“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box”[1] Edward R. Murrow, October 15th 1958.
In 1958 Edward Murrow knew the power of
television. He knew how, if used correctly,
television could change the landscape of a nation, it could educate the
consciousness of an insulated population, and it could free the minds of an
entire generation. Murrow looked at an
America that refused to be subjected to the horrors of the real world and the
threats it imposed, the fears it harboured and the evil it proposed. But Murrow knew that television had the power
to educate. To show that this fear was
being created by what is not shown on television rather than what is. Murrow used television to take down Senator
Joseph McCarthy, whose “witch-hunts” of the 50s against supposed communists
perpetuated much of this fear, and distrust.
This marked an unprecedented first for television as a true media power,
with the capacity to criticise the world around it and the forces that control
it. Indeed only a few years later a
televised presidential debate between candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard
Nixon was essentially decided on the screens in front of millions of viewers
and voters. Television’s role as a
dominant media outlet has continued steadily over the decades and now, as of
2008, we stand, as Edward Murrow did in 1958, on the brink of a new dawn in
what we perceive television to be. And
we require caution. Murrow said in his
speech; “But I am seized with an abiding fear regarding what these
instruments are doing to our society, our culture and our heritage”[1]. In 2008 this fear is manifesting itself again
as the digital age takes hold. Can we
maintain our society, our culture and our heritage while our television
channels are flooded with more and more international (mostly American)
programming? Does RTE have the
capability, as our public service broadcaster, to maintain our society, our
culture and our heritage in the international world of mass media? In a 1999 lecture titled “Is there a
post-Reithian model of public service broadcasting that can thrive in the
communicopia of the future?” Richard Eyre, the then head of ITV responded “Here
is my answer to that question: public service broadcasting will soon be dead.”[2]
The reasons Eyre gives are that “Public service broadcasting relies on the
notion of an active broadcaster and a passive viewer and, in an era of wide
choice, many viewers will pass on the wholesome, healthy and carefully crafted
in favour of the easily digestible, pre-packaged and the undemanding.” He
continues; “It relies on regulators who will be unable to do a comprehensive
job.” And concludes; “An enduring definition of public service
broadcasting will be impossible to formulate.”[2] These comments indeed
seem ominous. But both RTE and the
British public service broadcaster, the BBC, have developed digital mediums
from which to broadcast. The BBC being,
however, a number of years ahead of their Irish counterparts, who are still in
the process of digitising their service.
But is it too late now that commercial networks rule the airwaves?
Ireland’s public service broadcaster Radio
Telefis Eireann went on air at 7pm on the 31st of December 1961 with
a public address by President Eamonn De Valera.
He said of television in this address; “Like atomic energy, it can be
used for incalculable good, but it can also do irreparable harm”[3]. De Valera was aware of the dangers that
television could bring to an Irish society who, at the time, were very
conservative and guarded. But RTE saw,
like many before them, the power that television could generate in terms of
social change and even social awareness.
Television is a mirror of society and this mirror image gave us show
like The Riordans of the 60s and the more cosmopolitan Fair City of
the 90s and 00s. These drama shows that
existed, during the decades since the inception of RTE, have tried to influence
social agendas and it wasn’t until the 90s that RTE felt confident enough to
portray, say, a gay couple on Fair City.
But in terms of fully addressing the social issues of the time, Gay
Byrne and The Late Late Show took precedent. The Late Late Show was RTE’s flagship
programme and took the initiative in delivering on Lord Reiths ideals of what a
public service broadcaster should do: inform, educate and entertain [2]. It has been credited with being a major
influence in the changing social structure of this entire country [3], since
its first show was aired in 1962 through the hardships of the 70s and 80s, and
into the economic boom of the 90s. RTE
saw the challenge of debating highly controversial topics, such as divorce, the
role of the clergy, and matters of countrywide importance, and put them in the
public spotlight for all to see. It gave
the people of Ireland the opportunity to speak and not to be spoken at, as was
the tradition in the extremely Catholic social structure of the country. This was a democratic government’s public
service broadcaster giving the people their liberty to carry out their basic
democratic rights. And this is what
allowed Ireland to undergo the social changes it did over the decades, as RTE,
its public service broadcaster developed and grew and began to understand the
medium that was television.
