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The BBC should broadcast the Riots programme – for all our benefits

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I don’t really understand why the BBC 2 programme, The Riots: In their own words, was delayed/cancelled by a court order last night. I can’t find any further details about why it was not broadcast, only that it will be broadcast at a later date.

From what I’ve read about it, I think this would have been an important contribution to our understanding of what happened. Remember this Guardian ad?

It asked us to look at the whole picture. And I don’t think we can do that without hearing from those who rioted. We probably don’t agree with their rationale (such as it may be) but we should certainly listen to it because if we don’t know why they think they did something, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. We may well decide as a society that their thinking was self-indulgent nonsense, but we can’t do that unless we know what it was.

I am firmly convinced that the only way to resolve problems is to know about them. That seems facile – but it remains true. I am still working my way through Battlestar Galactica, and have just watched an episode where a doctor has, it turns out, been murdering patients from one particular tribe – and it was only discovered when someone else saw his paperwork and worked through the data.

Just to compound my geekery, here are two of the most interesting articles I’ve read recently. One is by Sue Cameron in the Telegraph, arguing that despite the fact that it nudges people to comply with the law, there are ethical concerns over using nudge techniques such as personalisation and information on social norms when sending tax or fine reminders. The other, from the Guardian, is about the use of rigorous random controlled trials in assessing the success (or otherwise) of new policy ideas. Both of these arguments rest in the outcomes they generate, not the process. And the reason that the outcome is successful is that information is available on what works, what doesn’t, why, and what the results actually are.

So, BBC, please broadcast The Riots: In their own words. You would be doing what you are supposed to do – bringing us something we didn’t know we didn’t have.

 


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