadserious consequences for workers in the sector,for democratic values and for basic principlesof sovereignty and nationality. Clearly, it willcontinue to have a very positive effect on thecapital accumulation process and productivityindices.

T h e re was a time when enthusiastic theo-rists forecast that technology, in addition torationalizing and optimizing human labour,would make it possible to reduce workinghours and increase the time spent on intellec-tual pursuits and entertainment. This has nothappened. On the contrary, data shows thatp rofessionals working in firms involved incommunications – beginning with executivesand journalists – are on call for longer hourst h rough personal computers or mobile tele-phones. Furthermore, there is also insecurityand great uncertainty re g a rding their rightsand duties.

If labour legislation and the rights of pro-fessionals were strictly observed, only the out-standing positive aspects of these technologieswould find expression, to be admired and usedi n t e l l i g e n t l y. This is not the case in Brazil,w h e re a journalist can be contacted easilywhen off duty and has no backing in law torefuse any job given by his or her enterprise, orto discuss the terms of engagement. In fact, thep roblem of the technological revolution mustalways be analysed in the social and politicalcontext in which it arises. When it occurs in acountry where legislation exists and is com-plied with, protecting the worker and guaran-teeing a job, providing the opportunity forvocational retraining to perform new func-tions, and where the trade unions participatein the process of introducing new technologies,the problem lies elsewhere, and is much lessserious. Something very different occurs whenthese technological innovations are introducedt h rough a general process of abolishing a num-

ber of labour rights and altering the constitu-tion in favour of communications oligopolies.Even more serious is the lack of any possibilitywhatsoever of full trade union participation, asobtains today in Brazil.

Anything goes

In the 1980s, after a period of dictatorialrepression when the trade union movement inBrazil was emerging forcefully and addingconsiderably to its labour gains, the politicalprocess in Brazil was readier than ever for thei n t roduction of legal provisions to pro t e c tworkers. The Constitutional Charter was beingdeveloped; there was strong national debateon the technology issue; and many pointsfavourable to workers were enshrined consti-tutionally.

Even before promulgation of the new Con-stitution, there was a political climate fa-vourable to the acceptance and conservationof labour rights in respect of the intro d u c t i o nof new technologies in production. For exam-ple, we can cite the ruling made in 1983 by theRegional Labour Tribunal of São Paulo, amajor industrial and financial centre in thec o u n t r y, which echoed the concern of the tradeunion movement re g a rding the potential occu-pational damage of the technological innova-tion of the media. The ruling stated thatenterprises which intended to install auto-mated systems in their carriers (such as infor-matics, teleinformatics, word processing, videotext, etc.) should ensure that they respected thef o l l o w i n g :• the establishment of a joint commission;

• no dismissal of workers from jobs madeobsolete;

• redeployment to jobs equivalent to or com-patible with those they performed hithertofor professionals whose jobs were maderedundant by the automated systems.

Technological convergence and some of its effectson workers in Brazil

Carlos Alberto de AlmeidaVice-President of the International Federation of Journalists

Vice-President of the National Federation of Journalists of Brazil (FENAJ)

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C o n v e r s e l y, in January 1997, nine yearsafter the entry into force of the new Constitu-tion and 14 years after that legal ruling, themost that the São Paulo Journalists’ Tr a d eUnion has been able to obtain in labour negoti-ations on this issue is a simple re c o m m e n d a-tion – without any guarantee of compliance –that enterprises will free journalists for voca-tional retraining courses when new technologyis introduced. There is no guarantee that thejournalist will be re-deployed or that re t r a i n i n gwill be provided by the companies.

Article 7 of the federal Constitution ofBrazil provides for “the protection of workersby the law in the face of automation”. Never-theless, for this protection to be effective theremust be regulation through enabling legisla-tion which, nine years after the pro m u l g a t i o nof the Constitution, has still not been enacted.So the constitutional provision has no legalf o rce. But what does have force is the techno-logical innovation imposed solely in theemployers’ interests, without workers beingallowed to express themselves or defend them-selves from dismissal, which is frequent.

More technology, more work

Surveys carried out by journalists’ tradeunions affiliated to the National Federation ofJournalists of Brazil show a drop in the num-ber of journalists in newspaper offices alongwith a significant increase in workload andrhythm. The increase in the volume of workresults not only from the reduced number ofjournalists but also from the extension of therange of information which is disseminated bythe enterprises, facilitated by the new tech-n o l o g i e s .

Other factors contribute to the increase inthe workload of journalists in Brazil. A c c o rd-ing to the economist Nelson Sato, technicaladviser to the São Paulo Journalists’ Union, atp resent recent university graduates gre a t l yexceed the number of jobs created annually inthe media market. The total number of jour-nalists who have lost their jobs in the publish-ing trade, plus those entering the labourmarket, constitute a growing troop of unem-ployed. This army of unemployed hasresulted in a climate which has made it easyfor enterprises to impose a working dayexceeding the legal limit, overtime which, ofcourse, is not remunerated. Journalists, fearingto lose their jobs, give in to the employers’demands and work five or six hours morethan the legal working day, which is five

hours. So, as more and more new technologyis introduced, a journalist’s normal workingday becomes longer and longer: ten, twelve oreven more hours long.

Technological revolution andregression of social and labour rights

In Brazil, the growing process of techno-logical convergence is accompanied by ac l e a r re g ression in the rights of media workers.As an illustration, here are just two very recentexamples of occurrences in São Paulo, one ofthe most developed cities in Latin America.

In the first case, the São Paulo Journalists’Union had obtained in previous collectivea g reements that a journalist would re c e i v esupplementary remuneration each time anarticle he or she had written was re p ro d u c e d .N o w, the employers’ union has demandedwithdrawal of this provision as a “point ofhonour” to continue the negotiations. Giventhe high unemployment levels and the weak-ening of the trade union movement in general,the journalists’ union was not strong enough top revent the withdrawal of this right which hadbeen theirs for many years.

The second example has a bearing on theprovision which makes it compulsory for tele-vision companies to re c o rd on videos the sig-n a t u re of the reporters and film-makers,another long-standing right. This matter isb e f o re the courts but we would not be sur-prised if they accept the employers’ view.

Both these examples can be traced to thelaunching of Globonews channel broadcastingby cable. This new channel will be exploitingand reproducing journalistic material from TVGlobo, the biggest television company in thecountry. These two examples support the con-clusion that technological modernization isaccompanied by a major step backwards inworkers’ acquired rights.

New technologiesand vocational retraining

O b v i o u s l y, vocational retraining is essentialin this process of very rapid technologicalchange with significant changes in workp rocesses, especially in the communicationssector. Meanwhile, shortcomings in the publiceducation system, including the state universi-ties, combined with the weakening of tradeunionism, mean that the opportunity for work-ers to receive vocational retraining for newjobs remains largely dependent on the good-

will of the big companies, since governmentscontinue to cut programmes catering for thisneed. But the policy line of the companies is toreject or fail to acknowledge the claims of thetrade union movement in terms of the need forvocational retraining.

The situation is even more serious in coun-tries such as Brazil where only 12 per cent ofthe working class in general has completedformal primary education. The tertiarizationby the big companies results in placing theonus for updating and training the labourf o rce on the small firms. This is an obviouscontradiction since technological pro g re s simplies better vocational training but it is pre-cisely the large firms, those with the mostmodern technology and there f o re the gre a t e s teconomic power, which refuse to shouldertheir share of this essential task. It is there f o rebecoming an additional burden on the tradeunions, aggravating their difficulties, sincegovernments are also withdrawing fro mt h e p rovision of vocational retraining pro-g r a m m e s .

Technological renewal and scientificdevelopment

It is also clear that vast capital expenditureis needed in order to be able to operate withmodern communications technologies on al a rge scale. Technological convergence bringstogether powerful oligopolies in the sectorwhich, at the same time, promote privatizationand deregulation worldwide. In the case ofBrazil, though the rhythm is diff e rent fro mChile and A rgentina, it began with the bre a k-ing of the state telecommunications monopolyin 1995, has been busy securing the associationof national oligopolies with the internationalgiants to win the market henceforth, andended finally with a package of measures lay-ing down the bases of the country’s newtelecommunications model.

Some immediate effects have already beennoted. One of the most serious of all is re l a t e dto the disappearance of re s e a rch centres: asl a rge international groups on the Brazilianmarket are likely to gain the upper hand, theoption of purchasing technology packagesf rom outside will be to the detriment ofnational technology development. Thus theTelebras Research Centre – CPQD – willbecome obsolete, placing at risk the jobs of1,200 re s e a rchers who are threatened withunemployment. This re s e a rch centre, theinvestment of many, many years, has suc-

ceeded in producing technology for digitaltelephony – undoubtedly the future of tele-phony – suitable for tropical climates, and itsown optical fib re technology at a signific a n t l ylower cost. Abandoning this work means farm o re than merely purchasing technologypackages: in the long run it means continuedtechnological dependence on foreign countrieswhen Brazil has already demonstrated that ithas a certain capacity for its own developmentin the sector.

So not only is Brazilian technology to betransferred to other markets, but jobs, too, willbe transferred from Brazil to other technologyproducing centres, maintaining and extendingthe country’s technological dependence not tomention its chronic unemployment!

Even more serious is the fact that all thesem e a s u res damaging to the country are beingadopted by the Government without theslightest discussion and without any debateinvolving the sectors concerned, as has beendenounced by the Federation of Telecommuni-cations Workers (FITTEL).

Convergence, democracyand cultural identity

Digitalization is causing damage to demo-cratic and cultural aspects. As a result of theworld oligopolization re f e r red to, free compe-tition is being replaced by market control inthe hands of a few “megacompanies”. As Pro-fessor Venicio Artur de Lima of the Universityof Brasilia points out, the liberals and defend-ers of the view that technology inevitablybrings democracy, irrespective of existingforms of ownership, will fall to the force oftheir own argument since the new technolo-gies and deregulation do not bring gre a t e rcompetition, plurality and diversity but, onthe contrary, empower oligopolies by re m o v-ing legal restrictions on the concentration ofo w n e r s h i p .

Again, the case of Brazil is strange: its tele-vision has significant production capacity asdemonstrated by the Brazilian television seri-als shown in many parts of the world, butrather than building on this capacity toi n c rease its presence on the world market, ithas suff e red a heavy blow with the suddeni n t roduction of the many pay-TV channels,especially north American productions, whichdominate Brazilian television today.

