The Media in Culture and ( British ) Society

Theoretical Approaches

What is the role and influence of the media in modern society? How does it contribute to, create, direct or represent that society's 'culture'? Consideration of the role, influence and development of the Media in Society and Culture involves addressing fundamental questions about Culture and Society themselves.

The insight of various thinkers into the social and cultural role of the media has been underwritten by presuppositions which are, in turn, informed by points of view on what constitutes society and culture.

How do we conceive of a society? Is it an organic whole, more than the sum of its individual members? Do we see society in terms of a number of social groups, organised in terms of "class", economic activity, access to and control of forms of power, knowledge and beliefs?

How also do we conceive of the concept of "Culture"? As a set of rituals, practices, beliefs and values which are shared by a whole society? As the expression of the interests and values of particular social groups? Or as a combination of all the individual practices, beliefs and forms of behaviour?

Amongst twentieth century sociologists, anthropologists and cultural critics the discussion of the Media has been underwritten by the attempt to answer these questions, principally because of the nature and scope of the "mass media" itself, its influence as a powerful force for maintaining social cohesion, for constructing or reproducing social consciousness, as a mediator of values and beliefs, and as the major sources of information and means of information control within modern societies.


The Media and Culture

The issue of the role of the social role of the media is inextricably connected with issues of Culture, because the media is a major contributor to the cultural forms within society. However, this immediately poses the question, what do we mean by culture?

Arguments about what Culture is, if it can be defined as any one thing, have been central to the discussion of the role and influence of the media in society. The media are certainly the most influential mediators, representers and purveyors of values, beliefs and social practices within society. They produce "our" collective identity, they reflect or reproduce "our" sense of collective national identity, speaking for society as a whole.

An alternative viewpoint is to see the media as speaking for only dominant social groups and cultural values. A composite view is the cultural pluralist view, that the media has the task of reflecting or representing the contrasting cultural perspectives and cultures within a society, such as those of ethnic minorities and religious faiths. Arguments about the role of Channel Four are very relevant here.

The argument about the cultural role of the media has been dominated by the argument that it is the media which produces "popular culture", for a "mass audience", as distinct from "serious culture" for a discriminating audience".

The whole area of "Popular" or "Mass" Culture is extremely contentious, for the terms are often taken to signify "lowbrow" cultural products, designed for an undemanding and undiscriminating "mass" audience, who uncritically watch or read for the purposes of escapism, titillation, and confirmation of personal prejudices and wishfulfilment.

Certain critics take the argument further, identifying "mass culture" with working class culture, possible with the accompanying lament that a more authentic, valuable and various working class 'folk' culture has been lost, to be replaced by a culture of quiz shows and 'soaps'.

The advent of new forms of broadcasting, especially cable and satellite television, as with videos, has raised similar issues of cultural mediocrity and "pandering to the masses". However, does "Popular" or "Mass" culture necessarily imply a decline in cultural standards? Note the media's role in popularising or introducing "High culture" to a "Mass Audience".

Following on from this is the vexed issue of whether or not the media audience is simply passive, uncritically consuming the versions, values and beliefs which the media present as the audience's own? Or is the audience to be regarded, rather, as discriminating, critical, and actively involved in negotiating, retrieving or rejecting the meanings and values produced by the media?

Does the media direct, reflect or create "popular" taste and values? Does the media give us the "culture" we want or the culture we deserve? In constructing answers to these questions we are also constructing answers to wider questions about ideology, social consciousness, and "our own" beliefs and values.


Ownership of the Media : Press and Broadcasting

" The key structural determinations on the operation of the media are the economic imperative for capital accumulation (profit) and the regulation by the state through such forms as laws, charters and the appointment of personnel in regulatory bodies."

uncredited in original


Newspapers

Ownership of newspapers is beyond the regulation of the Monopolies Commission, but restrictions on what is printed exist via the Press Council, the Libel Laws, and the Official Secrets Act.

Newspapers were a very significant instrument in the mercantile challenges to aristocratic dominance in the eighteenth century, and the provincial commercial press provided the middle class voice of opposition to the metropolitan political newspapers, whose allegiance was to the aristocratic landowning state.

Since the beginning of this century the tendency has been for the production and ownership of the 'Free Press' to be increasingly dominated by multinationals such as Thomson, Pergamon press, and Rupert Murdoch's 'News International' Group. At present 95% of national newspapers are owned and controlled by the leading five firms.


