Renewing the BBC for a Digital World - Case Study Example

?BBC Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Brief History 4 BBC Preserve UK Culture 5 Changed UK Culture 8 Conclusion 9 References 11 Introduction The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is included under the category of statutory corporations, which operates with a vision to provide impartial broadcasting services in the UK. BBC has it headquarter in London and several production centres all over the UK. It is one of the first broadcasting establishments and the largest in terms of employee volume in the global realm. It was founded on 18th October, 1922 by John Reith and George Villier (Norman, 2013). In the UK, BBC is funded under the provision of the television Licence fee, which is collected from every household and institution using the broadcasting services. Operating almost entirely on public funding, the mission of BBC is to enhance the quality of life of the people in the UK and around the globe, by broadcasting informational programs, educating the audiences and amusing them. The corporation also holds a value to be the creative body in the world. The License fees in the UK is used to deliver services in 10 national television (TV) channels, various national radio stations, 40 local radio stations and a widespread network of news as well as informational websites. It is noteworthy that BBC is managed on the basis of certain specific and defined policies as well as rules created by the official bodies, to accomplish its pre-set mission (1BBC, 2013). When considering the values, ethos and pathos involved in the mission statement of the corporation, it can be observed that the foundation of BBC is based on trust, honesty and its independent nature on the common public interests. The significance of BBC is to provide excellence and value for money to the people of UK. It is thereby devoted to openness and transparency, and provides disclosures regarding information to the public on regular basis emphasising its value of probity (1BBC, 2013). In the following discussion henceforth, the culture of BBC and the changes made since its establishment with regards to its managerial approaches have been addressed. Correspondingly, the history of BBC, its objective, its mission and its vision are also reflected in order to understand its significance in the world as an information channel. Brief History In the year 1922, BBC went live for the first time targeting the national audiences. The transmission of BBC created enormous interest among the people and reflected the newest scientific marvel of the age, pronouncing the initiation of the Digital era. John Reith was the first general manager of BBC. The establishment of BBC has been widely regarded as a milestone in the broadcasting history of the UK. By the year 1925, BBC covered a wide network in Briton with the aid of its newly expanding web of relay stations in the public interests. In 1932, BBC was reformed as a company and altered itself to be reputed as a public corporation. Subsequently it established a progressive broadcasting centre, the ‘Broadcasting House.’ BBC also provided the audiences with consistent TV services, which created a sensation throughout the world (2BBC, 2013). BBC had its competition with the independent television network functioning in the UK, named ITV. Nevertheless, aided by the government and operating in the public interests, BBC had its domination in the transmission of radio services with quality information. In 1960, the second BBC channel was added on the basis of its quality information and also with a vision of maintaining the standard of information for the audiences. Enormous broadcast events, such as live aids were to be conceived by BBC in the 1980’s to meet the expected challenges to be identified by the early 1990s, while the digital world was expanding and dominating the corporation thinking at an increasing pace. Subsequently, a greater degree of competition and expansion was faced by BBC, whereby the rising differentiation amid the few broadcasting media strategies ignited controversies regarding the biasness of BBC. However, BBC continued expanding with the initiation of new channels with the help of radio and television services in the UK (BBC News, 2002). BBC was also actively into inventing several news facilities with the help of internet and digital television. The Director General of BBC was initially appointed by the board of governors, which has currently been transferred to BBC Trust. The objective of BBC however remains the same to provide neutral information to the public, maintain transparency and serve the audiences across the UK and the world giving utmost significant to the community interests and benefits (BBC News, 2002). BBC Preserve UK Culture The main purpose of BBC has been to educate the common people about the various societal, economic and political as well as other environmental factors that tend to affect their quality of life to a substantial extent either directly or indirectly, apart from entertaining and informing them with quality information. Since its establishment, BBC has often been credited to have helped the enrichment of societal standards, assisting the common individuals with knowledge regarding global and national cultures with a moral vision to build cohesiveness by engaging the people of the UK and the world at large. BBC had few monopoly years as it was the only broadcaster through television and radio media channels. Thus, BBC can be observed to have remained as highly influential for the people of the UK, imposing strong impacts on its cultural wideness (BBC Trust, 2010). For example, BBC used its broadcasting