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Example research essay topic: Mass Media British Broadcasting - 2,997 words

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Media Attack: A Consultancy Project on the BBC and the Issues It Currently Faces Outline Title: Media Attack: A Consultancy Project on the BBC and the Issues It Currently Faces Abstract of the Paper Introduction Background of the Client Criticisms to BBC and It Operations Confusion in Ideological Standpoint Exclusion of an Integral Part of the National Audience License Fees Models and Theories of the Mass Media Public Service Model Market Model Agenda- Setting Theory Priming and Framing Recommendations and Consultancy Project Proposals Conclusion Bibliography Media Attack: A Consultancy Project on the BBC and the Issues It Currently Faces Abstract. The importance of information in making daily decisions cannot be more emphasized. Therefore, the institutions that makes this information available or not matter. The British Broadcasting Corporation or the BBC is one of these media institutions. In this consultancy project with BBC, the author identifies three main issues against the BBC. These include the accusations that BBC is either right-wing or left-wing and the resulting confusion thereof; the lack of focus on the news in Wales; and the issue on license fees.

The theories and models of mass media were applied to propose the solutions of point and commitment advertisements, increase in news frequency and cut and eventual eradication of the license fees, respective to order of the issues stated above. Introduction One cannot go about his or her daily work without information. In social institutions like the family, the school and the workplace even the church requires information for some decisions and choices to be made or for some activities to occur. What is important about information is that it could either limit or broaden one's table of alternatives as to course of action one is to follow. In short, information has a major impact in our lives. Perhaps the most known and common source of information in the present context is the media, particularly the mass media.

It is the main channel through which information is transmitted. An important part of the media is its ability to present news in almost all aspects of human life. News about the politics, the economy, about sports and music among many others are reported everyday. This type of information guides peoples expectations and actions in going about the hustle and bustle of daily living. Personally, I think one of the most credible news outfits in the international is that of the British Broadcasting Company, more commonly known as the BBC. I say this as a BBC viewer since every time I get to tune in, I come to the assessment that the news company through its balanced news makes it that they take their accountability to its viewers and listeners seriously.

To go further into the reasons why I would undertake a consultancy job in and for the BBC, it is necessary to present a background of the institution. Background of the Client The British Broadcasting Network or the BBC is the world's largest broadcasting corporation (in BBC website, 2008). It was founded in 1922 by a group of telecommunications companies, namely: Marconi, Radio Telecommunications Company, Metropolitan Vickers, General Electric, Western Electric, and British Thomson-Houston. It was created to air experimental radio services (in BBC website, 2006). It was formally established with the name BBC is 1927 when it ceased to be privately-owned as a condition in the Royal Charter of Incorporation (Start in BBC website, retrieved in 2008).

This charter makes BBC a quasi-autonomous public corporation operating as a public service broadcaster (BBC Royal Charter Agreement, 2007). It is required by its charter to remain free from the invasion of political and commercial interests and to focus its services to its viewers and listeners (BBC Royal Charter Agreement, 2008). In the light of its most recent charter which took effect in January 1, 2007; the BBC had a reevaluation of its prime component which is its public services. This component included the following provisions: (a) sustaining citizenship and civil society; (b) promoting education and learning; (c) stimulating creativity and cultural excellence; (d) representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities; (e) bringing the UK to the world and the world to UK; (f) helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services; and (g) taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television. The crux of this is providing public value in all of its activities. The headquarters of the BBC is located in Portland Place, London, England.

The BBC provides services of news reporting through the BBC News Channel, BBC Parliament, and BBC World News (BBC News and Current Affairs, in BBC website, retrieved 2008). It airs them through its five radio stations named as Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 5 (in the BBC website, retrieved 2008). Its flagship television channels are BBC One and BBC Two. It also makes use of the internet trough its website: web For a long time, the BBC has been the sole source of information in the United Kingdom and this has had major cultural impacts to the British people.

It had and continues to have an effect in the socialization and communication patterns of its viewers. In effect, it has largely defined the track of the pop culture of its audience. It is therefore logical that with this large scope and intensity of an impact the BBC has gained its fair share of criticisms. Criticism to BBC and its Operations The main criticism of the BBC is the confusion as to which side it is on in the political spectrum. In the interest of providing balanced news, the BBC has been criticized as both left-wing and right-wing. The right-core organizations and some pressure groups accuse the BBC of having a bias for the left-wing or in other words, liberalist (in the Center for Policy Studies website, retrieved 2008).

