Activity 5: The functions of an introduction

The introduction provided below is from a discussion paper at the Tripartite Meeting on the Future of Work and Quality in the Information Society: The Media, Culture, Graphical Sector. Work through the introduction, and identify those parts that fulfil any of the six functions listed below:

make the purpose clear
explain the scope
provide the reader with a framework or scaffolding on which to build their understanding
gain the reader's attention
provide background information
indicate the authority under which it is written (i.e. who requested it)

For each highlighted section, choose the function(s) that you think are fulfilled by that section (you can hold down your <ctrl> key to choose more than one function). Then click on the Show Answer button to compare your answer.

The future of work and quality in the Information Society: The media, culture, graphical sector

Introduction

For more than a decade, the Information Society concept has been at the centre of discussions on the future of work and of society in general, both for socio-economic research and policy-making, in a period greatly affected by the growing importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) across the world. Among the 22 industrial sectors covered by the ILO’s Sectoral Activities Programme, the media and entertainment industries have been at the forefront of these changes, along with the electronics and telecommunications industries.

The guiding theme of the Tripartite Meeting in October 2004 namely, the “Future of work and quality in the Information Society”, encourages reflection on several questions, such as:

how the Information Society affects employment numbers (job creation and redundancies), new types of jobs, employment status, labour-management relations, and the quality of working life in the sector;
what impact ICTs have on the sector in terms of work itself, working conditions and the concept of “quality”;
and the ways in which the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) addressed the sector, and specifically issues relating to work and quality.

This serves point #4, Gain the reader’s attention by setting the topic for discussion in a context. In this way it also provides some background information (point #4).

This report is intended as a starting point for the Tripartite Meeting (18-22 October 2004, Geneva), enabling ILO tripartite constituents to discuss such questions in the context of the debate that took place at the first session of the WSIS (December 2003, Geneva), and providing an opportunity to make an important contribution to the Summit’s second session (November 2005, Tunis). The discussion on the Information Society at WSIS tended to focus on technology, connectivity and access to information, rather than on the information content itself, its use or its quality, and largely excluded discussion of information in anything other than digital form.

This serves point #1, Make the purpose clear. It also makes reference to #6, Indicate the authority under which it is written, by referring to the Tripartite Meeting.

This ILO report will, in contrast, focus on:

“old media” (e.g. printed information and non-digital radio and television) and their importance for the Information Society;
the quality and content of information, and the ability to turn information into knowledge that can be applied at work and in daily life;
the key role of this sector in turning simple access to ICTs, telecommunications and
Internet networks into real possibilities for societies to become better informed;
the need in the Information Society for more and better information about every aspect of life on this planet - from leisure and entertainment to agriculture, business, culture, health, local and world events - via digital and conventional media;
the importance of social dialogue if the introduction of ICTs is to be effective, including discussion on changes in work organization through which the technologies can be applied to improve work and quality;
the key role of training for employability; and
giving greater emphasis to education, training, functional and computer literacy, conventional print publishing, radio and television to help people bridge the digital divide.

This also serves point #4, Gain the reader’s attention by contrasting it with previous discussions. This also refers to #2, Explain the scope by explaining the topics up for discussion.

For the media, culture, graphical sector, the key issues referred to at the WSIS Geneva (December 2003) and in the preparatory committees were the concentration of media ownership, restrictions on freedom of expression and information, and concerns about democratic values, diversity and representation of women and minority groups in the media. All these issues could be said to affect quality, while greater diversity and press freedom are likely to contribute to higher quality media, culture, graphical products and services. Political interests often compete in this area, so that concentration of media ownership may refer to the dominance of local or foreign multinational conglomerates (often unpopular with smaller businesses, trade unions and governments), to large public sector broadcasting and print media that support government (often unpopular with smaller businesses, trade unions and opposition parties), or to other variations (e.g. multinational conglomerates that support governments, public sector broadcasting that criticizes governments). Paradoxically, it is possible to argue both that cultural diversity has been enhanced and that it has been impaired by state-controlled or multinational media and entertainment enterprises in specific countries, and quality and employment may be increased or reduced by such entities.

This paragraph seeks to qualify the discussion by making it distinct from the one that occurred a year earlier at the WSIS Geneva. However, one could argue that this draws the introduction away from its immediate purpose somewhat.

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