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British Battered Corporation. How Is the BBC Portrayed in UK National Newspapers?

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British Battered Corporation. How Is the BBC Portrayed in UK National Newspapers? British Battered Corporation. How is the BBC portrayed in UK national newspapers? Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy by Catrin Jessica Owen September 2019 Acknowledgements Thank you to all at the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool who supported me throughout my thesis. A particularly special thanks goes to Dr Georgina Turner for her invaluable advice and feedback over the past few years. George often took time out of her own busy schedule to give me support – from recommending literature to ploughing through earlier drafts of my chapters – even though there was no obligation for her to do so. Thank you so much, George, academia needs more fabulous women like you! The start of my PhD coincided with my decision to take up a new hobby – running. Initially thinking I’d complete a half marathon ‘just to say I’ve done it,’ the support of the community at Dockside Runners meant that over the past 4 years I stuck around to do many 10ks, half marathons, and even a couple of marathons! Ultimately, running has given me a way of coping with the mental pressures of writing a thesis and being part of Dockside has given me friends for life. Thank you to all who’ve listened to me try and explain my PhD during long runs! A big thank you to my parents, Sion and Kathy, for their encouragement and support over the past four years. Whether it’s been taking me out for food and drinks or just listening to me have a good moan, I’ve really appreciated how much you’ve been there for me to help me believe that I can get to the end. Finally, and most importantly, thank you to my husband, Nick. I can’t describe how grateful I am for everything you’ve done for me from reading through drafts to inspiring me to keep going. Even though I’ve not been the easiest person to live with during thesis writing, you’ve never failed to be able to make me see the value in what I’m doing. Planning our wedding with you gave me a brilliant distraction from writing, and marrying you gave me the push I needed to know the PhD was worth completing – so that I can say I’m ‘Doctor’ rather than ‘Mrs’! Thanks for being brilliant. 1 Contents CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................ 2 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... 6 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................. 7 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ 8 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 9 Licence fee focus ........................................................................................................................... 10 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................ 14 Selection of events for analysis .................................................................................................... 15 Focus on print editions of newspapers ......................................................................................... 20 STUDY OUTLINE ................................................................................................................................ 23 CHAPTER TWO - LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................ 26 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 26 SECTION ONE: THE UK PRESS – POLITICALLY INFLUENTIAL ............................................................. 27 How are UK newspapers funded? ................................................................................................ 29 SECTION TWO: THE BBC ................................................................................................................. 32 Public service broadcasting and commercial broadcasting.......................................................... 34 The ‘ideological challenge’ to public service broadcasting ........................................................... 36 SECTION THREE: BBC FUNDING ...................................................................................................... 39 Arguments in favour of the licence fee ......................................................................................... 40 The case against the licence fee ................................................................................................... 42 Alternatives to the licence fee ...................................................................................................... 45 The licence fee and technology .................................................................................................... 47 The licence fee and independence ................................................................................................ 51 The licence fee and impartiality ................................................................................................... 53 The licence fee paradox ................................................................................................................ 55 SECTION FOUR: THE BBC’S UNIVERSALITY OF APPEAL .................................................................... 56 The BBC as a positive influence on the commercial market ......................................................... 58 The BBC as secondary to the commercial market ........................................................................ 60 The Green Paper, White Paper and the market ........................................................................... 61 SECTION FIVE: THE CHANGING MEDIA LANDSCAPE ........................................................................ 64 UK newspapers: scrambling to adapt to a digital revolution? ..................................................... 65 BBC Online – treading on the toes of newspapers? ...................................................................... 69 SECTION SIX: HOW THE BBC IS REPORTED IN NEWSPAPERS ........................................................... 75 2 CHAPTER THREE: CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS – WHY USE CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS WITHIN MIXED METHODS RESEARCH? ........................................................................................... 80 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 80 Discourse analysis ........................................................................................................................ 80 Critical Discourse Analysis and ideology ...................................................................................... 81 Which version of Critical Discourse Analysis has influenced this research? ................................ 85 Criticism of Fairclough and CDA .................................................................................................. 91 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 92 CHAPTER FOUR: HOW DID ANALYSIS TAKE PLACE? ........................................................................ 94 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 94 Rationale for newspaper sample ................................................................................................. 94 How articles were selected .......................................................................................................... 98 QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................. 101 Development of coding manual................................................................................................. 101 Intercoder reliability .................................................................................................................. 109 Variables linking quantitative and qualitative analysis ............................................................. 109 QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................... 112 How discourses were identified in the newspaper articles ........................................................ 112 Linguistic features identified ..................................................................................................... 114 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................. 116 CHAPTER FIVE: QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS ON NEWSPAPER REPORTING OF THE BBC AND THE LICENCE FEE ................................................................................................................................. 117 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 117 SUMMARY OF QUANTITATIVE
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