The Media Show

When Facebook filed for an initial public offering last week, there were suggestions it could be valued at around $100 billion. Since then, more questions have been raised about the challenges it faces in justifying that value. Olivia Solon, associate editor at Wired magazine and James Ball, data journalist at the Guardian, discuss the prospects.The BBC was thrust into Scottish politics at the weekend, when it was reported that it cancelled an invitation to First Minister Alex Salmond to take part in coverage of the Calcutta Cup rugby match at Murrayfield. The BBC adviser who vetoed the appearance, Ric Bailey, responds to claims he was bowing to political pressure. Broadcaster Lesley Riddoch and former BBC editor Phil Harding discuss why the BBC could face further problems when covering Scottish politics, ahead of a possible referendum on independence.And, as many of the victims of phone hacking settle their claims today, Duncan Lamont of Charles Russell solicitors explains what impact this could have on the several investigations into what went wrong at the News of the World.

Last week the Chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, announced he's started looking for a successor for the current Director General, Mark Thompson. The following day Thompson reportedly confirmed he'll step down after the Olympics. Is he going voluntarily or is he being pushed? And what qualities will his replacement need to have? Steve discusses BBC Director General succession with former DG Greg Dyke.The Sunday Times magazine is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend. Steve looks back on half a century of iconic photojournalism with the current editor Sarah Baxter and photographers Stuart Franklin and Chris Floyd.Lord Hunt of Wirral, the new chairman of the Press Complaint Commission, took the stand at the Leveson Inquiry on Tuesday. He used the opportunity to set out his plans for a reformed 'PCC 2'. But are they any good, and will they satisfy victims of press misbehaviour? Charlotte Harris is a lawyer who's represented several victims of phone hacking and had her phone hacked herself. She joins Steve and Media Editor at The Guardian, Dan Sabbagh, to discuss Lord Hunt's proposals. And in a week which has seen four people from The Sun arrested as part of an ongoing police investigation into corruption, Dan stays on to discuss the prospects for the launch of a Sun on Sunday. The producer is Simon Tillotson.

Last Autumn BBC management proposed a wide-ranging series of cuts which would see the Corporation's local radio services cut by 20%. As the BBC Trust prepares to publish the results of its consultation on the plan, Steve talks to Lord Patten, Chair of the Trust. Will the cuts go ahead? And if not, what can the BBC do instead to make the savings?Plus, Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, on the Government's plans for the communications sector, to be laid out for consultation early this year. The producer is Simon Tillotson.

Steve Hewlett talks to James Harding, editor of The Times and Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian. Harding reflects on his evidence to the Leveson inquiry this week, Rusbridger on the falling sales which have forced The Guardian to reduce "pagination." Supplements have been folded into the paper and the sport has returned to the back page instead of being in a separate mini-paper. We also hear why Associated Press has opened up a bureau in North Korea and we discuss the growing controversy over intellectual property on the internet. The producer is Simon Tillotson.

Steve Hewlett presents a topical programme about the fast-changing media world including, today, Netflix and the future of TV. Netflix, the video streaming service which enables customers to watch films and selected TV programmes over the internet, launched in the UK on Monday. Reed Hastings, the company's founder, claims that 'on demand' services like Netflix represent the future of TV. For the past 70 years or so, TV viewing habits have been dominated by schedules set by TV networks. With the rise of catchup and on demand services like the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and Channel 4's 4OD, viewers have been able to take more control over what they watch and when they watch it. So is Netflix really the beginning of the end for traditional TV? Or will it struggle to make an impact in the UK market, where several catchup and on demand services are already well established? Reed Hastings makes his case to Steve, who discusses the issues with Tess Alps from the TV marketing organisation Thinkbox and Geoff Slaughter from comparison website SimplifyDigital. Steve is also joined by broadcast consultant Stephen Price for an overview of the last year's viewing figures. Who's going up, who's going down and what does that tell us about longer term viewing trends? The Leveson Inquiry into the culture, ethics and practices of the press has resumed after the Christmas break. This week it's been the turn of the newspaper editors to have their say, from Dominic Mohan of The Sun to Lionel Barber of the Financial Times.The Financial Times' chief media correspondent Ben Fenton has been following developments. The producer is Simon Tillotson.

