Books, Broadcasters and the BBC: The Conversations Among British Modern Literature, Media and the Law
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Dale Barleben
Dale Barleben is Associate Professor of Literature and Law at John Jay College, CUNY, New York where he focusses on the intersections among British modern law, literature and culture. His book
Staging the Trial of Modernism: Testimony and the British Modern Legal Consciousness was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2017. His current research concentrates on Oscar Wilde and Banksy in the contexts of law and culture.
Abstract
I argue that the BBC, rather than exacerbating the sensationalism so prevalent in the British press at the turn of the century, worked steadfastly to curtail the rampant affronts to character that became commonplace in media representations of celebrity. The BBC’s efforts to “enculturate” its listeners became an incubator for the literary and legal culture of the age. As such, it blurred boundaries between elites and lower-class cultures. The BBC, founded in 1922, combated loose and sensational reporting, while it struggled with financing and legal identity. In 1927, the company was wound-up and the government established a new entity, under Royal Charter. This was crucial to the legal autonomy of the corporation, and differentiated it from those established under parliamentary statute. It also gave the BBC a monopoly over broadcasting. I will focus on these differences as I argue that while the voice of the new BBC was, by legal mandate, to be “unbiased,” the effects of John Reith’s management curtailed any hope of this goal in program content. I argue that while, pursuant to further government mandate, the BBC “may neither editorialize nor carry advertising,” Reith’s control and attempts to educate became points of contention to the legal mandate of the BBC. In effect, the BBC suffered an identity crisis at its inception, on one hand an unbiased instrument of government, reporting the proceedings of Parliament, for example, and on the other, a protected and autonomous legal entity under Charter. Alongside the Royal Charter and legal precedent surrounding the BBC’s inception and operation, my examination touches on the following primary texts: Ezra Pound’s The Testament of François Villon (1931), The BBC Talks of E.M. Forster, 1929 – 1960 (2008), Shaw’s Radio Plays, and some of the interviews conducted by the BBC with T.S. Eliot.
About the author
Dale Barleben is Associate Professor of Literature and Law at John Jay College, CUNY, New York where he focusses on the intersections among British modern law, literature and culture. His book Staging the Trial of Modernism: Testimony and the British Modern Legal Consciousness was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2017. His current research concentrates on Oscar Wilde and Banksy in the contexts of law and culture.
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Foreword: Law and Art in the Aftermath
- The Right(s) to Remain: Art, Asylum and Political Representation in Australia
- Dis-Affective Justice in Abderrahmane Sissako’s Bamako (2006)
- Contemporary Art in the Aftermath of Legal Positivism: The ‘Other’ Contract Art as Material Jurisprudence
- ‘NO GO’: Artists, Trespass and the Aftermath of Occupation
- Research
- Dystopian Images of Law and Visual Performances of Identity in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games
- Books, Broadcasters and the BBC: The Conversations Among British Modern Literature, Media and the Law
- Falling Man and the Aesthetics of Terrorism
- Book Reviews
- Shulamit Almog: The Origins of Law in Homer
- Kieran Tranter: Living in Technical Legality: Science Fiction and Law as Technology
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Foreword: Law and Art in the Aftermath
- The Right(s) to Remain: Art, Asylum and Political Representation in Australia
- Dis-Affective Justice in Abderrahmane Sissako’s Bamako (2006)
- Contemporary Art in the Aftermath of Legal Positivism: The ‘Other’ Contract Art as Material Jurisprudence
- ‘NO GO’: Artists, Trespass and the Aftermath of Occupation
- Research
- Dystopian Images of Law and Visual Performances of Identity in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games
- Books, Broadcasters and the BBC: The Conversations Among British Modern Literature, Media and the Law
- Falling Man and the Aesthetics of Terrorism
- Book Reviews
- Shulamit Almog: The Origins of Law in Homer
- Kieran Tranter: Living in Technical Legality: Science Fiction and Law as Technology
