Mapping The Media Essay

A British Media, National Style

Introduction

[We] should not expect those parts of broadcasting that exist to inform, educate and possibly even entertain to be run in the interests of maximising profits and returns to shareholders (The Guardian, 1st September 2003)[1]

Andrew Graham was talking about how the nation should run broadcasting in Britain. However even if he doesn’t mean to, is it currently in this nations means to not only follow the guide of Public Service Broadcasting for the shows we see on TV but for British film too?
Furthermore does Britain have not a national cinema style but, a national media style? To find out we will have to compare ourselves to one of the most infamous cinema stages, Hollywood.

What Is Public Service Broadcasting?

In 1926 the Crawford Committee outlined the objectives for our Public Service Broadcasting. Their goal should be to educate, inform and entertain their audience while being universal to the entire population, therefore programming should be produced creatively to the highest cultural, artistic and technical standards.

The BBC is Britain’s first and regarded as our main PSB station on TV. Set up in 1922 by John Reith , he saw an opportunity to bring high culture to the masses. Even though back then the BBC wasn’t government run, it reflected their views. Currently due to income from licensing fees the BBC is free from advertising

In 1955 Britain was given a third channel, ITV and in 1977 the Annan Committee recommended that a forth channel should be made, and it was in 1984. In response to this third channel, Asa Briggs, BBC governor said this. “Our aim to inform, educate and entertain cannot be fulfilled unless we retain the attention of the mass audience as well as important minorities we will learn to compete”

In 1994 the view of which channel claimed the most viewing showed that ITV took the largest share of 35% followed by BBC 1 with 28%, Chanel 4 and BBC 2 with 14%[2]

A good example of Public Service Broadcasting is soap operas like Eastenders and Emerdale. The hit the main criteria for public service broadcasting, the show include controversial issue, which educate and inform the mass audience and subjects, while entertaining them with the situation, outcomes and acting. They have seen great success as Eastenders was first aired in February 1985, and in January this year drew 6.5 million viewers the screen (www.guardian.co.uk/media)

What is a national cinema style, and what would ours be?

To look into the artefact means to find out what element in the film text constitutes a national cinema, what gives us the ‘Frenchness’, ‘Chineseness’ etc, of a film. It is something elusive but real. It is the aura... However, with production becoming the order of the day, it means very little to define a national cinema by the place where the money comes. Therefore a national cinema has a local feel, but can be cheated when produced or funded by the outside.
A national cinema style will often be about local history, films that identify the particular country. In our case, Britain shows us to ourselves, and the experiences of British people. Social Realism is the most typical of British film genres, picked up from the exposure of Dickens and Thomas Hardy.

The style of realism in our cinema reflected the tastes of a mainly southern middle-class audience, therefore had connotations of education and seriousness. As working class audiences favoured Hollywood genre films.

In the 1940s the current world war was represented in many films. Films like In which we serve (1942 and Millions Like Us (1943) where rationing air raids and unprecedented state intervention in the life of the individual encouraged a ‘one nation one goal’ philosophy[3]
Post-war there were tensions of Americanisation and the growth of a consumerism society. Films like Passport to Pimlico (1949 and The Titifield ThunderBolt (1953) showed the threat to current values from growing corporatisation.

The new wave cinema, in the 60’s saw a lift of censorship. Films saw people having sex lives, money worries and social problems. It was symptomatic of art cinema challenging the current values in society and how cinema was representing them. It saw a shift of how roles were represented. The male was seen to be without hope in a society that was closing down industrially and culturally. They were working class, desperate and at times vulgar. This image has carried on strongly through our cinema up to date in films like High Hopes (1988) and The Full Monty (1997)

In 1979 the Tories came to power and turned their sights to our film industry. As they targeted homosexuality in our society, by striping their rights in 1988 hatred for right politics and Margret Thatcher grew. In the cinema Derek Jarman who was funded by the Arts Council created new contemporary film art which included David Hockney, Peter Greenaway and John Laybury, fighting a gay movement with his work. This was an era know as The New Romantics where art was in a form that protested the government by exotic young punks.[4]
However it can be contested that a national cinema can only be present if it is dominating the local cinema. “Since the end of world war one, it has been the case that one national cinema – that of the USA – has dominated vitually all others. This has meant that the cinemas of most other countires have in some way or other had to accommodate to the realities of a world film industry... In 1924 some 25 per cent of films exhibited in British Cinemas were British... Thus, in 1992 the US had a 92.5 per cent share of the British exhibition market while British films accounted for only 4 per cent”[5]

With numbers of British films being exhibited how can it be said that national cinema exist in this country. To me it sounds more like a world cinema style.

Britain’s national media style

There are some obvious similarities between the way in which Britain produces programming and film. PSB’s mandate to inform, educate and entertain can be seen even though it isn’t enforced on British film. If Social realism is our national cinema style, then how it looks back at our history, shows current society and represents the people is very similar to how we expect our programming to inform, educate and entertain for a mass British audience, and represent the minorities.

A National media style would be how a local body uses media, like film and television to reach their audience. To give them what they want from the media, by experience and president from their media history.

If we were to say that Britain had a National Media Style, it would be a mandate that audience should receive a representation of Britain, and to learn more about ourselves and relations to other countries.

Evaluation

It is clear that Britain has a Public Service Broadcasting Service that is upholding its mandate and still receiving adequate ratings. However weather Britain has a National Cinema Style is debatable. ‘The idea of British National Cinema has often been linked, virtually by definition, to discourses of nationalism and myths of national unity.’[6]

Whether or not a national cinema style must be clearly defined is questionable, however weather Britain has a national media style is dependent on whether u need a clearly defined view on what Britain sees as a national cinema so that you can relate it to other media we have.
Personally I think that there is a well defined PSB institution in this country. This form of national cinema underestimates a national cinema that unites us with our past and present experience and culture. And I think the amount of British art exhibited in our cinema doesn’t effect whether we have a national cinema, but that we have art that is clearly view as Britishness.

Bibliography

Andrew Graham, The Guardian, 1st September 2003
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/30/tvratings.television?gusrc=rss&feed=media
V. Vitali. Theorising National Cinema. British Film Institute. 2006. Pg 102Television: The Public’s View 1994. And ITC Research publication. 1994
[1] Andrew Graham, Broadcastong Society and policy in the Multimedia age, The Guardian 1st September 2003. D.Dodd, The role of Public Service Broadcasting Powerpoint, slide 16
[2] Television: The Public’s View 1994. And ITC Research publication. 1994. Pg 19
[3] Social Realism Introduction Lecture Notes.
[4] 1980s Jarman Lecture Notes
[5] V. Vitali. Theorising National Cinema. British Film Institute. 2006. Pg 102
[6] Ibid Page110