SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW MONOGRAPH 29
The Sociology of Journalism and the Press Issue Editor: Harry Christian
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SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW MONOGRAPH 29
The Sociology of Journalism and the Press Issue Editor: Harry Christian
Managing Editors: W. M. Williams and R. ]. Frankenberg University of Keele October 1980
The Sociology of Journalism and the Press Monograph 29 Editor: Harry Christian
Notes on Contributors
Contents
Introduction
Harry Christian
Page 5
Part One: The Press and Capital The British Press in the Age of Television
Jeremy Tunstall
19
Class, Power and the Press: Problems of Conceptualisation and Evidence
Graham Murdock
37
Advertising as a Patronage System
James Curran
71
The Social Organisation of Newspaper Houses
Charles N. Tremayne 121
Part Two: Social Control and the Press Press Performance as Political Ritual
Philip Elliott
Chronicles of the Gallows: The Social History of Crime Reporting Steve Chibnall
141 179
Part Three: Women and the Press The \\'ol1lan" ,vlagaww
Marjorie Ferguson
219
Images and Equality: Women and the National Press
Roger Smith
239
Part Four: Journalism as an Occupation Journalists' Occupational Ideologies and Press Commercialisation
Harry Christian
259
The Politics of Socialisation: Recruitment and Training for Journalism
Oliver Boyd-Barrett
307
Philip Schlesinger
341
Alan Beardsworth
371
l:OVlT
l'holograph
Alan Beardsworth BA (Econ), PhD Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences, University of Loughborough Oliver Boyd-Barrett BA, Phd Lecturer, Faculty of Education Studies, Open University Steve Chibnall BA (Soc), MA Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Community Studies, Leicester Polytechnic Harry Christian BA, MA, PhD Lecturer in Sociology, University of Keele James Curran MA Senior Lecturer, School of Communication, Polytechnic of Central London Philip Elliott BA, MA Research Fellow, Centre for Mass Communication Research, University of I _eicester Marjorie Ferguson BSc (Soc), PhD Lecturer, Department of Social Science and Administration, London School of Economics and Political Science Graham Murdock BSc, MA Research Associate, Centre for Mass Communication Research, University of Leicester Philip Schlesinger BA, PhD Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Thames Polytechnic Roger Smith BSc (Econ), MSc Education Officer for the General and Municipal Workers' Union, Grange College, Hale. Formerly Lecturer in Sociology, University of Essex Charles N. Tremayne BA, MSc Journalist, B.B.C. Television Formerly at University of Strathclyde Jeremy Tunstall BA Professor, Department of Sociology, City University, London
Part Five: Research Methods in Media Studies " Between Sociology and Journalism Analysing Press Content: Some Technical and Methodological Issues University of Keele, Keele, Staflixdshire
Distributed in the United States of America by Rowman and Littlefield, 81 Adams Drive, Totowa, New Jersey 07512.-
Cover Design by Cal Swann FSIAD
Editorial Board J. A. Banks, University of Essex, L. Baric, University of Saltord, P. Bourdieu, Centre de Sociologie Europeenne, Paris, S. Cohen, University of Essex, S. J. Eggleston (Chairman), University of Keele, R. J. Frankenberg, University of Keele, G. Fyfe, University of Keele, M. Harrison, University of Keele. M. Jeffreys, Social Research Unit, Bedford College, J. G. H. Newfield, Hatfield Polytechnic, W. M. Williams, University College, Swansea.
Note
All the material in this Monograph is copyright under the terms of the Brussels Convention and the Copyright Act 1956. Manuscripts to be considered for publication in the form of Monographs of the Sociological Re'view and contributors to be considered for inclusion on The Sociological Review should be sent to Professor Ronald Frankenberg, Managing Editor. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data The Sociology of Journalism and the Press -('Sociological Review' Monographs; No. 29 ISSN 0081-1769). I. Journalism-Social Aspects-Great Britain I. Christian Harry, II Series 301.16'1 PN5124.S6 .80-40681 ISBN 0-904425-09-6 ISBN 0-904425-10-X Pbk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by J. H. Brookes (Printers) Limited, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent
.......
