Page 248 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

Chapter 11
Tales of tellyland: the popular press and
television in the UK

Ian Connell

INTRODUCTION
Much concern has of late been expressed about the quality of
information on ‘serious public affairs’ available from the media. Briefly
stated, the concern is that in a variety of ways informative, in-depth and
investigative journalism is being marginalized not just in the tabloid
press, but also in the broadsheets, as well as in television. In its place,
there is an increasing volume of material on aspects of our lives that are
thought of as largely unessential. As evidence, those who are concerned
would cite the growing number of columns devoted to leisure, style and
consumer affairs, to photographs rather than words, and not least of all
to stories about those prominent in the entertainment industries, cinema,
popular music and above all television. What we are said to be
witnessing are essentially private matters being publicly paraded, while
matters of broader, national and political relevance are gradually
receding into the background. There is much about the present situation
which seems to lock people into the private sphere and blocks a
transition to the public one.
It has been proposed that the balance between this sort of material
and informative, public affairs journalism has been tipped irretrievably
in the former’s favour, and that this has already had serious
consequences for the UK’s political system. There are those who see
this tendency further weakening the majority’s already weak
involvement in the political system. In effect, those who see the
developing situation this way assume that a plentiful supply of high-
quality information is a precondition of effective participation in
parliamentary democratic processes.