Category: 91Èȱ¬
Date: 06.06.2006
Printable version
91Èȱ¬ Director of Television, Jana
Bennett, has today appointed an Editorial Executive of Diversity to oversee the way 91Èȱ¬ channels represent the audiences they serve.
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Jana Bennett said: "The creation of this important new role reflects our commitment to putting audiences at the heart of what we do at the 91Èȱ¬.
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"To deliver the ambition of Creative
Future and
meet audiences' expectations in a changing world, we need our programmes
to reflect fully and accurately the diversity of the UK population."
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First in this newly created role is Mary FitzPatrick, a former 91Èȱ¬ programme maker who has most recently been Channel 4's Editorial Manager of Cultural Diversity.
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Part of Jana's team, Mary will work closely with channel controllers, commissioners,
in-house and independent production companies to improve on-screen portrayal
and diversity on 91Èȱ¬ Television, including offering valuable advice to programme
makers during the course of the development and production of programmes.
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Mary will take overall responsibility for reviewing and tracking on-screen content
including the portrayal of black and minority ethnic and disabled people.
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Part of her role will be to ensure that programmes
are culturally authentic and accurate, but also challenging and
authoritative. She will aim to set up the industry's definitive database
for locating diverse on and off-screen talent for use by in-house
production and Indies.
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Jana Bennett added: "Mary FitzPatrick has a formidable track record in marrying outstanding diverse talent with a range of genres and great productions.
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"This, combined with her fantastic relationship
with internal and external producers and PACT, makes her the perfect
person to drive this new role. I look forward to welcoming her back
to the 91Èȱ¬."
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Mary FitzPatrick said: "I see my role as enhancing the 91Èȱ¬'s programming by opening it up to diverse talents and voices in a way that will deepen its relationship with all its audiences.
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"The emphasis will be not be on quotas or box-ticking,
but on focusing minds on the fact that television audiences are
hugely diverse and they rightly expect to see themselves and their
life experiences reflected on TV."
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Mary has been Editorial Manager, Cultural Diversity at Channel 4 since 2004, during a period which has seen her advising on casting on many shows including How Clean Is Your House?, Wife Swap, A Place By The Sea, and You Are What You Eat.
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Mary FitzPatrick began her career as a director and producer at the 91Èȱ¬ where she worked on award-winning series such as Horizon and Inside Story.
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As an Executive Producer in the independent sector
she made factual programmes as varied as Trouble At The Top, Britain's
War Heroes and Hidden Identities, about Jamie Bulger's killers.
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Mary will take up her new role in July 2006, working alongside Krishan
Arora, the 91Èȱ¬'s Independent Executive, and reporting to Helen
Blenkinsop, Managing Editor, Television Commissioning.
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SB
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Notes to Editors
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91Èȱ¬ Director-General, Mark Thompson, set out the direction for the 91Èȱ¬'s Creative
Future on 25 April 2006.
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Creative Future, is a new editorial blueprint designed to deliver more value to audiences over the next six years and turn the 91Èȱ¬'s public purposes laid out in the recent Government White Paper into quality content for the on-demand world.
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The plans build on opportunities created by new and emerging digital technologies and confront the challenges of seismic shifts in public expectations, lifestyle and behaviours and on building new relationships with audiences and individual households.
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Over the past year, ten teams explored what the world may be like in 2012, what audiences may need and want and what the 91Èȱ¬ needs to do about it.
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Mark Thompson said: "Audiences have enormous choice and they like exercising
it. But many feel the 91Èȱ¬ is not tuned into their lives.
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"We need to understand
our audiences far better, to be more responsive, collaborative and to build
deeper relationships with them around fantastic quality content."
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The project involved people across the 91Èȱ¬, the independent sector and other
industry partners, underpinned by one of the largest audience research and
insight initiatives the 91Èȱ¬ has ever undertaken.
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