Highlights, 2007

Over the past 50 years, the BBC’s world-famous Natural History Unit has produced some of the most ambitious and celebrated nature programmes ever made.

Their landmark series, ”Planet Earth”, took 4 years to shoot, encompassed over 200 locations and 60 countries around the planet, and the result is nature television at its very best. The way only the BBC can do it. But how do they actually do it? Jonny Keeling, one of “Planet Earth”'s producers, revealed some of the secrets behind the series and its extraordinary success, and presented a small taste of new productions the Natural History Unit has up its sleeve.

BBC is also among the best in the world when it comes to historical and scientific documentaries, a position which has been achieved thanks to Head of Science and History, John Lynch. Lynch mesmerized a full auditorium with his knowledge of how one can melt together history and science in a qualitative and entertaining way – on TV.

24-hour news coverage on TV was still in its early childhood in Norway by May 2007. British television has a very different and long-lasting history in this field, with BBC World as the most prominent example. Head of News in BBC World, Richard Porter, shared his experiences on how to navigate in a chaos of sources and events, and – not the least – how to meet the challenges of on the one hand verifying content and at the other hand being the first to publish.

Violent jihad is not simply about politics or religion. It is also about communication - the manipulation of images and language to create young recruits, even in the Western world. Irshad Manji should know. An award-winning Canadian TV personality, she is the internationally best-selling author of "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith". In her speech, Irshad explained how skilful communicators are wooing young Muslim men into terror networks, and how she is using communication tactics of her own to empower reform-minded Muslims.

The subject of communication was the focal point in more than one session. Multiple award-winner in advertising, Ivar Vereide, revealed some of the secrets of how to communicate with the Norwegian people, while Associate Professor Jens Kjeldsen gave professional advise of how to behave – and not behave – in media.

Nature, science, history, news, politics, religion, communication. But certainly entertainment as well. Head of the consultancy company K7 Media, Keri Lewis Brown, makes a living of predicting future trends in TV-formats. Declining ratings force the broadcasters to be innovative and in front. Lewis Brown gave an insight in up-coming international entertainment formats. The Norwegian TV-hit “Gylne Tider” (Golden Days) reached success with a trip back to their heroes of the eighties. They took us on a solid trip to nostalgia – behind the scenes.

Additionally, the General Directors of Scandinavia’s public service broadcasters debated their common grounds, actor/director Liv Ullmann and profiled TV-personality Anne Grosvold shared their experiences of being professional women in the media industry, foreign correspondents shared their experiences of working in areas of war, the power of the caricature drawing was debated, in light of the reactions to the Mohammed caricatures. And still, this is just a taste of what went on at the Nordic Media Festival 2007.

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