Tài liệu Part 14- Britain docx

1 1)0 15 The economy and everyday life

Some
well
-known
names
The best known supermarket chains
arc
Sainsbury and Tcsco. although
there arc others. Asda is the best
known
of many d
iscou
nt stores.
There is on ly
one
department
store with a large
number
of
branches. This is Marks
& Spencer. It
is so well
-known
that it is often
referred to as 'Marks and Sparks' or
just 'M
and
S'. To the British, clothes
at M and Sarc typical of the
middl

e
range:
thcj
-are neither cheap
nor
expensive. fairly
good
quality and
rather conservative. Unlike
most
other departme nt stores, M and S
also has a 'food hall', where item s
arc mor e expe nsive than they are in
supermar kets.
In a category all by Irse
lfi
s Wool-
wort h's, wh ich used to have a
branch in almost every high street in
the co untry.
It sells
most
ly sweets,
mus ic. foys and children 's clothes of
the cheaper kind.
Q UES
TIONS
stay
op
en very late on some evenings as a way

of
putting
new
lif
e
into
th
eir'
dead'
town
centres.
But the
mo
st significant change in recent years has been w ith
reg
ard
to
Sundays. By the early I
990
S
man
y shops,
includin
g cha in
stores, were opening on so
me
Sundays. especially in the period
b
ef
or

e Christmas. In d
oing
this they
we
re
taking
a risk w ith th e law .
Sometimes they were taken to court, sometimes not. The rules were
so
old and confused
that
n
obod
y really kn
ew
w ha t
wa
s and
what
wa
sn't
legal. It
wa
s
agr
e
ed
that
somethi
ng

had
to be d
on
e. On
one
side
we
re t
he
'Keep
Sun
day
Special' lo
bby,
a
grou
p
of
peo
ple fro m
various Christian churches
and
trade uni ons. They argued that Sunday
s
ho
uld be s
pec
ial, a day of rest, a day for all th e f
amil
y to be tog

ether.
They also f
ear
ed th at Sunday- opening w o
uld
m
ean
t
hat
shop
wor
kers
w
ould
be forced to work too
man
y
hour
s. On the other side
were
a
number
of
lobbies, especially people from w
om
en 's and con sumer
group
s. They ar
gued
that working w

om
en needed m
or
e than one
day (Satur day) in
which
to
rush
around
doing
the shopping. In an y
case,
the
y
argu
ed , s
ho
pping
wa
s also something that the
wh
ole
fam
ily
cou
ld
do
tog
eth
er. In

1993
Parliament
vo ted
on
the
mailer
.
By a small
majori
ty,
the
idea
of
a
comp
lete
'free
-for
-all '
wa
s d
efea
ted .
S
ma
ll s
ho
ps are allowed to open
on
S

undays
f
or
as l
ong
as they like,
but large shops
and
supermarkets can on ly op en for a
maxim
um
of
six
hour
s.
I W hat
are
the
d
ifferences
(
if
an y)
between
the
present role of trade unions in Britain and their
role in your country?
2 H
ow
can banking be such an

important
pan
of
the British ec
onom
y
when
som
e British people
d
on't
even have bank accounts?
3 Here is an extract from a
book
written by a
Frenchman
who
has spent a long time living in
Eng land :
Continentalsarealways discon
certed
by the
Engli
sh
uuitude
tow
ork
. They
appea
rneither to

view
it asah
ea
ry
burden
impos
ed
by
fate
. nortoemb
race
it asa s
acr
ed
obligation.
Effo
rt is a matterof personal choice, and
pa
ymen
t simply a quidproquo.
(fr
om
Les
Anglai
s by
Phillip
e
Daud
y)
Do y

ou
find the British attitude to
wor
k confus-
ing ? In your
cou
ntry,
do
pe
opl
e see
work
as a
'h
eavy
b
urde
n '
or
a 'sacred obligation'
(or
someth ing else) ?
4 In
your
countr
y. do shops Slay open for m
ore
or fewe r hours a week than they do in Britain?
Do yo u th
ink

the de
-re
gulati
on
of shop
open
ing
hour
s is a good thing?
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16
The media
British
peopl
e watch a lot
of
television. They arc also re
porte
d to be
the world'smost dedicated
home
-video users. But this
doe
s not
mean that they have given up reading. They are the
wor
ld's third
biggest
new
spaper buyers;

on
ly the Japanese
and
the Swedes buy
mo
re.
The
imp
ortance
of
the national press
Newspaper publication is d
omina
ted by the national press, which is
an indication
of
the comparative weakness of regional identity in
Britain (see chapter
f).
Nearly 80% of all households
buy
a copy
of
one of the main national papers every day. There are more than
eighty local and region al daily
paper
s; bu t the total circulation
of
all
of them together is much less than the combined circulation of the