INTRODUCTION
Harry Christian
IT is ten years since James Halloran, in the introduction to the previous Sociological Review Monograph in this field, noted the limitations of sociological work in the area. I It is interesting to consider the tendencies discussed by Halloran in the light of subsequent work and the current debates to which the present Monograph is intended to contribute. The intervening period has been one in which considerably increased attention has been given to the field and development has taken place both in the quantity and the range of British sociological studies of the mass media and mass communicators. Two main points made by Halloran were that method was then ahead of theory and that there had hitherto been more focus on the effects of mass communications than on the production side. He thought that each ofthese was related to the other and could be understood in the context of the general historical development of studies in this field. 2 He particularly made the point that the studies which had been done on mass communicators had not covered the higher levels of economic planning and policy making, wider and bigger questions were still rarely put and few attempts had been made to study mass communicators as occupying sensitive positions in social networks, rejecting and selecting information in response to a variety ofpressures, all within a given social system. J He believed that the Monograph he was introducing was a sign that some attempts had been made to redress the balance and that gradually more attention was being given to the study of mass communicators. After discussing the principal previous theoretical contributions to this area he made the similar point that 'it is interesting to see the communicator emerging as part of a general pattern, sending his messages in accordance with the expectations and actions of other persons and groups within the same system. The communicator as well as the recipient is placed within a social structure' 4 and 'the mass communicator is gradually been given the attention which it is essential he should be given ifever we are to understand mass communications as a social process and mass media as social institutions'. 5 The past ten years have seen a substantial increase in the studies of social processes of mass media production and of the people engaged in them,6 and these have heavily emphasised news handling procedures. It 5
Harry Christian
Introduction
is heartening to note that most of these recent studies also ~hll\\ :I considerably heightened concern with the wider social struct II r'll cC lilt \" \1 of media activities, and the present Monograph is in lint' II II h tillS tendency, Not surprisingly this changed focus is closely conl1\'\ ,,,.I 1IIIh theoretical developments and has corresponding impli\'ltlllll~ lor research methods, The past decade has seen the growth of a dl'~I/l" 10 move away from attempts to develop a specialised theory till thl' ~t lid\' of mass communications treated as a field at least analyticall y d "tlllli I[Olll the rest of society, and towards a more integrated view ofthl' IlLl"" [llnlla as social institutions forming interdependent parts of the Wldl'[ ~llc [l''.V and therefore requiring to be incorporated into general SOl"lo!oglc ,J! ,llld political theories, The questions raised have become broadel II/ ""'I'l' and less amenable to positivistic and quantitative metholls, ~ll I hat instead historical, interpretive or dialectical approaches hall' Ill[I/ld greater favour. The shift in perspective is exemplified by an Open Universlt\' Inl of 1977 edited by Curran, Gurevitch and Woollacott. 7 As the editll[" of that Reader noted, some of the most interesting research in the llJi(h has emerged from theoretical traditions previously virtually unrcpn'''l'llted in mass communications research-the modern sociology of de\' J
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", I," In] at the LeICester Centre. See for example, Paul Hartmann: 'Industrial Relations
~rws Media', Industrial Relations Journal,
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"I I !:JlIlIlann, Charles Husband and Jean Clarke: 'Race as News: a studyofthe handling I , "
the British national press from 1963-1970', in J. D. Halloran (ed.): Race as News, Press, Paris, pp. 91-173; and Peter Golding: Information and the Welfare \In published research report, Centre for Mass Communication Research,
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'iii y years. Generally explicit in this criticism is a view of the process of o~~
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'ltlvcrtising media selection as being a subjective one in which political Jlld~ments playa significant part. I J This view has been sustained more hI' rt:current assertion than by anything else: it has not been supported by l"llIplrical investigation in any serious form. Yd as a characterisation of advertising media planning, it has some 11I'lOrical validity, During the early 1920s, a number of leading ,\dvt:rtising executives attached great importance to intuitive assessments "I 'at mosphere', 'force of impression', 'pulling power', 'the confidence LI\\or', and other intangible aspects of communication value, informed \ 'I' a simplistic belief in the power of the media to condition readers' ll"'pOnSes to advertisements. 