Oxford media convention: Burnham on the future of media

A lot of talk here from Secretary of State Andy Burnham onwards about the public and yet the citizen is strangely absent. The Oxford Media Convention is the media community drawing up its annual wishlist and airing its collective angsts. Burnham warned against a ‘fevered and inward looking debate’ but that is kind of what we got. His speech was expansive and hit various nails on the head but despite admitting that we are ‘only weeks away from hard decisions’ he refused to reveal what callls he is going to make regarding Ofcom and the public service broadcasting review. Burnham came out with some platitudes, of course, apparantly ‘quality and standards matter’, which is a relief. His defence of pluralism was welcome but hardly controversial: