B.A. Michael Vielhaber M.P.O.S. Mat. Nr. SHB 1729-00040

Archive Innovation Management

A Future Key Position in Media Innovation or an Obsolete Job Description?

Master’s Thesis

In Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Academic Degree of Master of Arts Program of Study: Executive Master’s Program in International Media

Innovation Management Department of Communication

Deutsche Universitaet fuer Weiterbildung (DUW) – Berlin University for Professional Studies

Advisor (Mentor/Supervisor): Prof. Klaus Meyer

Second Examiner (Mentor/Supervisor): Nic Newman

Submission Date: Vienna, Aug. 24th 2015

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Statutory Declaration

I hereby declare that the presented paper and all work directly associated with

its production was completed and rendered entirely independently and without

the help of a secondary party. I further declare that I have used only the

indicated aids and tools in producing the work. All phrasing, concepts, or

essential content borrowed from either printed or unprinted sources or

verbatim from the Internet have been cited according to the rules for scientific

works and indicated through the use of accurate bibliographical references.

This scientific paper has not, as of yet, been submitted for the purposes of any

other examination procedure.

I hereby confirm that the content of the digital version fully corresponds with

that of the printed version.

Michael Vielhaber (Vienna, Aug. 24th 2015)

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction 6 1.1. Opening Words 6 1.2. Aims of the Thesis and Research Question 7 2. Media Archive Innovation 12 2.1. Media Innovation 12 2.2. The Media Archive as Source of Hidden Innovation? 15 3. Media Archivists – An Overview 19 3.1. A Short History of a Changing Profession 19 3.2. Current Work Descriptions and Competencies – A Look 24

Behind the Scenes at the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF)

3.3. Gatekeeper and Creative Forerunner - The Continuous 28 International Quest for New Job Titles in Media Archives

3.4. BBC’s Archive Innovation Executive (AIE) - A Good 33 Enough Practice?

4. Archive Innovation Projects 42 4.1. New Pictures (Migrants) 42 4.2. From BIRTH to EUscreenXL 52 4.3. Do AIE Qualifications Apply to the Case Studies? 59 4.3.1. AIE Qualifications Executed at ORF’s Internal Archive 59

Innovation Project “New Pictures” 4.3.1.1. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Essential 59 for the Archive Innovation Project “New Pictures” 4.3.1.2. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Desirable 60

for the Archive Innovation Project “New Pictures” 4.3.1.3. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were of Lesser 61

Importance for the Archive Innovation Project “New Pictures” 4.3.1.4. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Obsolete 62

for the Archive Innovation Project “New Pictures” 4.3.2. AIE Qualifications Executed at ORF’s External Archive 62

Innovation Project “EUscreenXL” 4.3.2.1. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Essential 62

for the Archive Innovation Project “EUscreenXL” 4.3.2.2. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Desirable 64

for the Archive Innovation Project “EUscreenXL” 4.3.2.3. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were of Lesser 65 Importance for the Archive Innovation Project “EUscreenXL”

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4.3.2.4. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Obsolete 65 for the Archive Innovation Project “EUscreenXL” 5. Research Design and Methodology 67 5.1. Potential Respondents - The Global Net of Media Archivists 67 5.2. The Survey and its Analytical Matrix 68 6. Findings and Discussion 73 6.1. Findings 73 6.1.1. The Distribution of the Weighted Average Ratings Referring 75

to all AIM Qualifications by Respondents Using the English Questionnaire

6.1.2. The Distribution of the Weighted Average Ratings Referring 76 to all AIM Qualifications by Respondents Using the German Questionnaire

6.1.3. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Top 5 AIM 77 Qualifications by the Respondents Using the English Questionnaire

6.1.4. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Top 5 AIM 78 Qualifications by the Respondents Using the German Questionnaire

6.1.5. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Low 5 AIM 79 Qualifications by the Respondents Using the English Questionnaire

6.1.6. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Low 5 AIM 80 Qualifications by the Respondents Using the German Questionnaire

6.1.7. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Top 7 AIM 81 Qualifications by Senior Management & Above Respondents Using the English Questionnaire

6.1.8. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Top 5 AIM 83 Qualifications by Senior Management & Above Respondents Using the German Questionnaire

6.1.9. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Low 5 AIM 83 Qualifications by Senior Management & Above Respondents Using the English Questionnaire

6.1.10. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Low 5 AIM 84 Qualifications by Senior Management & Above Respondents Using the German Questionnaire

6.2. Discussion 85 6.3. Predictions and Suggestions 92 7. Conclusions 97 7.1. Limitations of the Research 97 7.2. Suggestions for Further Research 98

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7.3. Conclusion 99

List of References List of Abbreviations Digital Appendices File Structure Appendix

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1. Introduction

1.1. Opening Words

For decades, media archives have been considered the dusty libraries of

journalism. The popular belief was that media archivists are supposed to be

men, close to retirement, carrying tapes from “point A” to “point B”. Or so

the general opinion went.

I was only 20 years of age when I started to work as a television archivist at the

Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (subsequently referred to as ORF) more

than 19 years ago, and not once have I experienced the kind of work

mentioned above. What I have instead encountered, however, is a highly

challenging workplace and an ambitious and motivated group of co-workers.

Not only have I been able to learn from colleagues with a variety of different

talents and interests, additionally we share a common goal: the desire to always

be one step ahead of the latest developments and innovations in television

production. This objective does not derive from a competitive attitude, but

instead as a means to justify the archive’s very existence in an economically

driven media environment. Whenever journalists at the ORF started to work

with new tools (e.g. content management systems, digital editing programs etc.)

the archive always had to adapt beforehand – both in terms of content and

expertise: once production with the new tools started, the archive, its content

and its experts had to be instantly available.

Today in television, digitised audio-visual archive material is considered to be

one of the few remaining hard assets. Innovation has been the media

archivist’s key tool to transform his or her department from a mere storage

facility to an essential – and by now indispensable – part of media production

(Eagle 2012, p. 28). Nevertheless, in terms of media-archive potential, most

companies – including the ORF – have only been seeing the tip of the iceberg

regarding what could be possible with the right innovation in archive

management.

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This opinion is supported by the words of Eric Minoli, Chief Technology and

Optimisation Officer at the Canadian “Groupe Média TFO”:

“Like all media operations, we are now living in a digital, multiplatform era in which the continued success of our respective organisations depends on our ability to ride this wave of technological change. Because this is so, the archiving and preserving of our content have become a central concern.” (Minoli 2012, p. 5)

1.2. Aims of the Thesis and Research Question

There is no doubt that technological change is an omnipresent force in all

societies, and that “content is King” (Gates 1996). In this sense – and

considering the added value any medium gains from enrichment by audio-

visual dimensions – one might say: audio-visual content is God.

But just owning content is not enough, it has to be enriched with metadata.

Without the right metadata, digital content is just an enormous pool of

sequences consisting of zeros and ones. That makes digital content extremely

fragile and easy to be lost in the numerical depths of any content management

system. If content is not findable, it is lost and consequently worthless.

To qualify as an asset, content has to be findable, it needs to circulate, to be

used and re-used. Furthermore, it should be optimised, not for one distribution

channel only, but for many - preferably as many as possible.

Additionally, the content available ought to be adjusted according to the needs

and desires of individuals and not audiences. There are no more audiences,

there are sums of individuals that can group and re-group at a moment’s

notice. In this respect the Director of Digital Strategy of The Guardian,

Wolfgang Blau, postulated: “…nothing is as misleading for a news

organization as assuming there was such a thing as ‘users’ or ‘the average user’”

(Blau 2015).

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Enrichment is also necessary for anything that comes with technological

changes. Owning an algorithm, a distribution platform or a trendy tool means

nothing if not enriched with additional features which are relevant to the

content.

But how can these two dimensions of content/archives and technological

innovation be merged?

Do they need merging at all? And who should coordinate or manage these

processes?

Is there a necessity for “Archive Innovation Management”, as the title of this

Master’s thesis questions?

The title/research question of this paper is the result of extensive preliminary

research conducted during the Executive Master’s program “International

Media Innovation Management” (subsequently referred to as IMIM). IMIM’s

academic program concentrates on a “… close collaboration with experts and

executives from academia and business in the value chain of media

production” but also demands that its students “…suggest real-life projects to

be implemented in the company and harness the know-how of IMIM in

dealing with particular challenges” (Kaefer 2015).

The program’s academic and practical background led to a growing awareness

among experts that some sort of position dealing with archive innovation

management could actually be an essential contribution – maybe even a

necessity – for future organisation charts in media.

But if the potential of archive innovation management is so evident, how come

no one has come up with this idea before?

Before starting the research for this paper, I knew of no such position, neither

nationally nor internationally. While my involvement in archive project

management brought me in contact with experts that had been performing in

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what could only be called “Archive Innovation Management” for years (such

as the various content providers for the international online video platform

EUscreenXL), they acted without either a specific description or a clearly

defined position in their media company.

Evident, however, was the involvement of the media archive community with

the changing role of their profession. Back in 1998 the Fédération

Internationale des Archives de Télévision / International federation of

Television Archives (subsequently referred to as FIAT/IFTA) launched the

still continuing seminar series “Changing Sceneries, Changing Roles”. This

program dealt (and still continues to do so) with new job definitions over and

over but did not predict nor demand “Archive Innovation Management”.

On March 30th 2014 however, a Tweet by BBC Recruitment rattled my world

view:

“Experienced in working in TV (or radio) production & archives, records or info mgmt? #Archive Innovation Executive.” (BBC Recruitment 2014)

This short recruitment feed included a link to the BBC’s Careersearch

webpage. There, BBC HR offered a job introduction, described their “Ideal

Candidate” and included a full job description.

This recruitment proposal sounded exactly like the solution to the obstacles I

was confronted with during my studies.

But was the BBC the only organisation that offered an answer to my problem?

I contacted several international media archive professionals – primarily senior

management and C-level position holders – and asked whether or not a

position like the BBC’s “Archive Innovation Executive” (subsequently referred

to as AIE) was part of their organisation. Although all the answers coming

back were negative, most experts addressed showed great interest in the

outcome of my research. Since I could not get in touch with another “Archive

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Innovation Management” position (subsequently referred to as AIM), I

decided to use the BBC’s job description as a “Good Enough Practice” to start

my research.

36 responsibilities, specifications and competencies listed in the BBC’s

document “Information and archive job specification” were considered a

legitimate starting point.

Still, a list of three dozen skills and characteristics – though defined by one of

the profoundest HR departments in media worldwide – is by no means

sufficient for the basis of a Master’s thesis. To add relevance and academic

value to this catalogue, classification and evaluation regarding the various

competences and distinctions are required.

Consequently, the input of as many media archive experts as possible seems to

be a valid contribution. After all, these experts, especially those who work on

archive media projects, are the ones to evaluate these abilities and

characteristics most professionally.

To involve the relevant experts, I created a questionnaire both in German and

in English, asking for an assessment regarding the specifications and

competencies of the AIE’s job description.

Based on my expertise, my network and my project experience, the addressed

experts are predominantly from German speaking countries. Since I have been

working for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, it goes without saying that

I personally am most familiar with the media-culture of the ORF.

The intended objective of this Master’s thesis is not to justify the creation of

another top position in media. It instead aims for a transparent understanding

of the job profile based on the judgment of international experts in the field of

media archive management. The combination of their media archive expertise

and innovation management competences are drawn upon to establish a future

executive position in media management.

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All these objectives result in the following research question:

Does Archive Innovation Management have the potential to be a future key

position in international media management and if so, what are the

competencies and specifications this position requires to make it trainable and

internationally applicable?

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2. Media Archive Innovation

2.1. Media Innovation

To begin with, innovation as a research topic is nothing new. Actually it is

rather old. The term derives from the Latin “innovare” and translates as “to

change”. In fact, one could argue that, the whole history of mankind – and its

survival – comes down to humans that have been innovative: we call this

development.

Back in the 1930s, the Czech-born Austrian-American economist Joseph

Schumpeter defined innovations as disturbances of a status quo that “... must

necessarily be ‘big’, in the sense that they will disrupt the existing system and

enforce a distinct process of adaptation” (Schumpeter 1939, p. 98).

Over the past century, Schumpeter’s concept of innovation has gained

popularity. Nowadays, it is considered to be a major aspect of strategic

planning in various economic fields and markets. It is this diversity of fields

and markets that results in numerous definitions of innovation.

Thus, it is safe to say that innovation is a broad concept both in practice and in

theory. Still, there seems to be a general understanding, that “... innovation

concerns the introduction of something new with an element of valorisation

(or utilisation) to it (…). In other words, innovation involves putting an

invention into practical use” (Bleyen 2014, p. 29).

In its “Oslo Manual” from 2005, the OECD (Organisation for Economic

Cooperation and Development) goes into detail and offers guidelines linking

innovation not only to “... new and significantly improved products (goods and

services) and processes” (OECD 2005, p. 8), but recognises “... that purely

organisational innovation is widespread and may result in significant

improvements in firm performance” (OECD 2005, p. 8).

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In contrast to product innovation being a relatively old phenomenon, the field

of media innovation is considered to be rather young. Currently, media

innovation is predominantly understood as “... the collocation of diverse

research fields and academic disciplines, along with the perspectives and

insights offered by professionals and practitioners in media industries” (Ess

2014, p. 1).

Axel Bruns of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and

Innovation (Queensland University of Technology), describes in the inaugural

issue of “The Journal of Media Innovations” that media innovation is

influenced both by “... media technologies and innovation in media

practices...” and that both of them “... are increasingly decoupled from one

another” (Bruns 2014, p. 23). He stresses his point by stating that “... media

innovations are never just media technology innovations” (Bruns 2014, p. 13).

Tanja Storsul and Arne Krumsvik differentiate the field of media innovation

even more. In their paper “What is Media Innovation?”, they postulate that

media innovation includes change in up to five different aspects of the media

landscape.

They distinguish between:

(1) Product

(2) Process

(3) Position

(4) Paradigmatic innovation

(5) Social innovation

(Storsul & Krumsvik 2013, pp. 16-17)

According to Storsul and Krumsvik, product innovation (1) is related to

changes in the products or services offered by an organisation (e.g. Apple’s

introduction of the iWatch – as a new innovative product – or Twitter’s live

feed service Periscope – as a new and innovative service). Process innovation

(2) refers to changes in how products or services are created and delivered.

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Position innovation (3) includes the management of identities (e.g. companies

that are re-branding their product, service or even the company itself).

Paradigmatic innovation (4) is innovation that includes changes in an

organisation’s value(s) or business model(s). Social innovation (5) refers to

change in people’s lives for the better (Storsul & Krumsvik 2013, pp. 16-17).

Leyla Dogruel also follows the approach of Storsul and Krumsvik and states

that this:

“… classification helps define the scope of what is considered as media innovation in the following way: not only new media content or technology products, but also organizational changes, new services, and new mental models of media businesses and organizations are covered as media innovations. Furthermore, the term ‘media innovation’ is not only limited to addressing new media products, services or concepts, but also describes the whole innovation process, namely the exploration and exploitation of opportunities that result in these new or improved objects.” (Drougel 2014, p. 54)

Another matter relevant for a discussion on media innovation is the

discrepancy between “innovation push” and “innovation pull”. The first refers

to a situation “… where a new media model is trialled and found to be

workable and valuable, if not without adjustments”. The second indicates a

clearly perceived need for new approaches leading to the development and

gradual mainstreaming of an innovative setup that addresses the requirements

of a changing situation (Bruns 2014, p. 16).

What is more, Bruns emphasises that not only the matter of “what falls into

the classification”, but also the issue of “where did it originate?” plays a major

role in media innovation.

He argues that such a change “... in the media often originates from the edges

of the mainstream media system…” (Bruns 2014, p. 16).

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The example given by Bruns to illustrate his understanding of “being on the

edge of media” refers to activities of the organisation “WikiLeaks”1, being – in

his point of view – the initiative of media outsiders. Therefore, in this Master’s

thesis, when referring to “media innovation” all three of the aforementioned

perspectives are analysed: The five dimensions (product, process, position,

paradigmatic innovation and social innovation), the grouping into either

“push” or “pull” and its origin and whether the innovation derives from the

mainstream part media or from its edges.

2.2. The Media Archive as a Source of Hidden Innovation?

When Bruns differentiates between mainstream media and media “on the

‘edge’” (compare 2.1.) he does so in clusters of organisational entities; e.g. the

BBC is considered a mainstream unit, whereas WikiLeaks is viewed as an

organisation outside Bruns’ mainstream dimension.

This perspective is certainly sincere, but it ignores the fact that most

organisations – those of a certain scale – consists of many smaller entities;

namely sections, divisions and/or departments. Additionally, each of these

smaller units has a position on the scale between “mainstream” and “being on

the edge” of its own.

Further consideration of how departments consist of employers holding

various professions and performing differently according to their work profile

and individual preferences in their extroverted and introverted tendencies, it

seems appropriate to break down Burns’ approach into the smallest possible

units.

In other words, the question of being “in” or “out” of the mainstream does

not exclusively apply to the category of “organisation”. It affects all media

practitioners of an organisation, as all of them are visible to some degree in the

                                                                                                                         1 WikiLeaks is a media organisation that tries, by its own definition, “... to bring important news and information to the public” (Wikileaks 2011). Wikileaks provides an anonymous way for sources to leak information to journalists. It is often referred to as “whistle-blowing website“ (Goodman 2011).  

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process of media production and development, and therefore within the

process of media innovation.

One example of a less visible media profession - both in media production and

media innovation – is the media archivist.

Within media, media-archivists have long been identified as key contributors to

the program-making process (Eagle 2012, p. 28). This is especially true for

television. Not only because they manage huge amounts of audio-visual-

content, but because they are the experts in an environment where new

technology, digitisation and creativity are at the forefront of capturing content

for the archive and developing improved access to this highly valuable

resource.

Still, these media professionals remain mostly invisible in the various media

companies as well as in media innovation research.

For example, in all three of the existing issues of “The Journal of Media

Innovations”, media archives/archivists are not mentioned at all or mentioned

only as a side note in terms of content storage (Trappel 2015, p. 10, Champion

2015, p. 37, Heravi 2015, p. 137).

The argument that media archives are irrelevant to media innovation can be

refuted by a 2014 report by “The New York Times”. In their “Innovation

Report”, the archives are referred to as “…one of our clearest advantages over

new competitors” in a digital world. Additionally, “we rarely think to mine our

archive, largely because we are so focused on news and new features” (New

York Times 2014).

Valérie-Anne Bleyen refers to this phenomenon in her paper “A Typology of

Media Innovations: Insights from an Exploratory Study” by stating that “...

large parts of the creative activity that take place in the media and content

sector remain ‘under the radar’ since they are not defined as being innovation”

(Bleyen 2014, p. 29).

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One might say that, by using this metaphor, Bleyen is referring to hidden

creativity pools in the media.

The Nesta publication “Innovation Gap” investigates the importance of this

“hidden innovation” and demands an alternative approach “... to capture

innovation as it exists in sectors that are currently neglected by traditional

indicators” (Nesta 2006).

Based on an analysis of service innovation, Maria Abreu et al. (2010) show that

innovation activities are underestimated when metrics of R&D and patents are

applied. Hidden innovation includes:

(1) Innovation that is the same or similar to activities that are measured by

traditional indicators, but which is excluded from measurement.

(2) Innovation without a major scientific/technological basis, such as

innovation in organisational forms or business models.

(3) Innovation created from the novel combination of existing

technologies and processes.

(4) Locally developed, small-scale innovations that take place “under the

radar” and are therefore unrecognised or unaccounted.

(Bleyen 2014, p. 32)

All four points of Abreu’s list apply to activities surrounding media archives.

This is particularly true of the past decade, which brought about mass

digitisation of audio-visual content.

Oscar Westlund identifies this dilemma in his paper on “Agents of Media

Innovations” and states that: “Many studies examine media innovation only

from the perspective of specific media managers - either businesspeople or

editorial chiefs - thus focusing on individual parts of the organization rather

than the complete system” (Westlund 2014, p. 13).

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However, while Westlund calls for a focus on the complete system, he defines

three social groups as “... most relevant to the news media organization:

journalists, technologists, and businesspeople” (Westlund 2014, p. 13), the field

of media archivists being notably absent from this list.

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3. Media Archivists – An Overview

At this point of research, a short historical overview (3.1) and a closer look at

what a media archivist’s daily routine currently includes (3.2.) seem to be

appropriate.

3.1. Media Archivists – Short History of a Changing Profession

In May 1979, the “Fachgruppe der Presse-, Rundfunk- und Filmarchivare”

(Section of Press-, Broadcasting- and Movie-Archivists) of the “Verein Deutscher

Archivare” (Association of German Archivists) held their 35th symposium. For this

event, 135 accounted-for media archive experts met in Offenburg (Germany).

The majority of the participants came from Germany, while others attended

from Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France. For

three days they discussed various technical topics surrounding media archives,

varying from potential cooperation projects with print archives to new

opportunities using microfilm (Engler 1979, pp. 7-13).

As usual, after the symposium the “Section of Press-, Broadcasting- and

Movie-Archivists” published the meeting’s minutes and presentations.

The foreword of this particular publication was written by Marianne Englert.

Englert used the opportunity to not only paint a comprehensive picture of the

history of the “Section of Press-, Broadcasting- and Movie-Archivists”, but

also to provide insight into the early development of media archivists.

Her contribution can be summarised as follows:

A majority of the archives and documentation departments in print media,

radio and television are facilities that were founded after the Second World

War. During this period, few of these facilities had existing structures or

traditions upon which to rely.

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Other media archives originating at this time faced great challenges. One such

difficulty was to fill necessary positions with experts, due to the unavailability

of a set of key skills and abilities. Accepted standards, well-organised structures

and efficient classifications were for the most part non-existing. That is why

most of the theoretical foundation and work descriptions had to be newly

developed.

Therefore, an initiative was launched in order to establish a platform to

exchange the best practices in the field of media archives, which was broadly

welcomed in the German speaking community.

On September 22nd 1959, employees of media archives and documentation

departments met for a first exchange of experiences in Osnabrueck. The result

of this meeting was the establishment of the “Fachgruppe der Pressearchivare”

(Section of Media Archivists). Soon after its foundation, colleagues working for

movie/broadcast-, audio/sound- and picture/photo-archives joined the group.

At the official Archive’s Day in 1961, the “Fachgruppe der Presse-, Rundfunk-

und Filmarchivare” (Section of Press-, Broadcasting- and Movie-Archivists) was

formally established as part of the “Verein Deutscher Archivare” (Association of

German Archivists, Engler 1979, pp. 5-6).

In 1979 this group described the field of media documentation as an area that

combines elements of journalism, archive skills and documentation and library

skills. The combination of these three fields of expertise was considered to be

significant for and a characteristic of the new discipline of media

documentation.

Regarding the sections symposium’s program (Engler 1979, pp. 7-8) and its list

of attendees (Engler 1979, pp. 9-13) of 1979, it is safe to say that the group

established a state-of-the-art exchange platform and a profound network of

experts of the field.

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One of these experts, Karl-Heinz Schaper from the magazine “DER

SPIEGEL”, led the discussion on the job description of media archivists.

Participants came from backgrounds of both print and broadcasting media.

This discussion was considered to be the first attempt to define an

internationally standardised job profile for media archivists (Schaper 1979, p.

139).

This development was considered long overdue by the head of the archive of

the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) Peter Dusek, who held this

position from 1988 to 2008 (ORF 2015).

In 1998, Dusek wrote an article titled “Das Medienarchiv – ein Stiefkind des

digitalen Zeitalters?” (The Media Archive – A Stepchild of the Digital Age?), in

which he described the status quo of ORF’s media archive approximately 40

years ago.

“In the late 70s (…) when I was confronted with the downright tragic and grotesque situation of Austrian media archives, a lot had been lost beyond saving. The situation I experienced in the ORF-archive resembled the few public archives: too few employees facing too much content to deal with, with too little support from anyone.” (Dusek 1998)

In reference to the job position or ORF-archivists, Dusek claimed that they

“… had to over-perform heroically, but were hierarchically positioned beneath

secretaries” (Dusek 1998). Documents from the internal file storage of the

ORF’s archive paint a similar picture.

An ORF-file dated October 14th 1971 lists all employers of the ORF’s archive

and their monthly salary. According to this document, four job descriptions are

linked to actual archival operative work (“Beschlagwortung” <Indexing>,

“Expedient” <Logistics>, “Archivar” <Archivist> and “Kundendienst”

<Service>, see Digital Appendix #1). 17 employers fell into one of these four

categories. When considering the amount of analogue audio-visual content that

was produced for two channels every week, a group of 17 people would have

most likely been overloaded with work (for comparison: today there are 62

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full-time employees working in equivalent roles in the “Multimedia Archive” of

the ORF, who are also profiting from the benefits of a digital work

environment; e.g. indexing via preview function, online research for fact

checking, specialised software, etc.).

However, Dusek’s claim that media archivists were positioned beneath

secretaries turned out to be only partially true. According to the file, all three

secretaries were placed in salary group five, earning 4.815 Austrian Schillings

per month. All of the archivist in the groups “Service”, “Archive” and

“Logistics” were part of salary groups between three and five, earning either

the same as secretaries or less than them (in which case, between 3.376 and

4.016 Austrian Schillings). Only all four employers of the group “Indexing”

earned considerably more, namely between 6.690 and 8.027 Austrian Schillings

and belonged to salary group seven and eight.

One year later, an organisational table marked September 1st 1972 revealed

how several job descriptions had been redefined. The employees that belonged

to the group “Beschlagwortung” (Indexing), now were part of the group

“Dokumentar[e]” (Documentalists). Logistics and Archive became “Archivar[e]

Fernsehen” (Television Archivists)”. “Service” turned into “Bearbeiter Film- und

MAZ-Anforderungen” (Arranger of Film and Magnetic Records, see Digital

Appendix #2).

In 1977, a new job position came into existence. In a file, dated February 9th

1977, the job title “Auswerter” (Analyst) appears (see Digital Appendix #3).

This file includes detailed job qualifications (indexing, research and

administrative duties). Most of these specifications are still part of a media

archivist’s daily routine (compare 3.2.).

Herbert Hayduck now acts as the current head of the archive of the ORF –

known now as the “Multimedia Archive”. Hayduck took a different approach

in describing the development of media archives in his Master’s thesis, linking

it to the changes and developments of metadata tools. In this respect, Hayduck

outlines five stages of development:

  23  

(1) Metadata - analogue object-related (1955-1967)

File card catalogue – classified according to an ORF Internal Decimal

Classification.

(2) Metadata - analogue object-related (1968-1988)

File card catalogue – classified according to a “Key-Word” system,

copied and made able to be searched for according to each keyword

alphabetically.

(3) Digital object-related (1988-1996)

Data base FARAO – textual keywording in a hierarchical database.

(4) Digital sequenz-related (1996-2008)

Data base FARAO – textual keywording enriched by digital preview

option.

(5) Media Asset Management (2009 ff.)

Data base FESAD in connection with the internal search engine

mARCo – multimedia integration of textual keywording in relational

databases, preview options and HD-file production option.

(Hayduck 2012, pp. 101-105)

Hayduck concludes that the key to success requires the establishment of a

systemically organised “memory structure”, independent of the subjective

recollection of individual people, relying instead upon standardised and

comprehensible methods for indexing and researching audio-visual content of

the past (Hayduck 2012, p. 95).

Today, due to an entirely tape-free work environment in media – from

production to distribution – the archiving and the re-using of broadcast

content starts the second after being on air. This instantaneous momentum

pushes media archives even further into the spheres of real-time content

production.

  24  

Chief Technology and Optimisation Officer Eric Minoli postulates in this

context: “With the technological advances that we are now witnessing and the

continuing changes both in archiving professions and in the management of

audio-visual and video content, content producers and distributors must

rethink their approach to metadata management.” (Minoli 2012, pp. 4-5).

Extending Minolis statement by exchanging “metadata management” with

“archive management” it makes for a smooth transition to the following

subchapter.

3.2. Current Work Descriptions and Competencies – A Look Behind the

Scenes at the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF)

A summary of the previous chapters suggests that media archivists are diverse

and heterogeneous professionals. However, is this the case?

According to the current version of the online job lexicon of the Public

Employment Service Austria (AMS), a media archivist is a rather

straightforward occupation, which is easy to define. To the AMS a media

archivist “... administers archives of media objects, like television- and radio-

reports, music pieces, newspaper articles and historical visual- and audio-

documents, among other things with the help of electronic information

systems” (AMS 2015). The job is described in the AMS’ information as

follows: “Good general education, basic technical understanding, interest in

media history, foreign language competence (particularly English), work may

be carried out (alone) in remote areas (basement)” (AMS 2015).

It is possible that several media professionals and academics may have a more

complex work spectrum in mind when referring to the work of media

archivists (compare 3.1. and 3.3.).

Still, AMS’ description illustrates a stereotype, which no longer reflects reality

in the daily work routine. This stereotype still remains omnipresent, even inside

modern media organisations.

  25  

Thus, it seems appropriate to offer an example of the state of play of a media

archive’s workforce and its qualifications and competences. The ORF’s

Multimedia Archive will serve as an appropriate example.

To begin with, one must differentiate between the number of different job

descriptions for operative active media archivists (1), what these job

descriptions theoretically include (2) and what the actual jobs really entail (3).

At the Multimedia Archive of the ORF there are currently three positions for

archivists that actually reuse and/or enrich audio-visual content on a regular

basis: the “Archive Assistant”, the “Documentalist” and the “Archive Editor”

(see Digital Appendix #4).

(1) As of today there are eight “Archivassistent[en]” (Archive Assistants), 27

“Dokumentar[e]” (Documentalists) and 22 “Redakteur[e]

Dokumentation” (Archive Editors) working with audio-visual content at

the Multimedia Archive of the ORF.

(2) The “Archive Assistant” has become an almost obsolete job category,

as he or she is primarily concerned with logistic matters, comparable to

a warehouse worker’s tasks. As today’s content is saved and accessed

digitally, the job position of a traditional archive worker is out-dated.

The “Documentalist” is primarily concerned with the indexing and

metadata enrichment of audio-visual content, as well as research.

The “Archive Editor” bears some similarities to the “Documentalist”,

but has a clear emphasis on research as a service (primarily, but not

only) for the production departments. The most important addition to

the archive editor’s official job description is the specification:

“Independent editing of feeds or shows assigned by the responsible

production department, next to the necessary administrative duties”

(see Digital Appendix #4).

  26  

(3) Nevertheless, the group of workers defined by this job description and

their fields of expertise are extremely diverse. It includes media asset

managers at the ORF newsroom, archive editors who produce

historical documentaries, experts responsible for selling ORF content

to external clients and many more.

The complexity of a media archivist’s work spectrum becomes even more

obvious when examining the range of digital tools ORF archivists utilise:

(1) mARCo (Multimedia Archives Online) – an internally developed

research platform primarily used by editors. While this is a traditional

search and order metasystem, it is also used by media archivists when

they train or support editors in their research.

(2) MAM systems (Media Asset Management), divided into P-CMS

(Production Content Management Systems) and A-CMS (Archive

Content Management Systems).

(3) FESAD2 (“Auftragsabwicklung”, which refers to research), a highly

specialised A-CMS used by several media archives in German speaking

countries.

(4) FESAD2 (“Erfassung”, which refers to the inputting and indexing of

new media content).

(5) ORF’s P-CMS, relevant for archive research, primarily when the

content has not yet archived, and is therefore not yet accessible via the

other platforms (before or shortly after broadcasting, for example).

                                                                                                                         2  FESAD is an acronym for “Fernseharchivdatenbank” (Television Archive Data Bank). It is the ORF’s metadata management platform and search engine for archive material (ORF-FESAD 2014).  

  27  

(6) Other systems: Planning Systems (RedSys: Rundown Planning),

Teleplan (Playlist Planning) and further integrated neighbouring

systems like KOKO (Radio/Audio Archive), ORFEUS (License and

Contract Management), MAM’s of the regional studios and Signiant for

wide-area file-transfers.

(Stanz 2015)

Not every employee at the ORF’s Multimedia Archive has to be a specialist in

all the available systems. However, depending on the specific task, both a basic

knowledge of the systems available and expert skill level  in more than one of

them are essential.

I have visited many media archives over the past years. My conclusion is that –

although there are differences between the organigrams in media archives –

when it comes to television archives of public broadcasters in Europe,

similarities are clearly noticeable and the spectrum of work-related activities is

extremely broad and complex.

On one hand, a limited number of defined qualifications allows the archivist to

move between the various responsibilities and projects more easily.

On the other hand, due to the absence of clear organisational mandates,

projects across departments depend very much on the goodwill of colleagues

and their superiors. Needless to say, this approach requires a lot of time for

stakeholder evaluation and persuasion. Plus, the more stakeholders are

involved in the decision making process, the higher the chances of the project

being vetoed or buried.

  28  

3.3. Gatekeeper and Creative Forerunner - The Continuous International

Quest for New Job Titles in Media Archives

The conclusion of the previous chapter leads to the assumption that the

advantages of an official assignment/description for archive innovation project

management outweighs the risks.

So, do best practice examples exist? Do they allow for comparison, evaluation

and duplication?

As pointed out in Chapter 1.1. (Aims of this Thesis), such a directive for

innovation project management in media archives can currently only be found

in the BBC’s AIE job description.

Still, if the need is so evident, why has no one thought of this before?

The answer to that question is quite simple: many have.

Back in 1998, the Fédération Internationale des Archives de Télévision /

International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA, compare 5.1.)

launched the still on-going seminar series “Changing Sceneries, Changing

Roles”. This forum has been dealing extensively with the matter of the

constantly changing requirements of media archives. The latest seminar of this

series, the seventh, took place in May 2015. The content of all seminars, from

their inception in 1998, are published in reports.

These chronicles paint a clear picture of the international media archive

community’s quest towards “… innovative workflows and timely, practical

issues/solutions facing the digital archiving and broadcasting community”

(FIAT/IFTA 2015).

In its fifth part, published in 2012, Jacqui Gupta, BBC’s Lead Technologist in

the Archive Research Section of BBC Research & Development and member

of FIAT/IFTA’s Media Management Commission (MMC), wrote a summary

  29  

of the developments and findings of “Changing Sceneries, Changing Roles”

between 1998 and 2012.

Here is an overview of Gupta’s summary:

In 1998, media archives around the globe “... were facing the birth of new

digital workflows in broadcasting production and archive areas” (Gupta 2012,

p. 8).

It was then that media archivists started to envision the emergence of a digital

archive workflow and tried to understand its potential impact.

Gupta refers in this context, to the development of prototype digital archive

systems with visual thumbnails and keyframes. “This was a revolutionary

approach at the time and introduced new expectations for browsing and

searching content” (Gupta 2012, p. 9).

Therefore, archivists had to adapt to new ways of working in the archive using

digital production systems and online catalogues.

When the MMC met for the subsequent seminar in 2004 in Amsterdam, file-

based production was “… becoming established in many news and production

areas” (Gupta 2012, p. 11).

The conclusions of this meeting pointed towards a changing work

environment for media archives.

Up to this point, archiving processes traditionally occurred at the end of the

production cycle rather than the beginning.

At this time, MMC’s prediction was that media archivists will become “…

media managers including cataloguers with a gradual convergence of

production, research and catalogue tasks” (Gupta 2012, p. 12).

  30  

Thus, it seemed obvious to the MMC members that the traditional role of the

audio-visual cataloguer would be reduced with the digital workflow.

Gupta states in her paper that new roles were emerging as early as 2004.

(1) “Media Manager” – tasked with controlling the process of managing

content and associated metadata throughout the production process

and setting standards to maintain quality of information.

(2) “Ambassador of New Technology” – tasked with using knowledge of

cataloguing rules, production processes and technology to support the

digital system, media process and content production staff.

(3) “Media Editor” – tasked with repacking archive resources for new

products, re-cataloguing digitised content for online collections and

taking on the role of supervising/moderating as the consumers become

producers of information.

(4) ”Content Specialist” – responsible for the preservation of and access to

content.

(5) “Trainer” – responsible for educating programme makers working with

digital media archive systems.

(Gupta 2012, p. 15)

The next seminar, occurring in 2007, took place in Vienna. By then, all the

experts “… acknowledged that technology had unquestionably changed the

way we [media archivists] work.” (Gupta 2012, p. 16).

New tapeless workflows were being actively adopted and utilised at several

media companies and were “… firmly embedded at the heart of the

production workflow.” (Gupta 2012, p. 17).

  31  

As the innovation cycles grew shorter, constant training became more and

more important to the development of archive staff in a new digital

environment.

In 2007, new roles were added to the portfolio of 2004, namely:

(1) “Cataloguer” – whose role is now changing, being faced with different

target audiences of both internal program makers and consumers.

(2) “Ingest Operator” – a new role at the beginning of the production

process, requiring technical skills and the duty of quality control.

(3) “Data & System Manager” – responsible for the integration,

installation and operation of IT systems.

(Gupta 2012, p. 15)

At the end of the 2007 seminar, the MMC members concluded that there was

a real need for better communication and co-operation with production staff

and journalists, and that “… the role of the Media Manager would expand to

be a trainer, supervisor and monitor quality checking metadata.” (Gupta 2012,

p. 21).

In 2009, the seminar series continued in Stockholm. Here, the MMC members

came to the conclusion that “[The] value of archives is at the highest level in

history with repurposing to multiple platforms” (Gupta 2012, p. 23).

The last officially documented meeting – part six of the seminar series – took

place in Hilversum on May 16th and May 17th, 2013.

Sarah-Haye Aziz, who held a panel on semantic analysis, stressed that from:

“… a human perspective it is essential to involve archivists in the project. Despite the importance of technological aspects we could assert that computing scientists have not the full control of the technical developments. Archivists can contribute top new

  32  

solutions and ideas. Involving archivists is also important to them because it allows them to better redefine their roles of the archive.” (Aziz 2013, p. 134)

The MMC members agreed with Aziz’s arguments, stating in this meeting’s

summary that the latest developments in media required archive departments

to bridge the gap towards IT. There was broad consensus at the meeting that

collaboration is essential and must be encouraged by management (Matzen

2013, p. 168).

The seventh part of the seminar series took place in Glasgow on May 21st and

May 22nd, 2015. Unfortunately the report had not been published by the due

date of this Master’s thesis, unlike several presentations.

The central topic of the 2015 seminar was Media Asset Management (MAM)

systems and file-based workflows.

Concerning the changing competence requirements in media archives, Theo

Maeusli held a presentation titled “The 2020 Broadcasters Archive”.

He postulates that efficient metadata management in the future will happen

mostly “... on 6 levels: selection, dataflow, traceability, data-mining, artificial

intelligence (…) and by the archivist becoming more of a coach, teaching and

training the archive systems to keep and emphasise the interesting information

and to furnish the right material” (Maeusli 2015).

Concerning his prediction of archivists becoming coaches, Maeusli emphasised

three points of instruction for archivists:

(1) Teach, train, correct and stimulate the system.

(2) Motivate and train for efficient use of the archives.

(3) Keep the system state-of-the-art.

(Maeusli 2015)

  33  

Summing up the last 17 years of MMC meetings and their changing

perspective on changing roles, the demand for an Archive Innovation

Management position seems close.

Until now, the MMC has gone alongside technological developments

foretelling new job descriptions.

The late 1990s brought the digital world into international media archives.

Only a few years later, file-based production was a reality in media production

and its archives. Soon after, MMC members demanded new positions that

were extremely subject-specific, e.g. a “Media Manager” for decision making

processes, questions of organisation and controlling, an “Ambassador of New

Technology” as first level support on an IT level, “Trainer” to educate external

personnel and so on. In the years that followed, even more specific positions

were in demand: “Ingest Operators” and “Data and System Managers”, to

name just two.

In 2007, the demand for convergence in competencies grew, and so did the

predicted job profiles of the MMC (e.g. the Media Manager should become a

trainer, supervisor and metadata specialist).

Current predictions towards future working conditions for media archivists

foresee additional qualifications continuously infiltrating existing positions (e.g.

Training, Innovation, Controlling and Communication).

But have the two aspects, “archive management” and “innovation”, been

combined up to this point?’

3.4. BBC’s Archive Innovation Executive (AIE) - A Good Enough Practice?

The question put forward by the last chapter – if “archive management” and

“innovation” have been combined – proves to be true. Not in the case of the

MMC, however, but by the BBC.

  34  

This is can be determined via the online portal Linkedin3. When searching this

business-oriented network platform for “archive management” and

“innovation”, multiple different results are given. However, when limiting

these results to those linked to legacy media, only three so-called “Archive

Innovation Executives” (AIE) remain, all three being currently employed by

the BBC, taking the position between October 2011 and November 2013

(Linkedin 2015).

What this job position entails became obvious when BBC Recruitment

published the following Tweet on May 30th in 2014:

“Experienced in working in TV (or radio) production & archives, records or info mgmt? #Archive Innovation Executive.” (BBC Recruitment 2014)

This recruitment feed included a link to the BBC-webpage

“careersearch.bbc.co.uk” where HR offered a “job introduction”, information

on “role responsibility”, a description of the “ideal candidate” and included a

detailed job description (compare 3.4. pp. 35-38).

In short, the job introduction places the position in the department of

“Information and Archives”. Within this, the role requires the ability “... to

provide to the BBC a diverse range of media asset management services which

support the programme making process...” (BBC Careers 2014).

The role responsibility of an AIE:

“Your main responsibility as the Archive Innovations Executive is to deliver efficient media management and archiving process for all BBC assets in a digital environment. Working closely with the Archive Services Manager and the TV production teams, you will help produce innovative responses to changes in the process of content production, asset management and archival practice. You’ll evaluate archive technology and ensure they are appropriate for current and future business use...” (BBC Careers 2014)

                                                                                                                         3 According to its webpage Linkedin is “… the world's largest professional network with 300 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the globe” (Linkedin 2015).

  35  

Throughout the rest of this paper, references will be made discussing one or

more responsibilities, qualifications and/or competencies described in the

original job description of an Archive Innovation Executive. Therefore, the

whole document is presented at this point of the paper rather than the appendix

(as is convention). To make upcoming quotations and references even more

comprehensible, each value of the AIE job description is additionally marked

with a Roman numeral (I. - XXXVI.). Each Roman numeral will function as a

unique reference to the particular value from this point onwards.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES The post holder will work with key stakeholders and teams in business areas to develop an extensive understanding of workflows and output with a view to introducing effective media management solutions that align to the strategic aims of BBC Archives. Archive Innovation Executives will fulfil the following key responsibilities:

(1) I., Evaluate archive technology appropriate to business need by use of proof of concept and piloting (working closely with BBC Archives’ Head of Technology).

(2) II., Implement and develop effective and innovative media

management solutions across production and business areas and ensure these align to the strategic aims of the BBC and the ever changing technology environment.

(3) III., Work with Archive Service Managers (ASMs) and Archive

Resource Managers (ARMs) in BBC Archives to facilitate resourcing and transition from innovation to BAU.

(4) IV., Maintain awareness of new ideas, trends and innovative

developments across the BBC and wider industry relevant to their areas.

(5) V., Ensure that Archive policies and standards remain aligned with

current business requirements.

(6) VI., Engage with relevant Technology, FM and R&D projects to ensure alignment with BBC Archive objectives.

(7) VII., Work with content producing areas and BBC Archives teams to

maximise access to digital and analogue assets and develop new opportunities to support the exploitation of content and delivery of efficiencies.

  36  

(8) VIII., Build strong working relationships with BBC content producing areas and external organisations and stakeholders to extend knowledge of innovations that will benefit Media Management within the BBC.

PERSON SPECIFICATION ESSENTIAL

(1) IX., Extensive experience of working in TV or Radio production, archives, records or information management, or a related higher education qualification.

(2) X., Extensive experience of influencing and negotiation and proven

ability to successfully manage relationships within an archive or production environment.

(3) XI., Experience in the application of information management skills

within the traditional broadcasting environment and new services.

(4) XII., Experience of working under pressure to tight deadlines and an ability to think creatively in the face of adversity.

(5) XIII., Flexible approach to a wide range of duties and able to prioritise

effectively.

(6) XIV., Ability to manage own workload for extended periods without direct supervision.

(7) XV., To demonstrate the ability to embrace change and to continue to

drive and manage change both within own team and content producing area to facilitate an environment of on-going continuous improvement.

(8) XVI., Ability to analyse and interpret information management

legislation. Knowledge of compliance requirements.

(9) XVII., Ability to analyse, interpret and design policies and standards

(10) XVIII., Understanding of overall BBC business needs and impacts on business processes.

(11) XIX., Extensive knowledge of production systems and workflows. (12) XX., Knowledge of archival processes and approaches, of BBC historic

and heritage requirements and BBC reuse of content. DESIRABLE

(1) XXI., Knowledge of the services provided by Information & Archives.

  37  

(2) XXII., Knowledge of BBC commissioning, scheduling and production processes.

(3) XXIII., Knowledge of BBC programme output.

(4) XXIV., Knowledge of broadcasting technology practices, relevant regulations, BBC aims and objectives.

(5) XXV., Knowledge of digital production and post-production systems.

(6) XXVI., Ability to demonstrate initiative in developing and improving services.

(7) XXVII., Project management experience. Competencies: The following competencies (behaviours and characteristics) have been identified as key to success in the job. Successful candidates are expected to demonstrate these competencies. • XXVIII., Collaborating across boundaries – challenges systems, processes and people that block collaboration, connects people, ideas, processes and issues. Sets an example by sharing resources, knowledge, ideas and skills across the organisation, builds helpful relationships across the organisation. • XXIX., Managing relationships – able to build and maintain effective working relationships with a range of people. Has an ability to establish rapport quickly and effectively with new clients/people. Proactively offers constructive feedback to others. • XXX., Planning and organising – able to think ahead in order to establish an efficient and appropriate course of action for self and others. Prioritises and plans activities taking into account all the relevant issues and factors such as deadlines, staffing and resources. • XXXI., influencing and persuading – able to present sound and well-reasoned arguments to convince others. Can draw from a range of strategies to persuade people in a way that results in agreement or behaviour change. • XXXII., Communication – able to get one’s message understood clearly by adopting a range of styles, tools and techniques appropriate to the audience and the nature of the information. • XXXIII., Resilience – manages personal effectiveness by managing emotions in the face of pressure, setbacks or when dealing with provocative situations. Demonstrates an approach to work that is characterised by commitment, motivation and energy. • XXXIV., Flexibility – adapts and works effectively with a variety of

  38  

situations, individuals or groups. Able to understand and appreciate different and opposing perspectives on an issue, to adapt an approach as the requirements of a situation change, and to change or easily accept changes in one’s own organisation or job requirements. • XXXV., Editorial Judgement – demonstrates balanced and objective judgement based on a thorough understanding of BBC editorial guidelines, target audience, programme and departmental objectives. Makes the right editorial decisions, taking account of conflicting views where necessary. • XXXVI., Developing others – able to recognise potential (managerial, professional, artistic or otherwise) and is willing to foster the development of that potential. Creates a climate in which potential can be realised. Creates a sense of responsibility amongst staff. Can motivate people to “buy into” processes, plans, projects and ideas. Gives staff a clear sense of direction and purpose.

The publication of this job description, as a new senior management position,

came as a surprise: the BBC had been cutting jobs, including senior positions,

for years (NJU 2014). This is relevant to this paper because it emphasises the

value of AIEs to the BBC, even in times of apparent financial crisis.

This argument becomes more evident when analysing a presentation given by

James Harding, the BBC Director of News and Current Affairs (and the News

Group Board) on the continuous spending cuts on 17th July 2014.

According to Harding, the aim of that presentation was to inform BBC

employees about the recent cuts and changes to the running licence fee period

(Harding 2014).

However, there were not only reductions at the BBC, there were also proposals

of restructure and reinvestment.

After Harding’s presentation an official statement by the BBC was published,

stating that the BBC intends “... to invest £4 million in social and mobile news,

data journalism, online analysis and an enhanced News Labs team” and that

some of this investment had already started (BBC 2014).

  39  

In the transcript of Harding’s presentation, the suggested restructuring and

reinvestment become more transparent.

On the one hand, Harding announced that a further 415 posts were to be cut.

On the other hand, he also stated that 195 new positions would be created in

the restructuring, meaning a net reduction of 220 full-time posts across news

and current affairs (Harding 2014).

Harding also put emphasis on innovation, claiming:

“Our ambition is to see the BBC deliver news to all audiences on all devices, to see the BBC exploit new technologies in the ways we get stories and the way we tell them, to ensure the BBC keeps on renewing its reputation as the most innovative and most respected force in news in the world. So, we are also going to set out today plans for substantial investments in digital journalism and a significant restructuring of a large part of BBC News.” (Harding 2014)

And furthermore:

“The Newsroom and the Programmes Department will be reorganised into: 24/7 News, incorporating the TV News Channels and BBC Online, providing live and digital news to everyone, everywhere, now and pressing us to serve all audiences, innovate in news and develop services for the future.” (Harding 2014)

Jim Gray, Acting Head of BBC Programmes, continued by stating that there

would be a further push on production efficiencies (Gray 2014).

To summarise the relevant information of this presentation and the additional

information: the BBC had been in a phase of restructure and reinvestment

since 2012, cuts in personnel were not just reductions but also provided

opportunities for creating new job positions that were considered necessary

according to the members of the board for their plans for investments in

digital journalism and a substantial restructuring of a large part of the BBC.

With that strategy in mind, the Tweet on AIE recruitment one and a half

  40  

months earlier appears in a different light.

Comparing the responsibilities outlined in the recruitment information for an

AIE with what Harding outlined in terms of strategy, namely to “…exploit

new technologies…” for obtaining news stories and to “…innovate in news

and develop services for the future…”, it seems plausible that an AIE may be

one of the 195 new positions Harding assured.

Additionally, Harding’s comment that “… some of this investment had already

started” (Harding 2014) supports this theory from a chronological point of

view.

The AIE’s job description and its requirements sounded similar to the solution

to the obstacles the media archive (management) community was looking for

in terms of a future archive management position.

Still, was the BBC the only organisation offering an official archive innovation

management position?

Next to the ORF, nine other European media archive professionals – each one

working at an autonomous media archive – were contacted individually via

mail by the researcher – primarily senior management and C-level position

holders – and asked whether or not a job description like the BBC’s was part

of their organisation. These experts have been working for the public German

BR (“Bayerischer Rundfunk”, Bavarian Broadcasting), DW (“Deutsche Welle”,

German Wave) and WDR (“Westdeutscher Rundfunk”, West German

Broadcasting), the Swiss SRF (“Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen”, Swiss Radio and

Television), the Irish RTE (“Raidió Teilifís Éireann”), the Danish DR

(“Danmarks Radio”), RTBF (“Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté

française”) from Belgium and the two German privately owned media

organisations, ProSiebenSat.1 and infoNetwork – which is part of the RTL

group). Despite all the answers returning negative, most showed great interest

in the outcome of the research of this topic.

  41  

Thus, as another “Archive Innovation Management” position has been not

accessible, this paper will use the BBC’s job description as a “Good Enough

Practice” to continue the research with.

A “Best Practice” is a method that presents results superior to those achieved

with other means (Best Practices LLC 2015), therefore one cannot refer to a

single example as “Best Practice” but rather as a “Good Enough Practice”.

  42  

4. Archive Innovation Projects

To make the concept of media archive innovation projects more transparent,

two case studies – one of an internal and one of an external project – will be

presented in this chapter. Additionally, the two examples will be analysed

according to all three parameters described in the chapter “Media Innovation”

(compare 2.1.).

(1) Five dimensions analysis (product, process, position, paradigmatic

innovation and social innovation).

(2) “Push” or “pull”.

(3) Origin in mainstream media or in its edges.

4.1. New Pictures

The first archive innovation project to be presented as a case study for this

paper was called “New Pictures”.

In short, “New Pictures” was an internal project aiming to evaluate the status

quo of how migrants are presented in ORF television news and offer

alternatives – if concluded to be necessary – via a digital high-quality genre

content pool that makes it easy and convenient for users to portray migrants in

a more representative way.

The idea for the project came from ORF archive editors working as media-

asset managers at the ORF television newsroom.

At the newsroom, a media asset manager’s responsibility is to enhance the

quality of the various news feeds by providing additional content, namely

digital material from the Multi-Media-Archive. As experts on re-use of archive

material, they realised that journalists tend to demand, use and re-use the same

content to illustrate certain topics for several years in a row. At the ORF this

phenomenon is called the “re-use of genre content”. “Genre content” is the

  43  

technical term at ORF for material that is used to exemplify a specific topic. If,

for example, the topic were a crisis in the dairy market, appropriate genre

content would be cows on a meadow and customers in the supermarket buying

dairy products.

This way of illustration is also used for demographic- or social-groups (e.g.

migrants, retirees, women, farmers…). However, as society constantly changes,

so do the various social and demographic groups. What may have been

representative five years ago may very well be out-dated today. Thus, following

up on this thought, one might wonder if the so-called genre content was ever

representative according to demographic and/or social data or based on

stereotypes from the start.

Therefore, a project was created in order to uncover a possible disparity

between the way social groups are presented on ORF television news and what

their actual status in society is.

To narrow down the scope of the project, the study focused on one social

group, migrants.

Nevertheless, the project’s aim was not only to perform a content analysis. An

additional objective was the development of a general applicable analysis

structure in order to make the difference between representative and

stereotypical presentation on television clearly visible so that other groups may

be focused on under the same standards.

In terms of methodology, the current status of migrants in Austria first had to

be determined.

In doing so, one had to be aware that every demographic group consists of

human individuals who differ on numerous levels. Thus, public reality is

extremely complex and patterns are shifting continuously. Therefore, the

observation and description of selected members of a specific demographic

and/or social group often only show tendencies and estimates. “People are

  44  

simply more complex than the categories and stereotypes we’ve created for

them” (Kovach 2014, p. 42).

Still, it is possible to differentiate between a more stereotypical and a more

representative image of a demographic and/or social group if the analysis is

based on current demographic data, clear definitions and multi-perspective

angles.

That is why firstly the immigrants and their descendants in Austria needed to

be defined. Secondly, the demographic, as well as the social status quo of this

group in society, needed to be determined for further analysis.

Only then, and based on demographic and social data, could elements be

identified that could be used in relation to these numbers.

As a second step in the project, the ORF Multi-Media-Archive was mined for a

representative amount of television news feeds on migration.

Before an analysis of any audio-visual content can take place, the source of the

content ought to be defined. In the case of this study, the content in question

originates from the Multi-Media-Archive of the Austrian broadcasting

corporation, ORF. To be more precise, from its television news program line

the “Zeit im Bild” (Time in Pictures).

The “Zeit im Bild” is broadcast on both main channels. Depending on the day

of the week, there are at least ten news shows being broadcast per day varying

in length and focus (according to the target group of the time slot and the

particular channel, ORF 2014).

This year, in 2015, the ORF is celebrating its 60th anniversary. As the “Zeit im

Bild” was one of the first TV shows broadcast by the ORF, it is almost as old

as the ORF itself (Project History Online 2002, p. 10).

  45  

Over the decades a lot of reports on migrants in – and immigration to –

Austria have been broadcast. But, as already emphasised, society changes

constantly and so do the various demographic and social groups. Therefore, 60

years is clearly too long a period of time to work out a comprehensive analysis

for a project like “New Pictures”: a specific time span needed to be defined.

The innovation project manager decided to evaluate content starting with

January 1st 2012.

Still, in total during the 31 months before the start of the project (01.01.2012-

31.07.2014) there were 59.800 news feeds broadcast in the program line “Zeit

im Bild” (ORF-FESAD4 2014).

Obviously, this number refers to any news feed during this period of time. In

searching the Multi-Media-Archive of the ORF to receive a relevant amount of

reports, a clearly defined grid had to be applied via ORF’s database FESAD.

The reduction/selection on the overall content was as follows:

(1) Only reports of the news program line “Zeit im Bild”.

(2) Only reports that geographically covered Austrian territory.

(3) Only reports deriving from the 01.01.2012 to 31.07.2014.

(4) Only reports that included the German term for foreign* (auslaend*)5

and/or migra* (migra*) in the section defining the factual content of the

report as well as the section describing the audio-visual content.

With these selective approaches only 45 reports with relevant content

remained over the set period of time.

Thirdly the feeds were analysed according to a set of questions.

                                                                                                                         4 FESAD is an acronym for “Fernseharchivdatenbank” (Television Archive Data Bank). It is the ORF’s metadata management platform and search engine for archive material (ORF-FESAD 2014). 5 A star-symbol “*” added to a term, allows the algorithm of FESAD to look for any possible word endings (e.g. migra* may result in migration, migrant, migrants…).          

  46  

For the analysis of the audio-visual content in question, a quantitative analysis

was performed. The result ought to show whether or not the content on

migrants could be considered to be representative or stereotypical. This

analysis was then conducted and cross-referenced with the demographic data

collected for the project.

Therefore, eight categories were defined:

(1) Age group.

According to the age group definition of the Austrian Statistical

Agency, migrants were split into the following groups (Statistik Austria

2013): 0-15 years, 15-29 years, 30-44 years, 45-59 years, older than 60

years (abbreviated “>60” in the following) and “could not be verified”

(“n.v.”).

(2) Occupational status.

If the employment status was visible the occupational status was

categorised in “white collar”, “blue collar”, “self-employed”

(abbreviated “s.e.”), “in education” (“i.e.”) and “could not be verified”

(“n.v.”).

(3) Gender.

If there were individual subjects visible, the category “gender” was

differentiated into “male” (“m”) and female (“f”) as well as whether

or not the woman (if present) wore a headscarf.

In this case the category was “female wearing a headscarf” (abbreviated

“f-hs”).

If there were several people of both genders in the picture the category

was “m/f”. And if there was a mixed gender group scenario including a

  47  

clearly visible fraction of women wearing headscarves, the abbreviation

was “m/f-hs”.

(4) Geographical/Cultural background.

Regarding this category in particular, it must be emphasised that the

categorising was performed based on a subjective “first impression”

perception of the author.

Furthermore, broad clusters underlined the socio-psychological and

highly individual impression.

These categories were: “presumed African-Austrian” (abbreviated

“pAA”), “of presumed East-Asian background” (“pEA”), “of

presumed Turkish background“ (“pT”) or “could not be verified”

(abbreviated “n.v.”).

(5) Urban or rural surrounding.

This category consisted of three possible groups: “urban” (abbreviated

“U”), “rural” (“R”) and “could not be verified” (abbreviated “n.v.”),

meaning either that the sequence was taking place indoors or that the

surroundings could not be located.

(6) “In engagement” versus “leisure time”.

The classification “In engagement” (abbreviated “i.e.”) was not limited

to activities which were directly associated with an occupational status,

but also included activities that fell into a broader definition of working

time (e.g. training) or an activity that could be an accepted equivalent to

a specific occupation (e.g. transactions with public authorities, medical

treatment, etc.) as opposed to notable “leisure time” (e.g. shopping,

going on a walk, sitting on a park bench, etc.)

  48  

(7) Group status.

If there were five or more people visible in one audio-visual-sequence,

the label “Group” was assigned.

A quantitative analysis of audio-visual content is a complex and abstract

undertaking. Therefore, an exemplary breakdown of a single news report ought

to increase the transparency of how the analysis was performed.

To get a notion of the news feed, figure 1. provides the selected report’s digital

thumbnails. This kind of preview is accessible via the interface of ORF’s

archive platform, FESAD.

The report was produced by news journalist Matthias Westhoff and deals with

the presentation of the new Annual Statistical Yearbook on Migration and

Integration in Austria. It was broadcast on August 6th in 2013 and titled

“Integrationsbericht”.

Figure 1: Screenshot of the ZIB 13 report “Integrationsbericht” (Annual Statistical Yearbook on Migration and Integration, ORF 2, 06.08.2013)

  49  

At the beginning of the report, there were two people visible.

Simultaneously the following text was read: “1.6 million people in Austria have

a migration background (…)” (in the German original version: “1.6 Millionen

Menschen haben in Oesterreich Migrationshintergrund (...)”), Thus, the two

people were clearly being used to illustrate this information. Therefore, both

the man and the woman were evaluated individually for the analysis as follows:

The woman was probably between 30-44 years of age, female and presumed to

be of African-Austrian background. It was not verifiable whether the shop was

in a rural or an urban area (thus, “n.v.” in this category) and as she was

shopping, her engagement was considered to fall into her leisure time.

The man was probably between 15-29 years old, male, presumed to be of East

Asian background, also in a not verifiable surrounding and obviously working,

therefore “in engagement” (in a presumed white collar field of employment).

The next sequence with people appearing showed a group of children playing

on a playground. Again, the text made a reference to immigration by stating

that: “Children with no sufficient German language skills ought to be bound to

go to kindergarten for two years with no charge.” (German original: “Kinder

die nicht ausreichend Deutsch sprechen sollen zwei Jahre verpflichtend in den

Gratis-Kindergarten gehen.”).

  50  

The children were obviously younger than 15 years (hence “<15”), there were

boys and girls (consequently, male and female) and their background was not

verifiable nor was their surroundings. As they were attending kindergarten,

they were presumed to be in engagement (“i.e.”) and they appeared in a group.

The next sequence on the other hand was focusing on three women wearing

headscarves sitting on a park bench.

The age of these women was not verifiable, but they were clearly women

wearing headscarves. They were (subjectively) assumed to be of Turkish

background. Again, rural or urban milieu was not clear, but they were

obviously enjoying leisure time.

These examples were no representative cross-section of the content but ought

to give an insight to how the 45 reports were analysed and the way this analysis

resulted in 344 single sequences.

The results of the content analysis of 344 sequences identified in 45 reports

found that there is a disparity between the way migrants were presented on

ORF television news and what their actual status in society was. Although this

disparity varied according to the set category, the overall picture could

definitely not be considered to be representative. On the contrary, from certain

angles the content on migrants was blatantly stereotypical.

One of the most alarming findings was that 60.43% of content which showed

at least one migrant woman showed these women wearing headscarves,

whereas in reality less than 8% of woman with a migration background wore a

head scarf (Ulram/Tributsch 2013, 23). Additionally, television reports showed

almost no migrants living in rural areas, which came as a surprise, as official

data showed that 38% of people with a migration background lived in Austrian

municipalities with a population of less than 20,000 (Baldaszti et al. 2013, p.

78).

Due to the findings of this project, several steps were taken.

  51  

First of all, the outcome of this analysis was brought to attention of the ORF,

especially among journalists working for the television news.

Secondly, a new digital pool of pre-edited genre content on migrants was

created to make it easy and convenient for journalists to get access to more

representative content and at a faster rate when working on their news feed.

Thirdly, these findings led to the conclusion that the presentation of other

social groups needed to be analysed as well, in order to get an overall picture of

the way the various groups are actually presented on television.

For this encounter, the analysis structure used for this project was considered

to be generally applicable.

And fourthly, a re-evaluation and a re-structuring of accustomed practices

concerning the workflow at the “Zeit im Bild” (Time in Pictures) was considered

to be in order. Especially the content aggregation on social groups must

become particularly target-oriented in order to generate a more balanced and

representative content-pool of genre material.

The applications of this project’s findings are still in progress, but on various

levels – from media archivists, journalists and C-level executives – the

feedback has been extremely positive and the general opinion has been that

this project will continue to enhance the profile of the ORF as a public

broadcaster, that provides the community with fair and balanced information.

But how does this project live up to the internal responses when referenced

with Storsul’s and Krumsvik’s five aspects of change and both Burns’ “push”

versus “pull” and “mainstream” versus “edge” innovation categories?

This project resulted in innovations on three of the five levels of Storsul’s and

Krumsvik’s list. The new digital pool of pre-edited genre content on migrants

qualifies for the classification of “product innovation”, the newly developed

analysis structure used for creating internal awareness and to fill the new

  52  

content pool qualifies for “progress innovation” and the less stereotypical and

more representative picture of society changes people’s lives for the better: a

strategy aiming for less fear triggered by unrealistic stereotypes and more

awareness of a “new and diverse normal” qualifies for “social innovation”.

Moving on from Storsul’s and Krumsvik’s list to Burns’ question of whether

an innovation falls under the category “innovation pull” or “innovation push”

(compare 2.1.) the project on picturing migrants in the news qualifies for

“innovation push”, as it was an assignment, where a new media model was

trialled and found to be workable and valuable.

Finally, the question of whether the project originated from the edges of the

media system or its mainstream (compare 2.1.) is best answered with: both.

The project’s content and its primary target group belong to the news program

and therefore the mainstream, the project management belongs to the media

archive and consequently the edge of the media system.

4.2. From BIRTH to EUscreenXL

The second archive innovation project to be presented is external to the ORF

in its origin and international concerning its participants. This project is known

as EUscreenXL.

EUscreenXL is an online portal and a unique showcase of Europe’s television

heritage. Simply put, the portal offers free online access to tens of thousands of

audio-visual items. It brings together content that ought to provide an “…

insight into the social, cultural, political and economic events that have shaped

the 20th and 21st centuries” (EUscreen 2015).

EUscreenXL has been funded by the European Commission and was built by a

consortium of European audio-visual archives, public broadcasters, academic

and technical partners (European Commission 2015).

  53  

“The main objective of the project is to aggregate a comprehensive amount of professional audio-visual content. A large number of clips and programmes have been selected by broadcasters and archives from all across Europe. The aim is to engage people with audio-visual heritage content and facilitate the use of videos, photos, audio and images.” (EUscreen 2015).

However, EUscreenXL is not a stand-alone project but rather is the result of a

series of projects that have continuously built upon existing assets and

experiences of the ones before.

Chronologically, this project series began on January 1st in 2003. I was then that

a three-year project called “BIRTH” was launched. BIRTH is an acronym,

standing for “Building of an Interactive Research and Delivery Network for

Television Heritage” (Hecht 2004, p. 16).

This project’s primary aim was to give the public online “... access to audio-

visual and textual material on the early days of European television”. (Hecht

2004, p. 16).

Five major European television archives consisting of the British Broadcasting

Corporation (BBC), Nederlandse Instituut voor Beeld and Geluid,

Oesterreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), Radio Télévision Belgique Française

(RTBF) and Suedwestrundfunk (SWR) together with the technical partners

Joanneum Research and Noterik Multimedia were involved in the project

(BIRTH 2009).

In reflection, the quantity of content that was finally available at BIRTH was

small: 630 audio-visual items, 370 images, 110 television guides and schedules

as well as over 80 articles (BIRTH 2009).

However, the remarkable aspect of this project was not in the amount of

content available, but in the successful realisation of the original idea.

It is important to note that streaming portals which are currently widely

popular were only launched a few years after this project’s origin. Youtube, for

  54  

example, was launched in May 2005 (Youtube 2015), and Netflix began

streaming content (as opposed to postal distribution) in 2007 (Netflix 2015).

Johan Oomen, who acted as project manager on BIRTH and worked for the

“Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision” at the time of BIRTH’s creation,

summarised the pioneering element of the project by arguing that it

“… is an innovative web portal providing uniform access to digitised audio-visual material. Major European broadcast archives and specialised ICT companies joined hands to set up the basic infrastructure. Distributed content from various sources can be accessed from one central access point.” (Oomen 2005)

At the end of the project in 2005, not only did BIRTH bring valuable historic

content to the public, the “… initial partners managed to set up a rigid

workflow for selecting, cataloguing, uploading and ordering the digitised

assets” (Oomen 2005).

During this time, various media production companies had started – or were

about to start – to transform their tape-based production chain into a fully

digitised processes (Brodie-Kusa 2015). Such an innovation project that could

provide a proven workflow for content providers to transfer material onto a

digital web-portal in an easy, effective and aligned manner, both for the archive

partners and the portal managers, must have been considered to be of great

added value (Oomen 2005).

Referring back to chapter 2.1. (Media Innovation) and the parameters by which

this thesis analyses innovation projects, BIRTH fulfils several of these

innovation defining factors:

Concerning the five different aspects defining innovation by Storsuls and

Krumsviks, BIRTH definitely qualifies for the category “product innovation”

as a new product/service was offered. Additionally, “process innovation”

applies here, as BIRTH changed how digital content was delivered. BIRTH

also very evidently offered a new position of the content/company’s brand on

  55  

a previously non-existing platform, qualifying the project for “position

innovation”.  Furthermore, it did have a social impact, as it granted the public

free access to pieces of cultural heritage which were previously not accessible

online. Therefore, BIRTH also provided social innovation and therefore

qualifies for four out of five parameters of the innovation scale (compare 2.1.).

From the second perspective – whether this innovation falls under the category

“innovation pull” or “innovation push” (compare 2.1.) – BIRTH most

definitely qualifies for the latter, as it was a new media model that was trialled

and found to be workable and valuable.

Thirdly, considering the project partners and their position in the media

market, it is safe to say that the project originated from the edges of the

mainstream media system (compare 2.1.).

After BIRTH came to an end, a follow-up project was launched: Video Active,

again a three-year project (2006-2009) funded under the eContentplus

programme of the European Commission (de Leeuw 2007).

Video Active’s approach was to digitise a lot more content from even more

contributing archives. Additionally, it ought to concentrate not on one, but on

several topics (de Leeuw 2007).

“The aim of the content enrichment action [for Video Active] is to enrich digital cultural, scientific, scholarly content with semantically well-defined metadata, through the application of appropriate tools, with a view to enabling quality content-based services.” (de Leeuw 2007)

The attempt to welcome new partners and to offer an even richer collection of

television heritage on its portal succeeded. At the end of August 2009, Video

Active was finished and had been reviewed on September 24 of the same year.

On its webpage, the projects results are presented as follows:

  56  

“The portal contains over 10,000 items: videos, photographs and articles. The history of European television can be discovered through multiple themes. Each of these themes has its own showcase, highlighting parts of the collection with additional context information. Various search modes can be applied. The portal will continue to be online.” (Video Active 2009)

Again, the project provided the partners with considerable added value. Among

others: a new workflow towards a of state-of-the-art standardisation of

semantic metadata, an essential database for television research and intensive

collaborations between institutions (Video Active 2009).

Due to Video Active functioning as a follow-up project, its innovative aspects,

according to Storsuls and Krumsviks’ measurements, were much more limited

than BIRTH.

This shortfall changed with the third succeeding project: EUscreen.

“EUscreen is one of a number of projects which offer free audio-visual content to Internet users. This project brings together 20 European television archives to create a searchable database of over 40,000 items to provide the user with a unique and engaging journey through both the history of European television and the history of Europe itself.” (Barber 2012, p. 34)

However, EUscreen was not only planned out to be bigger on every level than

the previous projects: additionally, this project’s aim was to contextualise the

content for users. Not only by providing detailed metadata, which accompanies

every item to make the collection accessible and usable, but by offering virtual

exhibitions (subsequently referred to as VE), curated “… by those who know

the material the best – the archivists themselves” (Barber 2012, p. 34).

A series of VEs ought to draw attention to key material and to provide further

detail and context (Barber 2012, p. 37).

EUscreen’s VEs can be understood as online presentations in which the

curators provide a textual analysis of the displayed material, thereby

  57  

communicating a specific framework of understanding to the viewer (De Need

2012, pp. 5-6).

“The Virtual Exhibition satisfies the user’s desire for contextualisation in a way that is supported by the requirements of the heritage institutions, but the (un-) availability of heritage material guides the creation of the exposition.” (De Need 2012, p. 28)

The innovative idea of curating online exhibitions was realised and even

qualified to be shortlisted in the category “Most Innovative Use of Archive”

for the 2013 “FIAT/IFTA Archive Achievement Awards” (FIAT/IFTA 2013).

Still, the innovative aspect was not only a new way of presenting content, there

was also a tool designed to allow this presentations to be accessible to the

public.

“Designing the VE tools has included various activities. Virtual Exhibition builder prototypes have been developed and tested incrementally in order to reflect the needs of the different users and to improve the ease of use. The tools designed for these exhibitions allow for the insertion of multimedia materials from all the project’s content providers. The clips link back to the original items on the site, where users can find out more about them, share the links or get in touch with the providers themselves. 23 exhibitions with multiple strands have been produced in 2012.” (EUscreen Blog 2013)

Again, returning to the five different innovation defining aspects by Storsuls

and Krumsvik, EUscreen’s VEs and the Exhibition Builder Tool qualify for

“product innovation” (new product/service) and “process innovation” (new

way of distribution/consumption). As the VE is included in the EUscreen

platform, it does not qualify as “position innovation”. Neither were core values

changed (no “paradigmatic innovation”) nor people’s lives; although a

passionate media archivist might challenge this last point of view.

Concerning the question of “push” or “pull”, both Builder-Tool and Virtual

Exhibition represent classic “pull” mechanisms.

  58  

Thirdly, regarding the project parties involved in this part of the project, both

the tool and the content originated from the edges of the mainstream media

system (compare 2.1.).

So far, EUscreenXL has been the latest continuation of the project series and is

still in progress. According to plan, EUscreenXL comes to an end in spring

2016.

EUScreenXL is the follow-up project of EUscreen and again, its main

objective is to aggregate a comprehensive body of professional audio-visual

content and to make it accessible to the public. This time, however, the agreed

upon amount of contextualised items was enlarged by 1,125.000 metadata

records, giving access to digital content held by European providers (see Digital

Appendix #5).

One additional example for innovation happening via EUscreenXL is the

recent participation of EUscreenXL project members at the E-Space Hacking

Culture Bootcamp.

The event challenged app- and game-developers, interactive designers and

storytellers to think of new multi-screen experiences with a focus on digitised

historical footage. Contestants had the chance to experiment with smart

audio/video formats and create inspiring applications that offer new TV

experiences, using EuscreenXL content and content from related European

projects (Digitalmeetsculture 2015).

EUscreenXL sent its own team, consisting of two developers, two designers

and content-experts. They decided to connect the multi-screen dimension to

the work developed for the publication tool for Euscreen.eu. The result was

“The Carrot”: a tool to collaboratively view, discuss, comment on, and tag

videos related to a specific topic and subsequently to extract clips and produce

video posters as a final assignment. “The Carrot” integrates multiscreen

elements using content from the EUscreen portal (Osswald 2015).

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Of Storsuls and Krumsvik’s five possible innovation dimensions EUscreenXL

resembles the analysis of EUscreen. The same is true for its pull characteristic

and its origin from the edges of the mainstream media.

4.3. Do AIE Qualifications Apply to the Case Studies?

This chapter is going to compare responsibilities, specifications and

competencies listed in the job description of BBC’s Archive Innovation

Executive (compare 3.4.) with the set of skills executed during both innovation

projects described in the previous subchapters (compare 4.1. and 4.2.).

Individual skills will be categorised according to one of four categories

(“Essential”, “Desirable”, “Of lesser importance”, “Obsolete”) in regard to the

relating innovation project. Emphasis will lie upon the skills that are

considered “essential” and “desirable” for each case. Every value of the AIE

job description included in the following comparison is marked with a Roman

numeral according to its appearance in the original document (I. - XXXVI.,

compare 3.4.).

Regarding this comparison, it must be emphasised that the evaluation

was performed based on a subjective perception by the author.

4.3.1. AIE Qualifications Executed at ORF’s Internal Archive Innovation

Project “New Pictures”

4.3.1.1. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Essential for the Archive

Innovation Project “New Pictures”

The power to demonstrate initiative in developing and improving services

(XXVI) is figuratively the foundation of the project “New Pictures”, as it

required initiative to address non-representative broadcast content as a

potential problem and to suggest an innovation project as a possible solution.

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The ability to manage the workload that comes with the project for an

extended period of time without direct supervision (XIV) was another key

factor. This was due to the fact that the project’s creator was the sole

responsible manager of “New Pictures”. To be able to cope with the

challenges of project management, experience in that line of work (XXVII)

was also of the utmost importance. Knowledge of project management (e.g.

how to perform a “Stakeholder Analysis” <Bryson 2004> or a “Work

Breakdown Structure” <Taylor 2006>) ensured a more efficient course for the

project and made the separate steps comprehensible, repeatable and therefore

more sustainable. The same was true for the ability to plan and organise

efficiently (XXX). Also, to work with “Archive Service Managers” and

“Archive Resource Managers” as well as to cooperate with content producing

areas was necessary to maximise access to digital and analogue assets (VII).

Finally, both the understanding of the ORF production processes (XXII) and

editorial judgement (XXXV) were essential, as the project’s success relied

primarily on the acceptance and usage of the new content provided. Therefore,

that content had to be of high broadcast quality (on various editorial levels).

4.3.1.2. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Desirable for the Archive

Innovation Project “New Pictures”

To begin with, it was desirable that any innovative media management solution

was in alignment with the strategic aims of the ORF, especially as the project’s

content was highly sensitive, as it dealt with the representation of a

demographic group (II). Extensive experience of working in TV production

and archives would have helped manage the multi-level-challenges of a project

like “New Pictures” (IX). The same applied to the ability to communicate,

negotiate and successfully manage relationships within an archive or

production environment, especially as both departments needed to cooperate,

for the transition from innovation to ‘business as usual’ to succeed (X, XXXI,

XXXII).

Another important success factor of the project was the professional handling

  61  

of the information and the knowledge of its aims (XI). Along with this aspect

came the desired ability to embrace change and to continue to drive and

manage change both within the project’s own team and the content production

area. Change often triggers negative reactions (Vielhaber 2006, 4), therefore it

was important to have a basic understanding of change management (XV)

when trying to implement the new approach.

The ability to collaborate across boundaries (e.g. to connect people, ideas,

processes and/or issues) was as vital, so as to manage the newly created

relationships within the project (XXVIII, XXIX). Part of this “relationship

management” certainly lay in the responsibility and ability to develop others in

the workforce and also to foster others to take charge of new workflows and

project management (XXXVI).

Finally, with extensive knowledge of production systems and workflows (XIX),

archival processes and approaches (XX) and digital production and post-

production systems (XXV), it became easier to implement the new workflow

into a daily work routine.

4.3.1.3. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were of Lesser Importance for

the Archive Innovation Project “New Pictures”

To name just a few of the skills of the AIE’s job description that were of lesser

importance to the project: knowledge of the services provided by the

Multimedia Archive of the ORF turned out to be of minor significance.

Although, this aspect was certainly not obsolete. Due to the continuous

interaction with multiple stakeholders, opportunities for promoting the

services provided by the archive were omnipresent (XXI).

To ensure that archive policies and standards remained in line with current

business requirements (V) is another example of a skill that was of lesser

importance to the project. One may of course argue that the higher the quality of

  62  

the broadcast content the easier the options to monetise this material, but this

angle was certainly not a key consideration of this particular project.

4.3.1.4. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Obsolete for the Archive

Innovation Project “New Pictures”

A few skills of the AIE’s job description are considered obsolete for “New

Pictures”, however this does not mean that they are believed to be entirely

unnecessary for this line of work. One such example could be the ability to

evaluate whether or not archive technology is appropriate to meet business

needs, as this skill was certainly not relevant to this project (I). The same was

true for the knowledge of compliance requirements (XVI), the understanding

of overall ORF business needs and impacts on business processes (XVIII) or

the knowledge of ORF programme output (XXIII), as these skills had no

significance to the project or its management.  

Summarising the comparison of responsibilities, specifications and

competencies of AIE’s job description with the set of skills executed during

“New Pictures”, it has to be emphasised that more than half of the BBC’s skill

set was considered to be either “essential” or “desired”.

This outcome places this project’s management in – or at least very close to –

the area of responsibility of an Archive Innovation Executives at the BBC.

4.3.2. AIE Qualifications Executed at ORF’s External Archive Innovation

Project “EUscreenXL”

4.3.2.1. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Essential for the Archive

Innovation Project “EUscreenXL”

In contrast to the project “New Pictures”, the qualification to evaluate new

archive technology is not believed to be obsolete for “EuscreenXL” at all, but

of the utmost importance. This proves true due to the requirement for the

  63  

externally programmed IT-solutions for the projects platform to be evaluated

according to the ORF’s security and workability standards (I).

Correspondingly, to ensure that archive policies and standards have remained

in alignment with current business requirements (V) has been of great

significance to this project from ORF’s perspective. Also, as various interest

groups collide in the project (e.g. academics versus media content providers),

the ORF’s project manager needs to ensure that ORF policies and standards

are upheld. The same applies to the engagement with relevant technology, FM

and R&D projects, namely to ensure alignment with ORF’s archive objectives

(VI) and the ability to analyse, interpret and design policies and standards

(XVII) that might get in conflict with the project’s agenda.

Also, the knowledge of compliance requirements has played an essential role

during the project’s management (XVI). According to ORF’s regulation any

invitation (e.g. coffee, lunch, dinner) needs to be approved first.

The understanding of archival processes and approaches and ORF’s reuse of

content (XX) has been an additional key-factor, as it has limited the

opportunities of engagement within the project (e.g. some items may exist only

on formats that are too complex and expensive to offer for the project).

Communication and the ability to get one’s message understood clearly by

adopting a range of styles, tools and techniques appropriate to the audience and

the nature of the information (XXXII) has been one of the most important skills

in this line of project management. The EUscreenXL project consists of 31

organisations from 22 European countries (EUscreen 2015) which means that

an enormous amount of different media- and work-cultures overlap and

sometimes collide. Thus, any communicative talent is of value.

This leads to the need of extensive experience in influencing and negotiating

and the ability to successfully manage relationships (X), but also to manage

personal effectiveness by dealing with emotions in the face of pressure, setbacks

or when coping with provocative situations (XXXIII).

  64  

Of equal importance for “New Pictures” is the ability to manage one’s own

workload for an extended period of time without direct supervision (XIV).

4.3.2.2. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Desirable for the Archive

Innovation Project “EUscreenXL”

Planning and organising efficiently (XXX) is certainly desirable when managing a

project like EUscreenXL. After all, among others factors, deadlines, staffing and

resources need to be managed continuously.

To implement and develop effective and innovative media management

solutions and ensure these align with the strategic aims of the ORF and the

ever changing technology environment, has definitely been another required

component for the management of EUscreenXL (II). This has been true for

almost every single aspect of the project’s management. The more effective the

solution to the various challenges, the more efficient the handling of the

overall workload. Extensive experience of working in media (IX) and therefore

knowing the relevant technological practices and relevant regulations (XXIV)

has helped also to prioritise and communicate effectively. Working efficiently

has also played a role, especially when having to meet deadlines (e.g. content

providing, reporting etc. <XII>).

Social skills also rank highly among management specifications and

competences. This includes managing relationships, including being able to build

and maintain effective working relationships with a broad range of people from

different cultural backgrounds (XXIX).

Being capable of challenging systems, processes and people that block

collaboration has also been a useful ability, particularly when collaborating with a

group this diverse and inhomogeneous (XXVIII). For that task, extensive

experience of working in media may prepare the manager for any obstacles

along the project’s management. This is also true for expert knowledge on

  65  

business needs (XVIII) and project management experience (XXVII).

4.3.2.3. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were of Lesser Importance for

the Archive Innovation Project “EUscreenXL”

A project manager working on EUscreenXL rarely crosses paths with other

“Archive Service Managers” or “Archive Resource Managers”, as the tasks at

hand are solely managed by one person only. Therefore, this aspect is an

example of a skill of lesser importance (III).

The same applies to working with content producing areas (VII) or developing

others (XXXVI).

4.3.2.4. Skills of the AIE’s Job Description that were Obsolete for the Archive

Innovation Project “EUscreenXL”

Some aspects of the AIE’s job description are assumed to be basically obsolete

for managing a project like EUscreenXL. Editorial judgement (XXXV), for

example. As the target group for EUscreenXL expects content that is

differently curated to journalistic content, this competency is considered

unnecessary. The same applies to the knowledge of post-production systems,

as the projects front-end and back-end software differs considerably from

ORF’s in-house system (XXV). Other aspects, that are believed to be obsolete

for EUscreenXL, are the knowledge of ORF commissioning, scheduling and

production processes (XXII) and the knowledge of ORF programme output

(XXIII) as both aspects do not tend to overlap with the EUscreenXL agenda.

Reviewing the comparison of the qualifications of the AIE’s job description

with the set of skills executed for EUscreenXL, 19 out of 36 are considered to

be either “essential” or “desired”.

It’s also important to note that another 20 competences and specifications

from “New Pictures” were categorised “essential” or “desired”.

  66  

Combining the two case studies presented in this paper, more than 85% of the

AIE’s demands were put into either – or both – of the two top looked-for

categories.

A result that places the two projects described definitely in the sphere of

responsibilities of Archive Innovation Executives at the BBC.

  67  

5. Research Design and Methodology

5.1. Potential Respondents - The Global Net of Media Archivists6

At this point of the paper, research has shown that the changes in media

require a change of approach towards archive (innovation/asset) management.

Nevertheless, literature review and multi-level investigations in the

international media archive community have brought up no other existing

Archive Innovation Management (AIM) positions, except BBC’s AIE. As

stated before, that is why AIE’s job description serves as a “Good Enough

Practice” for this paper (compare 3.4.). In what follows, this practice ought to

be improved into an academically legitimate canon of qualifications that is

based on the evaluation of international experts.

As postulated before, there are multiple experts that have been working within

in AIM for years (e.g. the various content providers for the international online

video platform EUscreenXL). However, almost all of them have performed

without either a specific description or a clearly defined position in their media

company. Nonetheless, these are the specialists who have the expertise to

evaluate the competence and specification relevant to their field of work. To

approach as many of these experts as possible, three major international media

archive communities were contacted: the Association of Media-Information

and Media-Documentation (Verein fuer Medieninformation und

Mediendokumentation, subsequently referred to by its official acronym in lower-

case letters: vfm) that is primarily active in German speaking countries, all the

content providers from 22 European countries that are participating at the

media archive project EUscreenXL, and the Media Management Commission

of The Fédération Internationale des Archives de Télévision / The

International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA), a group that

operates worldwide.

                                                                                                                         6 For a more detailed presentation of the communities, see Digital Appendix #6.

 

  68  

5.2. The Survey and its Analytical Matrix

The survey on Archive Innovation Management competences and

characteristics was built and administered using the online survey

software, Surveymonkey.com (see either Appendix or Digital Appendices

#8 and #9).

According to methodical literature (Chang et al., 2011), the quantitative

data was collected via a questionnaire containing three demographic

questions, four career/expertise related questions and three matrix

sections including another 28 multiple-choice question, in that order.

Each of these 28 questions was concerned with one specific skill or

characteristic identified as potentially relevant for an archive innovation

management position.

This category of competences was further divided into three, as follows:

(1) Characteristics

(2) Knowledge or Experience

(3) Trained or Trainable Skill

One should be aware that some of the 28 qualifications may also fit into

a second or even into all three clusters. Still, to raise focus on the job

profile’s meta-competences (namely character, experience and training),

these three clusters were considered to be adequate.

For the three matrix sections, matrix (grid) questions were used in order

to get respondents to apply the same measurement when answering

several related questions. The matrix questions were set to collect only

one answer per row. Also, the matrix questions were converted into a

rating scale in order to clearly assign weights to respondents' answers.

The rating scale offered the following choices: “essential”, “desired”, “of

lesser importance” and “obsolete”.

  69  

To allow these questionnaires to flow well, the survey began with general

demographic and work related questions. The more specific questions

and harder issues followed in the survey’s main part.

The socio-demographic questions included “gender”, “age group” and

“country of residence”.

Gender and country of residence were designed as open-ended

questions, whereas the age group was categorised in standardised clusters

(18-29, 30-44, 45-59, 60+). The age variables were predetermined by the

applied software.

Questions aiming at participants’ career/expertise were “current job

level”, “years of experience in media” and “current level of experience in

archive innovation/project management”. To allow respondents to add

alternative job levels, an open cell was added to the multiple-choice list

(Entry Level, Intermediate, Middle Management, Senior Management,

Executive/C-Level/Owner).

The 36 qualifications listed in the BBC’s document (compare 3.4.) were

reduced to 28. The eight skills that were cut from the original text were

removed due to repetition. For example, point one of the BBC’s

essentials catalogue asks for “Extensive experience of working in TV or

Radio production, archives, records or information management, or a

related higher education qualification”. This point is profoundly covered

by the questions of the “Knowledge or Experience” section. An

additional summarising question was not considered to be necessary

because no additional information was expected.

One additional question could be found on position eight in the “Trained

or Trainable Skill” section that was not part of the original document:

“Multi-Linguality – as being fluent in (at least) one second language.”

  70  

This question was also the only one that differed from a literal translation

in the German version of the questionnaire. In the German version the

question was:

“Fremdsprachen - kompetente Sprachverwendung des Englischen (C1, C2) und zumindest Grundkenntnisse in einer weiteren Fremdsprache” (literally translated: “Foreign languages – competent language use of the English language (C1, C2 level) and at least rudimentary knowledge of another language”).

This variation is due to the assumed importance of the English language

in media innovation management (e.g. The Journal of Media Innovation

and other peer-reviewed journals are solely written in English, the

working language of most international media (innovation) projects is

English, etc.).

English native-speakers, however, were asked about their opinion

regarding the importance of speaking a second language for archive

innovation management.

Each selected skill or characteristic was introduced by one collective term

or phrase. This approach offered each respondent the opportunity to

decide whether or not further information was needed to fully

understand the question.

For example, in the BBC’s original document, the sixth specification

listed – “Ability to manage own workload for extended periods without

direct supervision” – was introduced by the key word: “Autonomous”.

“Experience of working under pressure to tight deadlines and an ability

to think creatively in the face of adversity” was headed by the phrase:

“Coping under pressure.”

To guarantee an unbiased ranking of all the points in the three meta-

sections, the arranging of the questions was done alphabetically,

  71  

determined by the collective term or phrase at the beginning of the

question.

There were various possibilities in collecting data in a quantitative

research project. For this paper the method used was a non-probability

sample. In contrast to a probability sampling, non-probability sampling

does not use a random selection of respondents who are representative

for a certain social group.

Potential respondents were approached in three different media archive

communities (compare 5.1.). That was carried out via three different

channels appropriate to each corresponding group.

(1) EUscreenXL project managers communicate primarily via the

web-based project-management tool “Basecamp”. Therefore, this

channel was considered most convenient to reach this specific

community.

(2) Many German speaking media archivists get updates via the

vfm-newsletter (Verein fuer Medieninformation und

Mediendokumentation / Association of Mediainformation and

Media-Documentation). Therefore, this medium was chosen for

this specific group.

(3) The e-mailing list of FIAT/IFTA’s (The Fédération

Internationale des Archives de Télévision / The International

Federation of Television Archives) Media Management

Commission (MMC) was the third organ to get in contact with

possible respondents of this community.

The heading of the correspondence on all three channels was the same:

“Have a say in media archives’ newest job description!”

Following this, the researcher introduced himself and informed the

  72  

communities about his research and the corresponding importance of the

survey.

The next step was to address the target group by asking for participants

who have “… worked with audio-visual content at a media

archive and [were] - or [have] been - in a project management position”

(see Digital Appendix #7).

The invitation for participation came to an end by asking to distribute the

information among colleagues of equal competences.

Finally a link was implemented that led directly to the online survey.

  73  

6. Findings and Discussion

6.1. Findings

This subchapter is split into sections presenting data only. An analysis of

this data will follow in the chapter “Discussion” (6.2.).

The data presented is taken from the questionnaire that was used as an

investigative tool to gain information on experts’ evaluations about AIM

competences and specifications.

The resulting data will be presented within the text and in tables. Some

of these tables include the response count and the response percent.

When both the English and the German version of the survey were

closed, there were 33 responses to the English version and 188 responses

to the German version. The answers to the three demographic questions

at the beginning of the questionnaire presented a somewhat balanced

gender ratio (46.34% female, 53.66% male), a strong majority of the

respondents being middle-aged (4.6% 18-29, 40.1% 30-44, 47.7% 45-59,

7.6% 60+) and 17 different countries of residence. The vast majority

(159) gave Germany as their country of residence. Austria follows far

behind with 14 respondents in second place. The third-highest response

rate came from participants from the Netherlands (8). The rest of the

countries share responses in the single digits, only four of which were

not part of the European Union (Japan, Switzerland, The USA and

Russia).

Regarding the career/expertise related questions, the output was as

follows: concerning current job level, one third of the respondents hold

either a senior management position (23%) or a C-level, executive or

owner position (10%). 22% stated a middle management and 37.2% an

intermediate position. Only 7.8% are currently on entry level.

Concerning the years of experience in media, a majority of the

respondents have worked in this field for more than 15 years (0-5 5.6%,

5-10 17.2%, 10-15 18.8%, >15 58.4%). Self-assessing their level of

  74  

experience in Archive Innovation/Project Management, the feedback

was balanced (slightly experienced – 20.8%, moderately experienced –

24.9%, quite experienced – 28.4%, extremely experienced – 20.3%) apart

from the group that considered themselves as not experienced at all,

which formed a minority of only 5.6%.

For the analysis of the matrix questions, a weighted average was

calculated based on the weight assigned to each answer on the rating

scale (Surveymonkey 2015). The rating average is calculated by using the

following mathematical formula:

w = the weight of answer choice

x = the response count for answer choice

x1w1 + x2w2 + x3w3 ... xnwn

------------------------------------

Total

The analysis of the data was supported by the software provider

Surveymonkey.com. A special filter software allows one to break down

survey results and to focus on specific subsets of data. Filtering may be

done by question and answer to view respondents who answered a

question a certain way, or filter by completeness to view only complete

responses.

Therefore, two additional data groups were created, namely decision

makers in the field of media archive innovation/project management

holding currently a position in senior level management or above. This

filter was applied for both language groups.

  75  

6.1.1. The Distribution of the Weighted Average Ratings Referring to all AIM

Qualifications by Respondents Using the English Questionnaire

Each evaluated AIM qualification will be listed – decreasing from the top rated

value – by its collective term or phrase (abbreviated when suitable)7.

Rank-ing

Qualification Weighted Average

Rank-ing

Qualification Weighted Average

1. Communication 1.10 15. Autonomous 1.65 2. Archival

Workflows & Reuse of Content

1.29 16. Influencing & Persuading

1.65

3. Awareness of New Ideas, Trends & Innovative Developments

1.33 17. Knowledge of Company’s Programme Output

1.74

4. Managing Relationships

1.39 18. Change Management Processes

1.74

5. Planning & Organising

1.39 19. Company’s Aims, Objectives & Relevant Regulations

1.83

6. Collaboration Across Boundaries

1.42 20. Coping Under Pressure

1.83

7. Archive Policies & Standards

1.42 21. Broadcasting Technology Practices

1.87

8. Internal Cooperation

1.42 22. Developing Others 1.90

9. Archive Service Competence

1.52 23. Apply Relevant Technology-, Format & R&D Projects

1.90

10. Multiplying Access to Assets

1.52 24. Knowledge of Digital Production Systems

1.94

11. Flexibility 1.55 25. Multi-Linguality 2.0 12. Evaluate Archive

Technology 1.55 26. Apply Project

Management Approaches

2.06

13. Implement & Develop Innovative Media Management Solutions

1.63 27. Editorial Judgment 2.1

14. Information Management Skills

1.63 28. Theoretical Understanding of Media Economics

2.3

                                                                                                                         7 For the additional explanatory text of each skill, see Appendix or Digital Appendix #8.

  76  

6.1.2. The Distribution of the Weighted Average Ratings Referring to all AIM

Qualifications by Respondents Using the German8 Questionnaire

Each evaluated AIM qualification will be listed – decreasing from the top rated

value – by its collective term or phrase (abbreviated when suitable)9.

Rank-ing

Qualification Weighted Average

Rank-ing

Qualification Weighted Average

1. Communication 1.21 15. Managing

Relationships 1.65

2. Collaboration Across Boundaries

1.27 16. Awareness of New Ideas, Trends & Innovative Developments

1.66

3. Planning & Organising

1.31 17. Change Management Processes

1.66

4. Autonomous 1.35 18. Company’s Aims, Objectives & Relevant Regulations

1.78

5. Archival Workflows & Reuse of Content

1.40 19. Editorial Judgment 1.80

6. Archive Service Competence

1.41 20. Information Management Skills

1.86

7. Multiplying Access to Assets

1.48 21. Apply Project Management Approaches

1.93

8. Flexibility 1.50 22. Developing Others 1.95 9. Archive Policies &

Standards 1.56 23. Knowledge of

Company’s Programme Output

1.95

10. Internal Cooperation

1.56 24. Broadcasting Technology Practices

2.01

11. Evaluate Archive Technology

1.61 25. Apply Relevant Technology-, Format & R&D Projects

2.08

12. Influencing & Persuading

1.61 26. Proficient Use of the English Language

2.08

13. Knowledge of Digital Production Systems

1.63 27. Implement & Develop Innovative Media Management Solutions

2.11

14. Coping Under Pressure

1.64 28. Theoretical Understanding of Media Economics

2.25

                                                                                                                         8 For continuity and better understanding, the English translation is used for this table. The German original version can be found in the Digital Appendix (#9). 9 For the additional explanatory text of each qualification, see Digital Appendix #9.

  77  

6.1.3 Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Top 5 AIM Qualifications by the Respondents Using the English Questionnaire

                                                                     

Commu-nication

Archival

Workflows & Reuse of

Content

New Ideas &

Innovative Developments

Managing Relation-

ships

Planning & Organising

Weighted Average 1.1 1.29 1.33 1.39 1.39

Essential 28 22 20 20 19

Desirable 3 9 10 10 12

Of Lesser Importance 0 0 1 1 0

Obsolete 0 0 0 0 0

0  

5  

10  

15  

20  

25  

30  

Essential  

Desired  

Of  Lesser  Importance    

Obsolete  

Rating Scale

Top 5:

Num

ber

of R

espo

nden

ts

  78  

6.1.4 Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Top 5 AIM Qualifications by the Respondents Using the German Questionnaire

Commu-nication

Coopera-

tion

Planning & Organising

Autono-

mous

Archival Workflows & Reuse of Content

Weighted Average 1.21 1.27 1.31 1.35 1.40

Essential 122 114 109 106 90

Desirable 32 39 39 46 45

Of Lesser Importance 0 4 4 3 6

Obsolete 0 0 0 1 0

0  

20  

40  

60  

80  

100  

120  

140  

Essential  

Desired  

Of  Lesser  Importance      

Obsolete  

Rating Scale

Top 5:

Num

ber

of R

espo

nden

ts

  79  

6.1.5 Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Low 5 AIM Qualifications by the Respondents Using the English Questionnaire

                                                                 

   

Knowl. of

Digital Prod. Systems

Multi-

Linguality

Project

Management

Editorial Judgment

Media

Economics

Weighted Average 2.01 2.08 2.08 2.11 2.25

Essential 33 29 25 31 16

Desirable 68 66 76 59 72

Of Lesser Importance 32 36 30 42 43

Obsolete 1 2 3 2 3

0  

2  

4  

6  

8  

10  

12  

14  

16  

18  

Essential  

Desired  

Of  Lesser  Importance    

Obsolete  

Rating Scale

Low 5:

Num

ber

of R

espo

nden

ts

  80  

6.1.6. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Low 5 AIM Qualifications by the Respondents Using the German Questionnaire

                   

Broadcasting Technology

Practices

Applying Tech.-,

Format & R&D

Projects

Proficient Use of the

English Lang.

Media

Management

Media

Economics

Weighted Average 2.01 2.08 2.08 2.11 2.25

Essential 33 29 25 31 16

Desirable 68 66 76 59 72

Of Lesser Importance 32 36 30 42 43

Obsolete 1 2 3 2 3

0  

10  

20  

30  

40  

50  

60  

70  

80  

Essential  

Desired  

Of  Lesser  Importance    

Obsolete  

Rating Scale

Low 5:

Num

ber

of R

espo

nden

ts

  81  

6.1.7. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Top 710 AIM Qualifications by Senior Management & Above Respondents Using the English

Questionnaire

                                                                   

 

                                                                                                                         10 ”Top 7” instead of “Top 5” due to four ex aequo results.

Commu-nication

Evaluating

Archive Tech.

New Ideas

& Innovative Developments

Archival Workflows, Archive Service, Cooperation &

Multiplying Access 10 Weighted Average 1.0 1.1 1.11 1.2

Essential 10 9 8 8

Desirable 0 1 1 2

Of Lesser Importance 0 0 0 0

Obsolete 0 0 0 0

0  

2  

4  

6  

8  

10  

12  

Essential  

Desired  

Of  Lesser  Importance    

Obsolete  

Rating Scale

Top 5:

Num

ber

of R

espo

nden

ts

  82  

6.1.8. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Top 5 AIM Qualifications by Senior Management & Above Respondents Using the German

Questionnaire                                                                      

Commu-nication

Coopera-

tion

Planning & Organising

Archival

Workflows & Reuse of Content

Multiplying

Access to Assets

Weighted Average 1.13 1.21 1.21 1.31 1.33

Essential 41 37 38 33 31

Desirable 6 10 8 10 13

Of Lesser Importance 0 0 1 2 1

Obsolete 0 0 0 0 0

0  

5  

10  

15  

20  

25  

30  

35  

40  

45  

Essential  

Desired  

Of  Lesser  Importance    

Obsolete  

Rating Scale

Top 5:

Num

ber

of R

espo

nden

ts

  83  

6.1.9. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Low 5 AIM Qualifications by Senior Management & Above Respondents Using the English

Questionnaire                                                                      

 

Coping Under

Pressure

Developing

Others

Editorial Judgment

Broadcasting Technology

Practices

Media

Economics

Weighted Average 1.78 1.80 1.90 2.0 2.10

Essential 3 3 3 2 1

Desirable 5 6 5 5 7

Of Lesser Importance 1 1 2 2 2

Obsolete 0 0 0 0 0

0  

1  

2  

3  

4  

5  

6  

7  

8  

Essential  

Desired  

Of  Lesser  Importance          

Obsolete  

Rating Scale

Low 5:

Num

ber

of R

espo

nden

ts

  84  

6.1.10. Distribution of the Ratings Referring to the Low 5 AIM Qualifications by Senior Management & Above Respondents Using the German

Questionnaire

                     

Media

Management

Applying Tech.-,

Format & R&D

Projects

Broadcasting Technology

Practices

Media

Economics

Proficient Use of the

English Lang.

Weighted Average 1.93 1.98 1.98 2.00 2.07

Essential 13 14 11 9 8

Desirable 22 18 23 27 25

Of Lesser Importance 8 11 10 7 11

Obsolete 1 1 0 1 0

0  

5  

10  

15  

20  

25  

30  

Essential  

Desired  

Of  Lesser  Importance        

Obsolete  

Rating Scale

Low 5:

Num

ber

of R

espo

nden

ts

  85  

6.2. Discussion

The focus of this chapter is the analysis and discussion of selected data

presented in the findings section (6.1.). This examination will primarily

consider the total results from each of the two language groups (marked

as 1 and 2), or from these and two other more specific groups (marked 1

– 4 in total).

The four groups referred to are:

(1) Data of respondents of the English survey

(2) Data of respondents of the German survey

(3) Data of respondents of the English survey, holding a position in

senior level management or above

(4) Data of respondents of the German survey, holding a position in

senior level management or above

The two additional data groups – namely, respondents to the German

and the English survey holding a position in senior management or

above (i.e. C-level, executive and/or owner position) – were created to

allow for the evaluation of the choices of decision makers in media

archives in comparison to the overall data. This is important, as these

high-level participants are actually the ones that are going to help

uncover the answer to this paper’s research question:

“Does Archive Innovation Management have the potential to be a future key position in international media management and if so, what are the competencies and specifications this position requires to make it trainable and internationally applicable?”

That is the reason why the two additional data groups were formed.

Considering the overall number of positive evaluations (groups 1 – 4) of

the 28 competences and characteristics listed in the questionnaire, there

is no doubt that the responding international media archive professionals

judge the responsibilities, which define the position of an Archive

Innovation Manager, as highly relevant.

  86  

Looking at the answers given in total (1 & 2), there were almost no

qualifications rated “obsolete”. After all, each matrix question put a

specific skill up for debate and allowed the respondent to choose on a

rating scale between “essential”, “desirable”, “of lesser importance” and

“obsolete”.

In the German version, this lowest possible rating concerning the

importance of the analysed qualifications was chosen only 22 times (for

comparison, 1,757 times the chosen rating was “essential”; Total answers

given: 3,970). Of all the respondents filling in the English questionnaire,

only one respondent considered one single competence as obsolete

(compared to 377 “essential”; total answers given: 860).

The overwhelmingly positive evaluation of the overall portfolio of AIM’s

skills clearly indicates that from the perspective of media archive experts,

AIM offers a pool of highly desirable qualifications.

Therefore, it is safe to assume that the answer to the first part of the

research question is affirmative. From the perspective of the

international media archive community, Archive Innovation

Management is a field requiring specific qualifications that are considered

highly essential and desirable by archive professionals.

Consequently, AIM has the potential to become a key position in

international media management.

An important additional objective of this thesis is to provide a

transparent evaluation of the skills and characteristics of an AIM’s job

description based on the judgment of international experts in the field of

media archive innovation/project management.

It is certainly worth mentioning that the top listed category by all groups

of respondents (1 – 4) was “Communication”.

This rating becomes even more noteworthy, considering the gap to the

second rated category. The difference of the weighted average between

the top category “Communication” and the second value is as high as

  87  

0.19 (compare 6.1.).

The exact wording of the top rated skill was:

“Communication, as to be able to get one’s message understood clearly by adopting a range of styles, tools and techniques appropriate to the audience and the nature of the information”.

It may come as a surprise that communication even outpaced the

element of “in-depth knowledge” as the top core skill in the view of

media archivists. “In-depth knowledge” comprises archival workflows

and reuse of content. Although these skills also made it to the top five in

all groups analysed, they ranked far behind communication.

This raises the question; how could communication become a more vital

part in day-to-day media archive work reality? A question for further

research (compare 7.2.).

Next in rank (1 - 4) appear several subject-matter skills (e.g. “Knowledge

of Archival Workflows and Reuse of Content”) and some ‘soft skills’ (i.e.

personality traits, preferences and characteristics; e.g. “Planning and

Organising” or working autonomously).

Demanding up-to-date expert’s knowledge of archive workflows and

reuse of content for AIM seems reasonable. However, in a time when

innovation cycles in media continuously decreasing (Latzer 2013, p. 5),

this nonstop changing of expertise requires regular participation in daily

routines (also below the usual managerial responsibilities). That way,

AIMs remain media archive experts on any level despite the constant

changes.

This approach can also be found in in large US IT companies (Martin

2011, pp. 4-5) and has proven worthwhile to the innovation managers.

However, not only the top rated results are of interest. The skills which

turned out to be at the bottom of the priority list are also considered to

  88  

be worth discussing.

Particularly, “Media Economics”, which received the lowest valuation in

data groups 1, 2 and 3, and the second lowest by respondents of group 4.

In the context of values concerning theoretical knowledge, “Project

Management” and “Media Management” are also aspects that were rated

unexpectedly low by both language groups.

The low overall ranking of these fields of expertise may come as a

surprise to those who rated these competences highly.

A counter-statement – nonetheless supporting the importance of media

economics in the context of AIM in spite of the survey results – derives

from international top universities (proof can be found in the topical

curricula of the universities of Cambridge, Harvard and Stanford). If

innovation management or similar programs are taught at these

universities, economics finds a prominent position in the program’s

curriculum11.

Considering the focuses of these university programs it is safe to say,

that from an academic point of view, economics plays a prominent role

in innovation/project management.

Obviously there is a clear difference regarding the importance of

economics between media archive experts and the academic elite

teaching at universities that might also be of interest for further research

(compare 7.2.).

Furthermore, the low rating of “Developing others” (in the bottom third

of all data groups, 1 – 4) will be challenged by the following example.

In his Harvard Business Review article “The Innovation Catalysts”,

Roger L. Martin describes a company (Intuit) that was running in danger

of losing their target group, or at least the ability to motivate their

costumers to recommend Intuit’s “… product or service to a colleague

                                                                                                                         11 For the detailed research approach on how “top universities” include economics into their curricula of innovation/project management programs/courses, see Digital Appendix #14.

  89  

or friend” (Martin 2011, 1). This was a clear sign that the company was

in need of a new strategy.

Intuit decided to confront this deficit head-on, by trying to sharpen its

innovation strategy.

With this target in mind, Intuit tried to identify employees “…who could

help Intuit managers work on initiatives throughout the organization”

(Martin 2011, p. 4). They decided to call these experts “innovation

catalysts” (Martin 2011, p. 4).

Inuit was pleased with the progress of the ten original innovation

catalysts in their first year, but they knew that Intuit would have to

increase their scale to make the transformation towards a new innovation

strategy complete. Thus, Intuit tried “... to select, train, and deploy

another 65 catalysts. This meant sourcing from a broader pool of

talent...” (Martin 2011, p. 8). One of the first catalysts was appointed to

expand the catalysts’ number and capabilities. This mentor had learned

from the initial work that the strongest catalysts were not the ones being

captured in their field of expertise. According to her, Intuit “... not only

needed people who were design thinkers – [they] also needed people

with passion to give [knowledge] away and help others to do great work,

versus coming up with a great idea and bringing it to others” (Martin

2011, p. 9).

The mentor’s “... team had found that they did their best work when

they worked together. They learned new ideas and techniques from one

another and provided moral support in tough situations” (Martin 2011,

p. 9).

Intuit’s approach turned out to be a great success: strategically,

financially and in terms of innovation activity (Martin 2011, p. 10). Thus,

the example of Inuit’s Innovation catalysts is certainly cause for thought

for those who believe that “developing others” is of minor importance

to (archive) innovation management.

  90  

Another potentially controversial result of the data is certainly the low

ranking of English language skills by German speaking media archive

experts.

German respondents rated English language competence the third least

valuable qualification (it turned out to be the lowest ranking variable

among senior management and above respondents), although English is

the world's most widely used language in newspaper publishing,

international telecommunications, and mass entertainment (Northrup

2013).

Furthermore, English has become so important in scientific publishing

that 82% of all articles in humanities were written in English by 1995 and

90% of all articles in natural science publications by 1996 (Brutt 2006,

pp. 690-697).

This discrepancy between scientific assessment and archival evaluation

might trigger controversy among those who rated the ability to use

English proficiently essential (18.66% of all German respondents) and

the rest of the participants who chose a lower rating.

Concerning the difference in the weighting of the discussed values

between academia and practice, the question comes up as to what may

cause this discrepancy.

One possible explanation may be found from a psychological point of

view.

Although a changing perspective on the data from a different scientific

discipline goes far beyond the scope of this thesis, at this point of the

discussion, one might consider potential psychodynamic influences on

survey respondents on their decision making process.

After all, some differences between academics and practitioners that

were found in the valuation placed on various qualifications were

significant.

  91  

Individual parameters evaluated by media archive experts might even be

considered contradictory to an AIM’s job description (e.g. the low rating

for “Knowledge of Media Management” for a media management

position).

There is general agreement among different schools of psychological

thought and great psychological thinkers (Obholzer 1994) that

individuals “… unconsciously use well-developed and habitual defence

mechanisms to protect themselves. (...) This internal resistance is often

caused by the surfacing of past experiences, fears, or worries the

individual has experienced” (Bovey 2001, pp. 534-536).

Defence mechanisms, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual

of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association

(subsequently referred to as APA), are “… automatic psychological

processes that protect the individual against anxiety and from the

awareness of internal or external dangers or stressors. [They] mediate the

individual’s reaction to emotional conflicts” (APA 2000, p. 807).

As food for thought for further discussion and to be considered as a

thought-provoking impulse: is there a possibility that experts of a

profession – who evaluate closely related qualifications to their own field

of expertise – feel (unconsciously) threatened by skills they know little or

nothing about? Could this maybe trigger defensive behaviour?

To continue this thought from a psychological point of view, this

presumed defence mechanism is called “denial”. The APA defines denial

as a defence mechanism in which the person “… deals with emotional

conflict or internal or external stressors by refusing to acknowledge some

painful aspect of external reality or subjective experience that would be

apparent to others” (APA 2000, p. 811).

A discrepancy of evaluation (in the case of this thesis, of AIM

qualifications) may be an example for this kind of defence mechanism at

work.

  92  

Acknowledging this perspective as potentially relevant could not only

enrich the on-going discussion, but may be of help for a future

interdisciplinary approach to change (or change management).

Anton Obholzer, professional psychiatrist and fellow of the Royal

College of Psychiatrists, explains that – as part of an institution or

organisation – there is a need “... for our institutions to protect us from

being overwhelmed by (...) different layers of anxiety” (Obholzer 1994,

p. 207).

This “protection” by our institutions may begin by being mindful:

“… of the general resistances to awareness of unconscious processes (…) [and] that with the right professional tools, it should be possible to develop insight and awareness of dynamics in ways that would enhance people’s work and improve professional effectiveness”. (Sher 2013, xviii)

The addition of this psychological perspective ought to enrich potential

discussion on the findings of this paper only and certainly do not form

any kind of approach solution.

6.3. Archive Innovation Management – Predictions and Suggestions

Referring to Charles Dickens’, “A Tale of Two Cities”, for media archives it

truly is the best of times and the worst of times (Dickens 1859, p. 1).

The best, in that never has there been more opportunity for the re-use of

content, user expansion, and the crafting or grasping of new digital services or

tools for whatever needs arise.

The worst, in that media organisations are often unable to seize the

opportunities at hand.

  93  

Never have there been more media innovation reports accessible that stress the

importance of (archive) content (New York Times 2014, Pew Research Center

2015, Newman 2015, BBC 2015, Sonderman 2015, etc.). Still, spending cuts

(compare 3.4.) and mainstream oriented corporate strategies (compare 2.1. and

2.2.) let significant spare capacity remain vacant and cannibalise archive

innovation potential.

To change this direction, legacy media needs a change in culture.

“Innovation is a product of culture. And an organization’s culture is a product of its leadership, its structure, and its internal processes. We see evidence that relatively small changes to an organization’s processes and structure can have magnified effects on its culture, which in turn can enable vital innovation in news organizations.” (Sonderman 2015)

Or in a more profane way of putting it: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast (...)

technology for lunch, and products for dinner, and soon thereafter everything

else too” (Sonderman 2015).

Therefore, if a media organisation decides to foster innovation it must

acknowledge and understand that “…innovation is a process that must

become ingrained in all aspects of an organization” (Silverman 2015), also in its

archive, especially if it contains unique selling propositions in the form of

distinctive and exclusive (digital) content.

However, neither culture nor innovation are one person or one position. In

saying this, a person qualified on the right levels, holding a corresponding

position with the necessary responsibilities may very well be one of the small

changes to an organisation’s structure, as Jeff Sonderman, deputy director of

the American Press Institute, refers to in his above statement.

So, who is this person? What are his or her characteristics and competencies?

How can this individual be recruited, assessed and fostered?’

  94  

From a media archive’s point of view, the findings of the previous chapters

hold most of the answers to these questions.

Who is this person? According to the international media archive community

(compare 6.1.) it is someone with communicative giftedness, digital media

literacy, high expert’s knowledge on media archival workflows, social

competence and an interest in – as well as awareness of – media innovation

developments. From the perspective of innovation research, this person

should also be a proficient user of the English language in order to be able to

participate in international projects and understand the latest publications in

media innovation (compare 6.2.). Furthermore he or she must remain partly

active in the day-to-day routine of a media archive to stay up to date in terms

of knowledge of archive workflows and reuse of content despite the decreasing

length of innovation cycles. Additionally, innovation and project management

programs of international top rated universities also recommended basic

understanding of media economics, media management and project

management (compare 6.2.).

In terms of talent search, the headhunt may be rather simple. If a media

archive has not been reduced to insignificance due to budget cuts by 2015,

chances are that the innovation potential has existed and thrived among

present-day staff. Otherwise, the department would most probably not have

survived the media disruption of the past decade.

Looking for talent internally has been a proven method.

When boardroom quotas for women were introduced in Norway in 2008,

companies often identified and recruited talented women internally. This

approach became known as “pearl diving”, because the talent was already there

within the company, it just had to be discovered (Sweigart 2012, p. 98).

  95  

“While initially controversial, the boardroom quotas that Norway has enforced since 2008 have been accepted throughout the country, even by those who protested against them. These quotas have raised the presence of women in the boardrooms of publicly listed companies dramatically and have led these corporations to develop new institutional capacities.” (Sweigart 2012, p. 105)

 

This recruitment strategy turned out to be a success in Norway. Why would it

therefore not be repeatable on the quest for media innovation talent?

From the findings of this paper, the suggestions for an internal recruitment

program of media archive innovation talent are as follows:

HR ought to target people who have already passed through various archival

positions as they will have profound knowledge of archive workflows and

reuse of content. If possible, these people should have some experience in

project management (specifically international), as this assures familiarity with

teamwork, planning and organising.

Additionally, candidates should represent willingness to develop others and

show enthusiasm about media innovation.

If in line with corporate regulations, the use of any recognised type indicator

instrument (e.g. the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) might help to identify

desired characteristics. For example, for AIM: someone who is an extrovert

but also people-oriented, responsible and cooperative (compare 6.1.).

After the initial assessment and the recruitment, research advises heavy

investment in training and deployment (Martin 2011, p. 3). This paper’s

evaluation of the various characteristics and competences for archive

innovation management may build the basis of a correlating curriculum for

future training programs.

Furthermore, “... the importance of taking risks and encouraging rapid failure”

is a key aspect in literature according to foster an innovation friendly culture

(Seiken 2013).

  96  

“Media innovation demands risk. Reinventing journalism requires mistakes.

We need to try new things and get things wrong, fail quickly but learn quickly,

and always explain what we are doing and why” (Newton 2014).

Last but not least, all stakeholders involved ought to adopt change

management skills into their DNA, because innovation cycles in media have

continuously grown shorter and – given the current state of our knowledge –

will continue to do so (Latzer 2013, p. 5).

Constant change is going to be the new normal in media.

  97  

7. Conclusions

7.1. Limitations of the Research

One significant limitation of this thesis is the virtual impossibility to analyse all

the available data. The immense quantity of responses was certainly not

expected. Therefore, due to the given scale of this paper, only certain

approaches are achievable.

The second limitation is the possibility of missing significant perspectives from

countries and media-cultures underrepresented in the data. The survey’s

international sample size is definitely not representative for all media archive

professionals. The predominant participation of experts from German

speaking countries is evident. Therefore, although internationally transferable

tendencies are apparent, one should be careful by making international

generalisations.

The third limitation is the lack of existing examples for archive innovation

management positions in media and corresponding literature. Thus, the only

findable example for the position in question had to be considered as “Good

Enough Practice” (compare 3.4.) in order to continue research.

The fourth limitation is the assumed psycho-dynamic interferences when

experts evaluate characteristics and competences of a potential position close

to their field of expertise. Hence, some empirical results led to the hypothesis

that respondents may have subconsciously used well-developed and habitual

defence mechanisms to protect their self-perception. Therefore, it is safe to say

that influences of defence behaviours on the overall results cannot be ruled

out.

Despite these limitations, the researcher considers this thesis to be a significant

groundwork for a topic that has not yet been subject of broad academic

research. Furthermore, a lot of newly generated information and data has been

reviewed and discussed academically, creating a valuable resource for the

international media archive community.

  98  

7.2. Suggestions for Further Research

For further research, two potential fields of study have been identified

(compare 6.2.).

(1) How could communication become a more vital part of day-to-

day media archive work?

This is due to the surprising top position of communication as a

necessary qualification, which is clearly evident in all evaluated

data groups.

(2) What causes the discrepancy in the weighting of certain AIM

qualifications between academia and practice?

It became obvious that there is a clear difference regarding the

importance of several AIM competences and characteristics

between media archive experts and the academic elite teaching at

universities. Explaining this disagreement should also be of

interest for further research.

Additionally, the researcher would like to recommend the annual conduction

of quantitative surveys monitoring the views on innovation qualifications.

When establishing an annual survey series, cooperation with psychologists

specialised in revealing defence mechanisms in research seems desirable.

Clearly, qualitative interviews with potential newly appointed archive

innovation managers are of great value to the topic as well.

Had the aim of this thesis been less specific, a lot more data could have been

analysed. Thus, another recommendation for further research is to apply more

sophisticated research methods.

A further aspect that should be considered is the potential for cooperation

with renowned academic institutions that are teaching future media innovation

professionals. This endeavour could blend adequate theoretical knowledge with

practical experience for a long-lasting and valuable interdisciplinary

  99  

collaboration.

7.3. Conclusion

This thesis started out as an investigatory venture to get some sense of how

media archives are coping with innovation in terms of management. This

endeavour began by offering an overview of significant literature published on

media innovation and by emphasising a media archivist’s perspective on the

topic. A closer look at the daily routines of media archivists and a state of play

of an exemplary media archive’s workforce led to the recognition of a diverse

and heterogeneous group of experts. Additionally, proof was obtained that this

group of professionals operates in an environment of great innovative

potentials.

Nevertheless, a clearly defined description for an archive innovation

management turned out to be rare. Actually, only one could be found: the

BBC’s Archive Innovation Executive.

However, a literature review and the feedback of various professionals led to

the conclusion that it was high time to work out profiles for additional archive

innovation management (AIM) positions.

Consequently, a questionnaire was created to involve relevant international

experts to identify and evaluate potential qualifications for an AIM position.

All in all, there were 33 experts’ responses to the English version and 188

experts’ responses to the German version.

The respondents came from 17 different nations with a vast majority of

German-speaking countries. One third of the respondents were either holding

a senior management position (23%) or a C-level, executive or owner position

(10%). Due to this high feedback of decision makers, their data was analysed

separately in order to offer insights into the evaluation process of high-level

participants.

  100  

Data analysis confirmed the assumption that AIM have the potential to be a

future key position in media management. This answers affirmatively the first

part of the research question.

An important outcome in this respect was the realisation that the differences

between the defined data groups were not really significant.

This means that the specific media cultural background seems to be more

important than demographic, hierarchical and national influences and their

respective differences.

Media archivists are obviously a rather homogeneous group regarding their

evaluations of necessary AIM competences.

Consequently, one can assume that AIM positions are internationally

transferable and defined by qualifications that are considered highly essential

and desirable by the media archive communities.

To offer a transparent evaluation of these skills and characteristics was an

additional aim of this thesis.

Therefore, the questionnaire’s data underwent further analysis. Surprisingly, of

all the qualifications in question (compare pp. 76-77), one skill was ranked

highest by all data groups: communication. This variable was defined by being

able to get one’s message understood clearly by adopting a range of styles,

tools and techniques appropriate to the audience and the nature of the

information.

Communication even outweighed “Knowledge of Archival Workflows and

Reuse of Content”. Although this “in-depth knowledge” also made it to the

top five in all groups analysed, it ranked far behind communication.

However, it was not only the top rated results that came as a surprise to the

researcher. The skills that were considered least valuable were also astonishing.

Particularly, “Media Economics” but also “Project Management” and “Media

Management” were ranked lowly. The same was true for the willingness to

  101  

develop others and high English language competence (the latter was answered

only by participants of the German survey).

Counter-statements to these assessments were by found by investigating

academic perspective of renowned international top universities (see Digital

Appendix #14). Especially, the media experts’ evaluations of “Media

Economics”, “Developing Others” and “Using English proficiently” did by no

means match the assumptions of the academic experts.

The discrepancies between academia and professional media experts were

evident only for a few qualifications in question. The overall outcome proved

that most of AIM characteristics and skills turned out to be undisputed by

archive professionals and academic specialists.

The last part of this thesis presents suggestions to implement AIM.

Summa sumarum, this thesis was able to produce enough reliable evidence to

call for the development, deployment and continuous adaptation of AIM

positions and to offer ways to put these demands into effect.

Let’s come to an end with the words of the prominent media innovation

researcher, Lucy Kueng:

“So the good news is that legacy media are hanging on, the bad is that they are slipping down the food chain and the ugly is that they are massively outgunned by the digital disrupters. Legacy media need to respond, and respond enough.” (Kueng 2015)

May the further development and the future employment of Archive

Innovation Managers all over the media market become a vital part of what

makes this response enough.

  102  

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List of Abbreviations

AIE Archive Innovation Executive

AIM Archive Innovation Management/Manager

AMS Arbeitsmarktservice (Public Employment Service Austria)

APA American Psychiatric Association

ARM Archive Resource Management/Manager

ARWU Academic Ranking of World Universities

ASM Archive Service Management/Manager

BAU Business As Usual

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

BIRTH Building of an Interactive Research and Delivery Network for Television Heritage

BR Bavarian Broadcasting (Bayerischer Rundfunk / A German

Regional Public Broastcasting Corporation)

C1 level Proficient Speaker / Effective Operational Proficiency or Advanced (Common European Framework Language Level)

C2 level Proficient Speaker / Mastery or Proficiency (Common

European Framework Language Level)

CALTECH California Institute of Technology

C-level Corporate Title: Highest-Level Executives Beginning with “Chief“

CWCU Centre for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao

Tong University

DR Danmarks Radio (Danish Public Broadcaster)

DW Deutsche Welle (German Wave / Germany’s International Broadcaster)

FESAD ORF Fernseharchivdatenbank (Television Archive Data

Bank) FIAT/IFTA Fédération Internationale des Archives de Télévision /

International Federation of Television Archives FM Future Media

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HR Human Resources

IMIM International Media Innovation Management

KOKO ORF’s Audio Content Metadata System

MAM Media Asset Management

mARCo ORF’s Multimedia Archives Online

mgmt Management

MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MMC FIAT/IFTA’s Media Management Commission

MPhil Postgraduate Research Degree / Master of Philosophy

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

ORF Austrian Broadcasting Corporation

ORFEUS ORF’s Digital Rights Management System

P-CMS Program Content Management System

QS Quacquarelli Symonds

R&D Research and Development

RTBF Radio Télévision Belgique Française

RTE Raidió Teilifís Éireann (Irish Public Broadcaster)

SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (Swiss Radio and Television / Swiss Public Broadcaster)

SWR Suedwestrundfunk (Southwest Broadcasting / A German

Regional Public Broastcasting Corporation)

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

vfm Verein fuer Medieninformation und

Mediendokumentation (Association of Media-Information and Media-Documentation)

VE Virtual Exhibitions

WDR Westdeutscher Rundfunk (West German Broadcasting / A German Regional Public Broastcasting Corporation)

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Digital Appendices12 File Structure

#1 Original Document13 of the Internal Structure of the ORF Archive from October 14th 1971.

#2 Original Document9 of the Internal Structure of the ORF Archive

from September 1st 1972. #3 Original ORF Job Description (Draft) for an “Analyst” (Auswerter) at

the ORF Archive Dating February 9th 1977. #4 Original ORF Job Descriptions of the Three Archivist Positions

(“Archive Assistant”, “Documentalist”, “Archive Editor”) Currently Reusing and/or Enriching Content on a Regular Basis.

#5 Original EUscreenXL Evaluation Summary Report9 (page 2 of 3). #6 Detailed Presentation of the Communities vfm, EUscreenXL and

FIAT/IFTA. #7 Original Correspondence in Order to Establish Contacts and Ask for

Participations Concerning the Survey. #8 Original Survey for English Speaking Respondents. #9 Original Survey for German Speaking Respondents. #10 All Responses to the English Survey. #11 All Responses to the German Survey. #12 All Responses to the English Survey by Senior Management & Above

Respondents Using the English Questionnaire. #13 All Responses to the English Survey by Senior Management & Above

Respondents Using the English Questionnaire. #14 Detailed Research Approach on How “Top Universities” Include

Economics in the Curricula of Innovation/Project Management Programs/Courses.

 

                                                                                                                         12 All files are on the CD at the inside back cover of this thesis. 13 Due to the protection of personality/privacy and professional secrecy, some data/text parts had to be blacked out.  

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Appendix

Original Survey for English Speaking Respondents (page 1/7)

                                                                                             

Archive Innovation Management (AIM) / An Evaluation

1. What is your gender?

2. Age

18 - 29

30 - 44

45 - 59

60+

3. Country of residence?

4. Which of the following items best describes your current job level?

Other (please specify)

Entry Level

Intermediate

Middle Management

Senior Management

Executive/C-Level/Owner

5. Years of experience in media

0-5

5-10

10-15

more than 15

6. Your current level of experience in Archive Innovation/Project Management?

Not at all experienced

Slightly experienced

Moderately experienced

Quite experienced

Extremely experienced

1

  115  

Original Survey for English Speaking Respondents (page 2/7)

                                                                                                   

Archive Innovation Management (AIM) / An Evaluation

7. In my opinion, for Archive Innovation Management, I consider the

following CHARACTERISTICS as…

essential desirable of lesser importance obsolete

Autonomous - Ability

to manage own

workload for extended

periods without direct

supervision.

Collaborating Across

Boundaries – connects

people, sets an

example by sharing

resources & knowledge

across the organisation,

builds relationships

accross the

organisation.

Communication - able

to get one’s message

understood clearly by

adopting a range of

styles, tools and

techniques appropriate

to the audience and the

nature of the

information.

Coping Under

Pressure - Experience

of working under

pressure to tight

deadlines and ability to

think creatively in the

face of adversity.

Developing Others -

recognises potential

(professional, artistic or

otherwise) and willing to

foster the development

of that potential.

Flexibility - adapts and

works effectively with a

variety of situations,

individuals or groups.

Changes or easily

accepts changes in

one’s own organisation

or job requirements.

2

  116  

Original Survey for English Speaking Respondents (page 3/7)

                                                                                                   

Influencing And

Persuading - able to

present sound and well-

reasoned arguments to

convince others.

Managing

Relationships - able to

build and maintain

effective working

relationships with a

range of people. Ability

to establish rapport

quickly and effectively

with new clients/people.

Proactively offers

constructive feedback

to others.

Planning And

Organising - able to

establish an efficient

course of action for self

and others. Prioritises

and plans activities.

essential desirable of lesser importance obsolete

3

  117  

Original Survey for English Speaking Respondents (page 4/7)

                                                                                                   

Archive Innovation Management (AIM) / An Evaluation

8. In my opinion, for Archive Innovation Management, I consider the following KNOWLEDGE or

EXPERIENCE as…

essential desirable of lesser importance obsolete

Archive Policies and

Standards - Ensure

that archive policies

and standards remain

aligned with current

business requirements.

(Knowledge of)

Archival Workflows

and Reuse of Content.

Archive Service

Competence -

Knowledge of the

services provided by

archive department.

Company's Aims and

Objectives, Relevant

Regulations.

(Knowledge of)

Company's

Programme Output.

(Knowledge of) Digital

Production and Post-

Production Systems.

Editorial Judgement -

as the understanding of

editorial guidelines,

target audience,

programme and

departmental

objectives.

Internal Cooperation -

Work with service

managers and archive

resource managers to

facilitate resourcing and

transition from

innovation to business

as usual.

4

  118  

Original Survey for English Speaking Respondents (page 5/7)

                                                                                                 

Multiplying Access to

Assets - Work with

content producing

areas to maximise

access to digital and

analogue assets &

develop new

opportunities to support

the exploitation of

content and delivery of

efficiencies.

essential desirable of lesser importance obsolete

5

  119  

Original Survey for English Speaking Respondents (page 6/7)

                                                                                                   

Archive Innovation Management (AIM) / An Evaluation

9. In my opinion, for Archive Innovation Management, I consider the following TRAINED or

TRAINABLE SKILL as…

essential desirable of lesser importance obsolete

(Gain or Maintain)

Awareness of New

Ideas, Trends and

Innovative

Developments across

the company and wider

industry relevant to their

areas.

Broadcasting

Technology Practices,

as the overall

competence of media

production.

Change Management

processes, as the

ability to implement

change and to manage

change both within the

own team and the

content producing area.

Evaluate Archive

Technology

appropriate to business

needs by use of proof of

concept and piloting.

Implement and

Develop Innovative

Media Management

Solutions across

production and

business areas.

Information

Management Skills -

Experience in the

application of

information

management within the

traditional broadcasting

environment and new

services.

Theoretical

understanding of Media

Economics, as the

understanding of overall

media business needs

and impacts on

business processes.

6

  120  

Original Survey for English Speaking Respondents (page 7/7)

                                                                                         

Multi-Linguality - as

being fluent in (at least)

one second language.

Ability to apply various

Project Management

approaches, as e.g. the

understanding of

Stakeholder Analyses,

Work Breakdown

Structures, Quality

Management etc.

Ability to apply relevant

Technology-, Format-

and R&D-Projects to

ensure alignment with

the organization's

objectives.

essential desirable of lesser importance obsolete

7