This essay aims to address the role of the BBC in the past, at the beginning, and see how this contrasts with its position in our society today.

What role did the BBC play in the past? Include a discussion of public service broadcasting in your answer. What is the role of the BBC now?

When you type the three letters ‘BBC’ into Google, the website description encapsulates the vision of the BBC today: “Breaking news, sport, TV, radio and a whole lot more. The BBC informs, educates and entertains - wherever you are, whatever your age”. This mission has a history, it has grown with us, outlived many of us, and has become part of the fabric of a now hugely multicultural British society. So how did it all begin, when did it become so iconic, and does ‘it’ do what it’s supposed to do? This essay aims to address the role of the BBC in the past, at the beginning, and see how this contrasts with its position in our society today.

Defining the BBC, it stands for the British Broadcasting Corporation; a public service broadcaster that has allowed the viewing pleasure to millions of British, events around the world since the first television news broadcast in 1936; events like the 1953 coronation, the famine in Ethiopia, to nightly viewings of the horrific and devastating conflict in Vietnam. It is the largest public servicing broadcaster in the world.

In an annual review published for the year 2000-2001:

“The BBC exists by Royal Charter as an independent broadcaster producing high quality, advertising- free programmes for the full range of licence payers. To safeguard its independence from commercial or political influence, it is funded by the licence fee and overseen by a board of directors”

On January 1st 1927, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) took over the works of an amalgamation of companies which had initially formed the 4year old British Broadcasting Company. The charter of this new corporation gave definition to public service. Initially, according to Scannell & Cardiff (1991) the concept of public service was fixed onto “an initial pragmatic set of arrangements between the Post Office and the British radio industry to establish a broadcasting service that would create a market for radio receiving apparatuses” The funding for this public service broadcaster was guaranteed through broadcast receiving licenses, and the sale of wireless’ through the Post Office.

Public service is not an easy service to define, or to put into practise. The Broadcasting research unit talked about 8 principals of public service broadcasting in 1985, as they still held relevance and similarities to those of 1945:

“Broadcast programmes should be available to everybody (geographic universality), should cater for all interests and tastes, and should make particular provision for minorities (especially the disadvantaged). Broadcasters should ‘recognize their special relationship to the sense of national identity and community’, should be distanced from all vested interests, particularly the government, and should be liberated rather than restricted by the public guidelines for broadcasting. One main broadcasting organization should continue to be funded by ‘the corpus of users’ (that is to say, the licence fee, or something like it) and broadcasting should be structured so as to encourage competition in good programming rather than for audience numbers” (BRU: 1985)

The BBC, alongside any Public service broadcaster, has always needed to be as impartial as possible, in order to allow for an opinion to be formed within the public sphere. Thornham et al. talk about the public sphere as being a “layer located within civil society that sits between government and the people” (1999) This public sphere is a space where information is disseminated, and issues and ideas of public interest are advertised, shared concerns are debated, and public opinion can be formed objectively. In order to maintain a hearty democracy, this notion contributes (then and now) greatly to allow ...

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In the early years of the BBC, it was greatly admired for its broadcast of national and international news, as well as entertainment; the British connection to a world beyond the bounds and limits of the nation’s everyday lives. However, this output was not always enjoyed and the corporation has spent its lifetime facing accusation and criticism from outside parties. This, one can say, has not only given the corporation strength, but has also allowed for adjustments to be made to enhance its output, its material, and its impartiality. Andrew Crisell (1997) notes that the BBC faced criticism for being undemocratic and elitist; despite the fact that it set out to serve the public through mixed and varied programming. He argues that this is due to the “shifting and paradoxical notions of ‘democratic’” (Crisell: 1997) Either the BBC set out to give the people what they wanted, and due to limited resources and individual tastes, this didn’t reach everyone. Or, following the idea that democracy meant giving the majority what they wanted, the minority missed out altogether.