For Brazil, like many other developingcountries, the introduction of new communica-tions technologies and the process of techno-

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logical convergence represent a loss of culturaland information sovere i g n t y, with negativee ffects on the democratic system and on cul-tural identity. All this re q u i res discussion of anew model for communications, in which thenew technologies are assimilated democrati-

cally and gradually, with the full participationof society, in such a way that the great stridesof science and technology act as a public asset,opening access to information for one and all,humanizing the labour process and benefitingcivilization as a whole.

Conditions for a forward-lookingeducational policy

If we are really to come to terms with thequestion of the career and qualification pro fil e sthat could result from the now highly topicalconcept “multimedia”, a realistic assessment ofemployment possibilities would first have to bem a d e .

In Germany and many other Euro p e a ncountries, there is what at times seems an exag-gerated discussion about the creation of newmultimedia training courses. Universities arevying with each other to develop high-sound-ing new study courses for the media and infor-mation sector and dozens of mainly privateeducational institutions are rushing on to thelifelong education market with multimediac o u r s e s .

This activity in the educational sector is areaction to the partly euphoric statementsabout the job opportunities that should be cre-ated by the new information and communica-tion technologies. There is, however, goodreason for some doubt.

Since the appearance of the dazzling con-cept “multimedia”, entre p reneurs and politi-cians have been outdoing each other withsometimes euphoric job creation forecasts.

The “Bangemann Report”1 envisages some5 million new jobs in Europe. In Germany,the Government’s “Info 2000” Report2 r a i s e ss i m ilar expectations.

One of the problems posed by suchemployment forecasts for multimedia develop-ment stems from the imprecise definition ofthe different branches. In many scenarios, anybranch even remotely related to the transfor-mation towards the information society is sub-sumed under the concept “multimedia” –f rom mobile telephone manufacturers to anyprinter that produces blank forms.

But the optimists stop short of drawing upa balance that would set potential job creation

over against rationalization induced by thei n c reasing resort to information and communi-cation technology.

Anyone taking even a half-critical look canhardly help gaining the impression that manyscenarios are inspired largely by calculatedoptimism. Despite all the glowing pro m i s e s ,the technological “multimedia” developmentwill not point the way out of the oppre s s i v eproblem of mass unemployment. Instead, thatwill re q u i re political instruments to stabilizethe job market. There is no evidence of a mul-timedia-driven employment miracle.

The use of information and communica-tion technologies will, however, largely changethe face of the world of work – and that is thereally important development which will pre-sent the framers of educational policy withnew challenges.

P recisely those branches belonging to thetelecommunications sector are showing pro-nounced trends towards rationalization.Within the media industry in particular, andthis is most evident in the print media andb roadcasting, where the creation of multime-dia products is leading to increased digitaliza-tion of production processes. Digitalization isthe key to multimedia production, for exam-ple, enabling the content of a printed news-paper to be used simultaneously for its elec-tronic equivalent: an Internet newspaper.

Considerable rationalization is being pro-voked within the media industry by the use ofdigitalization. In the German printing industryfor example, 25,000 jobs have been lost in twoyears, though the situation has been furthercompounded by prevailing economic tre n d s .This re p resents more than 10 per cent of thetotal work force. Telecommunications compa-nies are experiencing similarly negativeemployment trends.

Shifts are also becoming apparent amongthe diff e rent media. For the printing industry,hitherto the undisputed leader in pro v i d i n g

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Multimedia – a vocational training opportunity?

Frank WernekeSecretary

Managing Board, IG MedienGermany

Alongside this concept of a universal quali-fication without regulated training courses isthe lobby of private providers of lifelong edu-cation. For the most part they offer one-tracktraining courses lasting a few weeks at a timeand restricted to individual fields of activity,e.g. screen design. The problem with such com-m e rcial training courses, however, is that theircontent is still not standardized and there isoften insufficient interrelatedness among them.F u r t h e r m o re, commercial training courseswith tuition fees often exceeding DM10,000 arebeyond the reach of school-leavers in search offurther training.

Implications for vocational training

The most important pillar of vocationaltraining in Germany is the “dual system” – inmost cases 3-year in-service training pro-grammes in state-recognized occupations, partof which takes place in state-run vocationalschools. The creation and adaptation of voca-tional training within the dual system fallsunder the responsibility of the Government,employer associations and trade unions.W h e reas publishing houses and the printingindustry largely perform their social obliga-tions in terms of vocational training under thedual system, broadcasting houses and newmultimedia firms still represent uncharted ter-ritory on the vocational training landscape.

IG Medien believes that even in the futuret h e re will be no “multimedia all-ro u n d e r s ”who will encapsulate in a single job pro f i l e(which, in re a l i t y, will cease to be one) all thefunctions ranging from programming, design,all the way to the production of printed mater-ial or the pressing of CD-ROMs. Even a fast-c o n v e rging media and information sector willre q u i re skilled professionals and division of

labour within a team. That will call for the cor-responding job pro files. Alongside universityand technical college courses, the existing dualsystem will retain its importance also in thefuture. In case of doubt, this form of educationwill take precedence over training from privateacademies, as it comprises a judicious mix ofin-company and classroom work.

The objective there f o re remains not to allowexisting career pro files in the printing and pub-lishing industry to become educational deadends, but to incorporate them in the process offashioning new job profiles for the mediaindustry as a whole. And there is good reasonfor this: the core qualifications in the pre-printtrades (text and image design, typography,digital data handling) are still of central impor-tance in producing the new electronic media.There should thus normally be no need to cre-ate new “multimedia professions”, but ratherto build upon the existing ones.

