How Did the Bbc Represent the General Strike of 1926 Free Essays

string(72) " and the government had been formed; even in the early days of the BBC\." How did the BBC represent the general strike to its listeners? Introduction This project is primarily a study regarding one of the biggest events in the life time of the BBC and indeed the life of British trade unionism. The General Strike of 1926 has moulded the way that we see both of these today and is an important aspect of British history. This project principally focuses on the media at the time, and will seek to find out how the BBC portrayed the General Strike to its listeners during this period. We will write a custom essay sample on How Did the Bbc Represent the General Strike of 1926? or any similar topic only for you Order Now We will find out the attitude that the BBC took on the events of the General Strike and will find out how it put these across to its listeners at that point. In order to find out the answer to this question we must first split it up in to several important chapters. Below is the list of chapters and the subjects that they will discuss and their importance in this study. Chapter one will outline who the BBC listeners were at that point and will find out whether the general strike had changed who their listeners were. It will go back to the very roots of the BBC and will look at the programming that it provided and how this affected the listeners that they had gained. This section will also explore the idea of ‘constructing the listener† an idea put forward by Reith to determine who his listeners were. It will then look at their listeners during the general strike and will seek to find out the change that occurred during this point in time. This also requires us to look at the staff that worked at the BBC and also at Sir John Reith, who had his own ideas about the standards that the BBC should work towards. Chapter two will discuss the ideology of the BBC prior to the general strike and how this ideology impacted on their reporting of the general strike. It will look at how Sir John Reith 1 put his ideas in to the BBC. We will explore the idea of a public service and what a public service meant to Reith, mainly looking at what Reith’s ideas of the term ‘service’ were. It will explore the BBC’s want to maintain its independence and why this was so important to Reith. We will also discuss the threat that was posed to their in independence during the trike. It will also look at the idea of â€Å"educate, inform and entertain†, an integral part of what we now know as the ‘Reithian ethos’. We will see whether the general strike changed these core beliefs of Reith’s or whether they remained intact throughout the period of the strike. It will also discuss the idea of social unity, another one of the core beliefs of the BBC. We will seek to find out how much nationalism was a part of this and whether the BBC could have been seen as being nationalist during the strike. This chapter will attempt to show us how this ideology affected the broadcasts to their audience and how the audience saw the BBC. These first two chapters will play an integral part in the rest of the project , however to understand them both we need to look at them in their separate chapters. Once we have done this we can then look at how they affected each other . These will form the basis from which will then be able to view the BBC and the general strike in detail. Chapter three will allow us to assess the other forms of media that were available at that time. This chapter will look at the newspapers at the time of the general strike; we will mainly assess the two national papers at the time, the British Gazette and the Daily Worker. It will look at the effect that the general strike had on the papers and how the freedom of the press was so greatly affected by the printers going out on strike. This will link in with the way that the BBC listeners changed during this time as the lack of newspapers left a hole in the media, which the BBC hoped that it could fill. We will also 2 ake a look at how the BBC monopoly over the news at this time affected the way that they broadcast. This is important because they put the BBC in to a pivotal, yet difficult, position. The BBC had two sides to provide information to, but how could the BBC do this without taking sides? Chapter four will look at the political influences that had an effect on how the BBC was viewed at that point of time. It will look at the relationship that the BBC had with the governme nt. It will look at the various personalities within the government and how they affected the way that the BBC put forward its broadcasts. It will also explore the influences that were coming from outside and will try to find out if these actually impacted upon the way that the BBC actually broadcast to its listeners. One of the most important influences that was upon the BBC was that of the church; their ideas were in keeping with that of the BBC, yet were never broadcast. This is a major part of the influences that have played a part in this industrial dispute. In this chapter we will look at the Marxist theory of the media and will assess the idea of this when applied upon the BBC. This will allow us to see whether the BBC was a tool of the ruling classes during the general strike. These sections will allow us to answer the question of how the BBC presented the general strike to its listeners. It will show us how the relationship between the BBC and the government had been formed; even in the early days of the BBC. You read "How Did the Bbc Represent the General Strike of 1926?" in category "Essay examples" It will also show us where the ideas of the BBC, that still exist to this day, originally came from and the changes that have taken place through out the BBC’s past. It shows us, on a wider scale, the importance of the media today in any disputes. This is because they control what we see and hear today, this applies to the newspapers, television and radio. Their input can 3 change the way that the a dispute goes by getting the public to support or oppose it. As we will see the media, mainly the BBC, proved to be an effective form of propaganda for the people during the general strike. During the course of this project we will encounter a look in to Marxist theory of media. This will allow us to see whether Marxists historians believe that the BBC was a tool of the ruling classes during the course of the general strike. For this we need to look at the idea of class conflict at every level of this dispute, including the media. There is no doubt in historians minds that the British Gazette was definitely the tool of the ruling class. However, the role of the BBC has been disputed by many historians through out the course of the twentieth century. The Marxist theory of media will let us see whether the BBC was a tool of the ruling class of their own accord or whether they had influences upon them that dictated the way that they broadcast during the strike. 