BBC arts programming: a service for citizens or a product for consumers?

Genders, Amy

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2019. The British Broadcasting Corporation occupies what is often considered to be a unique position within UK culture as both a respected national institution that is a pillar of enlightenment values and, increasingly, an agile, entrepreneurial business that has to deliver ‘value-for-money’. This study will contribute to the existing body of literature examining the impact of a neoliberal marketisation discourse on BBC policy by focusing specifically on the provision of arts programming as a key indicator of how the logic of the marketplace has permeated the BBC’s commissioning culture. In doing so, it argues that the loss of the topical arts magazine and discussion formats from BBC television, in contrast to radio, is symptomatic of the ways in which arts broadcasting has been reimagined both in the corporation’s internal production culture and in its public pronouncements as a product for consumers rather than a service for citizens.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 10, 2019
• Online Publication Date: May 6, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: May 8, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 30, 2019
• Journal: Media, Culture and Society
• Print ISSN: 0163-4437
• Electronic ISSN: 1460-3675
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 58-74
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443719842079
• Keywords: arts broadcasting, audience measurement, BBC, neoliberalism, public service broadcasting
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/847281
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443719842079
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Copyright(c)2019 Reprinted by permission of SAGE publications.
• Contract Date: May 30, 2019