national 'dailies', The only
no
n-national papers w ith significant cir-
culations are published in the evenings.
wh
en they
do
not c
omp
ete
with the national papers,
which
always appear in the mornin gs.
Most local
pap
ers do not appear on Sundays. so on that day the
do
min
ance
of
the nation al press is absolute. The 'Sunday papers' are
so-called because that is the only day on which they appear. Some of
them are sisters
of
a daily (published by the same company)
but
employing separate ed itors
and
journalists.
The

mo
rning
new
spaper is a British househ
old
institution ; such
an important one that, until the laws
we
re relaxed in the early 199° 5,
newsagents were the
on
ly s
ho
ps that we re allo
wed
to o
pen
on
Sundays. People could not be expected to do without their newspa-
pers for even one day, especially a day
wh
en there was m
or
e free
tim e to read them . The Sunday
pap
ers sell slightly
mo
re copies than
the national dailies and are thicker. So

me
of them have six or more
sections making up a total
of
well over
200
pages.
Ano ther
indicalion of the im parlance
ofthe
papers' is the morning
'paper round'. Most new sagents organize these , and more than ha
lf
of
the country's readers gel th
eir
morning paper delivered
to
their
d
oor
by a tee
nag
er who gets up at aro
und
ha
lf
-past five every day in
order
to

earn a bit
of
extra
poc
ket money.

The
national papers and
Scotland
There is an exception
to
the
domi
n-
ance of the national press
throughout Britain. This is in
SCOl
-
land. where
one
paper, the
Sunday
Pos
t. sells well over a million copies.
Another
weekly.
Scotland
on
Sunday.
also has a largc circulation. There are

three other
notable 'Scotland only'
papers.
but two
of
these, the
Clesgev
H
erold
and the
Scots
man,
are quality
papers (see page
I
p)
with small
cir
-
culations and the other, the Daily
Record,
is actually the sister paper
of
the (London)
Da
ily
Mirro
r.
The other
national British papers are all sold in

Scotland. altho ugh sometimes in
special Scottish editions.
15
1
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152 16The media
Different
approaches,
different
subjects
Here arc some det ails
of
the front
pages of
some
nati
onal
d ailies for
one date (21) March
1993).
For each
paper. the first line is the main
head
-
line
and
the
figures in brackets are
the
height

of
the letters used f
or
it.
• T
he
Sun
I'V
E MES SED UP MY LIF E
(Hcm
high)
Topic: an interview
wit
h the
Duchess
of
York
Total text on page: 1
I) I)
wor
ds
(one
article)
•
Th
e Daily
Mirror
£S m FERGIE'S
HIJA
CKED

OUR
CHA RITY (3.I)
em)
Topic: the activ ities of the Duchess
of York
Total text on page:
240
+ words
(two
anicles)
The two types of national
new
spaper
Each of the national papers can be characterized as belong ing to
one
of
two distinct categories. The 'quality papers' ,
or
'broadsheet
s',
cater for the better educated readers. The
'p
opular paper
s',
or
'tab
-
loid
s',
sell to a

mu
ch larger reader
ship
. They contain far less print
than the broadsheets
and
far
mor
e pictures. They use larger headlines
and
write in a simpler style of English.
Whil
e the
bro
adsheets devote
much space to politics and
oth
er 'serious' news, the tabloids concen-
trate on 'hu
man
interest' stories,
whic
h often mean s sex
and
scandal!
How ever, the broadsheets do
not
comp
letely ignore sex and
scandal or any other aspect

of
public
lif
e. Both types of paper devote
equal am
ou
nts
of
attention to sport. The difference between t
hem
is
in the treatm ent of the topics they cover, and in
whi
ch topics are
given the most p
romin
ence (
e-
Differ
en
t
ap
p
roa
c
hes,
dr
ffe
rent
subj

ec
ts).
The reason that the quality newspapers are called
bro
adsheets and
the
pop
ular
one
s tabloids is because they are different shapes. The
broadsheets are twice as large as the tablo ids.
It is a mystery why, in
Britain, reading intellig
ent
pap
ers
shou
ld
need
highly-developed skills
of
pap
er-folding! But it certainly seems
10
be the rule. In 1989 a
new
paper was published, the SundayCorr
es
pon
d

ent
, advertising it
self
as the
cou
ntry's first
'qu
ality tabloid '. It closed after one year.
~
How
ma
ny do t
hey
se ll?
Daily
pap
ers
Sund
ay
Pap
er
s
millio ns
millions
4
0
S
un
Newsof
the

Wo
rl
d
Da
il
yMi
rror
'"
Sun
day
Mirr
or
DailyM
ai
l
-
People
-
D
ai
lyExpress
-
Mai
lon
Sunday
-
S
tar
-
Sunday