The use of information and communicationtechnology is transforming the journalist’s jobdescription. The same is true of the cre a t i v ep rofessions. Yet new applications such as Inter-net searches or catering to Info-groups withonline newspapers are not ultimately leadingto new job profiles (multimedia journalists, forinstance), but necessitate the further develop-ment of already existing journalistic trainingcourses. In addition to this “content” aspect,there is also that of the hardware and software.In Germany, five new job profiles have beendeveloped for the information and communi-cation industry, in an attempt to offer newtraining possibilities in this largely uncharteda rea. Courses have been available since A u g u s t1997 in these fields. The responsibility fordevising these information and communica-tion career profiles was largely that of theMetal Workers and Post Office Unions, in col-

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Chart 1. Qualification cycles in the media and information industry

Moving image and sound Media design and media Media consultancy design and processing product creation and administration

Media designer – Media designer b AV 5-media salespersonc

Image/soundfilm/video editor a Media artwork producer 6

a These are two newly created job descriptions and, since 1996, vocational training has been available in televisionand radio, as professions under the dual system. b Planned pre-media stage career profile, intended to incorporateexisting pre-print occupations (e.g. type-setting and graphics/ reproduction). The profession of advertising and mediaartwork producer can already be studied as an intermediate step. c Already existing as a pilot training project at theregional level, this is scheduled to become a federal vocational training course in 1998.

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laboration with the metal-working industryemployers and German Telecom. The thirdfield of qualifications – of importance to thisstudy – is media convergence, that is, the cre-ation of media products regardless of whetherthey relate to “traditional” print and broadcastmedia, or to the new interactive electro n i cmedia. Here again, independent job pro f i l e sa re emerging and in-company training isalready available in some cases.

The field that accounts for the largest num-ber of trainees is media design and mediap roduct creation. It also includes the existingp re-print trades such as typesetters. In Ger-many there are currently some 6,000 in-com-pany training contracts in the pre-print fie l d .

In order to create training opportunities infirms already active in the multimedia corebranches producing CD-ROMs or online prod-ucts, a vocational training course entitled“Advertising and Media Artwork Production”was created in 1996 as a short-term solution.This is a government-recognized, 3-year train-ing course under the dual system. It was devel-oped jointly by IG Medien and printingindustry employers.

Advertising and media artwork pro d u c t i o ncourse content:

• image and text design;

• data organization and preparation;

• media design;

• c reation of multimedia products (CD-ROMs and online).

IG Medien re g a rds this job profile as anintermediate step. When training began in1996, some 300 study places were cre a t e df o r i t .

Upon completion of the ongoing initiativeby IG Medien and employers to fashion a newand comprehensive career pro file for the pre -media phase, this job too, like the pre - p r i n ttrades, will be merged into it.

The longer-term goal is to create this inte-grated career training course for the entire pre-media stage. The pre f e r red pro f e s s i o n a ldesignation in worker circles is “media de-signer”. IG Medien has been working on thisp roject with the German Federal Institute forVocational Training and with employer associ-ations for about one year now. Development ofthis career profile should be completed byearly 1998. Its main components have alreadybeen agreed with the German Ministry of theE c o n o m y, and are described below. Note

should be taken that this development processwill not result in the creation of any additionalc a reer profiles: the projected new pre - m e d i aprofession will replace the existing career pro-files of the pre-print stage and advertising andmedia artwork production, the latter havingbeen conceived as a short-term solution.

Main components of the planned pre-media career profile

The pre-media landscape is a very variedone: it reaches from multimedia agencies pro-ducing CD-ROMs or Internet applications andhaving their roots largely in the domain of soft-ware companies, all the way to the traditionalprint industry companies which provide train-ing in their pre-print departments. This alsoincludes firms which will be confining them-selves exclusively to print media for the timebeing and for which multimedia applicationsa re of no special operational importance. Therea re also other new fields: digital printing,being as closely connected as it is with pre -print, the range of “computer-to” technologies( c o m p u t e r- t o - film, computer-to-plate and com-p u t e r-to-cylinder). In the pre-print and pre -media stages, the traditional dividing linesbetween technical know-how/creativity on theone hand and salesmanship/consultancy onthe other, are fading.

If in the face of this multi-layered picturethe occupational landscape is not to becomeatomized into a ferment of rump pro f e s s i o n sranging, for example, from “digital printworker” to “multimedia screen designer”, thenew pre-print and pre-media career pro f i l emust be diff e rentiated internally. This is guar-anteed in the draft submitted by unions andmanagement, which envisages breaking downthe 3-year training course into optional andcompulsory modules. After one and a halfyears of study, the course is further dividedinto four streams.

The choice of a modular stru c t u re for thenew career profile does not mean the introduc-tion of training in stages – and certainly not bythe back door. It remains a regulated, 3-yearvocational training course which culminates ina final examination. Individual modules arenot tested on the basis of initial training. Thenew concept for initial education containsmodules, such as “media convergence” or“telecommunication”, which can also serve thepurposes of lifelong education. They buildupon and expand pre-print core qualifications.The advantage of the modular concept there-

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Notes

1 Report of the task force “European Information Infra-s t ru c t u re”, led by the EU Commissioner Martin Bangemann,1994.

2 Report of the German Federal Government: Info 2000:Germany’s Path to the Information Society, February 1996.

3 Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.4 Printers and publishing houses.5 Audiovisual.6 Advertising and media artwork production has been a

regulation course since 1.8.96.

