Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Sociology
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University of Bath PHD The end of social democracy and the rise of neoliberalism at the BBC Mills, Thomas Award date: 2015 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 The end of social democracy and the rise of neoliberalism at the BBC Thomas Andrew Mills A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Sociology University of Bath Department of Social and Policy Sciences June 2015 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with the author. A copy of this thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that they must not copy it or use material from it except as permitted by law or with the consent of the author. Table of Contents List of tables ........................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... ii Abstract................................................................................................................................................. iii Chapter 1: Introduction: Neoliberalism and democracy, broadcasting and power ....................... 1 Neoliberalism, democracy and the public sphere ............................................................................... 1 The birth of broadcasting .................................................................................................................... 6 The shadow of power .......................................................................................................................... 7 Patterns of reporting ............................................................................................................................ 9 Theorising media performance ......................................................................................................... 10 Theory and methods .......................................................................................................................... 12 The question of media power ............................................................................................................ 16 Chapters outline ................................................................................................................................ 17 A brief note ....................................................................................................................................... 18 Part I Chapter 2: Public Service Broadcasting and its Discontents .......................................................... 31 The influence of the New Left .......................................................................................................... 32 Media power and the radicalisation of the academy ..................................................................... 33 Industrial democracy, civil society groups and the labour movement .......................................... 35 Other contemporary critiques............................................................................................................ 37 The super-Establishment responds.................................................................................................... 39 The response of the BBC leadership ................................................................................................. 42 Parliamentarianism, professionalism and the liberal social order ..................................................... 46 Chapter 3: ‘A little less freedom’: The BBC in the 1970s ............................................................... 55 A Golden Age? ................................................................................................................................. 55 A conservative turn ........................................................................................................................... 57 Editorial control in the midst of crisis ............................................................................................... 60 Financial crisis and managerial control ............................................................................................ 63 Independence and the ‘politics of survival’ ...................................................................................... 69 Chapter 4: Bias? What Bias?: The BBC and the ‘Winter of Discontent’...................................... 75 Freedom for capital, discipline for labour ......................................................................................... 76 BBC journalism during the ‘Winter of Discontent’ .......................................................................... 78 The role of the trades unions ............................................................................................................. 82 Public opinion and the BBC ............................................................................................................. 85 An incestuous relationship? Fleet Street and the BBC ..................................................................... 87 ‘Faceless men’: The role of businessmen ......................................................................................... 91 Consensus and crisis ......................................................................................................................... 95 Part II Chapter 5: The Iron Cage of Birtism .............................................................................................. 104 Reforming the ‘uncontrolled leviathan’ .......................................................................................... 105 Authoritative and analytical journalism ...................................................................................... 107 Uncosted anarchy ........................................................................................................................ 109 A sharp business edge ................................................................................................................. 111 The ‘culture change programme’ ................................................................................................ 115 The roots of Birtism: from Public Choice to Producer Choice ....................................................... 116 Rationalising politics: the influence of the RAND Corporation ................................................. 118 The rise of public choice ............................................................................................................. 119 The broader neoliberal movement .............................................................................................. 122 Disciplining democracy .............................................................................................................. 123 A new institutional architecture ...................................................................................................... 125 Chapter 6: Coming to terms with Thatcherism ............................................................................. 138 Economic crisis and the birth of BBC business journalism ............................................................ 138 A declining beat and a new buoyancy ............................................................................................ 143 Missionaries .................................................................................................................................... 148 Buccaneers ...................................................................................................................................... 155 Written out of national life .............................................................................................................. 159 Taking business centre-stage .......................................................................................................... 161 Agents of change ............................................................................................................................. 165 The gorilla and elephant in the room .............................................................................................. 168 Chapter 7: Public service broadcasting and private power. Or how the BBC learned to stop worying and love big business.. ........................................................................................................ 176