Expr
ess
-
Dai
ly
Te
legraph
-
S
unda
ySp
ort
•
Guard
ian
-
Sund
ay
Times
-
Ind
epen
dent
-
lun
d
ay
Te
legraph
-

T
ime
s
-
O
bserver
-
Financ
ia
l
Tim
es
•
Ind
ependent onS
unday
-
•
Th
e Daily Express
MI
NIST
ER
URGES
SCHOO L
CO NDOMS (3 em)
Topic: gov
ernment
cam paign
to

red uce te
ena
ge pr
egna
ncies
Total text
on
page: 260 +
wo
rds
(three articles]
• The Times
South Africa
had
nucl
ear
bombs
,
admits
de Kl
erk
( t. 7 em )
Total text on page: 1
,9
° 0 +
word
s
(five articles)
•
Th

e
Guardi
an
Serb sh
ellin
g h
alt
s U N airlift
(1.7
em)
Topic: the wa r in the form er Yugo-
slavia
Total text on page:
t
.900
+ w
ord
s
(four articl es)
• The Daily Telegraph
T
or
y Maas
tri
ch
t rev
olt
is beat
en
off {r.ccm)

T
opi
c: discussi
on
of the Maastricht
Treat}' in Parliament
Total text on page: 2. 100
+
wo
rds
(five arti cles)
* Thi s is the com bined figure fo r the
Daily Mirr
or
and the Daily Record
The
graph
s abo ve s
how
the
app
roxi -
mate average
dailycirculation
figures for national nev
vspapers in
the carl}' 1990s. You can see that the
tabloid s sell about six times as ma n}'
cop ies as the broadshee ts. This .
• tabloids

• broadsheets
how ever, is an im
pro
ve
ment
on past
decades. In 191)0, f
or
examp
le. they
sold
twe
nty
times
as many. E
duca-
tion seems to be having an effect on
peopl e's read ing hab its.
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The characteristics of the national press: politics
The way politics is presented in the national newspapers reflects the
fact that British political parties are essen tially parliam
ent
ary
organ
-
izations (see chapter 6) . A
lthough
differen t
paper

s have
diff
ering
political outlooks,
non
e
of
the large newspapers is an organ
of
a
political party. Many are often obviously in fa
vour
of
the policies of
this
or
that party (and even
more
obviou
sly against the policies
of
another party). but
none
of
them
would
ever use 'we' or 'us'
to
refer
to a certain party

(
e>
P
aper
s
and
politic
s).
What counts for the
new
spaper publishers is business. All
of
them
are in the business first and foremost
to
make m
one
y. Their
primar
y
concern is
to
sell as
many
copies as possible
and
to attract as
mu
ch
adverti sing as possible . They normally

put
selling copies ahead
of
political integrity. The abrupt
turnabou
t in the stance
of
the Scouish
editi
on
of the Sun in early 1991 is a
good
example. It
had
previously,
al
ong
with
the Conservative party
whic
h it
no
rma lly supports, vigor-
ously
oppo
sed any idea
of
Scottish independence or
ho
me rule; but

w
hen
it saw the opinion polls in early 199 1 (and bearing in
mind
its
comparatively low sales in Scotlan
d),
it decided to change its
mind
completely (see chapter 12
).
The British press is co
ntro
lled by a rat
her
small n
umb
er
of
extremely large multinational
companie
s. This fact helps to explain
two notable features.
One
of these is its freed
om
f
rom
int
erf

erence
fr
om
governmcnl influence,
whic
h is virtually absolute. The prcss is
so
power
ful in this respect that it is
sometim
es
ref
erred to as 'the
fourth estate' (the ot
her
thr ee being the C
ommon
s, the L
or
ds and
the
mo
narch). This freedo m is en
sured
because there is a general
The press: politics [
5"
3

Pap

er
s
and
p
olitic
s
None
of
the big nation al newspapers
'belongs' to a political part y.
How ever, each paper has an idea
of
what kind
of
reader it is appealing
to
and
a fairly predic table political
outlook. Each can therefore be seen.
rather simplistically, as occupying a
certain position on the
right-
left
spec
trum
.
As rOll can see, the right seems to
be heavily
over
-represented in the

national press. This is not because
such a large
majorny
of
British
people hold right-wing views.
It is
part
ir
because the press tends
to
be
owned
by Conse rvauvc part)' sup-
porters. In an)' case. a large nu
mber
of readers are not '
·crr
Interested in
the political coverage of a paper.
They buy it for the sport. or the
human
mrercst stories. or for some
oth er reason .
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154 16 The
media
~
Sex and
scandal