The Daily Mail carries the Stephen Lawrence case over 21 pages today, a mark of the significance the story had for the paper and, according to many including the Mail, the significance the paper had to the story. Brian Cathcart has been following the Lawrence case from the start and written on it extensively and, through Hacked Off, is a campaigner for media reform. When the media are under such scrutiny in the Leveson inquiry, could awareness of the Mail's long campaign be ideally timed, showing the difference newspapers can make when they break the rules? Meanwhile, a report by Dame Elizabeth Filkin into the Metropolitan police and the media has warned officers over links with journalists. Sean O'Neill is the Crime Editor for The Times, and as such he deals with the police on a day-to-day basis. What will Filkin's recommendations mean for his work? Rupert Murdoch joined Twitter on New Year's Eve, closely followed by somebody claiming to be his wife, Wendi Deng. Both accounts were verified by Twitter, but the Deng account has since been revealed as a fake. So what happened? And does Murdoch's interest in the site mean he's thinking about investing in it? Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor at the Daily Telegraph, has been following developments.And the editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, gives his views on the reporting of the economy. What, if anything, went wrong before and what role do newspapers have in warning of financial hazards ahead? The producer is Simon Tillotson.

The media like stories claiming to link TV with harm to children, but is the picture so clear? Focussing on two recent pieces of research by Prof Dimitri Christakis and Prof Angeline Lillard, Steve discusses the extent to which media reports of the link can be justified. Joining him are David Buckingham who is Professor of Education at the Institute of Education at London University and Director of the Centre for the study of Children, Youth and Media, Baroness Susan Greenfield, a neuroscientist and Professor of Synaptic Pharmacology at Oxford University and Hannah Devlin, Science Correspondent for the Times with a PhD in brain imaging from Oxford University.The producer is Luke Mulhall.

Steve discusses the changes to tabloids and the wider media since David Cameron announced the Leveson Inquiry in July, following the closure of the News of the World, with Simon Jenkins, George Brock, Claire Enders and Trevor Kavanagh. Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist and former Times and Evening Standard editor, Claire Enders is the founder of media consultants Enders Analysis, Prof George Brock is Head of Journalism at City University and Trevor Kavanagh is a Sun columnist and former political editor.The producer is Simon Tillotson.

Harriet Harman MP is the new shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, replacing Ivan Lewis MP. So what are Labour's policies on the media generally and, specifically, on the BBC and on cross-media ownership? Neville Thurlbeck was chief news reporter at the News of the World when it closed in July, where he had worked for twenty years. He was the reporter on the Max Mosley story and, separately, his name came up in reports of the Gordon Taylor phone hacking scandal when the phrase "for Neville" appeared on an emailed transcript of hacked voicemails. He denies involvement in phone hacking and tells Steve how he tried to clear his name when his connection with it was first suggested. The producer is Simon Tillotson.

Anne McElvoy presents the programme this week.Jonathan Miller is back from Syria, where he's been reporting for ITN and working on a documentary for Channel 4, "Syria's Torture Machine". Following on from his experience in the making of "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields", the new documentary includes images taken from mobile phone videos, allegedly showing abuse and torture. He tells Anne what it is like to work openly as a foreign reporter in Syria and what happened when he tried to talk to people who had not been approved by his minders. The documentary will be shown on Channel 4 on Monday 19th December at 11.10pm.Attorney General Dominic Grieve MP has been flagging up his intention to prosecute journalists who threaten to prejudice or impede trials, with a handful of convictions already since he took office 18 months ago. He is trying to stem the flow of stories about people who have been arrested with new emphasis on the risk of discouraging witnesses from coming forward if the suspect's name has been tarnished. Will he fine journalists in future, or go further and jail them? And The Independent's had two front page stories this week which have made the news more widely, on lobbyists Bell Pottinger, based on secret filming of their staff when bidding for new business. Bell Pottinger say they are complaining to the PCC and have instructed lawyers. Iain Overton worked on the story for the Bureau of Investigation - is this story really in the public interest, when it arguably shows little more than lobbyists boasting to attract new clients? And how does The Times' Danny Finkelstein respond to the lobbyists claims that he is worth targeting to place ideas in his columns? The producer is Simon Tillotson.