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Here is the news, the BBC is tumbling down

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Extract

ALL GOVERNMENTS WHETHER OR NOT PARTICIPATIVE NEED TO KEEP an eye on public opinion if they are to maintain their legitimacy. Even autocratic governments have to provide some bread and circuses for their citizens if they are to stay in power. Autocratic governments throughout history have relied on achieving the acquiescence of their citizens first by convincing most of them that the status quo is the best available, given the constraints under which the government is operating at the time. Alternatively they have had to externalize their problems by convincing the citizens that there is external pressure which can be resisted only by the exercise of restraint and patriotic support for the government.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1997

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References

1 Ionescu, Ghita, Leadership in an Interdependent World, London, Longmans 1991 and Boulder, Co., Westview Press 1991 Google Scholar.

2 ibid., pp. 219–225.

3 ibid., p. 222.

4 Ionescu, Ghita, review article in Media Bulletin, Manchester, EIM, Vol. 3, No. 4, 12 1996, p. 4 Google Scholar.

5 Quoted in Clair, C., A History of Printing in Britain, London, Cassel, 1965, p. 109 Google Scholar.

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7 ibid., p. 7.

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12 Media Ownership: the Government’s Proposals, Cmnd. 287, London, HMSO May 1995.

13 ibid., para. 5.3.

14 Conversation with Wright, Mr L. P., Head of the Broadcasting Branch of the Department of National Heritage, 5 06 1995 Google Scholar.

15 The coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulations as administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities, Council Directive 89/552/EEC, 3 October 1989, Brussels, Official Journal (legal) 298 of 17 October 1989.

16 Bracher, K. D., Turning Points in Modern Times, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1995, p. 115 Google Scholar.

17 ibid.

18 Conversation with Professor Ronald Preston, Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology in the University of Manchester.

19 Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 8 October 1995.

20 Bell, Martin., The Journalism of Attachment, circulated privately, p. 6 Google Scholar.

21 op. cit., p. 7.

22 BBC guidelines for reporters.

23 See Raymond, E. T., Disraeli, London, Hodder & Stoughton, n.d., pp. 314 and 319 Google Scholar.

24 Quoted in Martin Bell, op. cit.

25 Central Statistical Ofice 1993, p. 142–44 quoted in Collins, R. and Murroni, C., New Media New Policies, London, Polity Press, 1996 Google Scholar.

26 See Janowski, Gene F. and Fuchs, David C., Television Today and Tomorrow, New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 93 Google Scholar.

27 See the case of the Born, Michael., Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24 12 1996 , p. 1 Google Scholar news item and editorial comment.

28 Glover, Stephen., ‘zGlover’ in Daily Telegraph, 8 02 1997 Google Scholar.

29 Study by R. Worcester (MORI) and L. Christmas (City University) forthcoming quoted in S. Glover, op. cit.

30 Quoted in Jeffries, Stuart, ‘Anchors Away’ in The Guardian, 7 02 1997 Google Scholar.

31 ibid.