4 Chapter one: Who were the BBC listeners before the strike? Did the strike change this? This section will look, in depth, at the make up of the BBC listeners before the general strike and in to the strike itself. In order to do this we need to explore their method of listener research from the beginning; this was a method called ‘constructing the listener’. From this we can find out why the BBC was of very limited appeal during their first years, even though they wanted to allow broadcasting a much larger audience, especially after the First World War. We will also view the effects that this had on public perception of the BBC during the general strike. The general strike did open up the BBC to a wider appeal and this is something that we need to consider. We need to know why this happened and assess the implications of this on the way that the BBC was seen. The BBC method of ‘constructing the listener’ was the BBC’s early attempt at listener research. This method was required in order to find out what people what to listen and learn about from the radio1. This attempt at research used the BBC staff, who were mainly middle class. This meant that the results of the research were going to be tailored to a middle class audience, rather than for the whole population. We can already see that the early years of the BBC were aimed at the middle class. The results of their listener research reflected upon the programming that took place. The earlier years of the BBC gave precedence to ‘serious’ music. This was classical music and some dance music. However the BBC did not play much ‘serious’ dance music 2 By serious 1 Crisell, Andrew, An Introductory History of British Broadcasting (Routledge, 1997) pp. 38-9 2 Cardiff, David Paddy Scannell, A Social History of British Broadcasting; Volume one 1922-1939 (Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1991) pp. 82-183 5 music we can infer from the high moral tone of the BBC that the playing of serious music meant that it was not crude. This programming already shows us that the working classes were not included in the programming of the BBC. Their pastimes, such as Accordion playing and Community singing were neglected by the BBC 3. This was not a deliberate mistake, but was due to the fact that the mi ddle class workforce of the BBC did not have knowledge of working class lives. This allowed the listener that was ‘constructed’ to be a middle class one. Not only did it mean that the programming that the BBC provided was aimed towards the middle class, it also meant that the core values and beliefs of the BBC were aimed towards the middle class as well. The belief in a â€Å"high moral tone† is something that was prevalent in the early years of the BBC 4. The BBC did not aim their broadcasts solely at the middle classes. They aimed to incorporate all sections of society in their broadcasts. As Scannell and Cardiff rightly make the point that the BBC was trying to provide information to those that had just recently got the vote after the First World War5. This included many of the working class. This shows us that the BBC did genuinely want to allow the whole population access to the broadcasts, unfortunately because of the middle class values and standards and the fact that wireless was a very expensive product for working class people, many were unable to gain anything from wireless until the general strike. The method of listener research did not cause the BBC problems until the strike. This was because the wireless technology was very new, and therefore was expensive. The ‘Revophone’ crystal set and headphones in 1923, cost ? 2-10s 6. The average income of a 3 4 5 6 Crisell, Andrew (1997) p. 9 Cardiff, David Paddy Scannell (1991) p. 7 Ibid. p. 11 The Museum of Technology, Wireless and TV . Accessed on 2 nd June 2012 6 family at the end of 1923 was at 65s-6d per week, not taking in to account their expenditure on food, rent and other necessities 7. We can therefore see that the cost of even the cheapest wireless sets was out of the price range of an average family. The wireless sets were affordable only to the middle class, this meant that the BBC’s method of listener research had worked from 1922-1926, as they had aimed the programming at the social group that could afford to buy the technology. We can therefore see that the working class were unable to listen to the BBC because firstly the price was high and that the programming was not suited for their tastes. However, Andrew Crisell makes the point that the BBC listeners were actually at quite a high rate. In 1923 he said that the license payers for the BBC were around 80,000, but the estimate for this is quite conservative because there were loopholes in order to avoid paying the fee. He also states that in 1924 there were over double the amount of people listening to wireless than in 19238. This means that there may have been some working class listeners if they were able to afford the wireless sets. However, they were still not recognised as being listeners from the view of the BBC. They assumed that all people that were listening were middle class. In 1926, this all changed with the general strike. The working class had more access to the technology. This was not because they were able to afford it, but it was because shops installed wireless loudspeakers in public places and those that had wireless invited working class people in to their homes to listen to the broadcasts 9. This allowed the 7 Florey, RA, The General Strike of 1926: Historical Perspectives (John Calder Ltd, 1980) p. 188 8 Crisell, Andrew (1997) p. 16 9 Briggs, Asa, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume one The Birth of Broadcasting (Oxford University Press, 1961) pp. 338-339 7 working class access to a facility which they had not been able to use before, but already held views upon. The Daily Herald just before the strike warned people about the propaganda that would come from the BBC and told people that they should disrupt the transmissions10. This indicates to us that the working class were sceptical that the reporting of the strike would be impartial on the BBC. The working class already held negative views about the BBC, due to the ways that they had been neglected in the early years of the BBC. The working class were not for the BBC, however the BBC was the only readily available source of news that was around at the time of the strike. This was because many of the printers of the newspapers had gone on strike and many of the newspapers that were available did not have the capacity to dispatch them on a national level 11. This gave the perfect opportunity for the BBC to gain more listeners. With the introduction of loudspeakers, we can find evidence that the broadcasting of the BBC news reports was well received. The North Wales Weekly, The Brighton Herald and The Warwick Advertiser all had articles that stated how thankful the working class were that loudspeakers had been installed in the public places12. We must also take a look into the politics of the listeners of the BBC. Firstly, we know that the majority of people before the general strike were of a middle class background; this is not to say that all of these people held their political allegiances with the Conservatives, many middle class people would have much preferred to vote for the Liberal Party or the Labour Party. We cannot simply say that even the majority of the listeners held one 10 Perkins, Anne, A Very British Strike; 3 May-12 May 1926 (Macmillan, 2006) p. 126 11 Symons, Julian, The General Strike (House of Stratus, 2001) pp. 55-157 12 Broadcasting Press Cuttings May 1926, Book 1E, BBC Written Archives, Caversham 8 political allegiance because this is unknown and would simply be using the stereotypical model of someone who is middle class to assume their political preference. This is also the case with the working class during the general strike. It is unlikely that all of the working class were voting for Labour, purely because they had just seen the Russian revolution happen and most people, in general, were afraid of Communism or Socialism. The Labour Party in the 1920’s stood for Socialism and stood for the working class, but so did the Liberal Party in a very different way. However, they were also in decline because of Lloyd George’s selling of honours. The Conservative Party were the dominant party of the 1920’s and this was because they appealed to both the working and the middle classes. We can see that the Conservatives were popular from the 1924 general election. They managed to get 47. 