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The rapidly accelerating convergence of thetelecommunications, audio-visual and comp u t-ing industries is often portrayed as a change ofhistoric proportions which presents a myriadof new opportunities and challenges. From atrade union perspective there is much truth inthis analysis – the challenge of maintainingre p resentation and collective agreements int h e c o n v e rged industry is already testing theimagination of union leaders in many coun-tries, and the new technologies of computergraphics, the Internet, and sophisticated desk-top computing undoubtedly offer new ways ofspreading union influence, if they are properlyexploited.

In this article, however, I also want toemphasize that many of the so-called “new”challenges of the multimedia industry are infact the same old problems that labour unionshave struggled with since their earliest days.Attempting to win rights to bargain on behalfof workers, and convincing those workers thatunion membership is beneficial, will be keyunion objectives in the space-aged multimediaworld just as often as they have been in tradi-tional manufacturing and service industries.A prime example of this is teleworking,e i t h e r f rom home or from clustered facilityc e n t res near residences. Teleworking off e r sa new avenue into work for a limited numberof people whose circumstances prevent re g u-lar attendance at a place of work, but form a n y millions more, it is likely to becomeanother example of new technology beingused simply to reduce the costs of pro d u c t i o n ,particularly overheads, with the added advan-tage to employers that isolated workers areless likely to articulate cost-increasing collec-tive demands.

Although millions of workers could faceupheavals in service industries as a result ofthe introduction of teleworking, I intend toconcentrate on the information and entertain-ment related sector that is emerging as one of

the most exciting as well as challenging aspectsof the multimedia revolution.

To begin any assessment of union fortunesin a multimedia age, we need to, first, examinethe characteristics of the new employers whoa re drawn from a diverse range of back-grounds, and then look at the expectations andattitudes of the workers who will find them-selves engaged in various facets of the con-verged industry.

C o n v e rgence in the multimedia sector isbringing together companies and public insti-tutions that fall into three basic categories,with radically different histories and styles, asfollows:

• Stable content pro v i d e r s. Among the contentp roviders count many existing bro a d c a s t-ers, film companies and publishers. Wi t h-out over-generalizing, it can be said thatmost of them in this category have stableroots, often as part of the public sector(although deregulation in many countriesis gradually turning them into privateenterprises), and almost always they havesome tradition of collective barg a i n i n g .A d d i t i o n a l l y, many of them rank their ser-vice commitments as equal to, or moreimportant, than pro fit - m a k i n g .

• Employers with a mixed public and private back-g ro u n d. Existing distributors of informationand entertainment constitute the secondb road category of employers involved inc o n v e rgence. They have a mixed public andprivate background, ranging from govern-ment-owned telecommunication compa-nies, private TV and radio companies,cinema exhibition chains and cable TV oper-ators, to publishing houses which are oftenmultinational in scope. Collective barg a i n-ing is widespread among these employers,although there is a noticeable trend toward sd e - recognition of unions in this sector in

The contingent workforce and its implicationsfor organized labour

Tony LennonPresident

Broadcasting, Entertainment,Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU)

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several countries, and there is a morefocused awareness of the need for pro f i tthan among many of the content pro v i d e r sin the first gro u p .

• New computing and software companies. Per-haps the most interesting group of employ-ers involved in the convergence process isthe third category of computing and soft-w a re companies, many of whom are re l a-tively new operators – after all the computerindustry itself is barely thirty years old.These employers bring with them two char-acteristics which are pervasive in the NorthAmerican West Coast computing commu-nity: they are often new start-up companies,founded by people who consciously wantedto escape from the rigid bureaucracies of thefew long-established corporations like IBM,and they are staffed by highly skilled,mobile, and individualistic employees whobelieve that remaining in the same job form o re than 3 or 4 years will, in their care e rrésumé, be a poor reflection on t h e i re m p l o y a b i l i t y. For a few years there has beena gold rush spirit in this sector reminiscent ofthe Klondike, and tiny unproven companieshave been bought up by global conglomer-ates at astronomic prices which have cre a t e dh u n d reds of overnight millionaires amongp rogrammers and software engineers.

A different approach to employmentand work management

A tradition of exclusively private owner-ship, a hungry drive for quick profits, andpractically no history of trade union organiza-tion, are the key shared characteristics of thisthird group of employers, and a common atti-tude of workers in this sector is summed up bythe question: “Why do I need a trade union – Ilook after myself”. These companies and work-ers are fashioning much of the new softwaretechnology that will transform the mediaworld, and their approach to employment andwork management is fundamentally diff e re n tfrom the other two groups of existing employ-ers involved in the convergence: the contentproviders and the existing distributors.

Relative immaturity equatedwith non-collective tendencies

If the non-collective tendencies of the com-puter software industry predominate in themultimedia world, trade unions in the sector

may well face a bleak future. However, in myv i e w, two factors will help unions to maintaintheir influence: fir s t l y, the relative immaturityof the computing industry. The exponentialg rowth in employment in the informationtechnology sector has mainly been directed atyounger workers, and the average age int h e sector is much lower than most otherindustries. It is fair to predict that when theKlondike phase comes to an end, and thew o r k f o rce has had more experience of com-pany failures and other problems on the wayto industry maturity, there will come a gre a t e rwillingness to resort to collective solutions top ro b l e m s .

