The News: Development and Context

The News: Development and Context

[Notes indebted to Andrew Goodwin's "TV News: Striking the Right Balance")

In terms of the development of modern television news the first tendency to be noted is that, since 1948 (when the BBC first started to produce its own film newsreel), there has been a tremendous expansion in the amount of news broadcasting. Secondly, there has also, within the same period, been a tendency for the news to become increasingly popular (and populist) and controversial in tone, so that the News becomes itself a means of securing high viewer ratings.

In the early days, described by Asa Briggs as the "era of Radiovision", Film and Television news was produced by the BBC in a format of "radio with pictures": this tradition continued up until the mid-1950s and the establishment of ITN News. In mid-1930s film newsreels, produced by MGM and Gaumont, were shown twice-weekly but the main source of information about the News remained the Radio. It was not until 1948 that the BBC first started to produce its own newsreel, produced by the Film Division, and until 1954 the News output was restricted to a 10-minute "sound-based" bulletin. After 1954, due largely to the impact of the new commercial stations, the News Division of the BBC was allowed to produce its own newsreel programmes, but was bound by the long-standing traditional imperatives for sobriety, balance, objectivity and certainly no sensationalism. "The BBC's news at this time was gathered, selected, and presented using news values derived from radio - 'picture value' was not a consideration." (Goodwin) - and did its best to divide itself from the style and techniques of the popular press.

The arrival of commercial television in 1955 changed this long-standing BBC tradition of announcer-read national news. The newly established ITN (Independent Television News), a separate organization set up by the commercial network, imported the American idea of "newscasters", who had personal styles and personal knowledge, who didn't simply read the news but was also a news reported and commentator. Furthermore, there was a distinct trend towards making the news more populist and entertaining, including the introduction of the humorous or "defusing" 'tailpiece' at the end of the News. The BBC was, inevitably, forced to follow suit: it acquired personality newsreaders and, whilst also remaining predominantly "serious" in tone, sought also to entertain and to preserve its audience.

The tendencies towards populism and adding "entertainment value" were inevitable responses to the creation of a competitive market: the older BBC liberal values of public service broadcasting were challenged by the new realisation that audiences had to be "won". as a result of this, however, certain implications were inevitable. Firstly, the BBC had to move towards the recognition of "picture value". Pictures were more immediate in their appeal, but there remained the danger that abiding news values might be sacrificed if "sensationalist" film was available. This remains true even to today: a story's "news value" is considerably increased if it can be accompanied by sensational or dramatic film footage. The second implication was that the News, for both ITN and BBC, had to become more controversial in order to attract and interest viewers. More recently, with the advent of a deregularised media and the proliferation of new channels and media (Channel 4, Sky News, CNN), the demand to inform and educate viewers has had to be set against the need to retain viewers. Inevitably this has resulted in accusations of bias from either Left or Right as News programmes sought for the loyalties of its audiences, even at the risk of overturning the balance between dispassionate reporting and viewers' interest. For the older television news media it has not always been an easy balance to retain.

One noteworthy development has been the complementary development of news feature and current affairs programmes - 'Newsnight', 'Weekend World', 'World in Action', which sought to provide in-depth explorations of news stories. Channel 4 news, (launched in 1982 and produced by ITN) was intended to provide precisely this form of news, debate and background.

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