Politics and the Mass Media in Britain by Ralph Negrine

Author:Ralph Negrine [Negrine, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies
ISBN: 9781134868315
Google: tMhkmv1Pn68C
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2003-09-02T04:39:28+00:00

Résumé

One of the most insoluble problems which the Real Lives programme generated is whether broadcasters can ever comment on issues of such a controversial nature without bringing protests from all quarters. The reporting of the Irish question is one such area but it is conceivable that reporting other internal or external conflicts or struggles will create similar difficulties. Problems of this nature are part of the general ‘problem’ of the ‘management of broadcasting in a democratic society’.49 How much freedom should broadcasters have, given that they have an almost monopolistic control over the means of mass communication? How ‘responsible’ are they? To whom are they ‘responsible’ for their charge of the enormous power of the medium? And, in areas where the nature of ‘truth’ is itself contested, can broadcasters turn a blind eye to the clamours for more ‘responsibility’, more ‘fairness’, more ‘openness’?

An audio-visual medium attempting to represent ‘reality’ fairly and ‘impartially’ also faces other difficulties. Not only are such concepts very tricky to deal with under normal circumstances but they become points of controversy when the subject matter is itself steeped in controversy. As the leader in The Times on the Real Lives affair put it, the notion of ‘balance’ is ‘“objectionable” if it is meant to imply a moral equivalence between the crimes copiously committed’ by the organizations represented by the two main characters in the programme.50

The Real Lives controversy neatly encapsulates all of these problems. Broadcasters clearly cannot ignore the political and social ‘realities’ which are the eternal backdrops to their work. Indeed, one criticism of the BBC during the whole affair was that it had not been properly attuned to the signs of an impending storm; that it had failed to make a connection between the Beirut hijacking and its own work; that it was still reeling too much from the debate over the licence fee and the prospect of advertising on the BBC to take note of the Real Lives programme and its possible impact on a society well acquainted with some of the consequences of terrorism.

The Real Lives programme probably slipped through a rather complex system of control. The management’s response to this temporary breakdown in the system was to create a post of ‘controller of editorial policy’ in July 1987. One of the controller’s duties is to act as an early warning system so as to circumvent the sorts of difficulties that the Real Lives programme brought to the fore,51 though the Government’s notice of October 1988 has itself reduced the likelihood of such occurrences.

It is important to stress three final points which reveal the nature of the relationship that underpins politics and broadcasting. First, Leon Brittan did not order the BBC to stop the Real Lives programme, even though he had the power to do so. As his letter clearly stated, the BBC is constitutionally independent and acts independently. In this way, the ‘constitutional fiction’ remains alive and well. Second, Brittan’s actions illustrate his own inadequate grasp of the intricacies of the exercise of power.

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