Page 153 - Culture Society and the Media

CULTURE, SOCIETY AND THE MEDIA 143
available titles, this economic logic has had important effects on press coverage
and style at both the ‘quality’ and ‘popular’ ends of the market.
James Curran’s research, for example, has highlighted the impact of
advertising on the coverage of the ‘quality’ papers as they compete to offer
advertisers a conducive ‘editorial environment’ for their products. By way of
example he cites the case of financial advertising, arguing that the concentration
on advertisements for personal investment schemes is matched by an editorial
focus on share advice and Stock Exchange dealings which unintentionally
produce a misleading picture of modern capital and the corporate economy
(Curran, 1978, p. 239–45). Among the ‘popular’ papers, the effects of
advertising dependence are even more pervasive. Here, the accelerating search
for the largest possible audience has produced a marked decline in overt
partisanship (and particularly in support for left of centre positions within the
Labour movement) and a concentration on the non-contentious and consumer-
oriented areas of leisure and personal life (see Murdock, 1980). Another
interesting example of advertisinginduced withdrawal from class and controversy
is provided by the history of American television drama. In the years
immediately after the war, drama slots were dominated by anthologies of single
plays, many of which dealt with working-class life. While these were popular
with audiences and regularly attracted high ratings, they increasingly worried
advertisers who saw plays with lower-class settings as damaging to the images of
mobility and affluence they wanted to build up around their products.
Accordingly, in 1955 they begin to switch their sponsorship to the action-
adventure series that were beginning to emerge from the old Hollywood studios.
The business advantages were obvious. ‘Drama moved outdoors into active,
glamorous settings. Handsome heroes and heroines set the tone—and some
proved willing to do commercials, and even appear at sales meetings and become
company spokesmen’ (Barnouw, 1978, p. 107). The series also had distinct
advantages for the production companies. The fact that they contained the
minimum of dialogue and the maximum of action made them ideal export
material. They were intelligible anywhere that audiences were familiar with
Hollywood westerns and thrillers. Where the American studios lead, everyone
else has followed in varying degrees, and the international market is now central
to the economics of commercial television. It enables companies to cut costs
(through co-production agreements) while massively increasing their potential
sales to other broadcoasting organizations. At the same time it imposes certain
constraints on the themes that can be profitably dealt with. In addition to
actionadventure series on the American model (such as ‘The Persuaders’ and
The Avengers’), British television’s most successful drama exports have been
historical series that capitalize on the dominant overseas images of England such
as the interest in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and the fascination with the
English Royal Family and upper class. The economic imperatives of the
international market therefore create a further interruption to the perfect