Media Ownership and the BBC

Ownership and Control of the Media In the news today is discussion of Tory plans to freeze the BBC licence fee for one year. Now, I may just be talking about my own inadequacies, but I always get the feeling that the textbooks and the way we teach the media topic are slightly detached from the way the issue is discussed in the papers and on TV. And certainly, I’m forever hearing people - students and teachers it has to be said - moaning about how out of date the texts, and indeed the discipline itself can be on this topic. So how can we relate the licence fee debates to what we learn about mass media in sociology?

The Licence Fee and Ownership and Control of the Media Yet again The Sun provides stimulus for sociological thinking - what is happening to the world? It just goes to show, any newspaper or piece of everyday action can be valuable grist to the sociologist’s mill.

Here’s what The Sun had to say about the Tories plan for the BBC licence fee today: “While commercial rivals struggle, this subsidised sacred cow [the BBC] relies on guaranteed funding increases. TV owners must pay what amounts to a tax on viewing, or risk jail. As advertising falls, broadcasters are searching for savings, shedding workers and cutting pay. Yet the Beeb is sitting pretty on fees linked to outdated inflation forecasts. The Sun applauds David Cameron’s call for a one-year freeze. It is a brave beginning, but it must only be a beginning. The appetite of unelected mandarins in Whitehall and town halls for taxpayers’ hard-earned money has grown out of control. The public sector is riddled with waste. Having set the ball rolling with the BBC, Tories cannot stop now until they have reined in a spending monster which threatens this country’s entire economy.”

Er, you’ll sort of get the impression that The Sun isn’t too keen on the BBC and thinks it wastes lots of taxpayers money. That isn’t just a matter of taste however. There could be some conflicts of interest going on here. Use Google or your textbook to find out who owns The Sun newspaper.

You can also use this little extract to reflect on the ownership and control debate. Institutions like the BBC can make that debate a bit more complicated -I’m afraid- than the debates between Marxists and Pluralists in some of the textbooks suggest.

Here’s a question to help you apply and evaluate your theoretical knowledge:

What do you think Marxists and Pluralists would each say about the advantages and disadvantages of public ownership of a major broadcasting institution - like the BBC. Would they see it as a good thing or as a bad thing?

I’ll give some very brief ideas about how to answer that question tomorrow.