2% of the vote, whereas Labour only managed 33% and the Liberal Party only managed to obtain 17. 6% of the vote 13. It is clear to see that the Conservatives were dominant in the elections. The population of the country in 1924 stood at around forty-four million people, with nearly half of the population voting for the Conservatives it is sure to say that there were many working class men and women voting for the Conservatives. Now we should be able to see that the usual idea of a class listening to the BBC does not always meant that they would have been listening with the stereotypical political beliefs, as the beginning of the 20 th century saw large changes in politics. We can see that the strike had a profound effect on the make up of BBC listeners. The working class were wanting to listen to the BBC in order to provide them with the news that they needed. However the middle class, who had been listening to the BBC since its 13 Tetteh, Edmund â€Å"Election Statistics: UK 1918-2007† House of Commons Library,. Accessed on 2nd June 2012 9 existence, were still listening to the BBC because they enjoyed the programmes that were broadcast. This shows us that there were the beginnings of a conflict emerging here. We have seen that the BBC were not well looked on by the working class. They believed that they held middle class values, therefore they were going to support the government and provide the country with propaganda. It shows us that John Reith, whom had wanted to promote social unity between all classes was now allowing the BBC to become a source of class antagonism. However, the beliefs of the BBC had a more profound effect than we have seen here, which we will assess in the next chapter. 10 Chapter two: The â€Å"Reithian ethos†; how did the strike impact this? This section will assess the core ideas of the ‘Reithian ethos’ from 1922-1926. It will assess how these affected the BBC’s reporting of the general strike, or how these values were altered by the strike. The core beliefs that shall be discussed are the idea of a public service and what this meant to John Reith, for this we will have to view the idea of what a service is and how this affected the way that the BBC put across this in their broadcasts. We shall then be seeing how their ideas of ‘inform, educate and entertain’ failed until the general strike and then caused the BBC problems going in to the strike. We will also take a examine the way that Reith wanted to try and advocate social unity and the failure of this aim during the strike. This section will also entail a view in to impartiality, which the BBC failed to commit to during the general strike but hoped that it would be able to commit to. Lastly we will be looking at the independence of the BBC and seeing how this took precedence as the main value that John Reith wanted the BBC to maintain, throughout the strike. These impacted upon the broadcasts of the BBC and ultimately had an effect on the way that the listeners of the BBC perceived the broadcasts. The idea of a public service as we know it now is a free service that is provided to all members of the population, irrespective of their status or their earnings. The British Broadcasting Company under John Reith had very specific ideas of what a public service should provide to the people and how it should operate. Firstly, we must look at the concept of a service. Scannell and Cardiff argue that Reith’s idea of a service was a 11 Victorian one whereby the BBC would provide education and information to the working classes in order to make their lives better 14. We should not view Reith’s idea of service this way; he wanted to provide the middle class and the working class with a service that would inform and educate, whilst attempting to unify all classes. To make the BBC only a service for those that were less well off in society would not be abiding by another part of the Reithian ethos; that of social unity. Reith especially wanted to inform the listeners on matters that were important to the nation, primarily those that were industrial and political 15. In 1922, he was unable to allow the BBC to attempt at this goal because he was restricted to do so by the government. They only allowed the BBC to have one news report per day, at seven o’clock in the evening16. This meant that in the lead up to the general strike the BBC had not had the relevant experience to be able to deal with such a large industrial matter. This meant that the BBC’s reporting of this was not of the best nature, they did not know what would have been expected of them. They were disorganised as can be seen in some of the broadcasts that were put out. Many of the stories had been literally cut and glued on to paper, often on top of other broadcasts, with a lot of text around the edge 17. We can see that this lack of experience in the face of such a large task resulted in a haphazard operation. However, the BBC did provide information, during the strike, on the services that were available to the people. It did provide information on all of the buses and trains that were running at this time in its news reports 18. This meant that the BBC was providing relevant 14 Cardiff, David Paddy Scannell, A Social History of British Broadcasting: Volume One, 1922-1939 (Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1991) p. 9 15 Ibid. p. 32 16 Crisell, Andrew, An Introductory History to British Broadcasting (Routledge, 1997) p. 5 17 General Strike News Bulletin, May 8th 1926, BBC Written Archives, Caversham 18 General Strike News Bulletin, May 12th 1926, BBC Written Archives, Caversham 12 information to all sections of the population. However, it could also be seen by the strikers as a way to show that there are services still working and that the lives of ordinary people were still happening as normal. So, even this idea of information that Reith wanted the BBC to achieve could be perceived as being an anti-strike tool. The idea of education was something that John Reith also took very seriously from the very beginning. His belief was that he should be giving people â€Å"what they need, not what they want† Reith thought that if he were to do this then he would be ‘prostituting’ it 19. Due to this the early years of the BBC did attempt to educate the population on music and culture, however, it is important to remember that they were broadcasting to a middle class audience. They were already interested in these. Reith wanted to educate all backgrounds and classes on classical music, opera, theatre. He also wanted to educate on important matters, both politically and industrially again. However, as we have seen the BBC was unable to do this in its infancy. The BBC also was unable to achieve the goal of education, because this largely middle class tool had not reached the working class, meaning that the working class did not have access to these middle class pastimes. The middle class were relatively well educated on these subjects, as these were their past times. Even if the working class had have been able to listen to the BBC, the method that this ‘education’ took was one that Percy Pitt described as â€Å"like taking a schoolboy to the National Gallery and expecting him to appreciate Velasquez and El Greco† 20. This tells us that there was no explanation to the music being broadcast, so even if the working class had have been able to listen they would not have understood the music that they were hearing. 