Tomorrow by this time, we'll know who the best news broadcaster in the UK is, with regard to innovation.
In fact I have a strong hunch who it is as one of the juror and the debate we had, but that wouldn't be cricket, so you'll get nowt from me.
But as awards go from the UK's most prestigious: the RTS, what does this tell us, at a time when media is generally having its legs hacksawed.
TV is in great shape!
Well like most things there's always a caveat. TV has turned the corner and the imminent threat has been obtusely exaggerated.
So what of all the new media buffs, chomping to elbow TV aside?
The catch!
It's not the programmes per se, but the device of a mini cinema screen in your living room that looks set to continue to death do you part.
Truth it was never under threat, only the poor substitute for programmes that wash across the screen.
Online video has eaten into some of that market, and TV has itself learned that its virtual upstart is now a partner, like it or leave it.
The fact that the RTS honors the excellence of broadcasters engaging in innovation illustrates how TV has changed in our times and from the two years I have been involved that they (broadcasters) are attempting many ingenius ways at attracting eyeballs.
And that's where if you're a student of news' new media there's comfort. The misnomer with multiskilling was always a dilution of skills. Not so!
At the interstice of videojournalism ( programme making by one person) and Net semiotics is the power of the future broadcaster.
We've only first generation yet, but the trend sees the emergence of a new generation of TV person who straddles the old ( traditionalist) and particularly the new.
Who can find fresh ways of telling that story, while seeking the idea platform. Who isn't just a processor, but leads in the evangelism of story telling that stays longer than the assumed fleeting flashes ascribed by Baudrillard's Ecstasy of Communications
Tomorrow's RTS awards then should be viewed as not just a celebration of television, but for the television new mediast who's more loudly being recognised.
If you're joining TV's la la land, you may want to take stock with your new "jack of all traders, master of all". Your name could well be written on the next award
