7. Assess the role of the mass media in Britain during the inter-war period

The first 200 words of this essay...

7. Assess the role of the mass media in Britain during the inter-war period.

It is impossible to assess the media's role in the inter-war period without firstly understanding the main source of news in this era.

Within this essay I intend to look at the changes in perceptions of the media by the public and government and also the main incidents and characters with helped shape this new opinion.

Although newspapers were widespread throughout Britain a combination of economic circumstances and low literacy rates meant that only a percentage of the population would be aware what was happening in the country as a whole.

The medium of radio, and one company in particular, was to change the face of modern mass media.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was initially the British Broadcasting Company, an organization consisting of a number of wireless manufacturers, which went on air in 1922.

It did not have a government dictation of what to air so could therefore have aired anything that would have made wireless sets sell. However, the director of the company, John Reith did not agree with this view and took the