The Impact of Thatcherism on Representations of Work And
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Impact of Thatcherism on Representations of Work and Unemployment in Television Drama from 1979 to 1994 by Helen Louise Davis Institute of Education University of London June 1999 Submitted for Examination for Degree of PhD 1 Abstract This thesis argues for an analysis of popular television in relation to the dominant political ideas and values of Thatcherism. Examining the power of popular entertainment genres to inscribe and inform public understanding of political debates, the thesis offers an analysis of television realism in relation to genres such as situation comedy and drama serials. Using the work of Antonio Gramsci, Stuart Hall, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes and the Bakhtin Circle, the methodology concentrates on a discursive model of interpretation which draws on elements of semiotic and discourse analysis. It refers to the field of hermeneutics in order to address some of the problems of textual analysis and considers the ontological problems of television realism, particularly as they relate to the representation of political ideas. The thesis also considers the role of realism as an important ideological feature of dramatic representation on television. The contribution of the thesis to the field of Media Studies lies in its engagement with the sphere of political discourse in relation to popular television programmes over a specific period of intense ideological activity. In choosing to examine Thatcherite discourse in relation to work and unemployment, the thesis considers issues of class and gender in relation to changing attitudes to unemployment as expressed through narrative and other discursive patterns in the medium of television drama. The thesis argues that television drama of the period responded to the dominant rhetoric of Thatcherite politics concerning work and unemployment with a variety of identifiable structures and dramatic strategies. The ideological import of these strategies is assessed through a combination of textual analyses and socio-political appraisal of the phenomenon of Thatcherism. 2 Acknowledgements With grateful thanks to Bob Ferguson for his good humour and intellectual generosity of spirit. I would also like to acknowledge the unfailing enthusiasm and encouragement of Albert Henry and to thank Sheila for her gift of memory which is unparalleled. 3 Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 5 Chapter 1 Popular Culture and the Political Domain 20 Chapter 2 The Political Domain and Media Research 34 Chapter 3 What was Thatcherism? 47 Chapter 4 Television Drama, Discourse and the Contingency of Realism 61 Chapter 5 Methods of Analysis 88 Chapter 6 The Rise of the Entrepreneur: Minder and Only Fools and Horses 115 Chapter 7 Class, Unemployment and the Collapse of Unionised Labour: Boys From The Blackstuff and Auf Wiedersehen Pet 152 Chapter 8 The Middle Class Professional: Inspector Morse and The Chief 185 Chapter 9 Summary and Conclusions 212 Bibliography 236 Teleography 245 Filmography 260 Appendix A Images from Minder and Only Fools and Horses 262 Appendix B Images from Boys From the Blackstuff and Auf Wiedersehen Pet 276 Appendix C Images from Inspector Morse 300 4 Introduction The global tendencies of the mass media have become an issue of increasing concern ever since Marshal McLuhan (1964:11) wrote of the implosion of the western world. Much media research has followed in the wake of gloomy hypotheses about the Americanisation of culture (Postman 1992) and the imminent demise of regional specificity. The term postmodernism has been used by many scholars to describe emergence of cultural hybridity as being an inevitable by-product of post-industrialisation. It has consequently become unfashionable in Media Studies circles to concentrate time and energy on studies which focus on texts or institutions of regional or local significance unless one can also identify a global corollary. Such studies run the risk of being considered too parochial and introspective unless they give full attention to the broader configurations of international media practice, particularly as it relates to economics. Whilst it is often necessary to discuss the big picture, there is a danger that something will be lost unless we as scholars in the field of cultural production can see the processes of media production and their impact in our own environment or locale. This is not to say that studies of specific media formations should exist in a vacuum but rather that whatever the global theory, empirical evidence of a specific time and place must always play some part if a study is to have any real significance. Media audience research is fast becoming the only area within the traditional Media Studies triumvirate' where specificities of time and place are still accorded priority even in the age of global simultaneous broadcasting. In an effort to retain that idea of time and place, this thesis aims to analyse a particular political influence in Britain over a discrete period of time. Critics will ask whether it is legitimate to separate the politics of one region from its neighbours, or from what has been sometimes described as a continuing trend across many parts of the world. Surely Mrs Thatcher would never have succeeded in winning so many elections had her economic policies not been in concert with those of international figures 5 such as Helmut Kohl, Shimon Peres, Francois Mitterand, Ronald Reagan and later George Bush? How far should we go in seeking to isolate influences in the British Media when so much of Thatcherism is contingent on activity at international level? Nevertheless the decision to focus attention on Britain's domestic situation will provide an opportunity for close examination of the interplay between politics on the one hand and the means by which a democratic society chooses to debate the decisions of government and assimilate the political into the domain of culture. One of the signs of a modern democracy is the extent to which it has integrated an advanced level of media communications into its public institutions. Government must always at least appear to be open and ready for dialogue with the people even if it does not choose to act upon it. Manipulation of the media very often provides the key moment for analysis, when political power resorts to rhetoric in order to maintain its hold on a given situation. Such incidences are not uncommon and have been well-documented in recent year. Richard Keeble (1997) for example, examines American, Iraqi and British press involvement in the Gulf War. John Pilger is another journalist well known for investigations into foreign and domestic issues involving human rights and political dissent. But for all the cases of direct government intervention at times of national or party political crisis, how do we examine the impact of government policy during the periods in between? How do we begin to explain the ways in which the public come to understand their political leaders? How do we as members of the public connect with the will of government? Media Studies has attempted for many years to identify and examine the various functions of the mass media in relation to a number of issues and debates. These range from questions concerning identity and representation to the economic infrastructure of media institutions and social agencies. The media and their products constitute the main focus of analysis, underpinned by the belief that there is scarcely a human action in the world today which is not susceptible in some form to the process of mediation. The notion of 6 "susceptibility" implies risk if not deceit. The alignment of media research with questions concerning meaning, interpretation and understanding makes for sensitive enquiry and it comes as no surprise therefore to see how minority interests and the role of gendered and ethnic representation have come to be associated with the subject field and ultimately shaped its development. We might argue therefore that the subject Media Studies is already politicised before we begin, in the sense that it is concerned with the exercise of power in all its media manifestations. This would be politics in the sense of how people organise themselves into systems in order to formulate a society. Such activity can occur at a microscopic level in terms of the arrangement of household chores or the organisation of a classroom. At the macro level we can observe the machinations of international politics at a United Nations assembly or in the division of conquered territories. It is however the very particular sense of politics as the theory and practice of national government which will inform the present study. Concentrating on the exercise of power at national level, the thesis is concerned to address the problem of identifying the medium through which a governed people understand the will of their government. Of course one obvious channel for the communication of such information would be broadcast and print news. Whilst news broadcasting on television might convey more than adequately the intentions and actions of government and the chief political opponents' views, it offers no satisfactory explanation of how political change impacts on the ordinary viewer. The choice of a genre so connected with the translation of events as information subtly misses a very important point concerning representation and the communication of politics. News is predicated on the communication of politics as event. A research project which looks to analyse the communication of politics as everyday process must therefore steer away from genres which are designed to enliven and inform overt political debate. Of course news broadcasting is not immune to the pitfalls of representation; a news report detailing teenage video addiction for example will almost certainly attempt to offer a normative account of family life in order to highlight the issue as a serious threat to society. 7 It is that need to establish normative and acceptable alternatives which often blinds the broadcaster to the problems of stereotyping and ideology.