strengths in generating new ideas through music to encourage the children and the people during the World War 2 and certainly aid in preserving the positive spirit in the trying time witnessed by the common people. Accordingly, BBC has also been credited to act as an art of the civic society. The TV and the radio programs broadcasted by BBC, helped people with the current social, political, economic and environmental facts, making them aware regarding the ongoing operations around the world and simultaneously igniting a positive value within the UK society, especially during the World War 2 (BBC Trust, 2010). The experience and the information delivered by BBC have further been of significant public value. The programs aired by BBC also made the public conscious of their societal responsibilities and encouraged them to vote as well as supporting them to realise the significance of their neighbourhood (BBC, 2004). As a matter of fact, conveying appropriate information during national emergency might help the society in protecting the life of many people along with reducing the degree of perplexity identified within the society. Notably, eradication of the persisting perplexity within the society in turn ensures better development throughout its various dimensions. Thus, broadcasting services can be regarded as a valuable component of the Digital era as it is well capable of providing collective values in the world in public interests (Briggs, 1995). Certainly, operations managed by BBC can be observed as aligned with these moral values of broadcasting services. The principle followed by BBC has further been strictly concentrated on maintaining universality, fairness, equity and accountability in the information aired. Based on these moral norms, BBC was also required to be free and accessible to everyone to bring in revolutionary changes for the benefit of the national and the global society on the whole, in order to accurately identify and satisfy the wants and responsiveness of the different users of its information. From critical point of view, BBC can be examined to support civic life and national arguments by providing reliable and unbiased information based on firm evidences, which benefit the citizens to make sense of the world and motivate them to remain engaged with it. Moreover, it aims to enhance the cultural values persisting within the UK by gathering experts and viewers together to create a fresh opportunity for a better communal environment. BBC also has been rejoicing the cultural heritage and widening the national dialogue of the UK, through an artistic value. For instance, BBC offers educational information in various languages to bring the society together through proper knowledge and skills. This broadcasting allows the people to build social cohesiveness and patience through greater understanding of the facts. People of different communities get to understand the common factors and the dissimilarity persisting within through the information provided in BBC. In this regard, BBC has apparently been supporting the value of the UK society by providing evidence based reports, unbiased news and uniform information throughout. Undoubtedly, the values of the common public can be examined as of great relevance when evaluating the contribution of BBC. The culture of the UK is preserved through BBC as it provides substantial quality to the people in every form of information channelization, i.e. either through news, programs, education or music (BBC, 2004; Christophers, 2008). With due significance to this notion, the objective of BBC can be linked with the culture of the UK, which is to serve the people by providing value added services, promoting education and learning in various paradigms of the global society and also through the promotion of creativity and its excellence. BBC supports the people of the UK in bringing their values as well as their beliefs in front of the world through television, addressing the knowledge gap persisting regarding religion and other various aspects of a modern society. BBC has a positive impact on the profitability in the economy too, which can be identified on the basis of its training efforts and market development approaches. BBC has thereby been contribution to the preservation of the UK culture with the channelization of democratic, cultural, educational, social and global values from the world and also to its global audiences. Programs such as The Politics Show and The Jeremy Vine Show hosted in BBC can be regarded as few of the best practices in this context (Parliament.uk, 2010). Changed UK Culture BBC, in its recent years of performances realised that it required changes in the ways it was operating to overcome the challenges of the 21st century and the upcoming future. With the changes in the commercial environment, BBC must be able to meet the public requirements and also take into account the impact of its activities on the people. Also, BBC has been credited and regarded for assisting the people of the UK to meet its responsibilities towards the economy and its culture in an all-inclusive manner. To ensure such responsibilities, it is further recommendable to operate fairly, create partnerships based on mutual understanding and be an open organisation, which has, since its establishment been followed by BBC. In this regard, it can be affirmed that the idea of BBC is not only to adopt changes of the market but also adapt to the environmental alterations to preserve the rights of the public (Blyth, 2012). With the growing changes in the society, BBC has also reformed its approaches to a greater extent in order to deliver better services and values to the common public. Notably, in the recent