Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

British Broadcasting: Radio and Television in the United Kingdom
ISBN: 9780816663958
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / University of Minnesota Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: History;

British Broadcasting was first published in 1956. Those interested in the uses and abuses of the airwaves frequently indulge in lively debates over the merits of British broadcasting policies and practices as compared to their American counterparts. Most such arguments, however, are based on scanty knowledge of actual facts about British broadcasting. Now this gap of information is remedied by the comprehensive survey which Dr. Paulu presents in this book. He traces the development of both radio an television broadcasting from their inception in Britain to the present and assays the results. Dr. Paulu did the basic research for this volume as a Fulbright scholar in London in 1953-54, when the new Independent Television Authority was being debated in Parliament and the British Broadcasting Corporation was laying its plans to meet competition. While he frequently compares British and American practices, the author believes that broadcasting must be studied in its own national setting. He treats the subject, therefore, in the British context rather than the American. He describes the development of the BBC as a noncommercial public corporation with a monopoly of British broadcasting and reviews the factors that led to the emergence of the commercially supported ITA. He places major emphasis on program descriptions but also discusses audience reactions, staff and technical facilities, and finances. The book offers valuable data for students and teachers in communications courses as well as for those engaged in radio or television on either side of the Atlantic.