Sex and scandal sell newspapers. In
September 1992,
when
there
were
plenty
of
such stories
aroun
d invol-
ving famous people
and
royalty .
sales
of
tabloids
went
up by
122,000. But in October, when
stories
of
this kind had driedup, they
fell by
more
than 200 ,000. Even the
quality Observergot in on the acr. On
II
October 1992, its magazine
section featured nine pages of
photos

of
the
pop~star
Madonna
taken from
Sex
(her best-selling
book). That week . its sales were
74,000
greater than usual. The next
Sunday, without Madonna, they
were
exactly 74
,000
less than they
had been the week before.
feeling in the
country
that
'freedom
of
speech ' is a basic constitu-
tional
righ
t. Astriking e
xamp
le
of
the im
po

rtan ce
of
freedom
of
speech occurred du ring the Second W
orld
War. D
urin
g this time,
the
country
had
a coalition go
venun
ent
of
Conservative and Labour
politicians, so that there was really no
opp
osition in Parliament at
all. At on e time, the cabinetwanted to use a special
wartim
e regulation
to
temp
or
arily ban the
Da
ilyMirr
or,

which
had
been consistently
critical
of
the government. The Labour parly , which until then had
been completely loyal to the go
vernment
,
imme
diately d
emand
ed a
debate on the matter, and the other national papers, although they
disagreed
with
the
opini
ons of the
Mirror,
all leapt to its d
ef
ence
and
opposed the ban . The
government
was forc ed
to
back d
ow

n and the
Mir
ror
continued
to appear
through
out
the war.
The characteristics
of
the national press: sex
and
scandal
The ot
her
fea
tur
e of the nat ional press w
hich
is partially the result of
the c
omm
ercial interests of its
own
ers is its shallowness. Few other
European countries have a
popular
press which is so
'lo
w'.

Some of
the tabloids have almost given
up
even the pretence of dealing
with
serious matters. Apart from sport , their pages are full of lutle except
stories
abou
t the private lives
of
famous people. Sometimes their
'stories' are
not
articles at all, they are just excuses to s
how
pictures
of
almost naked women . During the I 980s, page
thr
ee
of
the Sun
became
infamo
us in this respect and the
wo
men w
ho
posed for its
pho

tographs became kn
own
as 'page three girls'.
The desire to attract
mor
e readers at all costs has meant that ,
these days, even the broadsheets in Britain can look rather
'p
opular'
wh
en compared to equivalent 'quality' papers in so
me
other
countr
ies.They are still serious newspapers containing hig h-
quaht
y
articles
whose
presentation
of
factual
inf
ormati
on
is usually reliable.
But even they now give a lot
of
coverage
to

news with a 'human
interest' ang le
when
they have the
opport
un ity. (The treatment by
The
Sun
day
T
imes
of
Prince Charles
and
Princess Diana is an example -
see chapter 7.)
This
emp
hasis on revealing the details
of
people's private lives has
led to discussi
on
abou
t the possible n
eed
to restrict the freed
om
of
the

press. This is because, in behaving this way, the press has found itse
lf
in conflict with anot
her
British
prin
ciple
whic
h is as strongly felt as
that
of
freedom of speech - the right to privacy. Many journalists
now
appear to spend their t
ime
trying to discover the
mo
st sensa-
tional secrets of well-
know
n personalities,
or
even of ordinary
peo
ple
who,
by chance, find themselves
conne
cted
wi

th so
me
newsw
orthy
situation. There is a widespread feeling that, in doing so, they behave
too
intru
sively.
Complaints regarding invasions of privacy are dealt with by the
Press C
omp
laints
Commi
ss
ion
(PCC). This organization is
made
up
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of
newspaper editors and
jour
nalists. In other
word
s, the press is
sup pose d
to
regulate itself. It follows a Code
of
Practice

whi
ch sets
limits
on
the extent to
wh
ich newspapers should publish det ails of
peop
le's private lives. Many
peo
ple are not happy
with
this arrange-
ment
and va
rious
governme
nts have tried to fo
rmu
late laws
on
the
matter. However, against the right to pri vacy the press has success-
fully been able
to
oppose
the concept of the public's 'right to know '.
Of
course, Britain is
not

the only country where the press is con -
trolled by large
com
panies
with
the same single aim of making
profits. So
why
is the British press more frivolou s?The answer may
lie in the func tion
of
the British press for its readers. British adults
never read c
om
ics. These
pub
lication s,
whi
ch consist entirely
of
picture stories, are read on ly by children. It
wo
uld be
embarr
assing
for an
adu
lt
to
be seen reading

on
e. A
du
lts who want to read so
me-
thing very
simp
le, w ith plenty
of
pic
tur
es to help them , have almost
nowhere
to go but
the
nat ional press. Most
peop
le do n 't usc news-
papers for
'serious'
news. For this, t
hey
turn
to
another so
urce-
broadcasting.
BEHIND
SERB
LINES

