Over the last few months, I've been using the occasional spare cycle to consider measurement. Quantitative measurement is a fundamental part successful capitalist economies and central to the perceived success of media in both the public service and commercial media world.
Having always worked at the intersection of traditional media (radio, tv, publishing) and what's inappropriately still referred to as new media (anything over IP) I've been built up the impression that the formation of universally accepted and regulated gauging represents a coming of age granting your boyish medium a new maturity.
Although, the internet as a platform for distribution and interactivity is better understood by the media world than it once was, I've found radio, TV and magazine execs reluctant to undertake the radical reforms and innovation necessary because of the predicted 'effect on the ratings'. However, a slavish devotion to officially sanctioned metrics has been a principal reason for traditional media's prolonged and painful adjustment to a new media landscape. Could the army of talented and creative people in the UK radio industry ever have conceived of podcasting with RAJAR being so tightly defined and traditionally focused?
Innovation can be hamstrung by measurement and perhaps the furious rate of change in internet and media over IP is fuelled by our inability to define exactly what success looks like. Any traditional organisation boasting of revolutionising this industry or that platform should first let go the orthodox success criteria and with them (and this is the hard bit) the established business models.
Bearing this in mind, I welcome today's news that Eton and St Paul's schools will refuse to submit their exam results to the ISC for publication in August. Martin Stephen, head of St Paul's, says the league tables are "misleading" and treat schools as if they are equal. I'm sure this is true but my dislike for educational league tables lies in the way they ignore the challenges of a participatory culture and prevent the development of an education system appropriate for the 21st century.
Henry Jenkins in his work for the MacArthur Foundation talks about the new the cultural competencies and social skills needed for full involvement in today's societies. Schools as institutions have been slow to react to the emergence of this new participatory culture; the greatest opportunity for change is currently found in subjects and areas omitted from inclusion in the league tables like sport, music, afterschool programs and informal learning communities.
Just as in media, the adherence to a catch all quantification or rating has given a disproportionate weight to traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom. Defining what you think success might look like or should look like is unquestionably valuable, the trick is not to stay wedded to it forever.
