Page 168 - Culture Society and the Media

158 CULTURE, SOCIETY AND THE MEDIA
broadcasting as ‘a history of crises, each causing a wave of special caution,
sometimes lasting for years, inside the organization.’ Sykes, Crawford,
Beveridge, Pilkington, and Annan—names of the men who headed the
influential Committees which have investigated broadcasting’s structure and
practices in Britain—are names which loom large in the mythology of the
broadcasting organizations. The story of broadcasting is in many ways a history
of how broadcasting organizations set about the task of staying in business. The
actual programmes reveal the institution’s needs as much as the interests of the
audience’ (Smith, 1973, p. 59).
The relationship with government means that the broadcasting organization is
constantly under review, at times under direct scrutiny, and occasionally—at
least in the perception of the broadcasters—under threat. For instance, Sir Hugh
Greene, former Director General of the BBC, has tellingly described the
Corporation’s response to the Pilkington Committee as a ‘battle campaign’ to be
won by ensuring that no public row broke out over any programme during the
period of investigation (Greene, 1969). The ‘battle’ analogy, suggesting that
positions can be fought for, boundaries defined and redefined, hostages
exchanged, and so on, illustrates well the complexity of the positions involved,
and the limits of control exercised by either ‘side’ in what could be described as
a ‘war game’ (rather than a war) where the unwritten rules are as important as
the written.
Because of the close and complex relationship between media organizations
and other dominant social and political institutions, it is arguable that the mass
media will essentially tend to reinforce—even though they may ostensibly, or in
passing, challenge or question—prevailing social and political hierarchies.
Examples of such reinforcement can be found in Britain, for instance, as far back
as the General Strike in 1926 and in current coverage, or lack of coverage, of
events in Northern Ireland.

We discussed the problem of reporting Northern Ireland affairs on many
occasions with people at all levels, and on our visit to the Province. The
BBC told us that they could not be impartial about people dedicated to
using violent methods to break up the unity of the state. The views of
illegal organizations like the IRA should be broadcast only ‘when it is of
value to the people that they should be heard and not when it is in the
IRA’s interest to be heard’. The BBC said that before 1965 they had tried
in their reports on Northern Ireland to maintain a consensus and build up
the middle ground, but when that policy failed they abandoned it. In their
programme in 1972, ‘The Question of Ulster’, they had examined the
range of views in Northern Ireland, in order ‘to bring the information to the
attention of the British public because in the end it was their opinions
which were going to decide’. In considering what should be broadcast the
BBC had intensified the ‘reference-up’ system; and they told us that they
gave particular consideration to the effect of BBC broadcasts on the army