Abstract
The autumn 2014 referendum on independence for Scotland heralds the possible break up of the United Kingdom: what happens to the BBC when Britain per se no longer exists? An independent Scotland would perhaps have its own public service broadcasting per se as it already has, in many ways, a distinct and distinctive public sphere and media. But how far can small nations or communities escape or counter the power of the centre? As the title of this timely collection of essays suggests, there is a need to address the complex nature of media, political and cultural power in the context of centres and peripheries. The authors range widely across different media and go well beyond the ‘nations and regions’ debates in the UK into and beyond Europe. In so doing, they enable us to move away from the particular detail of contemporary media policy issues in one country or union or federal state and to see how there is always, to a lesser or greater extent, a necessary struggle by those who are designated as peripheral to have their voice(s) heard in the public sphere.
As far as this holds true, the gate-keeping and agenda-setting powers and values of news and press agencies, as well as the algorithms of search engines, do constitute a continuing form of imperialism by the centre. The commercial and profit imperative means that news are aggregated and sold or syndicated as a homogenised commodity. This sets a narrative which frames the terms of debate and thus how we think about the issues even if not - directly- what we think about.
Witness, for example, New Zealand, which according to Kenix, allows a situation in which “Media conglomerates owned largely by Australian interests control most of the media […]. There is perhaps no other developed country on earth that has so little stake in its own mediated representations” (p.271). Actually there might be another - Scotland. But the point is well made and it needs to be noted that the ownership of press voices in Scotland- not the Scottish press which is different as Hutchison has pointed out - largely resides outside the country.
How do the writers in this book see the current overall state of play? The chapter titles sum up the current confusing state of the media and news industry. ‘Those Post Devolution Falling Revenue Blues’ by McLaughlin refers to the paradox that just as the nations of the UK reach devolution, newspapers and regional news on television retreat in the face of financial pressures. Of course there is much rhetoric about the importance of ‘the local’ but money talks. Despite the claims made for the internet, Hutchison and O’Donnell are surely right in arguing that “well resourced public service oriented journalism in the public and private sectors remains crucial”(p.288). This remains true no matter which country or continent.
In ‘Sustaining Regional Television News in Britain’, Sue Wallace traces the twists and turns of various attempts at policy solutions, none of which, including UK Culture Secretary Hunt’s ideas for local television, seem to have any prospect of success. As Lay and O’Neill acknowledge in ‘Regional Television News and Its Audiences’, “if the BBC’s regional news audiences have seen a slow and steady decline, then the audiences for ITV’s programmes have nose-dived” (p.76). We need to find ways of ensuring quality news and content beyond the funding models of the market and beyond the BBC. Perhaps one way forward is for those who argue for the provision of English language regional/local content to borrow and build upon the strategies adopted by ethnic or cultural/language minorities.
Hope for the future may therefore be in the contributions by Waddell on Canada, Castello on Catalonia, and Chalmers on Gaeldom. Waddell looks to ‘new media models returning to a focus on the communities their predecessors once served. They will take the place of tired and outdated conglomerates, converged and concentrated media’(p.238). Castello seeks to embrace an ‘open debate about the cultural projection of any society which takes proper account of its richness and complexity’ (p.198). Chalmers, in an interesting analysis of the esteemed Gaelic programme Eorpa, makes the point that “there does seem to be some evidence that a common civitas and shared outlook can connect Gaels..with others who have experienced similar histories .. In some ways it can be argued that this reflects a broader European outlook not necessarily shared by the majority English speaking community” (p.145)
The need for the peripheries to continue and renew their cultures and perspectives is an international as well as a national problem. In the UK, as the BBC struggles with reporting in an impartial way the breakup of the centre, Britain or the further diminution of the power of the centre- London- it may be that the BBC’s own motto of ‘nation shall speak peace unto nation’ should be updated to find methods of enabling so-called peripheries to speak to each other and to centres in more meaningful ways. Hutchison, O’Donnell et al. have performed a valuable service in exploring the nuances and contours of these issues. The lesson of their book is that small nations and regions share much and they need to find ways of realising their common strengths.