On the other end, left-wing figures and journalist threw comments that in fact the BBC is right-wing in looking at and presenting its issues and the interpretation of such (in www. info. edge hill. ac. uk / enews /story arch, retrieved 2008).

It is in this context that a problem of what values the BBC represent comes to surface. Another issue that the BBC is faced is that of inclusion and focus. While it is known that the BBC covers the most important events all over the world, it forgets to include in its scope the focus on the Welsh (in BBC website, 2007) ). Wales is part of the United Kingdom and that it is natural that it expects to be included in the national media.

However, it has been getting less and less attention from the BBC and worse so, its national assembly claims that it has been portrayed in the news improperly as regards their work as an institution. Lastly, the issue of license fee has also gained much attention. Some pressure groups have argued that in this age where there alternative sources of information, it is no longer appropriate to make the subscribers pay the license fee (web 2006). The advertisements of BBC dont help as well. These advertisements which are allegedly aired to scare the viewers in paying runs contrary to its commitment of public service (in web and web 2007). These are the major issues that the BBC is facing today.

A consultancy project for the BBC would mean proposing mechanisms to address the above-mentioned issues and this requires knowledge on how the information market works. In the next section, I will talk about the different models on mass media and this will serve as a background in the actual consultancy project that will be done with BBC. Models and Theories of the Mass Media An understanding of mass media requires a definition of the term itself. According to Rod Hague and Martin Harrop, the mass media refers to methods of communication that can reach a large and potentially unlimited number of people simultaneously. Television and newspapers are the most important examples along with posters, radio, books, magazine and cinema (p. 108, 2004). Based on this definition, BBC fits as a part of the mass media which is intensified by its different forms such as the television, radio and the website.

There are currently two prevailing models on the organization of mass media; the first is the public service model and the other being the market model (Newton and Van Deth, 2005). The public sector model emphasizes that news and political opinion are not commodities. Furthermore, only regulation of the mass media can ensure balanced, accurate, and impartial news reporting (Newton and Van Deth, 2006). To bolster this argument, the model says that there should be no worry about the dangers of state control in the media since there are pools of other actors that will serve as checks in the reporting of events and that most of them are non-government organizations. Newton and Van Deth further presents that state control is important as it is the main source of public funding and will ensure continuity in the operations of the network. Another point says that public service broadcasting includes a wide range of programs that include news, current affairs, educational, cultural and entertainment programs (p. 186).

In addition, this model assumes that the function of public broadcasting is to serve the nation, including its minorities (linguistic, cultural and regional) and to serve as a focus for national identity (p. 186). On the other hand, the market model of mass media criticizes the public service model by saying that it stifles innovation and is patronizing (p. 185). It assumes that the market is the better actor in handling the media such that regulation of the political media by the state is not consistent with free speech. Furthermore, it says that market regulation ensures that all opinions will be heard and that there will be a free competition of ideas (p. 185). Evaluating the status of BBC will most likely lead to the conclusion that it follows the public service model of mass media. Given that at its core, the charter of BBC stresses the importance of public values in all its activities as well as its commitment to its audience and the nation, there is logic to this conclusion.

When inspected further, the argument that state control makes BBC bias accounts for very little merit as the practice of BBC has been proven independent of the state interests and that its charter reinforces this independence, however quasi-independent BBC is. As a support to the two models, theories about mass media have also been put forward by literature. In the context of this consultancy project, the theories which are most plausible to apply are that of agenda setting and priming and framing. According to Newton and Van Deth, agenda setting is the process by which a multiplicity of political problems and issues are continuously sorted according to the changing priority attached to them (p. 196). This theory argues that media strongly influences what we think about. The coverage of media and the intensity of such coverage on such issues put them on the agenda and even make them climb up the level of attention.

The authors also defined priming and framing as such: priming is the theory that the mass media can prime us to focus on certain things and in certain ways by highlighting some issues rather than others and framing is the theory that the way news stories are set up influences how audiences think about them (pp. 196 - 7). These are straightforward theories that could be used in analyzing the problems of BBC as well as proposing solutions in the process of consultancy. The next section will tackle the consultancy proper. Recommendations and Consultancy Project Proposals To diagnose the problems and issues of BBC is basically to look at how it projects itself and what its image actually is through the news that it delivers. The first criticism against the BBC is all about differing political interpretations and a confusion of the values BBC represent. As a consultant, the main advice to BBC should be for BBC to make it clear how they report the news.