::~'~snia
Examp
les
ofso
me
we
ll-
known
we
ekl
y m
ag
a
zin
es
The press: sex and scanda l l S"l)"

The
re
st
ofth
e press
If you go
into
any well-stocked
newsagcm's in Britain . you will not
only
find newspapers. You will also
see
rows

and
rows
of
magazines
catering for almost every imaginable
taste and specializing in almost
every i
maginab
le past ime.
Among
these pu blications there arc a few
weeklies dealing with news and
current affairs. Partly because the
national press is so predic table (and
often so trivial) ,
some
of these
periodicals
manage
to
achieve a cir-
culation
of
more
than a hu ndred
thousand.
The
Economist
is
of

the
same
type as
Time,
Newsweek,
Der
Spiegel
and
L'Expres
s.
Its analyses.
however
, are generally
more
thorough.
It is fairly obviously
right-wing
in its views.
but
the
writing
is
of
very
high
-quality and
that is
why
it has the
reputation

of
being
one
of
the best weeklies in the
wo
rld.
The
New
S
tatesmen
and
Society
is the
lcfi
-wtn
g equivalent
of
The
Economist
and is equa lly serious and well-
wri
tten .
Private
Eye
is a satirical magazine
whic
h makes fun
of
all

panics
and
politicians. and also makes fun
of
the
mainstream press. It specializes in
political scandal and , as a result. is
forever
defending
itselfin legal
actions. It is so
omrageous
that
some
chains
of
newsagems
sometimes
refuse 10 sell it. Although its
humour
is
often
very
'schoolboyish'.
it
is also
well-written
and it is said that no
politician can resist reading it.
The

country's
bestsell ing maga-
zine is the
Rad
ioTimes, which, as well
as listing all the television and radio
programm
es for the
com
ing wee k,
contains
some
fifty pages
of
articles.
(Note the typically British appeal
(Q
continuity in the
name
'Radio
T
imes'.
The magazine was first
pub-
lished before television existed and
has never
bothered
to
update
its

mle.)
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156 16The media
Bro
adca
sting
Hause,
headqu
arters
af the
BBC
High ideals and independence
The
ref
erence
to
one man in the
inscription on the right. which is
fou nd in the entrance to Broad-
casting
House
(headquarters
of
the
BBC). is appropriate. British politi-
cians
were
slow
(0
appreciate the

social significance
ofthe
wireless'
(this is wha t the radio was generally
known as until the 19 60s). More -
over,
bein
g British, they did not like
the idea
of
having to debat e culture
in Parliament. They
were
only too
happy 1O leave the matter
[0
a sui t-
able organization and its director
general. John (later Lord) Reith.
Rei th was a man w ith a mission.
He saw in radio an opportunity for
'education ' and initiation into 'high
culture' for the ma sses. He included
light entertain
me
nt in the prog r
am·
mingo but only as a
way
of

capturing
an aud
ience
for the
more
'impor
t-
ant'
programmes
of
classical
music
and drama, and the discussions
of
various topics
by
famou s academ ics
and authors w
hom
Reith had per-
suaded to take pan .
The BBC
Just as the British Parliament has the reputation for being 'the mother
of parlia
me
nts' , so the BBC
might
be said to be ' the
moth
er of

inf
ormation services'. Its reputation for impartiality and objectivity
in n
ew
s reporting is, at least
when
compared to news broadcasting
in many other countries. largely justified. Whenever it is accused of
bias by one side of the political spectrum, it can always point out that
the other side has complained
of
the same thing at some other time.
so the complaints are evenly balanced. In fact, the BBC has often
shown itself to be rather
proud
of
the fact that it gets complaints from
both sides of the political divide, because this testifies not only to its
impartiality but also to its independence.
Interestingly,
though,
this
ind
ep
end
ence is as
muc
h the result
of
habit and

comm
on agreem ent as it is the result
of
its legal status. It
is true that it depends neither on advertising nor (directly) on the
government for its incom e. It gets this from the licence fee
whic
h
everybody who uses a television set has to pay. However, the govern-
ment decides h
ow
much
this fee is going 10 be, appoints the BB
e'
s
boa rd
of
gove
rnor
s and its direc
tor
general, has the right 10 veto any
THI S TEMPLETO THE ARTS AND MUSES
IS DEDI CATED
TO ALMIGHTY GO D
BY TH E FIR ST GO VER
NOR
S
IN TH E YEAR OF
OUR