19 Briggs, Asa, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom; Volume One; The Birth of Broadcasting (Oxford University Press, 1995) p. 7 20 Ibid. p. 275 13 The idea of entertainment was the only slightly successful part of the image of a public service that the BBC actually managed, but only until the general strike. It even did this in small doses, and aimed at the middle class. During the general strike, when the BBC was more accessible to the working class, the Bristol Times and Mirror explained that the public wanted to listen to the news broadcast on the BBC, but the music was not something that they were appreciative of21. This is because the working class wanted to hear the news, they did not want to listen to classical music, they may have listened to the other programmes on the BBC if there was apathy from the company with the working class. The next value that the BBC held during its infancy was that of social unity. John Reith wanted to use the BBC in order to attempt to try and get all of the population, regardless of their class, to listen and appreciate the wireless together 22. This is something that he did not manage to do, even before the general strike. The last chapter demonstrated that the working class were unable to listen to the BBC and it was regarded by the working class as being a middle class tool. This meant that the idea of social unity going in to the general strike could not be achieved through wireless, because of the views already held by working class people. During the course of the strike, the BBC did attempt to advocate social unity. The section â€Å"Sentences for the disorderly† gave details of the people that had been caught committing crimes and had been sentenced23. This shows us that the BBC was trying to promote peace in some way. However, the working class would not have seen it as a â€Å"high moral tone†, another one of Reith’s beliefs24. They would have seen it as an attack on the 21 22 23 24 Broadcasting Press Cuttings, Book 1E, BBC Written Archive, Caversham Cardiff, David Paddy Scannell (1991) p. 3 General Strike News Bulletin, 8th May 1926, BBC Written Archive, Caversham Cardiff, David Paddy Scannell (1991) p. 7 14 strikers. The way that it is put across is not explained and it is expected that the listeners will understand the reasoning behind it. We can also see that it tried to advocate social unity through the selections of news reports from the British Worker; they promoted peace between the t wo sides. The BBC wanted to try and gain social unity from all of the population and wanted to put them under one banner; namely the British flag. The BBC was fairly nationalist in its approach to social unity. We can see that the celebration at the end of the general strike consisted of the BBC playing the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ on the piano. The lyrics to this song are very nationalist. The last four lines of the song consist of: â€Å"I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem, in England’s green and pleasant land 25† This clearly defines the position that the BBC took on the general strike. They were thankful that the country was united, and that there was no problems within classes. The BBC wanted to keep the people united for the pride of their country. The BBC wanted to broadcast items that were in the national interest, but how did they define what was in the national interest. They took it that the majority of people would wanted to have heard about ceremonial occurrences within the country26, because they held pride in their country. The problem with the BBC trying to gain social unity through the radio is that the working class already held their views about the BBC. Their belief that it was a middle class tool 25 â€Å"Jerusalem Hymn† Accessed 2nd June 2012 26 Cardiff, David Paddy Scannell (1991) p. 13 15 vershadowed the way that they tried to promote peace during the strike. Cardiff and Scannell made the point that during crises the BBC, through advocating social unity, would have to chose between their allegiances to the people and the government. This ultimately is true, however the BBC managed to keep a medium between the two; even though the BBC were representative of the government during the strike they still ma naged to provide an important service to the population and provided them with the news that they needed. The BBC also wanted to be an impartial form of news from its beginning. This was something that was not really tested up until the general strike, because this was the BBC’s first largest event since its existence. However, as discussed previously, a relatively inexperienced BBC was reporting on a large event. Impartial news was always going to be difficult and it did prove to be difficult. This was mainly because their source of information, Reuters, had an anti-labour bias27, meaning that the BBC was also of an anti-labour bias. It did not matter if they did not want to be, the news automatically excluded an entire viewpoint in the country. The problem with impartiality also comes in the news that they selected from the newspapers at the time. The articles that were selected from the British Worker were that of a conciliatory nature28, where as others that the BBC chose were actively for the government and taken from the British Gazette. We can infer here that the BBC did attempt impartiality by using papers from either sides of the argument, however it cannot be considered to be impartial because of the close relationship that it had with the government; this is a factor that we will discuss more later in the project. For now we need to know that the BBC was coaxed into presenting the strike in a certain way through subtle threats. 27 Cardiff, David Paddy Scannell (1991) p. 26 28 Ibid. pp. 109-10 16 The largest factor that played a part in the way that the BBC operated from 1922-1926 was the idea of its independence. Reith wanted to staunchly defend the BBC’s independence. He believed that if the BBC was commandeered then it would be better for him, but worse for the BBC and the country29. He thought that people would have got commercial radio, giving people what they thought they needed, and this is something that he was strongly against the BBC ecoming. During the general strike, we see the BBC independence come under threat from the government. This is because there were several in the cabinet that wanted the BBC to become a tool for the government against the strike, Baldwin thought that it could broadcast the governments message all over the country and especially to the middle class3 0. However, Reith wanted to maintain the independence of the BBC. This meant that in order for the BBC to keep this, they would have to stay on the better side of the government. Due to this the BBC did slant more of their news articles towards the government. This is not due to the want to be broadcasting purely the governments view, it is because there was a threat from the government aimed at the BBC. This is something that remained unresolved through out the period of the general strike. In Reith’s diaries, he says that the situation with the government had remained unresolved and that Baldwin had said that the BBC would keep some of its independence, and ended with â€Å"Not quite fair† 31. It meant that the BBC was hanging in the balance through out the period of the strike. They wanted to be independent because they wanted to be able to fulfil the idea of a public service. Reith wanted the BBC to be able to ‘inform, educate and entertain’. 