14 Characteristic of this intuitive approach \\;\, \he conclusion of one expert, for instance, that the sobriety of the /1I11i'S disposed the reader to order through the tradesman, whereas the ll\m~ vivacious style of the Daily Mail induced the reader to respond .!lIwtly to mail order advertisements 'because when he reads the Daily .\1.111, he is in a 'Daily Mail' frame of mind-rather eager, rather l'x"itable, rather energetic, not so dignified and formal .. .' 15 This highly subjective approach gave political prejudice a free rein. Radical publications were liable to be rejected as advertising media on I Ill' ~rounds that they did not provide the right 'mood' and 'atmosphere' III Induce a favourable response to commercial advertising. On the other hand, right-wing newspapers like the Daily Mail, alert to advertisers' I'll'Judices, were at pains to emphasise in their advertising promotional hll'lature their 'fearless advocacy of every measure and movement likely '" bt: of benefit to British commercial enterprise'. I' l r nderlying this subjective approach was a dearth of adequate 1IIIl1rl1lation on which to make informed judgments about media o"kl'lion. Advertisers could not be sure how many and what sort of t l'alil'rs they could reach when they bought space in the national press. ( :11 nllation figures were notoriously unreliable during the early 1920s I7 ,II HI this made advertisers wary of basing their decisions too heavily on '1lnl1ation claims. These did not, in any case, indicate the 'quality' of , IIc'ldation offered by papers, and 'quality' was often judged to be more '\ll\,ortant than quantity. As the head of one leading advertising agency I'llt It, 'a very limited circulation, but entirely among the wealthy ... may lw more valuable than if the circulation were quadrupled'.IK In the .d''''nce of reliable survey evidence on the social composition of the ,I\ldit:nces reached by newspapers, conclusions had to be drawn largely lln tbe basis of editorial content and casual observation. As the Pitman's
75
James Curran advertising handbook of the period explains, 'the class of reader reached by different papers can usually be judged fairly accurately from the general appearance of the paper and the nature of its contents'19 This impressionistic approach encouraged the stereotyping of the socialist press with a lumpen proletariat audience. 'A stodgy paper', wrote Cecil Freer, a Polytechnic lecturer in advertising, for instance, 'is read by stodgy people; the socialist press has a following of people who ... cannot persuade the world to share its wealth with them! This simple projection of the attributes of readers from the editorial content of papers could offer an apparently sound economic justification for excluding the radical press from advertising schedules. 'You cannot afford', continued Freer, 'to place your advertisement in a paper which is read solely by the down-at-heels who buy it to scan the "Situations Vacant" column.'20 The only means of attempting scientifically to assess the effectiveness of different advertising media during the early 1920s was through interpretation of sales returns and coupon analysis (i.e. the analysis of keyed advertisement cut-outs mailed by readers). No way was found then (or for that matter later) of gauging from the analysis of sales figures the differential effectiveness of individual media. Coupon analysis, though pioneered in the Victorian era, does not appear to have been used widely during the 1920s,21 and offered in any case an inadequate indicator of advertising media effectiveness except in the case of mail order firms. The subjective orientation of advertisers in the early 1920s exacerbated the underlying weaknesses of the radical press as an advertising medium. In terms of national publications, the radical press consisted in the early 1920s only of one national daily (Daily Herald), with a modest circulation, and a few small circulation political weeklies. The socialist press also appealed primarily, although nothing like as exclusively as was widely thought, 22 to the working class. Its working class readership limited its utility to advertisers, since working-class consumers had less disposable purchasing power than the more affluent readers reached by, for instance, the Daily Express or Daily Mail. The extent of poverty within the working class was graphically illustrated not only by early social research but also by consumer research pioneered during the 1920s. For instance, when researchers for a cereal manufacturer asked the question, 'Do you believe in light, highly nourishing breakfasts, or making breakfast a very substantial meal?', they reported that in some northern districts the question was 'very difficult to ask, and in some cases proved to be cruel'. 2] The significance of the low purchasing power of many readers of the 76