Same old problems arise packagingold material for new media

The second favourable factor for unions isthe special circumstance of creative work,which will be a principal activity in the con-verged industry, as evidenced by the queue oftelecommunication companies who want toform alliances with companies that own or cre-ate intellectual pro p e r t y. Although a larg ep roportion of material distributed on the con-v e rged technical platforms of the multimediaage will not actually be new, and will morelikely be “re-works” of existing intellectualp roducts, the process of packaging the oldmaterial for the new media will pose exactlythe same problem for employers as the oldtechnologies of audio-visual re c o rding andb roadcasting. The intended lifespan of thep roduct may be very long – some films forexample are still earning money fifty yearsafter being produced – but the sunk cost ofinvestment in the product is concentrated intoan extremely short timespan – not even fiftydays in the case of some feature films.

Employer highly exposed to risk

Thus, at the point of production, theemployer is highly exposed to risk – delays andf a i l u res in completing the project can result inlosses that take years to re c o v e r. In time-hon-o u red fashion, unions in the multimedia sectorwill inevitably identify this period as a possiblep re s s u re point for threats of disruptive action ino rder to pursue their collective demands. Iro n i-c a l l y, with business models that depend onm o re “long-life” and less “throw-away” pro d-ucts than the existing broadcasting and theatreindustries, multimedia distributors may beeven more vulnerable than their old-technology

p redecessors. If a live broadcaster loses a newsbulletin due to union action, there is always theconsolation that there will be another chance totransmit a bulletin next day – conversely, if afilm company fails to complete a project onschedule, and then loses key artistes or techni-cians because of their other commitments, it ist ruly a disaster.

Labour needs hard to predictin multimedia

Apart from the aid that these factors maybring to unions hoping to organize in the newi n d u s t r y, the employment practices inheritedf rom the older groups of converging compa-nies may also help to generate collectivea w a reness among the workforce, not least thelegacy of collective bargaining, as well as thew o r k f o rce experience of insecure employ-ment. The latter is significant because theg rowth of a contingent workforce on insecureshort contracts of employment is becoming ap ronounced trend in the multimedia sector.Short-term employment is not only fashion-able in many industries at the moment, but isalso ideally suited to an environment wherethe pace of development in multimedia makesit hard to predict what a given company willbe doing in the next few years, and impossibleto gauge the number of workers it will need.

Unions in creative industrieslike the old guilds

H o w e v e r, contingent and freelance work-ing is not new to the creative industries: inmany regions, actors, musicians, writers,graphical artists and technicians work almostexclusively on a freelance basis, and their col-lective attitude, which has sometimes beenpassed down through the generations, is toadopt strategies as did the guilds, via tradeunions, to protect their interests. Unions inthe creative sector have often secured contro lof access to employment, insisted on auto-matic union membership in the sector, andhave excercised widespread influence on pro-fessional employment matters, in defiance ofeither the prevailing economic climate, pre-ventive national labour laws, or even com-mon sense.

It is, of course, not certain that the insecurecontingent workforce of the multimedia indus-try will opt for collective solutions to theirp roblems, but the historical precedent of theexisting creative industry is undeniable. Once

freelance workers realize that they have muchto gain by defending their interests collectively,it will be natural for them to organize.

Identifying the real employer

In spite of the foregoing optimistic analysis,the task of trade unions organizing in the con-v e rged industry will be immense: the rate ofchange both in job functionality and inemployment relationships is bre a t h t a k i n g ;multinational alliances mixed with the small,transient, and start-up character of many par-ticipating employers will often make it diff i c u l tto identify the real employer, and even harderto apply pressure; the workforce will, on aver-age, be younger than in traditional sectors, andwill frequently have no experience of, or faithin, trade unions; and the number of curre n tworkers displaced by new technology andtechniques will be numbered in millions.

Funding burden more and moreon the individual worker

H o w e v e r, the new environment will cre a t efresh issues, apart from the traditional pay andworking conditions debates, which may helpto make unions relevant to the multimediaw o r k f o rce. Training, for example, will be cru-cially important, partly because the fundingb u rden will fall more and more on individuals,and partly because many skills will have avery short lifespan before becoming obsolete inthe face of technical developments.

Unions as clearing housesfor job opportunities

Entry to work, and the distribution ofemployment opportunities, have always beenimportant to insecure workers, and can beo rganized by unions through maintenance ofp rofessional standards as a passport to work,and the operation of clearing houses or agen-cies for job opportunities.

Addressing the information divide

The social implications of information-richand information-poor societies will be animportant arena for trade union activity, as willbe the benefits to be gained in terms of equalopportunities in the area of the new technolo-gies. Teleworking and homeworking, as newforms of work organization, are fraught withp roblems, but they do open up the world of

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work to people who are currently excluded –some single parents for example – and mayo ffer the dubious advantage of concealingg e nd e r, age, race, or physical disability fro mc o -workers and employers on the other end ofthe modem link.

Intellectual property rightsof growing importanceto multimedia workers

The question of intellectual property rightswill become important to many more cate-gories of workers than are currently protectedby legislation. In the multimedia world, every-one involved in the process of production willc reate artefacts that will be used and re-used inevery imaginable way, and sometimes in waysthat have yet to be invented.

F i n a l l y, unions are infinitely better placedthan individual workers to develop practicalstrategies to manage change in job functional-ity and levels of employment. In rapidlychanging periods of technical advance it hasoften been cheaper and easier for companiesto force high rates of labour turnover thant o re-train and support long-term employees.Collective pre s s u re will be needed moret h a n ever in the multimedia sector to ensurethat companies keep faith with their existingw o r k f o rc e s .