29 Reith, John. Into the Wind (Hodder and Stoughton, 1949) p. 109 30 Perkins, Anne. A very British Strike 3rd May- 12th May 1926 (Macmillan, 2006) pp. 32-3 31 Reith, John (1949) p. 112 17 Over all we can see that the BBC did hold some values before the general strike that were well meaning. They did want to provide an impartial service that all people could use and gain something from. They also wanted to promote peace and unity between the classes through the medium of radio, even if this unity meant that people united under the flag of their country. They also wished to remain independent in order to be able to provide such a service to their listeners. However, because of the inexperience of the BBC in previous years, not all of these were able to be achieved, and during the general strike other values were less important. This meant that the BBC during the general strike felt that the independence that it had was its most important asset and that they would attempt to provide a public service that allowed all of their values to shine through. However, their belief that the independence was the most important idea infers that the others had to become slightly more redundant. This indicates that the BBC was reporting the general strike from a disadvantaged position. It seems impossible that the BBC would have been able to provide an account that the entire population would be able to listen and agree with. However there are other factors that allowed the BBC to do this. 18 Chapter three: What other sources of news were available to the public? How did this affect the position of the BBC? This chapter will aim to assess the other news that was in production at the time of the general strike. In order to do this we mainly need to look at the two main papers that were available at the time. These were firstly, the government paper; The British Gazette and the paper of the Trade Unions Council, The British Worker. We will look at how the two papers put across their news and why they were relatively unsuccessful attempts at propaganda. This will then lead us to look at other national papers that were available at the time and the difficulties that they encountered. Once we have assessed these we can then look at the position of the BBC during the strike. Firstly, we will be looking at the TUC paper, The British Worker. This paper was primarily created because the printers had gone out on strike. The lack of national press meant that there was no way for those out on strike to receive national news through out the period of the strike. This meant that the paper was purely a creation in order to provide information to the strikers. We can see that even on the first edition of the paper, the British Worker labelled itself as â€Å"the official strike news bulletin 32†. Therefore the news that was inside consisted purely of events that took place in regards to the strike. It was there in order to provide workers from around the country with their news. The paper was also a way for the TUC to keep morale high amongst the striker. They often embellished the efforts of the strikers around the country and often praised the efforts of 32 The British Worker, 5th May, 1926, British Library Newspaper Archive , Colindale 19 the striker. They provided a summary of the country that did not contain any negative content about people going back to work. The only negative content that they provided is that about the government and the way that they were going about trying to combat the strike and their aims, and failing, this is evident from the issue of May 11th, whereby the sub-heading states that the â€Å"Cabinets new tactics defeated by indisputable facts 33†. This would have kept the morale of the strikers high so that there would have been no need to become angry and violent; it shows them that they had taken the right steps in the strike. The appeal of the British Worker was greatly restricted, because of the fact that the paper was only reporting on news of the strike. It meant that those that were on strike or those that were sympathetic to the strike were the only audience that the paper had. The General Council of the TUC were not intending the paper to be of mass appeal, they wanted it to purely give guidance to the strikers on a national level. They wanted to consolidate pieces of news from around the country and put them in to one publication. This is because they wanted to promote law and order. This was important to the TUC because they wanted to prove that their aim was not revolution as suggested by the government. Many of the articles show that they wanted to promote law and order, the May 5th edition of the bulletin provided an article called â€Å"Do’s for bad days† which told strikers that were upset or angry to try and keep their minds off the strike and provided them with activities to do34. They did not want to have strikers being violent and breaking the law as it would weaken their cause and warrant a response from the government.. We can also see that the bulletin was a way for the strikers to respond to the government. The article entitled â€Å"Labour’s reply to the Premier† on May 6 th is a response to the 33 ‘No Slackening’ The British Worker, 11th May 1926, British Library Newspaper Archive, Colindale 34 ‘Do’s for difficult days’, The British Worker, 6th May 1926, British Library Newspaper Archive, Colindale 20 overnment as is the constant emphasis on the strike being industrially motivated and not constitutionally35. These are all responses to articles that had been placed in the British Gazette, said in Parliament or broadcast over the wireless, which the TUC collected information on. We can already see that the British Worker and The British Gazette were worried more about attacking each other publicly than actua lly providing the public with credible news. The British Gazette had other motives than those of The British Worker. Their primary aim appeared to be to stifle the press by commandeering as much paper as they could to print on. This meant that they not only commandeered The British Worker’s supply of paper, but other national papers, such as The Times36. We can see that the paper was not produced contain news that would interest many people. The sports pages had usual cricket and other sports but then was filled with news about Ice Hockey in Canada 37, which not many British people would have been interested in during 1926. It was clearly an attempt to use as much paper as they could The British Gazette was a way for the government to stop the press from producing any form of sympathetic news towards the strikers. This was mainly aimed at the British Worker. However having said this the paper did provide the country with propaganda.. The British Gazette was also full of quite nationalist propaganda. This was because the government saw the strike as an attack on ordinary British people. The paper on May 6 th showed that they believed that British public were under attack. It read: 35 ‘Labours reply to the Premier’ The British Worker, 6th May 1926, British Library Newspaper Archive, Colindale 36 Taaffe, Peter, 1926 General Strike; Workers Taste Power (Socialist Publications, 2006) p. 108 37 ‘Ice Hockey in Canada’ The British Gazette, 5th May 1926, British Library Newspaper Archive, Colindale 1 â€Å"Constitutional government is being attacked. Let all good citizens whose livelihood and labour have thus been put in peril, bear with fortitude and patience the hardships with which they have been so suddenly confronted 38† The idea of the government being attacked then appears to be translated in to an attack o n the ordinary British person. This propaganda supplemented that of poems and cartoons that all aimed to make the British people proud of themselves and look disdainfully down at the strike. The image displayed on the May 12 th front page with the caption â€Å"Under which flag? clearly shows this nationalist propaganda from the British Gazette. It pictures two men; one with a union jack flag, looking proud and stood up tall and the other pictures a man that is in the background with a flag saying TUC 39. This clearly shows us the stance that the paper took during the strike, but it was not a successful paper on the whole. The problems that existed with The British Gazette were that firstly the paper was very