The University of Navarra closed the XVIII International congress of Communication, which was attended by 80 experts from 28 campus to analyze the television panorama. Ramón Bultó, president of the Audiovisual committee of Navarra, opened the meeting and explained the functions of the control bodies that have legal powers and seek to "preserve the welfare of citizens" by promoting an appropriate media climate.

With the expression Ecology of television, the degree scroll of this edition of the congress, it was intended to characterize a panorama of lights and shadows that requires different formulas, according to the organizers. In the opinion of Claude-Jean Bertrand, Professor Emeritus at the French Press Institute of the University of Paris II, it is a matter of "making the important interesting".

The experts pointed to various factors affecting the sector, such as the crisis and the concentration of pay TV, the rise of reality TV and the strategies of irradiation of successful programs. They also mentioned the absence of a public television model , the weight of production companies and the weakness of the brands of the channels, changes in the shareholding of private companies, trash TV, etc.

The tyranny of the clock, governed by advertising imperatives, is the paradigm of this mode of TV. This was suggested by José Angel Cortés, former director of programming at Telecinco and Antena 3 and now Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and Communication Sciences at San Pablo CEU University. In his opinion, in the absence of other considerations, audiences are elevated to the category of moral imperative. He also assured that companies are not exempt from responsibility in a process that has been economically profitable.

José Ángel Cortés explained the concept of irradiation observed on the screens: reality TV celebrities parade through many other programs at the behest of their producers, on the same channel on which they were broadcast or on others. The idea is to relate their experiences and reveal intimacies. It is a process calculated to widen "distribution windows" and develop marketing strategies. In this way, a few programs become the center of the programming, fragmented in successive summaries and specials.

The success of reality TV also drags the news. The desire to make news more entertaining, as a result of the inevitable struggle for audiences, leads to the "spectacularization" and "trivialization" of content, as Gianfranco Bettetini, of the Catholic University of Sacro Cuore in Milan, explained.

On the other hand, production companies are key players in the advance of reality television. With their great capacity to influence, they produce programs with large audiences and transmit content to others. Experts pointed out that they have become companies with great cultural influence. In this regard, they regretted that the homogenization of programs transforms the main terrestrial channels into weak brands, with little capacity to arouse loyalty in their viewers because, deep down, all the channels seem the same. They say that the lack of creativity and originality is perhaps the main threat to the industry today. Public broadcasters are trying to redefine their role, between commercial skill and the economic crisis, as Giuseppe Richeri of the University of Lugano (Switzerland) pointed out.

Among the positive aspects, the speakers highlighted the capacity of TV to build citizenship. Today, the media must respond to more instances and their social responsibility is increasingly analyzed in greater detail. All over the world, "quality control networks" are emerging, in many cases on the initiative of citizens who demand participation. The audiovisual media are nowadays more and more accountable to more authorities and their social responsibility is increasingly being scrutinized.

A particularly critical and optimistic speaker at the University of Navarra congress was Mikel Lejarza, partner and director of group Árbol. Regarding the problems, he pointed to self-criticism as the main solution. TV," he said, "has become a household appliance that does not excite or make us dream. Another TV is possible, we have been satisfied with looking for answers and TV should also encourage questions".

At this point, he introduced two other shortcomings of the television landscape: risk and innovation. Managers are looking for safe content and optimization of resources: "This season there is only one new program in prime time. We are focusing more on how I tell it than on what I tell. We have to bet on creation".

Mikel Lejarza concluded that "TV is a wonderful invention with infinite possibilities", but "to know how to entertain, you have to be entertaining and today's entrepreneurs are overwhelmed by political and financial pressure".