LORD 19 3 1
JOH
N RE
ITH
BEING DIRE
CTOR
-GE NERAL
AND THEY PRAY
THAT
TH E
GOOD
SEED SO
WN
MAY BRI NG
FORTH
G
OOD
HARVESTS
TH AT ALL
THI
NGS FOUL OR HO STIL E TO PEACE
MAY BEBANI SHED H ENC E
AND TH AT TH E PEOPLE INCLINI NG THEIR EAR
TO
WH
ATSOEVER
THI
NGS ARE LO
VELY
AN D

HONE
ST
WHATSOEVER
THI
NGS ARE OF
GOOD
REPORT
MAYTREAD THE PATH OF
VIRTU
E
AN D OF WI
SDO
M
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BBC
programme
bef
ore
it has been transmitted
and
even has the
right to take away the BBC's licence to broadcast. In the
or
y. therefore.
it
would
be easy f
or
a
government

to influence
what
the BBC
doc
s.
Nevertheless. partly by historical accident
(
I>
Hig
h
idea
ls
and
independence).
the BBC began. right from
the
start. to establish its effect-
ive
independenc
e
and
its reputat
ion
for impartiality. This first
occurred
through
the
medium
of radio broadcasts to people in
Britain . Then. in 1932 the BBCWorld Service was set

up.
with a
licence
to
broadcast first to the empire and then to other parts
of
the
world. During the Second World War it became identified wi th the
principles of dem ocracy
and
free speech. In thi s way the BBC's fame
became int
ern
ation al. Today. the Worl d Service still broadcasts
around
the globe. in English and in several other languages. In 1986
the Prime Minister
of
India, Mrs IndhiraGhandi, was assassinated.
Wh en her son Rajiv first heard reports that she had been attacked. he
immediately
tun
ed to the BBC World Service to get details that he
could rely O
il.
The BBC also runs five national radio stations inside
Britain
and
several local
one

s (
I>
BBC
radio)
.
Televisi
on
:
org
anizati
on
In terms
of
the size of its audience, television has lon g since taken
over from radio as the
mos
t sign ificant form
of
broadcasting in
Britain. Its indepen
dence
fr
om
government interference is largely a
matter
of
tacit agreem ent. There have been occ asions
whe
n the
gov

-
er
nme
nt has successfully persuaded the BBC not
to
show
something.
But there have also been many
occ
asions
whe
n the BBC has refused
[Q
bow
to
gove
r
nment
pressure. Most recent cases have involved
Northern Ireland. For a
brief
period starting in the late t
980s
. the
govermnent broke
with
the
co
nvention
of

no
n-in terference and
banned the transmi ssion
of
interviews
with
membe
rs
of
outlawed
organizations such as the IRA on television . The BBC's response was
to make a
mock
ery
of
this law by
showing
such interviews on the
screen
with
an actor's voice
(wit
h just the right accent) dubbed over
the
mov
ing
mouth
of
the interview ee!
There is

no
advertising on the BBC. But Independent Television
(lTV). which started in ' 954. gets its money from the advertise-
ments it screens. It consists of a
numbe
r of privately
own
ed
com
panies , each
of
wh
ich is resp
on
sible for programnling in differ-
ent pan s
of the country on the Single channel given to it. In practice,
these companies canno t
aff
ord to make all their own programmes,
and so they generally share those they make. Asa result. it is co
mmo
n
for exactly the same
prog
ramme
to be
show
ing on the lTV channel
th

roughou
t the
country
.
When
commercial television began, it was feared that advertisers
w
ould
have
too
mu ch control over programming and that the n
ew
channel w
ould
exhibit all
the
wo
rst features
of
tabloid journalism .
The Labour party, in opposition at the time
of
its introduction, was
Television : organization I
~7

BBC
radi
o
Radio 1 began broadcasting in

1967 . Devoted almost entirely
to
pop music, its birth was aSignal that
popular you th culture cou ld no
longer be ignored by the country's
established
ins
un
uions. In spite
of
recent competition from independ-
ent
comme
rcial ra
dio
stations. it still
has over ten million listeners.
Radio 2 broadcasts mainly light
music and chat shows .
Radio 3 is devoted
to classical music.
Radio
4-broadcasts a variety of pro-
grammes. from plays and
comedy
shows
to
consumer advice pro-
grammes and in-depth news
coverage.