Accent on individual servicesto members

All of these issues will serve as fertileg round in which unions can re c ruit and org a-nize, even if the predominantly non-union cul-t u re of the computer industry colours theearly years of convergence. Union activity inthe sector will include the growing tendencyto place just as much emphasis on individualservices to members as was once put on col-lective organization: the younger workerswho will feature disproportionately in themultimedia industry belong to a generationthat values individual lifestyle, and dire c tmember services are all that unions can off e rin companies that initially resist collectivea g re e m e n t s .

Using the new technologiesto reach potential members

The new technologies themselves off e runions opportunities to reach potential mem-bers and to provide innovative services whichare of value to workers in the sector. Despite aslow start, many unions, in industrializedcountries at least, have started implementinge l e c t ronic mail systems, and have establishedsites on the Internet, particularly on the WorldWide Web. The technically literate and oftendispersed workforce will expect their unions touse this technology as a normal means of com-munication.

The foregoing analysis may well be cre d i t e dto the wishful thinking of a trade unionist, buttwo objective arguments plead forcefully infavour of a new thrust for organized labour inthe new era. First, in terms of social org a n-ization and cohesion, society now stands ata critical juncture: dramatic technological bre a k-t h roughs are expected at any moment, where a ssuch events, even when they do occur, are diff i-cult to interpret. We are witnessing world-scaleenterprises desperately buying into pro t o t y p etechnologies with fists full of dollars in the fir mbelief that something momentous is happeningw h e re none of them can aff o rd to be left out. Ifthey are asked what is at stake, each would pro-vide a diff e rent answer. Eventually, many oftheir predictions will be proved wro n g .

S e c o n d l y, the new industry will be markedby just as many tensions between worker andemployer as the old industry. Unless socials a f e g u a rds for workers are dramaticallyi m p roved worldwide (and we are dealing withthe moving target of a global and highly mobilebusiness) or our economic stru c t u res change sodramatically that multimedia becomes the onlyactivity which provides a living wage, therewill always be a role for unions.

Although many aspects of multimedia con-v e rgence may truly be new and dynamic andnot yet perceptible on the horizon, the slog ofunions re c ruiting, retaining, organizing mem-bers and defending their rights is as old as thehills, and whether we are talking Internets orfishing nets, the task is just as difficult what-ever the industry.

As late as April 1997, the General Secretaryof the European Graphical Federation at thetime was deploring the lack of data on theextent and nature of teleworking in the graph-ical and related sectors. However, the ILO hada d d ressed the question of teleworking and dis-seminated its first phases of re s e a rch over theperiod 1987-1992, and lately, between 1994 and1997, the International Federation of Commer-cial, Clerical, Professional and Te c h n i c a lEmployees (FIET) has published a few keypapers and re s e a rch reports as part of theiractive promotion of dialogue and debate onthe topic in the trade union movement. ILOand FIET publications, taken together withre s e a rch undertaken in Finland, the Nether-lands, and a smattering of articles in periodi-cals, now constitute a modest core of re c e n tliterature on the subject.

Apart from FIET reports, not all the articlesre f e r red to address the question of teleworkingin terms of its implications for trade uniono rganization and workers’ rights and pro t e c-tion. Some examine the issue in terms of its sig-nificance in determining public policy,considering only the benefits accruing to allconcerned but seemingly innocent of thereverse side of teleworking.

That teleworking is likely to become one ofa number of touchstones for the ability of tradeunions to come to terms with deep-seatedchanges in the labour market was the viewe x p ressed in a paper presented to the Confer-ence on Teleworking and Equal Opportunitieso rganized by the European Graphical Federa-tion. In this paper, the real challenge faced bytrade unions was first the extent to which tele-working accelerated the transition of graphicalwork from industry to service and, secondly,the emergence of global labour markets (Pate1997). The moot issue was raised of thedilemma faced by the European Union, caughtas it is between maintaining local employmentand social standards and the demands of com-petitive cost-cutting. In particular, Pate empha-sized the need for trade unions to bring theiri n fluence to bear on the issue of re - e x a m i n i n g

labour laws, tax policy, social insurance, healthand safety legislation, and the working envi-ronment, re g a rdless of whether such re - e x a m i-nation aimed at protecting workers’ rights orfurther deregulating the labour market.

Apart from adopting a strictly trade unionpoint of view, the paper referred to carries theadded advantage of unveiling a few hallowedmyths and dispelling some confusion sur-rounding the practice of telework and its defi-nition and nature. Pate observes that tele-working is not the same as homeworking:although teleworkers often operate from theirhomes, they may work entirely in a non-tradi-tional workplace or partly at home and partlyin such a workplace. Contrary to certain erro-neous perceptions of the pro files of the actualworkers who undertake telework, they are notby any means the monopoly of low-paid, low-qualified workers: highly qualified profession-als such as architects, technical designers andnews correspondents count in large numbersamong the occupational groups involved inteleworking.