controversial. The news that it provided often frightened many of the moderate supporters of the government40. Therefore, any wider market for the paper was not possible because their views were so extreme. The paper also lied about the extent of the strike, they actually made the strike out to be less supported and less effective than it was in order to keep the morale of the country up. Their article in the May 6 th edition contained an article called â€Å"Why walk to work? † This gave details of all the buses and tube lines that were running. In this, it said that the LGOC had over two hundred buses on the streets of London, when the actual figure was at eighty-six41. This could have even been a genuine 38 ‘Message from the Prime Minister’, The British Gazette, 6th May 1926, British Library Newspaper Archive, Colindale 39 ‘Under which flag? The British Gazette, 12th May 1926, British Library Newspaper Archive, Colindale 40 Symons, Julian, The General Strike (House of Stratus, 2001) p. 155 41 Ibid. pp. 153-4 22 mistake on the part of the British Gazette, but the way that the paper was so controversial meant that the figure appears to be a deliberate lie. The ir lies did aim to keep the countries morale up, but unfortunately they happened to do the opposite and many that read the British Gazette became angry through out the period of the strike because they did not give a true representation of how the strike was occurring.. The distribution figures of the British Gazette do appear to be impressive, however the problem with these figures is that they only show how many issues were provided to people; the figures for the distribution of the paper through out the strike stood at around two million, according to the British Gazette 42. It does not show us how many people actually ordered copies of the British Gazette. A writer for The Times said that they saw copies of the British Gazette being put in to houses that had not ordered a copy and that he saw more than one copy go to houses that did order one 43. This shows us quite clearly that the aim of the British Gazette was to stifle the press, especially that of the British Worker. Their main aim was to use as much paper as they possibly could in order to silence the views of any newspaper that was remotely sympathetic to the strikers. Marx had said that the government was an â€Å"executive committee† of the ruling classes 44. They always act in the interests of the ruling classes and as such would attempt to defend their interests in any way possible. This argument is true if we look at the British Gazette; this was set up to defend the mine owners against the strike. They were against the strike in every way possible and said that the strike was not constitutional. This is clearly the government defending the ruling classes against the working class. Marx also stated that 42 The British Gazette, May 1926, British Library Newspaper Archive, Colindale 43 Symons, Julian (2001) p. 160 44 Taaffe, Peter, The General Strike: Workers Taste Power (Socialist Publications, 2006) p. 107 23 the government would use all resources necessary in order to defend the ruling classes, because they were for their interests45. This is why the British Gazette took the supplies of paper away from the remaining press at the time. We should be careful to think that because the printers were out on strike that there were no national newspapers. This is not the case; there was actually a great wealth of national newspapers that were all available in smaller formats during the course of the strike. Many of them were not available for all the way through the strike; with the exception of the Times, which managed to print a copy of their paper every day, albeit it was a single sheet46. The problem that many of the papers had is that they did not have enough paper to print what they wanted because the British Gazette was using many of the supplies of paper. This meant that they were only able to print certain articles that they deemed as important. This possibly would have restricted their appeal. However, there was also problems with the distribution of these national papers. The problems with the distribution occurred because there was no one available to during the strike to deliver the papers. This meant that unless the newspaper had their own fleet of private cars, such as The Times47, then there would be very few ways of getting the paper out. All of this has a relevance for the BBC and affected its position greatly. It meant that because there was very little press that was available nationally, the BBC was able to provide the news for a large amount of the population. The British Gazette and the British Worker both had very limited audiences and this is something that the BBC capitalised on. Local papers were useful for people, however, they were not able to give an account of the 45 Taaffe 46 Symons, Julian (2001) p. 158 47 Ibid. p. 157 24 state of the whole country. So although the BBC may not have been trusted completely during the course of the strike as many people felt that it was the only credible form of news that was available. The British Gazette was too extreme for those that did not sympathise with the strikers and those that did not sympathise with the strikers would not have wanted to read the British Worker. The lack of press also meant that the BBC was able to produce more news broadcasts, rather than just one per day. Baldwin told Reith that the country was relying on the BBC for their news48, this meant that for the first time the BBC was able to provide a service that would have great appeal to people. The BBC did not have much in the way of experience of news reporting and quite often during the strike, many of the reporters were said to have sounded nervous. However, the majority of the population wanted to listen to the news as a result of there not being any real news available. As we can see, the results of there being a lack of national press at the time meant that there was an opportunity for the BBC to become the countries primary source of news. This was something that John Reith had been hoping for since the beginning of the BBC in 1922, but unfortunately had been unable to do this as he was blocked from doing so by the national papers. This meant that the general strike was the only chance that the BBC had to dominate the press. It did this, but struggled to do so because of the constrictions that were upon it at the time. The next chapter will assess the other factors that played a part in the BBC becoming a national voice. 48 Reith, John, Into the Wind (Hodder Stoughton, 1949) p. 107 25 Chapter four: What external influences had an effect on the ways that the BBC broadcast to their listeners during the general strike? There were several external influences that had an effect on the way that the British Broadcasting Comapny broadcast during the general strike. This part of the project will seek to explore these in further depth as we have touched on them in previous chapters. These are relevant because they gave the BBC an image during the strike and led to their listeners forming opinions on them. This section will be split in to several different external factors that have played a part; firstly we will assess the impact of the largest influence on the BBC, that of the government. The BBC held close links with the government during the strike and were able to broadcast fairly often. The last external influence that played a large part during the strike was that of the church. The Church of England broadcast a series of speeches and appeals through the period of the strike, as this was in keeping with Reith’s beliefs. However, there was a conflict been the church and the government in regards to a proposed broadcast, from the