The establishment of public service broadcasting coincided with the vote finally being conceded to all adults. This meant society became a mass democracy, and a nation state, a collection of individuals patriotic to their country and home. Evidently the BBC adhered to the embodiment of a nation state, a sense of national pride – through reporting on the war, the royal family, and national news stories. The reporting of the Second World War (1939-1945) served more than one purpose; it fostered this idea of nation state, it bought us into one compassionate, suffering entity. Also, it gave us a sense of what it means to be British, this ‘patriotism’. Moreover, it drew attention to the fact that the BBC was a monopolistic entity, and this led to ongoing questions as to its political stance and government persuasions with regards to what was told, and what was held back. Nevertheless, “The BBC emerged from the war with immense prestige and popularity. For the next 10 years it basked in it’s monopoly” (Seymour-Ure: 1991)

In spite of this, it is argued by Chapman (2009)“The fact that the BBC was forced under it’s license conditions to avoid controversial programming also led to a narrow form of reporting”. The language used in the early news broadcasts could be classed as banal. In fact, the whole broadcast was then; black and white, no news reader for fear of a shift away from objectivity through an unexpected facial expression. During the years that followed the war BBC recognised a need to connect with the public whilst they communicated to them; to transform the mass audience into people with individual ideas, beliefs, tastes and aspirations. In 1954 Richard Baker was the first news reader since the introduction of television news in 1936. The ongoing aim of public service broadcasting was, and still remains, to inform. The key here is that news information does not properly inform unless it is accurate. “Principal, as well as expediency, therefore ensured that public service broadcasting was to be impartial” (Seymour-Ure: 1991)

Initially the BBC gained its status as a national broadcaster because it was the only broadcaster between the years of 1927 – 1955; no one had anything to compare it to. Then, the path that lay ahead was unknown; no one knew what to expect and to use the words of Lord John Reith, it was a “voyage in unchartered seas”. It’s visions and missions as a public service were not comparable to any other entity. That was until commercial Television came into play through the Television act shortly after the introduction of ‘televised and reporter read news’ in 1954. This gave the go ahead for commercial TV.

The BBC was no longer the only broadcaster after this, though they remained the only public service; all this meant was an extra demand on gaining viewers. However, based on the fact that they were an established household name, were advertising free, therefore remained impartial to outside commercial and governmental pressures this wasn’t a major concern. According to the 2000/2001 annual review, BBC services in 2001 reached 94% of the population in the UK¹. Despite growing competition, even today, the BBC is deep rooted in our media habits; 88.4% of all UK households watch BBC Television every week¹.

To continue this discussion, the BBC aimed to not only transmit information, initially through the wireless, then onto Television, but also to entertain and to provide an education to the masses. Though a monopoly, independent of both state and market, in the Beveridge report of 1949, under article 27 it stated “Any government Department can require the corporation to broadcast any announcement or other matter desired by it”. A contradiction in terms of the idea of state independence as supported through the notion of Public Service Broadcasting.

As members of the public, we are entitled to access to the public sphere; its “open in principal to all citizens” (Habermas: 1989). It always was and again remains in the interest of the BBC to act without judgement, political favouritism and with ethical impartiality in order to serve the public as an entity whom are free to chose what they believe based on media which is both objective and diverse. Though we experience the media transmission individually, it is not wholly private, and our individual consumption does not prevent the consumption of another. As a public service broadcaster the BBC, from its birth, has had an obligation to open its arms to the British Public it was serving and continues to serve.

In the current social world we are living in, unanimously here in Britain, the BBC is known by economists as a public good. Today, the BBC reflects “the ups and downs of life in the UK-from the pain of floods, rail chaos…..to our pride at the Olympic games” (BBC Review2001) It is a trusty medium, when we watch a history of the BBC we feel a kind of patriotism, it is resonant of the United Kingdom, its history gives it a firm grounding in the media world, and it keeps expanding to adhere to the growing needs and tastes of an ever evolving multi cultural Britain.

Now the BBC must be responsive; not only to technological advancements but also to be able to broadcast events and images which could be controversial public issues, as well as hyper sensitive government issues, whilst remaining impartial and objective and while acting within the public’s best interest. It produces the shows we talk about like ‘Eastender’s’ and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, the radio we listen to like radio one; it provides an opportunity for us to learn and challenge our minds, like BBC 4, and it speaks to a multicultural United Kingdom, with the Asian network, and 1extra radio.

