InfoST
Information Sober Thought is a Community corporation of Sober Thought which is responsible to its own chief directorate at the Ministry of Community Connections' Vice Ministry of Communications. InfoST operates domestically and abroad on three platforms: radio, television and internet.
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Although the Vice Minister and Chief Director are the ex officio Chair and President of the Community corporation, IST otherwise operates at arms length from the government. The regulation of radio, television and any other future passive transmissions is the responsibility of another chief directorate and should not be confused with Information Sober Thought.
There are three branches of Information Sober Thought/Infomatique Pensée sobre: the anglophone Sober Thought Broadcasting, the francophone Emission Pensée sobre and the multilingual STIPS (ST International PS), whose target audience obviously also includes English and French speakers. Except for the languages of their target audiences, the difference in the operations of STB and EPS are largely a matter of nuance than true contrast, so this article will speak only of STB with the understanding that same comments apply to EPS.
The logo for the constellation of operating agencies uses one common corporate logo: a conventional blue Sober Thought national owl flanked by two black bordered white lightning bolts forming a mirror image and meeting below to make a "V" with the point below the owl's talons.
A careful reader might note that there appears to be no children's or youth department in any of these services. This is explained by two deeply held beliefs of the government and public broadcasters of Sober Thought:
- Children shouldn't be watching television
- Youth who do should be getting exactly the same information as adults so that they may become enlightened and active in the culture and politics of the nation on an equal footing.
Radio service
Impartial coverage of domestic and foreign news is the central task of all branches of Information Sober Thought. Unlike the RL British Broadcasting Corporation, however, there is no such thing as the "RST accent" or "RST sound" because the agency's language usage department does not concern itself with idiom or pronunciation, but with defending meaningful language.
Radio Sober Thought accomplishes this in domestic coverage by maintaining freestanding bureaux in every capital city, every city with at least 2% population and some cities with less than 2%. Foreign coverage is provided by similar bureaux in the capital of each International Democratic Union country, the United Nations, and a few outside the home regions; dependent bureaux or stringers in certain large or important places in the "near abroad"; and subscription to IDU and other media cooperatives or services.
The news department has earned a reputation for accuracy and impartiality that is the envy of the NS world. This is based on several factors: its independence from direct government control, the national predilection for fairness and moderation, its subdued production values keeping the focus on the content rather than the delivery, and its successful collaboration with likeminded individuals, groups and countries.
Closely related to the news department is the current affairs department, which has essentially the same focus as news but with a longer outlook. It specialises in investigative, consumer and contextual reporting.
The music department airs thematic shows based around music genre and national music traditions, serving high-, mid- and low-brows alike – only the no brows are left out because they don’t own a radio and couldn’t find the knob that turns it on even if they did. Many shows also include entertainment news, such as concert commentaries, performer interviews and album reviews.
Both the sports and drama departments have dwindled in inverse proportion to the rise of television. Athletic coverage is now effectively limited to very important professional and amateur games of national interest, and scholastic and other amateur sports on the regional stations. Radio dramas have been reduced to a handful of expensive but quality one-off episodes or mini-series each year, and a few less expensive and less artistic serials and showcases throughout the year.
Television service
Television Sober Thought is organised identically to its older but now less influential sibling, and its departmental performance differs in importance and budget more than tone or style. Its TV news anchors and reporters are known as some of the most ordinary looking, unphotogenic journalists on the planet since they are promoted solely for their ability to uncover and convey important facts in a concise and useful manner. They are active most of the same internal and external bureaux as their radio colleagues, although most of the time the two platform's reporters do not work in tandem or do double duty.
Television puts a much greater emphasis on current affairs programming with its longer and more educational view. TV Sober Thought specialises in building the sturdy framework upon which viewers may hang the bits of otherwise disjointed facts delivered by the daily news. Their investigations have been fearless, leading over the years to criminal prosecutions for fraudulent business practices, the resignation of incompetent but not corrupt ministers, the creation of humanitarian agencies motivated by exposes and the abrupt retirement under cloud of suspicion of the Chief Director of their own parent organisation.
The importance of other departments is the opposite from that of Radio Sober Thought. Television sports coverage is extensive, covering the usual professional and major amateur team sports like baseball, world football, basketball and cricket. Violent sports like hockey and North American football, while not banned outright, exist on the margins of popularity and hence televised performance. In contrast, there is extensive coverage of RL underrated individual and intellectual sports like swimming, chess, running, go, Greco-Roman wrestling, card games and Highland sports.
The drama department is active in commissioning or encouraging independent filmmakers to create bold, realistic and nationally representative fictional presentations of live. One consequence of this policy of co-production or assisted production is that the intellectual property of specific shows remain with their non-TV Sober Thought creators. So while a series may be popularly identified as a TVST production, it is no such thing and any replays have to be assented to and paid to the actual producers.
The music department produces high-quality shows but only a small number of them. Musical clearances are often expensive so, because music promotion is a tertiary priority to the agency, little money is spent paying for musical compositions, lyrics and performances. Subscriptionless transmission freemarket stations often have the same problem, so most musicians who have priced themselves out of the broad market have their concerts broadcast on subscription or pay channels. Amateur performances, however, get much more extensive coverage and have helped launch the careers of professionals who are now rarely seen on general TV stations.
Internet service
As a new media, the multi-lingual InterMation.st site does not have the same tradition, respectability or importance as its older and more popular cousins. This is aggravated by the moderate (in comparison to RL and more technology obsessed NS nations) penetration of the internet. The proliferation through the internet of spam, pornography and computer viruses -- not to mention the obnoxious and uncouth behaviour displayed by gameplaying youth in internet cafés -- has dampened the public appetite for internet access. This holds true despite personal computer ownership and usage higher than the regional and NS average.
InterMation.st began strictly as a news service, has branched out slowly to current affairs, but seems stuck with only those two real departments for the time being. Instead, it acts as an auxiliary for radio and television, offering scheduling, additional background, and electronic and print bibliographic information for existing conventional programmes.
International service
Sober Thought maintains an international media presence through Sober Thought International Pensée sobre. Journalistically, it operates as part of the InfoST team. Its permanent employees are mostly seconded from Radio Sober Thought and TV Sober Thought, rounded out by some of their own dedicated permanent staff and overseas stringers (foreigners and citizens alike).
STIPS maintains a small but reliable presence on radio, TV and internet. The agency's capital, operating and salary costs are all borne in their entirety by the Ministry of Community Defence because the operations of STIPS is seen as beneficial to the diplomatic efforts of the country as a whole. Thus, the programmes consist primarily of news, with some current affairs and domestic cultural programming to give a deeper perspective on what Sober Thought is to the rest of the world.
