Page 67 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

The public service duopoly, comprising by 1982 four channels
(BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4) lasted until the late 1980s, when
the flowering of cable and satellite technologies, reinforced by the
Conservative government’s policy of broadcasting deregulation,
began to erode it. By 1999 British viewers already had access to
dozens of television channels, most of them financed by subscription
revenues and advertising. With the introduction of digital TV in
1998, Britain was well on the way to becoming what America had
already been for many years: a multi-channel broadcasting
environment.
Unlike the press, British broadcasting has always been subject to
close regulation, both by legal means and through regulatory bodies
such as the Independent Television Commission, the Broadcasting
Standards Commission, and the Broadcasting Complaints
Commission. These monitor the performance of the broadcasters to
ensure that it is consistent with public service criteria such as good
taste, diversity and, of particular relevance to the present discussion,
political impartiality.
The 1990 Broadcasting Act requires broadcasters to observe ‘due
impartiality’ in their coverage of political issues, ensuring ‘adequate
or appropriate’ balance during and between election campaigns, for
party and non-party political actors (McNair, 1999). This requirement
does not extend to political organisations which, like the Provisional
IRA and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland before the
conclusion of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, adopt
unconstitutional campaigning methods.

DEMOCRACY AND THE MEDIA

We have already referred in general terms to the important role
assigned the media by liberal democratic theory. As Nimmo and
Combs put it, ‘historically, the mass media were heralded as the
ultimate instruments of democracy… [They] were destined to unite,
educate, and, as a result, improve the actions and decisions of the
polity’ (1992, p.xv). Of broadcasting, Scannell and Cardiff observe
that the BBC’s role, from its very earliest years, was to create ‘an
informed and reasoning public opinion as an essential part of the
political process in a mass democratic society’ (1991, p.8).
The media’s democratic role would be fulfilled, on the one hand,
by journalists’ adherence to the professional ethic of objectivity in
reporting the facts of public affairs. Objectivity implied a clear

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