So what does our public service broadcaster
do for us today? What obligations must RTE keep and what obligations can RTE
waver? Graham Murdock, reader in the
sociology of culture, defines the “four promises” of public service
broadcasting central to the development of a democratic culture as; 1. A
potential space for free expression and open debate, provided for
by public service broadcasting’s relative and continually threatened distance
from private capital and government influence.
2. Accessibility for everyone to
this space of expression and debate without additional charge for service. 3. An
arena in which the politics of difference can be negotiated and a provisional
notion of the common good arrived at, because public service broadcasting
includes a range of experiences, perspectives and arguments with a single
stream of mixed programming. 4. Audiences are addressed by public service
broadcasting as citizens, not consumers [2]. So how does RTE stand up to these
principals? In terms of government
influence, RTE threads a fine line.
There is always the danger that an organisation, like RTE or the BBC,
funded by the government and directed by the upper-middle class is likely to
favour the government line [2].
Famously, in 1926 Lord Reith himself argued that the BBC was the
people’s service and the government was the people’s choice, so it followed
that the BBC supported the government [2].
In regard to accessibility for everyone, RTE has programmes in place
such as The Late Late Show, which is now widely regarded as a shadow of
the programme, which broke social barriers in the four decades previously, that
give people the ability to air their views.
Of course it’s not free to call in and the increasing cost of the
licence fee questions whether there is additional charges for this
service. The third principle, in regards
to an arena in which the politics of difference can be negotiated, is generally
held up by RTE. Programmes such as Questions
and Answers, Prime Time and once off specials known as Prime Time
Investigates show willingness by RTE to debate issues of contention
throughout the country. This again
verified by Prime Time Investigates’ report on the Lee’s Cross Rest
Home, which led to a public inquiry into the malpractices forced upon the
elderly who were patients there. RTE,
indeed, had the ability and the right to investigate and debate these issues
and perhaps these investigations should be commonplace to our TV listings. In terms of RTE viewing its audience as citizens
and not consumers, one must question why RTE’s revenue is now a fifty fifty
split between commercial income and the licence fees. However, many public service broadcasters do
not term these advertisements as “commercials” but rather as “underwriting
spots”. While “these advertisements
resemble traditional advertisements on commercial broadcasting stations, there
are usually limitations, such as a prohibition on making product claims,
stating prices, or providing an incentive to buy [4]. RTE seem, however, intent on providing
regular commercial advertisements and are, of course, under no obligation to
provide these “underwriting spots”. With
the ever-increasing profitability for companies to advertise on regularly
viewed programmes, the sheer value of that time slot is too precious for RTE
not to reap the maximum monetary worth from the advertising companies. If this is the case then RTE certainly view
its public as citizens who consume.
RTE’s statutory mandate requires RTE to
provide programmes that entertain, inform and educate [5]. This follows the Reithian mode of public
service broadcasting, however, Reith himself ad entertainment as the third
priority on the list, seeing television as on opportunity to inform and educate
primarily. But times have changed since
Lord Reith defined his principals in 1922 as the director-general of the BBC
and therefore the foremost authority on public service broadcasting. However, today, in the hugely competitive
market that is television in the digital age, it seems that the need “to
entertain” has grown in importance.
Grown so much in fact that it seems to supersede the need to inform and
the need to educate. Does Desperate
Housewives educate? Does it inform? And, in fairness, some people have to
ask does it even entertain? But it is
prime-time viewing on the airwaves of our public service broadcaster along with
Lost, C.S.I. and various other American hit shows. These shows along with the likes of Friends,
Scrubs and Eastenders have forged the backbone of RTE’s scheduling system
for many years. Do these inform and
educate? Does Fair City inform and educate, it being the only soap to be
produced directly by RTE? It surely gets
the ratings though.