Archbishop of Canterbury, that we will assess. This will allow us to see the way in which the BBC dealt with this and look at where their allegiances lay.. The government was closely linked to the BBC during the general strike. Not only in terms of the organisation of the BBC, but also from the listeners point of view. Many of the listeners believed that the BBC had been commandeered by the Conservative government, a point that will be discussed in depth further in this chapter. It is true that the BBC did have a close relationship with the government, but they had not been 26 commandeered. During the strike Winston Churchill wanted to commandeer the BBC 49, but the way that the BBC broadcasts were put out allowed them to maintain their independence. Another factor that has not yet been discussed is that the BBC had similar beliefs to the government at the time. The telegraph that John Reith sent to Stanley Baldwin clearly showed the stance that was taken on the strike: â€Å"Assuming the BBC is for the people and that the government is for the people, it follows that the BBC is for the government50. † Whether this message was sent by John Reith as a way to keep the government from commandeering the BBC is unclear, but it does appear to tell us that the BBC and government held similar values. However, interpretations of this may have been that the belief that the BBC were against the general strike and were on the side of the government. We cannot even be sure to say now that our interpretation of the message is correct because it would be unfair to do so. We can also see that the government had an influence on the broadcasts that were put out on the wireless. Even though the BBC was meant to be an impartial organisation, that provided balanced news to the listeners, many of the broadcasts were asking for the public to become volunteers. On May 9th a bulletin was broadcast that came directly from the government and was asking for civil constabulary reserves 51. On the surface, this appears clearly not to be impartial and in favour of the government. However, the broadcast was a Reith’s way of attempting to maintain peace and order. This was something that the BBC 49 Perkins, Anne, A Very British Strike 3 May-12 May 1926 (Macmillan, 2006) p. 124 50 Cardiff, David Paddy Scannell, A Social History of British Broadcasting; volume one 1922-1939 (Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1991) pp. 32-3 51 General Strike news bulletins, 9th May 1926, BBC Written Archives, Caversham 27 aimed to promote during the strike. To ordinary people, it would have looked liked bias in favour of the government. Unfortunately what the listeners of the BBC did not hear is the broadcasts that were turned down by the BBC such as the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies was not allowed to broadcast on the BBC because it would not have been non-political52. This is something that the listeners of the BBC would not have known about, and as a result they would not have seen this impartiality. The listeners took a view of the BBC on only what they heard or what they were told. If they did not hear something, then there was no way of them knowing about it. Unless, like the Archbishop of Canterbury’s broadcast, it becomes public knowledge. Reith’s aim of maintaining peace meant that many of the broadcasts from the government had to be broadcast as they often regarded keeping the country running through the appeal from volunteers. This was seen by Reith as being integral to keeping the peace and maintaining the law and order of the country, on May 9 th an appeal for volunteers on the trains was broadcast53, the running of the trains was integral and would have kept the country going. Even though it did help the government, and ultimately helped the BBC stay independent. The interpretation to the new BBC listeners, such as the strikers themselves, may have been that the BBC was wanting to end the strike and was in no way representing the strikers in the broadcasts. However, if we also look at what the listeners did not hear as well, this is just as important in looking at the relationship with the government. It can give us some more ideas of the relationship between government and BBC. We can see that the government paper took precedent over any other paper during the strike. We can see this from the May 12 th 52 Perkins, Anne ( 2006) pp. 70-1 53 General Strike news bulletins, 9th May 1926, BBC Written Archives, Caversham 28 wireless bulletin, only The British Gazette was mentioned as being on sale. However, underneath this was a broadcast that had been taken out of the script that listed all of the other papers that were available54. Broadcasting about the British Gazette is something that Reith may have felt was an important matter in maintaining the independence of the BBC, as it was the government paper. They may also not have broadcast certain items because they would have caused anger and outrage towards the government. On May 9 th a broadcast had been crossed out that said that Baldwin had gone to visit the London Zoological Gardens55. This was removed because it would have firstly led to the BBC being commandeered and is also would have caused anger towards the government as this was a time of crisis and Baldwin was visiting tourist destinations, rather than focusing on the general strike. The close relationship that the BBC had with the government would have been ecognised by their listeners during the strike. The tone and language that was used through out the BBC also sounded official and very middle class. A bulletin on May 12 th described a situation in Birkenhead, which stated that â€Å"some hooliganism was promptly suppressed 56†. This so called â€Å"hooliganism† was not explained in the broadcast and would have been interpreted by the working class listene rs as being fairly derogatory. The broadcasts intention appears to be in order to promote peace and make an example out of the ‘hooligans’, but in its language it appears as an attack on those in support of the strike. In regards to the end of the strike, the BBC put out a broadcast that mentioned people that were outside Downing Street, chanting Baldwin’s name in support of him 57 . This was probably a relay of the events that were occurring but coupled with the way that the end of 54 55 56 57 General Strike news bulletins, 12th May 1926, BBC Written Archives, Caversham General Strike news bulletins, 9th May 1926, BBC Written Archives, Caversham General Strike news bulletins, 12th May 1926, BBC Written Archives, Caversham General Strike news bulletins, 12th May 1926, BBC Written Archives, Caversham 9 strike was broadcast it meant that people would have believed that the BBC were glad that the strike had been defeated. This is the way that it may have appeared to the working class, and the returning strikers. We can see that the end of the strike was announced and a piano played Jerusalem58, so it was made very grand. This was a celebration that peace had returned to the country it was not a celebration that the strike had been defeated. However, to a relatively new audience this is how it would have appeared to them. The lyrics to Jerusalem are very nationalist. We have seen the last lines of the hymn and they invoke a sense of national pride. This hymn not only allows us to see that religion did play a large part in the BBC, but it also appears to glorify England; which after the strike would have came across to the strikers as being a celebration that the government had succeeded. Indeed, this is if the working class had understood the meaning of the song. It is not something that would have interested the majority of the working class people as they would only have wanted to hear the news reports and not the BBC’s views