In the same paper, Pate challenges the lackof sincerity which too often fosters the notionthat teleworking is a result of “free individualchoice”, when a moment’s consideration of theeconomic realities of the labour market leavesno doubt as to the necessity rather than thechoice of turning to telework. Similarly,although teleworking may be used to allowp a rents greater flexibility in re c o n c i l i n gemployment and family time, parents may bef o rced by economic necessity to combine tele-work, childcare and housework in ways thata re unsatisfactory for all concerned. Lastly, Pateplaces emphasis on the strides made in re g u l a t-ing telework: although it is certainly difficult toregulate in view of the inadequacies of most ofthe relevant national laws, the lack of re l i a b l eand comprehensive data on employment inteleworking, and of the problems faced bytrade unions and employers’ organizations inintervening effectively in this sector, the collec-tive agreements signed by CommunicationsInternational (PTTI) and FIET affiliates and the

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Teleworking:a review of recent literature

65

regulatory initiatives being undertaken by theItalian Government, are examples of partialsuccesses in the regulation of teleworking.

By contrast, in Japan, the Telework Promo-tion Council, formed under the leadership ofthe Ministry of Posts and Te l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s ,has evaluated telework variously in terms ofits benefits for individual workers, companies,and society as a whole. Among the benefitslisted for individual workers count the following:• less commuting time;• m o re time for family life with more time

spent participating in community activitiesand self-development programmes; and

• expanding employment opportunities forthose who have family responsibilities, peo-ple with disabilities and the elderly.

C o m p a n i e s, however, would benefit asfollows:

• optimize human re s o u rces (those with fam-ily duties, disabilities and the elderly);

• improve job efficiency;• shift to self-managed workstyles; and• improve the quality of client services.

Society as a whole would stand to gain asfollows:• less traffic congestion at peak hours, decen-

tralization, and the creation of job opportu-nities in local areas;

• the emergence of an enviro n m e n t - f r i e n d l ysociety and a significant reduction inenergy consumption; and

• new life to community activities.

In terms of natural disasters, all stand to gainby telework: socio-economic activities need notcome to a standstill. A c c o rding to one survey,after the earthquake in Los Angeles, UnitedStates, in 1994, the federal government set up ateleworking centre there in about a month, and700,000 people are said to have made use ofthis facility. Before the earthquake, the numberof teleworkers in this area was no more than350,000 (Takayoshi, 1997).

In its report, the Telework Promotion Coun-cil described its work during 1996 with theJapanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC)and the Japan Federation of Employers’ Asso-ciations: broad-based cooperation allowed foran exchange of opinions and better mutualunderstanding of telework and its expansionin Japan.

The Council proposed that the governmentshould address a number of policies thatwould provide an attractive and appro p r i a t ee n v i ronment for company teleworking. Theirproposals included the following:• providing telework information;• p reparing regulations for lowering telecom-

munications rates;• designing model projects for companies

planning to introduce telework;• conducting re s e a rch on “info-telecom”

technologies used for telework;• examining policies for increasing job

opportunities for the disabled;• examining working time management

applicable to new workstyles includingteleworking; and

• c reating official commendations for bril-liant achievements in telework.

While such concrete proposals need to betaken into account in adopting policies,Takayoshi sums up in a nutshell the substanceof the debates which made up Japan’s Te l e-work Day (27 May 1997) when a panel discus-sion and an exhibition addressed the pros andcons with regard to teleworking.

Some companies in Japan have establishedsatellite offices and spot offices where employ-ees can engage in partial telework. Two typesof teleworking seem to be operating in Japan:the urban type, which enables people to workin suburban satellite offices or in their homeswithout commuting to the head office in thecity centre; and the rural type involving tele-working in the community with the aim ofrevitalizing the local community. The casestudies presented brought to the surface thre emain areas of interest for policy makers. Firstly,a large number of retired workers were able toengage in community activities and diff e re n tforms of self-enrichment. Secondly, white-col-lar workers, who are usually too busy writingreports, making contacts and consulting, fin dm o re time to sit and think and furthermore notbe interrupted by the telephone which can bereplaced by E-mail. Looking at the perfor-mance of companies that have introduced tele-working, the number of planning pro p o s a l sand reports is said to have been increased byabout 20 per cent. Thirdly, families need not besplit up as a result of transfer of a spouse to ad i ff e rent locality thus requiring the other toabandon his or her profession.

Japan’s Telework Day focused in noambiguous way on the problems posed by

67

Bibliography

B i b b y, A n d re w. 1996. Trade unions and telework, Euro - F I E T,Brussels.

—. 1996. “Teleworking: how the trade unions are re s p o n d-ing”, in Flexible Working, Vol. 1, no. 2, Feb.

FIET. 1994. Telework: Working where one would like to live .

Huws, Ursula. DGV 1996. Teleworking and gender , EuropeanCommission.

cf “Japan promotes telework” , in I - WAY S, Jan.- Mar. 1997,pp. 15-17

M o o rc roft, Sheila; Bennett, Valerie. 1995. E u ropean guide toteleworking: a framework for action, Shankill, Co. Dublin,E u ropean Foundation for the Improvement of Livingand Working Conditions.

Pate, Chris. 1997. “Teleworking: Not in our sector?” Paperp resented at the EGF Conference on teleworking andequal opportunities, Brussels, 2-3 April.

Takayoshi, Hamano. 1997. “Conditions for the diffusion oftelework”, in Journal of Japanese Trade and Industry, 16 (4),Jul.-Aug.

Note

Internet users may wish to consult the following websites:

Andrew Bibby:http://www.eclipse.co.uk/pens/bibby/telework.html

Ursula Huws:http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade hg 54/surveys.htmhttp://dspace.dial.pipex.com/analytica/

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