It has a small but dedicated
followi ng.
Radio 5 is largely given over to
sports coverage and news.
Two particular radio programmes
should be mentioned. Soap operas
arc normally associated with televi-
sion. but
The
Arch
ers is actually the
longest-running soap in the world .
It describes itselfas 'an everyday
story of country folk'. Its audience,
which is mainly
mid
dle-class with a
large proportion
of
elderly people,
cannot
com
pare in size with the
television soaps. but it has become
so famous that everybody in Britain
knows about it and tourist attrac-
tions have been designed to
capitalize on its fame.
Another radio 'institution' is the
live co

mme
ntary of cricket Test
Matches in the slimmer (see
chapter
21) .
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158 16 The media
absolutely against it. So
were
a
nu
m
ber
of
Conservalive
and
Liberal
po liticians. Over the years,
howe
ver, these fears have proved to be
u
nfo
unded. Comme rcial television in Britain has not deve
loped
the
habit
of
show
ing progra
mme

s sponso red by manufactu rers. There
has recently been some relaxat
ion
of
this policy, but advertise rs have
never had the influence over program ming that they have had in
the USA.
Most importantly for the structure of com
merc
ial television, lTV
new
s pro grammes are not made by individ ual television companies.
In
dep
endent Television News (I
TN)
is owned jointly by all
of
them .
For thi s and o
ther
rea
son
s, it has always been protected from
com-

The
four
channe
ls

These are the channels which all viewers in the co untry receive.
Advertising
N o Yes
No
Started 1982
Yes
Early
weekday
mornings
A ra
ther
relaxed style of news
magazine punctuated with
more
formal news summaries
Open
University
programmes
A very informal
breakfast sho w
Mornings and earlyafternoons
Late afternoons
Evenings
Popu lar discussion programmes.
quizzes. soaps and a relaxed type of
magazine programm e, usually with a
male-female pair of presenters
Children's programmes,which vary
greatly in style and
cont

ent
News (including regional news
programmes) and the most popular
soaps.dramas.comedies,films and
various programmes of light
entertainment and general interest
Educational programmes, some
aimed at schools and
others
with
a m
or
e general educational purpose
Gen
era
l docum
entar
y and features
Documentar ies and programmes
appealing to minority interests;
drama and 'alternative'
comed
y;
comparatively serious and 'in-d
epth
'
news programmes
Open
University
(late at night)

Weekends
Much of weekend afternoons are devoted to sport. Saturday evenings include
the
most
popular livevariety shows.
13,;;,1,14'
Started in 1997 lt is a commercial channel (it g
ets
its money
from advertising) which is rece ived by
about
two-thirds of
British hou seholds. Its emphasis is on entertainme nt (for
example , it screens a film every night at peak viewing time).
However, it makes all other types of programme t
oo
.
Of particular note is its unconventional presentation of
the
news,which is designed to appeal to younger adults.
There is also a Welsh language channel for viewers in Wales.
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mercial influence. There is
no
sign ificam difference between the style
and
content
of
the
new

s
on
lTV
and
thai on the BBC.
The same fears
abou
t the
qua
lity
of
television
progr
ammes
that
were expressed
when
lTV starred are
now
heard with regard
to
satellite
and
cable television.This time the fears may be more justified ,
as the
comp
anies that run satellite
and
cable television channels are
in a sim ilar commercial and legal position to those

which
ow
n the
big ne\vspapers (and in
some
cases are actually the same companies).
However, only abo ut a third of
hou
seholds receive satellite an
d/or
cable, and so far these channels have not significantly r
edu
ced the
viewing figures for the main national channels.
Televisi
on
: style
Although the advent
ofITV
did
no
t affect television coverage of new s
and current affairs,
it
did cause a change in the style
and
content
of
other
programme

s shown on television. The
amount
of money that
a television
compan
y can charge an advertiser depends on the
expected
number
of
viewers at the time
when
the advertise
ment
is to
be shown. Therefore, there was pressure on lTV from the start
to
make its
ou
tpu
t popular. In its early years lTV captured nearly three-
quarters
of
the BBC's audience. The BBC then resp
ond
ed by making
its
ow
n
prog
rammes

equa
lly accessible to a mass audience. Ever since
then , there has been little significant difference in
what
is sho
wn
on
the
BBC
and commercial television. Both
BB
CI and lTV (and also
the
more
recen t Channel 5) show a wide variety of pr
ogramm
es.
They are in constant
compe
tition with each other to attract the
largest audience (this is kno
wn
as the ratings war). But they do not
each try
to
s
how
a m
ore
popular type

of
prog
ram me than the
other. They try instead to
do
the same type
of
prog
ramme
'better
'.
Of
particular
importance
in the rating s
war
is the p
erf
or
mance
of
the channels' va
riou
s soap operas. The
two
most
popu
lar and long-
running
of

these,
which
are
shown
at least twice a
wee
k, are
not
glamorous American
productio
ns s
howing
rich and powerful
people (al
tho
ugh series such as D
all
as
and
D
yna
sty are
somet
imes
shown).
They are lTV's
Coro
nat
io
nSt