The delivery of this news is anchored on the principle of public service. The public service model therefore is relevant to apply in this situation. It is simplest way to advertise in BBC that it has always remained true to its commitment of providing public value to its activities and has never been selective in representing various points of the political spectrum. The state control point has not been an impediment to an unbiased reporting. In fact, it is this challenge to be as impartial as possible which has caused the confusion of Bbc's stance. However, BBC should reiterate in the cases of the advertisement that catering to different perspectives will remain to be its indicator of impartiality and that will not bend towards adopting a pint of view that will hugely cause an imbalance.

The fact that criticisms do not converge as to which wing the BBC adheres to is an indicator that in fact has not been unbiased and it will remain to be so as proven by the checks in its reporting which are personified by the critics and the journalists who throw these criticisms at BBC. The theories of priming and framing are also applicable here. It is assumed that media primes the issues and frames the audiences interpretations of this issue. However, the huge gaps and divergence in the interpretation of critics as to the reports of BBC proves that it has not framed the issues in any way other than how they actually acquired the information and the public service value that it stands for.

If in fact a priming has been done and framing follows, a particular issue at a particular time could have elicited an inter-subjective consensus among viewers and critics that the issues has been framed in a particular dominant perspective. The next issue talks about the lack of focus on Wales. This is the area that the BBC needs to work on. If it wants to strengthen the view that it is for the national interest, there should be equal priority to every component population of the United Kingdom.

This is not to say that other international news should be reduced, rather, this is to show that Welsh activities are as important as other worldwide events. The course to follow is an increase in the frequency of news about Wales. This should not be done abruptly and then cut off after a period. The last thing to show is that this is just a band-aid or a short-term solution to the problem. Instead, the number of news or at least the intensity of news on Wales should increase gradually and should be monitored so as to sustain the trend.

This is a slow but sure way of addressing the problem. This allows the interpretation that setting the Welsh news on the agenda gives importance to them and will make them feel part of the nation as they are deemed newsworthy. The last thing that BBC should face is an increasing alienation of an integral part of its national audience. Lastly, the issue of public license and the fees that come with it is crucial such that it has the potential to increase the scope of contact of the BBC. I agree with the pressure groups in saying that unless the BBC wants its audience to turn to alternative means of getting informed, it should do away with the payment.

The dilemma here is the budgetary consequences of the BBC. The suggestion therefore is an increase in the financing from the government. However, this could take a long time. Therefore, a possible course of action could be to cut the fee every year until the subsidy of the government equal the revenue lost from slashing the license fee and ultimately cancelling this fee. This will better ensure a decrease in the clamor and will probably increase the number of people tuning in to Bbc's programs as it becomes less costly to do so. Overall, I will suggest an innovation in the image of BBC that will strengthen its public service value while moving forward in the context of a globalized setting where information is at ones disposal.

Conclusion Undertaking a consultancy project for a media outfit as huge as the BBC, poses a big risk and challenge. However, what is enjoyable in this endeavor is the fact that the client is a major force in the political and economic arena where decisions are made. To put it simply, dealing with an agent of socialization and communication allows a consultant to broaden the horizons of choices in making an impact as well exploring different alternatives of applying expertise. The main problems posited above which include that of confusion in ideological standpoint, exclusion of an integral part of the national audience and license fees where addressed by doing point advertisements, news frequency increase as well as cutting on fees. These recommendations in addressing the issues are anchored on the different models and theories that I, as the consultant, think fit for the client, BBC. This is therefore a problem of image and agenda-setting more than anything else.

The values of BBC are intact and there is little to be done about its integrity. What needs to be have an innovation is the perception of the people of BBC. In a sense, how BBC framed its identity such that people interpret it that led to and amidst the issues. Bibliography Books Briggs, Asa, 1985, The BBC - The First Fifty Years, Oxford University Press. Hague, Rod and Martin Harrop, 2004, Comparative Politics and Governments, Palgrave Macmillan, New York. Newton, Ken and Jan Van Deth, 2005, Foundations of Comparative Politics, Cambridge University Press, New York.

Websites web web web web web web Other Documents The BBC Royal Charter Agreement, January 2007.


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Research essay sample on Mass Media British Broadcasting

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