THE MASS-MEDIA IN ENGLAND

By Pavel Iulia

XII E

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• The History of the Media

• The Mass-Media Competition

• The BBC

THE HISTORY OF THE MEDIA

• Since its appearance, the media

has been considered to be the

fourth power in a state.

• It constitutes the most powerful

means of social control, social

orientation and innovation.

The Media of the United Kingdom is diverse in its content and views, although there have been many controversies and criticism about the media. When we say Media, we can talk about: Print- Newspapers and Magazines, or Broadcasting- Television and Radio.

The Press

• The oldest known book news was “The

Treve Encounter”, which was not a

publication of economical orientation, but

the report of a weapon matter, presented

in 12 pages, and printed in London in

1513.

It is known that the English journalists, the editors, and the printers who maintained a vanguard position in conceiving the information sheets, valued fundamental features for a newspaper:

•establishing a report between the guider and the reader by publishing classified letters into genuine rubrics, and dexterous layouts.

The Radio

Radio Broadcasting in the UK began in 1920 with Marconi’s experimental station 2MT located in Writtle, Essex. Originally, radio or radiotelegraphy was called “wireless telegraphy”, which was shortened to “wireless” by the British. First founded in 1913 as the London Wireless Club, the Radio Society of Great Britain is the UK’s recognised national society for amateur radio operators.

Television

Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the transmission of moving silhouette images in London in 1925, and of moving, monochromatic images in 1926. Baird’s scanning disk produced an image of 30 lines resolution, just enough to discern a human face, from a double spiral of lenses.

Remarkably, in1927 Baird also invented the world’s first video recording system, “Phonovision”.

A handful of Baird’s “Phonovision” recordings survive and these were finally decoded and rendered into viewable images in the 1990’s using modern digital signal-processing technology.

THE MASS-MEDIA COMPETITION

The rivalry between the written information and audio-visual information begins with the appearance of the radio and the cinematography, both being more prevalent worldwide after 1920, recording a peak period between the years 1930-1960. The radio, instead, had been the first serious competitive for the written press, forcing even the journalistic to style restructures.The strongest competitor for both the press and the radio was television, the most “absorbing” means of communication, which fits all of the other’s qualities.

THE BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the principal public service broadcaster in the United Kingdom. It was the world’s first national broadcasting organization, and it was founded in 1922 by a group of six telecommunication companies to broadcast experimental radio services. The first transmission was on 14 November of that year, from station 2LO, located at Marconi House, London.

BBC is a completely independent organization, guided by the interests of viewers and listeners. Its activity is regulated by 12 governors appointed by the queen, on the advice of ministers in the government. The public services offered by BBC are accessible to everyone. BBC owns 8 national interactive television channels, 10 national radio networks, and over 50 local television and radio services. The BBC programmes cover a wide variety of audiences, providing local news and national cuisine, live music, documentaries, etc.