British quality, American chaos

Abstract

This article argues that what has often been presented as a simple, crucial opposition - the British public service broadcasting system versus the US private profit system - in fact demonstrates not only a self-conscious mutual involvement but a set of common objectives that overrides many of their differences. From each broadcasting system’s earliest history, a mutual construction of a dualism loudly proclaimed can be observed, built largely around matters of ownership, funding, and cultural values. What is suggested here is that each system, in practice, was based on only versions of central social and economic control that were operationally different: meanwhile, the proclamation of national differences simply served to justify the stifling of an alternative model of ‘popular’ broadcasting, which threatened each system’s dominance in their respective states.

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