The company had a commercial mission at the beginning, which was to sell radio sets. However, According to Liberal Historian, A.J.P. Taylor, Reith turned it into a crusade. He described that Reith used ‘the brute force of monopoly to stamp Christian morality on the British people’. “He was to exhort his staff to dedicate themselves to ‘humility in the service of higher pursuits. The desire for notoriety and recognition’, he warned, ‘sterilizes the seeds from which greatness might spring.’ This ability to impose his will on staff was helped by his size. Churchill nicknamed him ‘Wuthering Heights’ and senior staff would stand on stairs to argue with him, ‘so that I can see you eye to eye, Sir’. His administrative styles, and indeed his private diary, were characterized by abuse. Memoranda sent to Reith would return peppered with ‘rubbish’, ‘stupid’, and ‘soft minded idiocy ’, ‘he lies’. Frequently he saw his life in nautical terms: the Corporation was a ship and he was at the helm. He was pompous, humourless, arrogant, and, like most megalomaniacs, paranoid and self-pitying.” (Seaton, 2003: p.110)
However, it is undeniable that the contribution of Reith to the early BBC was significant. “Reith developed strong ideas about the educational and cultural responsibilities of the national radio service. He saw its potential as ‘contributing consistently and cumulatively to the intellectual and moral happiness of the community.’ ” (Martin, 1999)
After being reformed in 1927, the British Broadcasting Company was replaced by the British Broadcasting Corporation, a ‘Public Commission operating in the National Interest’. “During a decade of depression and industrial decline, the BBC grew, quadrupled its staff, raised salaries, and acquired vast buildings.” (Seaton, 2003:p.121) Apparently, the BBC was becoming a powerful institution in which people felt proud of working for. However, John Reith remained to be the General Manager of the corporation, and his administrative style remained too. “The BBC was more intentionally autocratic in its treatment of its own staff. Reith would banish rebels from the centre of the empire to the periphery. Indeed by 1937 the only doubts about the Corporation’s monopoly were centred on the rights of its staff.”(2003: p.122) A Staff Association was eventually set up in order to protect the BBC’s staff and it was the first time the BBC’s workers had an organized representation. On the other hand, women status in the BBC had been slightly improved between 1926 and 1936. According to the BBC’s annual report, the number of women in creative position had increased and in administrative position had risen too. Even though most of the women were still secretaries, the proportion of female to male on the staff was described ‘good’.
As we can see from all above, during the period between 1922 and 1939, from the former BBC--the British Broadcasting Company to the new British Broadcasting Corporation, the limitation of the ‘inside’ BBC was the style Reith administrated the company -- brute, as a result his staff rarely had their rights to oppose his opinion or decision. The strengths were the scale of the BBC had improved, gotten better, in terms of its largely increased number of staff and acquired vast buildings. Besides, more and more working opportunities for women had been provided by the BBC, despite there were restriction on their job positions.
Strengths and limitations ‘outside’ the BBC
As what have been mentioned early on, when the original BBC was formed, it was almost considered as John Reith’s ‘private company’ and its goal was to sell radio sets--- a totally commercial mission. The mission, however, failed at last because firstly many listeners evaded the tariff on wireless sets by building their own sets with foreign components which were much cheaper; secondly Reith personally turned it to somewhere else. As the growth of Reith’s ‘personal company’, his higher purpose was growing too.
According to an exceptional wartime (the First World War), “centralized control of health, insurance, coal, and ultimately the rationing of food had been introduced.” (Seaton, 2003: p.112). Despite there were oppositions, the tendency to ‘Public Service utility’ could not be encumbered. Moreover, the Post Office, as a nationally run business, had been successful. It was indeed a very good example and model of centralized control of resources. Reith was then determined that the BBC must serve the whole nation in order to defend the Corporation’s monopoly and he rejected commerce because it would have diminished his empire and lowered its status. On the other side, “The British government realized on the basis of the American experience that broadcasting was a new kind of resource whose management demanded a new form of administration.” And “the government was anxious not to exercise unfair patronage by granting a monopoly to any one commercial company.” (Seaton, 2003: p.113)
Based all the factors above, therefore, the ‘private’ British Broadcasting Company was finally replaced by the ‘public corporation’, the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1927. The strength of the new BBC was obvious because it had enormous significance to the contemporary society, was described “wholly in keeping with the British constitution, and it is more and more common to find it quoted as a possible model for the management of other national services for which private control and direct state management are equally unsuitable”. (Hilda Matheson, 1933) Furthermore, The BBC did not consider profits as its purpose, the distance between itself and capitalist inheritance was attracted by socialists who used the BBC as a prototype of the public corporation.
To deal with the relationship with the government, “The BBC was founded on a rejection of politics. From the start of broadcasting there had been anxieties that the service would become an agency of government propaganda.” However, “Reith believed that the BBC should be above the politics”. (Seaton, 2003: p.113) He insisted on BBC operational independence from any political pressures.
The General Strike in 1926 had tested the interpretation of the BBC. During the General Strike, the absence of newspapers the BBC started broadcasting five news bulletins a day. Quickly realising the potential importance and power of the new wireless medium, the government felt that it had the right to commandeer the BBC, and began to move to regulate the BBC by turning it into a public corporation. But “Reith argued that if the BBC was taken over the strikers would merely close the service down.” (2003: p.113) The BBC kept gaining its freedom from the government during the 1930s, but it could never completely obtain its independence due to the financial threat by government. Nevertheless, the BBC always maintained its principle as there were programmes involving political.
Overall, the BBC had become from a ‘private’ business company to a model for the management of other national services and a useful institution for the society during 1922 and the late 1930s. Although it made no profits, its positive effect on the whole British public corporation was significant. Meanwhile, the BBC never stopped struggling for its independence from politics, though it was extremely difficult.
In summing up, from 1922 to 1939, the strengths of the BBC were it had finished a massive modification: The scale of its institution had become larger, the respect of women had slightly improved and more importantly, it had become a public corporation served the whole nation. On the other hand, however, there were limitations as well: the BBC’s staffs were still facing the problem of their rights protection and its political freedom ambition had not finally achieved.
[Words: 1664]
Bibliography
A. Briggs, P. Cobley (2002), the Media: An Introduction. Pearson
J. Curran& J. Seaton (2003), Power with Responsibility. Routledge
J. Martin (1999) Who's Who in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press
http://www.bbc.co.uk/heritage/story/1920s.shtml
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/international/uk.html
http://www.connected-earth.com/Journeys/Telecommunicationsage/Awirelessworld/Broadcasting/JohnReith/johnreith (1889-1971).htm
http://www.connected-earth.com/Journeys/Telecommunicationsage/Awirelessworld/Broadcasting/TheBBCbecomesacorporation/thebbcbecomesacorporation (1927).htm
