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Telling Stories: Sociology, Journalism and the Informed Citizen 167

There one hears the patrician tones of the BBC mandarin. But the sentiment
is clear. A different voice is that of Chris Moncrief, the recently retired Press
Association lobby correspondent, who argues that:

For myself I have never yet been able to locate a conscience even if I had
wanted to struggle with it. We are in the business to write stories to sell
newspapers. I think we are part of the entertainment industry at the down-
market end. We do it for the money. And if that serves the public at the end
of the day – well, that’s a bonus (cited in Goodman, 1989: 4).

Whose story do we believe? The twin role of the media in our lives is manifest
and, for the sociologist, it inevitably commands attention. On the one hand, the
media are vast industries on which we spend an increasing and considerable
proportion of our disposable income. On the other they are a major source of the
imagery, values and ideas with which we make sense of the world around us.
On average, adults in Britain now spend 26 hours a week watching television,
and a further 10 hours a week listening to radio. Over half the population read
the three most successful daily newspapers every day. There is no other activity,
except for the exceptionally athletic or the disgustingly lucky, which takes up
more of people’s time.
To what extent, though, do the media keep us informed, parading before us the
great issues of the day, analysed, debated, and provided in full? How much do
we learn of the complex relationship between the intelligence services and the
state in a story about ‘MI5 Wife in Secret Love Split’ (Sun, 18 December 1991)? For
informed insight into Britain’s role in the world and the variety of international
affairs, exploring the subtle nuances of cross-national relations, we can turn to
the complexities unveiled in ‘Up Yours Jacques’ (Daily Star, 24 November 1992).
Equally significant for our understanding of the changing structure of family life
in contemporary society would be such front-page features as ‘Sex Op Sister Stole
My Man’ (Daily Star, 7 December 1992). New patterns of diet and environmental
concern are another matter of great public interest, no doubt highlighted in such
front-page spreads as the story about Beatle Paul McCartney’s wife: ‘Gobsmacca:
Linda’ s Outrage as She Finds Steak in Her Veggie Pies’ (Daily Star, 10 October
1992), while reports and information about urban environment and road plan-
ning can be found in such articles as ‘Man Who Made Love to Pavements’ (Sun,
19 February 1993). The morning after the most stunning byelection and local
government election results for a generation, the front page of Britain’s second
most popular national daily revealed the keynote news that: ‘Bananarama Star in
£300 a Day Mental Clinic’ (Daily Mirror, 7 May 1993).
The increasing conflation of the daily popular press with the entertainment
industry is, of course, nothing new, though it has reached new peaks of intensity
in recent years. In 1992 content analysis by the Communication Research Centre
at Loughborough University of the most popular national daily in Britain, read
by over one in five of the adult population every day, showed 7 percent of front
page stories dealt with political issues of some kind (either national or inter-
national) while 37 percent featured royalty or show business stories. But then we
are not alone: on the day Nelson Mandela returned to Soweto and Europe agreed