Transnational Media Globalization - Essay Example

Frames are seen as a perfect metaphor for media because they're diverse and indefinite, that is, they allow for a measure of flexibility, of definition, and use. According to Watson "we have picture frames into which we insert images that in turn, in some way or another, provide us with representation; something that has been subject to a number of wider frames, each one manipulating and influenced by the other (2007, p. 107)." It is critical to identify the difference between frames that are visible, immediately identifiable and those that are invisible, whose presence you sense but is often difficult to single out.

These are identified as subliminal. The newspaper page is a frame, from its headlines, headings and subtitles, to the position of photographs, to the shifts in print size: the bigger the story, the bigger the type. Well, not exactly and not always, with television we can readily recognize framing devices (Creeber 2001, p110). In his novel, "Putting 'Reality' together: BBC News, Philip Schlesinger refers to a specific case in which the BBC in collaboration with the British government exercised the act of gate-keeping to prevent an originally green-lit investigative report from being broadcast.

In the book Schlesnigner notes "the New Statesman journalist,, Duncan Campbell, was, commissioned by the BBC in November 1985 to make a series of six programmes called Secret Society originally to be broadcast on BBC-2 in November 1986. The series as a whole was controversial, its topics including the abuse of private data, problems of British radar systems, freedom of information, the powers of the Association of Chief Police officers, and government authority during nuclear emergencies (Schlesinger, xxv).

" The piece was set to reveal many vulnerabilities in public policy that gave elites and government figures the privilege to exploit their positions. Schlesinger goes on to point how the specific aspect of the program that would make controversial stemmed from a government cover-up by Parliament not to reveal the details of a secret satellite project, codenamed Zircon , for which funding had been passed through the House of Common's Public Accounts Committee (Schlesinger, xxv). While the program was cleared to be aired on December 4th 1986 by the Assistant Director-Genreal of the BBC, Alan Protheroe, it was eventual banned by the Director-General, Alasdair Milne on January 15th 1987 on the grounds of national security (Schlesinger, xxv).

This is a classic example of gate-keeping and censorship practiced by the BBC for the sake of protecting the policy makers and elites of the country. The gate swings shut