Mary Whitehouse thought that things were getting so bad that she resorted to set up a campaign ‘Women of Britain Clean Up TV Campaign’. This suggests that there must have been ‘Bad influences’ as she had to take matters into her own hands by setting up this campaign. If affairs were not that bad then it would be a long process of setting up the campaign if it was all for nothing. There must have been some legitimate reason for bothering with the campaign as setting it up would not be worthwhile otherwise. Therefore Mary Whitehouse does believe with all her fellow supporters that there were ‘bad influences on British society.’
The source also tells us that the issue raised by Mary Whitehouse must have had a huge impact on the public otherwise a top newspaper like the Daily Mail would not bother with the story. Many others must have supported her views as the fact that the article was published would have meant that the newspaper knew many readers would identify it. Therefore this shows many others may have been supporting Mary Whitehouse’s view on ‘built in censorship’.
There are limitations to the source which make it not as useful as it may have been. Firstly the article is base on Mary Whitehouse and her views on BBC programming. There are no other views mentioned apart from hers and they therefore can be bias as she will give only her view which in this case is completely one sided. Others may disagree to her views and she may only be the one person in the campaign supporting the ‘Women of Britain Clean Up TV Campaign’. Nothing is certain in this source as she is very bias in her opinions.
Mary Whitehouse is promoting her campaign through the newspaper and therefore will try again to be bias and against television programmes in the 1960s just to get publicity. She wants to raise the awareness of her campaign and therefore may exaggerate the truth just to get support on her side. The article is mainly all for publicity and the views raised in the article are probably overstated.
Another limitation to the source is that it is an article published in the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail was and still is right wing in its readership. They support the views of conservatives very strongly and therefore would not publish anything to contradict the opinions or feelings of the conservative readers. Due to this reason the issues raised in the article by Mary Whitehouse are right winged and so are biased. The other newspapers may have different opinion on the topic and so this source is extremely one sided for two reasons. The Daily Mail as it is a conservative paper and the school teacher on whom it is based upon.
In the 1960’s the programmes on the BBC were fine. Many people felt they improved the opportunities for young people especially. Only a minority of people were against the BBC and the cases they made against the BBC were unfair and had no real evidence to support their cases on the bad influences bought on by television.
Source G supports the argument that ‘some people came to see the 1960s as a period of bad influences on British society.’ Source G is part of a biography for the singer Janis Joplin. The secondary source was published in the 1990s. Some people may be influenced by this source in saying that the 60’s had a shocking effect on the lives of many.
Janice Joplin was a ‘national star’ who was a rebellious teenager. She took drugs and died due to this in an overdose in the 1970s. As a ‘national star’ she would have been respected by many and be seen as an idol by a number of teenagers. For this reason they may have been influenced by Joplin’s actions, resulting in the fans taking drugs. They would see their role model take it and therefore feel safe themselves to take it.
Nothing of this sort would have happened previous to the 60s as drugs were not as commonly used. During the 1960s drugs became more and more widely used as people thought it was a trendy thing to do. They did not know the effects of drugs on health and therefore the usage of them in the 60s increased rapidly. This could be a reason for some people believing there was a bad influence in the 1960s.
Janice Joplin was a rebellious teenager in the 1960s. She may have represented other teenagers at her time as they could have also been disobedient. This would show that the 1960s changed the lives of teenagers in negative ways. Teenagers before the 1960s were fine and as the new opportunities for them developed they became more rebellious.
