I will be analysing an excerpt written by John Reith in 1924 entitled ‘The best of everything’ originally found in Broadcast over Britain (Reith, 1924). I will begin by briefly describing who John Reith was before highlighting important aspects of his upbringing. Next I will describe the general conditions in Britain that would have affected Reith. I will then investigate what is meant by the term ‘Reithian values’ and its legacy within the BBC. I will then consider these points in my analysis of his excerpt. Finally, I will consider criticisms of Reith before concluding this essay. I have sourced a variety of textbooks, journals and websites which consider early BBC history and John Reith directly which I have used to supplement the primary source analysis.
John Reith (1889-1971) was the first general manager when it was founded as the British Broadcasting Company in 1922; and he was its first director general when it became a public corporation in 1927. He created the templates for public service broadcasting in Britain; and for the arms-length public corporations that came later. Reith fought political attempts to influence the BBC, while offering the British people programmes to educate, inform and entertain (Birt, 1998).
Reith was born in Stonehaven. His father was a minister of the United Free Church of Scotland. He wanted to go to university, but his father insisted he become an apprenticed engineer. At the outbreak of the Great War, Reith volunteered for service but was wounded in October 1915, and subsequently transferred to the Royal Engineers. He spent two years in the USA managing armaments contracts and by the end of the war had been promoted to the rank of major (Birt, 1998).
In the early 1920’s, there was no public demand for radio. It was seen simply as a scientific curiosity or an expensive hobby. To drive sales manufacturers realised the need for an appealing radio service. After the end of World War I, restrictions were to be lifted on radio technology creating the possibility of a commercial system like that in America. However, the belief in regulation and corporatism that characterised the British after the Great War led to the formation of a publicly-owned monopoly instead (Black, 2000).
In 1922 Reith moved to London and despite a lack of experience, he applied to an advert for a General Manager of this planned British Broadcasting Company; Reith got the job. During the 1926 General Strike he struggled to ensure editorial independence for the BBC winning the confidence of the people, and in the following year he became Director-General of the reformulated British Broadcasting Corporation, deriving its authority from a Royal Charter rather than a parliamentary statute. (Black, 2000)
More than 85 years later, the term "Reithian values" has become synonymous with public service broadcasting. When the BBC launched, Reith did it with a mission to "educate, inform and entertain" (Perkin, 1989). He set about convincing the educational establishment of the value of broadcasting. This was no easy feat, because the public was highly sceptical about the benefits of radio at the time. Nevertheless, in 1923 the BBC began broadcasting serious talks for adults, a year later came the first schools broadcast. Almost from the start, education was a core BBC department, along with music and drama. By 1929, as the number of licences approached 3.5 million, schools broadcasts and talks accounted for 80 hours per week. Education programming thus became an accepted and popular part of radio. (BBC, 18/11/1999)
In the excerpt itself, Reith discusses why education has to be included in the programming and why entertainment is not enough. It was written in 1924; when the BBC was still officially a commercial company. Yet, it is clear when reading through his excerpt that he values the educational potential of broadcasting above all else. In response to those who believe that it should be used for entertainment alone he states:
“Entertainment, pure and simple, quickly grows tame; dissatisfaction and boredom result” (Reith, 1924)
He goes on to acknowledge the variety of tastes involved throughout the various regions of Britain. His tone at this point gives the impression that he is already running a public service with a duty to involve all areas of Britain. Remarkably, this is still 3 years in the future. I am therefore left with the impression that the BBC became a public service because of John Reith himself regardless of the 1927 Royal Charter.
The excerpt indicates his religious upbringing. There is a distinctly protestant flavour to his comment that “it would be a sad reflection on human intelligence if it were contented” with entertainment alone. Perhaps it is this protestant notion of self-betterment that stubbornly drove him to the establishment of his values in broadcasting.
It is not all positive for Reith; he has been called a bully, hypocrite, tyrant. During a Commons debate in 1936, the Labour MP George Lansbury said Reith "would have made a very excellent Hitler for his country" (BBC, 11/3/2010). He made things worse for himself by saying he admired Mussolini and talked in 1939 of Hitler's 'magnificent efficiency'. He also had an admiration for the German broadcasters: 'Germany has banned hot jazz and I'm sorry that we should be behind in dealing with this filthy product of modernity.' (BBC, 11/3/2010)
The impartiality image has also been described as smoke and mirrors. It has been claimed that he pandered to the government in the guise of “steadying the nation”; creating an understanding that the Government would not have to censor the BBC because that would be done discreetly by the BBC themselves (Pilger, 2007).
It is difficult to come to a satisfactory conclusion on such a contradictory, complex and controversial character in the scope of this essay. However, with the recent outcry with news that BBC Radio 6 and perhaps other BBC services are to close down. It is interesting to imagine how Reith would have handled this. According to the Times the BBC's current Director-General Mark Thompson conceded that the corporation "has become too large and must shrink to give its commercial rivals room to operate” (Foster, 2010). I am sure that Reith would had the sense to realise that the reason commercial radio cannot compete with the BBC is because people identify the Reithian values to ‘educate, inform and entertain’ in the BBC. While, commercial radio is mindless entertainment containing advert after advert after advert with no public confidence in standards; and he would have had the strength of character tyrannical or otherwise to stand up for what he thought was right.
References
BBC, 18/11/1999, published at 18:27 GMT (accessed – 10/3/2010) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/526855.stm
BBC, 11/3/2010 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/in-depth/reith_6.shtml
Birt, J (1998), New Statesmen, 75 years of the BBC, (127) January supp. pp1-15
Black, J (2000), Modern British History: since 1900. MacMillian Press Ltd: London
Foster, P (2010) BBC signals an end to era of expansion – TimesOnline. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article7041944.ece
Perkin, H (1989) The rise of professional society: England since 1880. Routledge: London
Pilger, J (2007) The Invisible Government - speech cited at - http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18046.htm (accessed – 10/3/2010)
No comments:
Post a Comment