And what of the social effects of
television on the viewing public? In the
digital age of television, the concept of communal viewing is all but finished
and television can seem to isolate rather than consolidate the minds of a
community who now can choose from 900 channels.
Not only that but with the rapidly evolving technological advances in
digital television you now have the option to choose what you watch and when
you watch it. Does RTE have the power to
draw the viewer back home? The
television listings in the weekly supplement say no. But it’s not only RTE. In Britain the BBC are facing similar
problems with declining ratings and programmes of questionable qualities as
compared to previous eras. The launch of
BBC Thee and BBC Four seems to have diluted the already deteriorating quality
of the BBC’s flagship channels BBC One and BBC Two. Lord Reith would be reaching for the remote
[6] desperate to find something informative and educational, as opposed to
being subjected to an hour with Lilly Allen & Friends. Of the four BBC channels BBC Four is left
to keep alive the Reithian ways the BBC were built on. It’s mildly informative and educational
documentaries desperately squeezing the weakened heart muscle of a channel in
critical need of a transplant.
The role of television in society is
immeasurable. Edward R. Murrow told his
fellow workers of the importance of television when he said; “It is not
necessary to remind you of the fact that your voice is amplified to the degree
where it reaches from one end of the country to the other”[1]. Today that voice is amplified to the degree
where it reaches from one end of the world to the other, and it is our uniquely
Irish voice that is being amplified by our public service broadcaster. We should be pound to have that voice. We should lay stake to our share in the world
and make good of our heritage, our culture and our society. But we need to be vigilant as to what our
voice is saying. Is it saying something
uniquely Irish or does it speak with an American accent? Does it speak the same as every other voice
amplified across the world? What RTE has
is the ability to produce something of value and worth; reflective of the
society it is obliged to service. Public
service broadcasting is being swallowed by the world of mass communications and
eventually it will be nothing but another three-digit number on your decoder,
unless RTE as an entity can see its role in society. It is there to inform, to educate and to
entertain [2]. But in order to do these
things it has to stand up and be recognised.
Murrow asks; “I would like television to produce some itching pills
rather than this endless outpouring of tranquillisers”[1]. These tranquillisers are numbing the world to
a point where television cannot teach, it cannot illuminate and no, it cannot
inspire, “it is merely wires and lights in a box”[1].
References:
- Murrow, Edward R. (October 15th
1958) Speech to the RTNDA Convention (Online) http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/commentary/hiddenagenda/murrow.html
- Underwood, Mick (June 21st
2003) Mass Media: Broadcasting Systems (Online) http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/peacock.html
- Wikipedia - Radio Telefís
Éireann (Online) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Telef%C3%ADs_%C3%89ireann
- Wikipedia – Public Broadcasting
(Online) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_broadcasting
- Department of Communications,
Marine and Natural Resources (June 2004) Public Service Broadcasting
Charter Pg. 6
- Guardian News and Media Limited
(July 7th 2003) The Ghost of Lord Reith (Online) http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/jul/07/mediatop100200361
Bibliography:
§ Anthony, Dr. the Hon. Kenny D. (March 8th 1998) The
Role of Broadcasting in Contemporary Society (Online) http://www.pm.gov.lc/former_prime_ministers/kenny_d_anthony/statements/1998/broadcastingincontemporarysociety.htm
§ Witt, Dr. Susan D. (2000) The Influence of Television on
Children’s Gender Role Socialization: A Review of the Literature (Online) http://gozips.uakron.edu/~susan8/arttv.htm
§ Wikipedia – Social Aspects of Television (Online) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_aspects_of_television
§ Dowling, Jack; Doolan, Lelia; Quinn, Bob (1969) Sit Down and Be
Counted: The Cultural Evolution of a Television Station.