ree
t, which is set in a
wor
ki
ng-
class
area near Manchester, and BBC1's
Ea
stEnd
ers,which is set in a wor king-
class area ofLo n
do
n. They, and
oth
er British
-made
soaps and p
opu
lar
comedies, certainly do not paint an idealized picture
of
Hfe. Nor are
they very sensational
or
dra matic. They depict (relatively) ordinary
lives in relatively ordinary circumstances. So why are they popular?
The answer seems
to
be that th
eir

v
iewe
rs can see themselves and
other
peo
ple they k
now
in the characters and , even m
or
e so, in the
things that
happen
to these
char
acters.
The British prefer this kind
of
pse
udo
-realism in th
eir
soaps. In the
early
I
990S,
the BBC spent a lot
of
money
filming a
new

soap called
Eldorodo,
set in a small Spanish village
which
was
home
to
a large
number
of
expatriate British
peo
ple. A
ltho
ugh
the BBC used its
mo
st
Television:
,>ty
k I
~9

Glu
ed
to
th
e
gogg
le box

Aslong ago as
191)
1. it wav
c:
urnatcd
that
rwc
ntj-
million
viewer

watched the
BBC\
cmc'rage
of
the
coro
nation
of
Queen
Elizabeth II. By
197°
.9+
%
of
B
nush
households
had a television set
(kno

wn collo-
qu ially as a 'goggle box '). mostly
r
ented
rather than bought. Now.
99%
of
h
ome
hold s ow n or rent a
television and the most
pop
ular pro -
grammcs
are watched by as
many
people
as claim to read thc Sun and
the
DailyMirrorc
ombined
.
Television broadcasting in Britain
has expanded
to
fill C\"CT}' p
an
of
every day of thc week. One
of

thc
f
our
channel (lTV) never takes a
break (it broadcasts for twenty-four
ho urs) and the
othe
rs broadcast
from around six in the
morning
until
after m idnight. A survcy
reported
in
early
[99
+ that +0%
of
British
people watc hed
more
than three
hour
s of television cvery day: and
[6% \vat
chcd
seven hours or more!
Television
new
s is watched every

day by more than half
cfthc
popu
la-
tion. Asa result , its prcscntcrs are
among
the best-kn
own
name
s
and
faces in the
wh
ole country - one
of
them
once boasted that he was
mor
e
famous than royalty!
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I
60
16
The
m
edi
a

Th

e
ratin
gs: a
typical
we
ek
The ratings are
dominated
by the
soaps
(Coronation
Street,
EastEnd
ers,
Neighbours
and
Emmerdale)
and soap-
style dramas (
Casualty,
which is set
in a hospital, and
The
Bill,
which
is
about
the police) . Light-entertain-
mcnt
talk

shows
also feature
prom
-
inently (e.g.
This
Is
Your
Life,
Barrymore
and
Noel's
House
Party) and
quiz
shows
are
sometimes
very
popular
(e.g.
Countdown).
It is unusual
that on ly one
comedy
programme
appears
below
(Red
Dwarf). Certain

cinema
films can also gel
high
ratings
(marked
**below) . Science
fict
ion
remains a
popular
genr
e;
Quantum
Leap
and
Red
Dwarf
are both
long
-runn
ing series. Sports pro-
grammes
appear in the top ten
when
they feature a particular sporting
occasion . This
happ
ens frequently.
There is on e exa
mple

in the list
below (TheBig
Figh
t
Live
).
The list inclu des just one repres-
entative of
'h
igh
culture'
: the dram -
atization
of
the nove l
Middlemcrch.
by
the
nine
teen th century au
thor
Geor ge Eliot. There are tw o docu -
mcn tancs. a travel series (G
reat
RailwayJ
ourney
s) and a science series
(
Horizo
n).

TheAnnq
ues
Rccdshow comes from a
differen t location in the country
every week. In it, local people bring
al
ong
ob
jects from their houses and
ask experts
how
muc
h they are
w
orth
.
Apart from the films,
there
is only
one American programme in the list
below (
Quan
tumleap).
Characters from
'Coronat
ion
Str
ee
t'
The to p twenty television programmes in the first week of February 1994

millions of viewers
10 II
11
IJ
14
15
16 17
18
19
C
or
onati on
Street
"
EastEnders
*
Casualty
This is Your
Li
fe
Three Men and a
Li
ttle Lady**
The
Bill
*
Barrymore
The
Bi
g Fight

Li
ve
Noe
l's House Party
Emmerdale
Antiques Roadshow
Neighbours*
The Pope Must Die**
Countdown *
She Knows Too Much**
Mi
ddlemarch
Quantum Leap
Red Dwarf
Great RailwayJourneys
Ho rizon
• lTV • SSC I • Chann
el4
• SSC 2
* Average for the week (programmes shown m
ore
than once a wee k)
**
Fil
m
Sou
rce:
BARB
(Broadcasters' Audience Research Board Ltd)
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