In the current move to a digital world, the possibilities for the public, essentially as consumers, become almost limitless. We have choice so much so that we are entering a throwaway society; materials, and ideas, are produced to be replaced, or even upgraded.

To return to the early words of Lord John Reith, public service broadcasting, and namely the BBC could be taking a “voyage in unchartered seas” today, and in the future, as discussions on the primary functions of public service broadcasting are coming under threat. What has always been paramount is its functionality as a transmitter and enforcer of cultural and citizenship notions, ideas and beliefs. These should not be “subordinate to economical and commercial criteria” (Born & Prosser: 2001) both in transmission and in determining the future of public service broadcasting. Recently, and as discussed in an article published in the Law Review, Born & Prosser (2001) argue that “broadcasting is becoming an essentially commercial activity determined by consumer preferences”

Some may argue that the BBC has a commercial Subdivision, BBC Worldwide. However, the profits are ploughed back into the BBC to contribute to its running and broadcasting; Public service broadcasting is resource rich and it requires sizeable funds to be able to conform to norms and goals of the model it presents itself to be. In a report by the BBC chairman, Michael Grade addressed concerns that Public service broadcasting may become commodified; “with profitability the sole measure of its worth”. Although no longer a monopoly, whilst still in direct competition with other broadcasters, the BBC has intrinsically embedded itself into British culture and has grounding incomparable to any other public service broadcaster around the world.

What it needs to do now is continue to strengthen these networks in the face of competition, and also to satisfy the public consistently and impartially so that the 33million households in the UK who pay the license fee are informed, educated and entertained. It must continue to service the public by utilising technological advancements, and give us groundbreaking news stories from elsewhere in the world, that shake our own. And, at the same time, enhancing the solidarity it created through broadcasting moments Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the moon in 1969; an event that shook the science of space and the wider universe and was watched by 600million people worldwide.

Aside from the uncertain future, as Swann (1978) said of the BBC, “Monopolistic bodies have a tendency to become over mighty”. The BBC has managed to maintain this ‘over mighty’ dominance here in Britain; when buying a new television, or even switching on the old one, which Channel is tuned it at Number 1?

References:

Born, G & Prosser, T. (2001) Culture and Consumerism: Citizenship, Public Service Broadcasting and the

BBC’s Fair Trading Obligations The Modern Law Review 64, 5

Broadcasting Research Unit (1985) The Public Service Idea in Broadcasting London: BRU

Chapman, C & Kinsey, M. (2009) Broadcast journalism: A Critical Introduction London: Routledge

Crisell, A. (1997) An Introductory history of British Broadcasting London: Routledge

Grade, M. (2004) Building public value Renewing the BBC for a digital world (Internet) Available at (Accessed 14th December 2010)

Great Britain. (2001) BBC Review of the Year 2000/2001 London: British Broadcasting Corporation

Great Britain. Parliament. (1951) Report of the Broadcasting Committee 1949 London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office

Habermas, J. (German(1962)English Translation 1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society Cambridge Press

McDonnell, J. (1991) Public Service Broadcasting A Reader London: Routledge

O’Malley, T. (1994) Closedown? The BBC and Government Broadcasting Policy, 1979-1992 London: Pluto Press

Scannell P & Cardiff, D. (1991) A Social History of British Broadcasting: Volume One 1922-1939 Oxford: Basil Blackwell

Seymour-Ure, C. (1991) The British Press and Broadcasting since 1945 Oxford: Basil Blackwell

Swann, M. (1978) The BBC's External Services under threat? : address by Sir Michael Swann, chairman of the Governors of the BBC, to the Royal Society of Arts, Wednesday 11 January 1978 London: British Broadcasting Corporation

Thornham, S et al. (1999) Media Studies: A Reader Edinburgh University Press

50 years of BBC News (2004) Wembley: BBCVID Technicolor Distribution Services

Elizabeth Papanastasiou PAP01005224Page