of the events. The hymn’s actual intention was a celebration that England had pulled through this industrial dispute, however it could have been perceived, by the strikers, that the BBC were thankful that the general strike had been defeated. However, the ‘Reithian ethos’ stood to promote social unity through all classes and unite as the British rather than as classes. The playing of Jerusalem is put into context when we know this; however many new listeners of the BBC would not have known this about the BBC. Opinions of the some listeners at the time of the strike show that many believed that the BBC had been commandeered. The Daily Herald, a day before the strike began, warned 58 Leishmann, Marista, Reith of the BBC: My Father (St Andrews Press, 2006) pp. 65-66 30 their readers against the propaganda on the BBC 59. This was a relatively large paper, that sympathised with the working class and would have had the belief that the BBC was essentially government propaganda, because it was a middle class past time. Beatrice Webb commenting on the BBC also said that she believed that the company had been commandeered by the government, although she did give credit to the BBC for giving the TUC airtime. However, Beatrice Webb’s political allegiance lay with the Labour Party, who were a left wing political party. They would have had clear opposition to the Conservative government as firstly, the Labour Party was a party for the workers, and secondly because the Labour Party were wanting to be in government themselves. This shows us that Beatrice Webb was going to be for the general strike and against the Conservative government, this meant that anything that sounded against the strike was seen as a hindrance. The TUC and the Labour Party were therefore already at a disadvantage during the strike because the BBC and the government held similar values and were closely connected, this made it hard for them to get their point across on the BBC; especially the Labour Party. We can firstly see that the news that the BBC got from Reuters was already of an anti-Labour bias, so they already got very little coverage. This left the Labour Party in a bad position because the BBC would also not allow them to broadcast speeches on air. On Monday 10th May, Ramsay MacDonald asked John Reith if he was able to broadcast a speech; this was not allowed by the government60. Throughout the period of the strike the BBC did not give consideration to the Labour Party. This would not have held true to the 59 Perkins,Anne (2006) pp. 125-6 60 Briggs, Asa, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume One, The Birth of Broadcasting (Oxford University Press, 1995) pp. 244-7 31 belief of an impartial BBC and would have affected the way that the BBC listeners heard their news. Those that were against the strike would not have had any problem with the Labour Party not being broadcast. The working class, that supported the Labour Party, would not have though this fair as there was not being any representation for them generally. The TUC were able to broadcast speeches and allow some announcements through the BBC. The TUC relationship also went the other way in that they used the BBC broadcasts to provide them with their news. This shows us that the TUC did trust some of what the BBC was saying, but did not trust everything. They knew that it was primarily a middle class tool and not for their interests. However, we can also see that the TUC did send items in to the BBC asking for certain broadcasts to be corrected on the strike. However, this did not happen. The way that the TUC and the Labour Party were restricted from broadcasting shows us that the BBC did not want to lose its independence. However the BBC was supposed to promoted social unity; something that it had been started in order to advocate. The problem was that the BBC was essentially owned, ran and listened to by the middle class. This meant that it was a middle class tool that essentially represented middle class interests and values under the guise of ‘social unity’. The working class on the other hand did not manage to have the BBC represent them, unless they were working class Conservatives. Their wants and needs were not catered for; the TUC and the Labour Party bulletins were not broadcast. This meant that those for the strike were essentially were scribbled out of the bulletins and forgotten about. This may have caused these groups to feel resentment towards the BBC. However, we must bear in mind that the Conservatives were very popular during this period and as such would have had a large following going in 2 to the general strike; we saw earlier that the election statistics gave the Conservatives nearly half of the vote in 1924, so there was many people; middle and working class that were voting Conservative. Prior to the general strike, the BBC held the idea of having high moral standards as important. This is why John Reith believed that the BBC should allow broadcasts from the church. Through out the first years of the BBC and in to the general strike the BBC regularly had broadcasts from members of the clergy. However, during the general strike there was a controversial issue involving the BBC and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church wanted to broadcast an appeal to both sides during the strike asking for a settlement61. The government said that this broadcast could not happen as it would lead to the BBC being commandeered. The broadcast did not go ahead. This shows us plainly that the ‘Reithian ethos’ of high moral standards was a lesser need than that of the BBC’s independence. It also shows us the grip that the government had over the BBC was supreme. There was no need to commandeer the BBC because the threat of it would have worried Reith in to broadcasting the viewpoint of the government to the listeners. In conclusion, we can see that the BBC was under a great deal of pressure from all of their external influences. This inevitably influenced the way that they broadcast to their listeners, however we can see that the most influential of these was by far the government. The reason for this was not only the fact that the BBC had the threat of losing their independence , but it was because the ideas that the government held on the strike were similar to that of the BBC. The message that Reith sent to Baldwin made this perfectly clear. The BBC did attempt to be as impartial as it could with out the government 61 Symons, Julian, The General Strike (House of Stratus, 2001) pp. 176-79 33 commandeering them. Reith did want to broadcast some of the items that, in the end, were not broadcast. As Reith has said himself, the decision lay with him. He could ultimately decide upon what went out to be broadcast, but he also had to decide how far he could take this before Winston Churchill and a few others in the cabinet decided that they wanted to commandeer the BBC. These pressures unfortunately affected the BBC and put them under great strain, which meant that the broadcasts often suffered, in turn meaning that the listeners opinion of the BBC also suffered. With a new set of listeners, it made the job of the BBC even more difficult because they had to cater for both the middle class and the working class alike. 34 Conclusion In conclusion, we can see that the British Broadcasting Company actually represented the general strike fairly to its listeners, despite being biased towards the government because of the pressure that was on it. This was because they managed to show that they could provide the relevant information to the nation. They also provided information to both sides of the conflict; both the government and the Trades Union Council How to cite How Did the Bbc Represent the General Strike of 1926?, Essay examples