Public Capital: The BBC

Broadcasting has always been subject to strict state regulation owing to the relative scarcity of broadcasting frequencies. The BBC was formed in 1922 as a consortium of wireless manufacturers who were to provide programmes for broadcasting within the strict terms laid down by the PostOffice and the state, and to be financed from the sale of licences.

In 1926, following the General Strike, the Company received its Royal charter to form as a public broadcasting corporation ( "a state regulated and state sponsored public corporation which was not yet subject to detailed state control" ).

This state of 'licensed independence' has continued since 1926, despite crises at times of political crises ( e.g. Suez, the Falklands, the Libyan bombing and the Iraq War ), principally because the BBC is economically dependent on the state.

Politically the BBC is constitutionally separate, with the Royal Charter (to be renewed in 1996) declaring its constitution of 12 governors, appointed by the privy Council for a fiveyear period. They in turn appoint (and oversee) the Director General. Governors have, over the years, been criticised for the tendency for them to be appointed from within the 'Establishment', the "Great and the Good".

Economically the BBC is funded out of general tax revenue (with the licence fee being paid to the Treasury via the Post Office) which is voted on by Parliament. Economically, therefore, it is a state institution, as its resources are those of state capital: it cannot, for example, diversify into Motorway Service Stations ( like Granada ), although it can run 'Enterprises, such as BBC books.

The state gives it a grant which is voted on by parliament the BBC only received 100% of licence fee revenue after 1950. It is, effectively, a public corporation which is only accountable to the state, and not to Parliament.


State Mediated Capital the IBA

Independent Television was set up in 1955. The state retained some control by establishing a regulatory body, the I.T.A. (renamed the I.B.A. after 1972 with the launching of Independent Radio), which was in turn part of the brief of the Home Office. The IBA has a wide range of functions and responsibilities:

  1. transmission of programmes ( the IBA owns the transmitters and charges rental for their use );

  2. selection and appointment of companies ( the IBA controls the franchises of 15 regional companies, the breakfast franchise of TVAM and the Network News franchise of ITN.; Channel Four is a wholly owned subsidiary of the IBA, formed in 1982 );

  3. regulation of advertising to avoid the excesses of American style programme sponsorship; the IBA allows 'spot advertising', limited to 6 minutes per hour of broadcasting

  4. supervision of programme planning, to ensure taste, balance, and coverage of areas such as current affairs, Religious, Arts and Children's broadcasting; and

  5. administration of the Levy which prevents excessive profits being made from advertising revenue.

One result of this structure has been the practice of 'networking', and the predomination of the big five companies. The IBA has little influence on programme production.

Channel Four and S4C started broadcasting in 1982. These are both wholly owned subsidiaries of the IBA, financed from the ITV companies. They recoup this through the selling of advertising space on the 'Fourth' channel in their region. Channel Four does not make programmes, but commissions or buys them, including 'Channel Four News', commissioned from ITN.

Increasingly Channel Four has been perceived as being caught between the ITV Companies' demand for profits, and the interests of the 'disenfranchised' or underrepresented interests which the Channel was to represent under the terms of its contract.

For detailed breakdowns of ownership patterns and interests see Alvarado et al, Learning the Media, pp. 6275


"Culture"?

Possible definitions might include the following:

  1. A Culture is the expression and representation of a society's "whole way of life", its customs, rituals, artefacts, patterns of economic and social relationships, as part of a total or collective society. This anthropological approach to cultures does not take full account of marginalised, heterogeneous and "underground" forms of cultural practice and expression: "the" French culture; ancient Egyptian culture.

  2. A Culture consists of all the forms of symbolic expression and representation of particular (competing, conflicting or coexisting) groups within a society, including its rituals, customs, practices, artefacts, etc. How might this apply to an understanding of "Working Class Culture"?

  3. A narrower definition of Culture refers to certain forms of privileged artistic practices and skills, as a set of moral and intellectual values embodied in and manifested through the Arts. This is the commonest understanding of "Culture", but one which has been increasingly challenged in recent years for its implicit elitism.

    When discussing "culture" the vast majority of critics are concerned with forms of leisure pursuits, ( Fine Art, Football, courtship rituals ), rather than other forms of productive activities, such as business management or the manufacturing of goods.

    Predominantly also "Culture" has been considered as referring to forms of symbolic activity or production, such as games, artefacts or rituals which perform the functions of identifying, authenticating or bonding together individual members within a group, class or society.


    Source: http://www.newi.ac.uk/medwyn/medwyn.html


    NB: The latest version of this paper by Medwyn Jones ( 3/95 ) has been edited by Russell Naughton in 1997 due to the current unavailability ( 3/97 ) of a number of links to other works.

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