era, with the increase in the diversity of the audiences, the demands for various kinds of information and programs have been increasing. BBC is thus focusing on the creative ambition, quality and innovation of programs for the audiences. The expectations of the people with the changing society can further be observed as constricted to channelize innovative programs and focus on originality by BBC. With the advancement of technology, audiences have therefore been demanding BBC to take creative risks and develop innovative programs keeping in mind the multiculturalism factor. In this regard, BBC has been taking appreciable steps in increasing investments and risk taking in producing a “cross-genre” production. With the advancement of the digital technology, BBC has also been trying to meet the aims of the people in regards to modernization. In accordance to such demands, BBC is taking steps to bring the culture and the history together for the modern audience. BBC is also trying to increase its broadcast network in order to showcase the culture of the UK to make the new generation aware of the cultural heritage (Collins, 2007). For example, with the continuing changes through modernization, BBC currently aims to inform about the artistic tradition of the UK to all. With the new technologies, BBC is also encouraging creativity among the common people providing an international platform and a better scope to showcase their talent. BBC is also putting efforts to preserve its values of delivering quality information through varied news and knowledge-based programs to nearly 180 million people through radio, television and internet in order to strengthen the connection between the people throughout the world. BBC today is well placed to bring across the ideas of people from different societies and develop dialogues, which surpass international and cultural borders. Illustratively, in the year 2006, BBC had launched BBC Digital curriculum as a free online service for school children, which could be used both in schools and homes to stimulate an all-inclusive learning environment, and hence, contributing to the enriched standards of the UK culture (Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2006; BBC, 2004). Conclusion BBC, as a social institution, aims to provide quality information with the vision to educate the people in the UK and in the global society along with entertain them simultaneously. The key objective of BBC has therefore been concentrated towards demonstrating information and facts, keeping in view the cultural demands of the UK and the world on the whole. The mission and vision of BBC has notably remained the same through its establishment till date, i.e. to provide information through knowledge based programs to the audiences, rendering priority to the social, cultural and global values. The information through BBC was further provided in such a manner that it assisted in making the world a better place. The purpose of the broadcast was further observed to be changing with the society throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Accordingly, BBC inculcated the required changes and focused on broadcasting through television, radios and internet to reach a larger volume of audiences. The culture of UK was also showcased through BBC with the simultaneous inclusion of the cultures of other countries. BBC thus demonstrated change through technological advancements and its reporting style keeping in mind the culture of the countries. From an overall perspective, it can be affirmed that BBC’s strategic approaches have been effective enough to support it in reaching a benchmark in the global plethora, satisfying its determined values to the highest possible extent. References 1BBC, 2013. Inside The BBC. At A Glance. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/ataglance/ [Accessed November 08, 2013]. 2BBC, 2013. The BBC Story. BBC History Milestones. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/great_moments/milestones.shtml [Accessed November 08, 2013]. BBC News, 2002. A Short History of the BBC. Entertainment. [Online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1231593.stm [Accessed November 08, 2013]. BBC, 2004. Building Public Value. Renewing the BBC for a digital world, pp. 1-135. BBC Trust., 2010. BBC Strategy Review. BBC Trust Public Consultation. [Online] Available at: http://industry.bfi.org.uk/media/pdf/0/7/BBC_Strategy_Reviewfinal.pdf [Accessed November 08, 2013]. Blyth, T., 2012. The Legacy of the BBC Micro. Effecting Change in the UK’s Cultures OF Computing, pp. 4-76. Briggs, A., 1995. The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume I: The Birth of Broadcasting. Oxford University Press. Collins, R., 2007. The BBC and “Public Value.” House of Lords Select Committee on BBC Charter Review, pp. 164-184. Christophers, B., 2008. The BBC, the Creative Class, and Neoliberal Urbanism in the North of England. Environment And Planning, Vol.40, pp. 2313-2329. Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2006. An Agreement between Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the British Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcasting. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/how_we_govern/agreement.pdf [Accessed November 08, 2013]. Norman, J., 2013. The BBC Is Founded. History of Information. [Online] Available at: http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=76 . [Accessed November 08, 2013]. Parliament.uk., 2010. Future of the BBC. BBC. [Online] Available at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/key-issues-for-the-new-parliament/value-for-money-in-public-services/future-of-the-bbc/ [Accessed November 08, 2013]. Read More