Advertising as a Patronage System radical press was exaggerated, however, by a frequently distorted view of social structure. It is clear that a number of manufacturers and agency ('xl:cutives underestimated the number of working class consumers and I ol1sequently their importance as a market. Indeed, this bias was even huilt into the pioneer market research surveys ofthe 1920s, which rarely IISl:d adequate sample controls. For instance, the first readership survey III bl: conducted on a syndicated basis for advertisers represented the 24 rll iddle class to constitute 53070 of the population in 1928. Advertisers' reluctance to support down market, radical publications lIad important consequences. Radical papers were able to survive with low costs in small audience ghettos, since their modest losses could be made good by private donations, public subscriptions, even whist-drives .llld other expedients for raising money. But once their circulations IlllTl:ased, their losses threatened to become unmanageable because their losls increased (notwithstanding some unit cost reduction through 1I11wased production) without a corresponding increase in advertising. The success of the Herald, for instance, when it was relaunched as a dady paper after the First World War, almost forced it to close down. 'l 1m success in circulation', recalled the editor, 'was our undoing. The 1I1ml: copies we sold, the more money we lost'. 25 Ministerial attacks on IIll' paper as a Bolshevik publication funded with 'red gold' merely Ill'! pl:d to increase its circulation still further. 'Every copy we sold', 1I1ourned the editor, 'was sold at a loss. The rise in circulation, following till' goverment's attacks, brought us nearer and nearer disaster'. 26 The f),111v Herald was forced to increase its price, thereby charging a price ,Iouble that of its principal rivals for a paper that was often half the size. It S circulation growth was arrested and reversed, although it regained 111ll111entum in 1925 and by 1929 had built a circulation over four times Ilial of the Times. 27 Because it obtained little advertising, the Daily !/t'/'uld continued to make a heavy loss, however, and was kept alive by ,uhsidies from the Labour movement amounting to over £500,000 I,,·tween 1922 and 1929. 28 There were other factors which inhibited the development ofa radical 1'11·SS. The very large costs involved in establishing a newspaper in the llatllJnal mass market ensured that control of the press was largely in the lI;mds of capitalists, hostile to the Labour Movement. The proportion of I;thour voters reading a national daily was almost certainly very much 'Illaller than the proportion of Conservative and Liberal voters who took .1 Ilational daily. 29 But advertising discrimination in the context ofa press lkl'l:ndent on advertising undoubtedly contributed to a situation in
I Ill:
77
James Curran
Advertising as a Patronage System
which the Labour Party's support in the country was not reflected in the press. In the 1922 General Election, for instance, the Labour Party was not supported by a single national Sunday newspaper and was backed by only one national daily (accounting for perhaps 4% of national daily circulation), 30 whereas the Labour Party received 29.5% of the vote.
,plead over a larger number of accounts. Probably typical of the leading f: rlJUP of agencies was the London Press Exchange founded in 1892, which had its own merchandising department by 1925. This department ,pi it in 1927 into a research department, mainly concerned with Illarketing and consumer research, and a statistical department rl'sponsible for media data analysis and the preparation of media \l hcduling plans. The records of the company show that it was largely t Ill' work of these two departments which transformed the planning of .Idvcrtising campaigns within the London Press Exchange during the late
The Revolution in Advertising Media Planning: The Transition A profound change occurred in the way in which advertising media was selected during the inter-war period. An intuitive approach to media planning gave way to a more objective mode of evaluation in which technical criteria of assessment, informed by scientifically derived data, played a more important part. This change was gradual and uneven: some small agencies as late as the early 1960s relied upon methods similar to those prevalent in the immediate post-First World War period, while certain innovations pioneered in the early 1930s-notably product media analysis-did not come into their own until the late 1960s. But the crucial period of change was undoubtedly the late 1920s and the 1930s, when developments in the process of media selection and market analysis, combined with important market changes, positively fostered the development of a left press. The adoption of more sophisticated techniques ofmedia planning was due largely to the development of service agencies. Most of the large service agencies of the inter-war period were founded between 1889 and 1910. 31 Their development was hindered, however, by a prolonged period of cut-throat competition in which agencies offering a range of services from media planning and marketing to copy-writing and artwork competed against small companies which functioned mainly as space-booking agents and which, due to their low costs, were able to rebate a large part of their commission from publishers to their advertising clients. Service agencies also competed, in effect, with advertisers who attempted to keep down the costs by dealing direct with publishers. Price competition was limited, however, by a series of recognition agreements between leading publishers and advertising agencies during the 1920s, excluding agencies which split their publishers' commission with their clients, and preventing advertisers from buying space with publishers on the same basis as agencies. These restrictive agreements encouraged competition through service rather than price, and contributed to the development of media planning and marketing expertise within agencies. The growing volume ofadvertising handled by the larger agencies also enabled the cost of research to be 78
1'120s and early 1930s. 32 An important development, facilitating the transformation of .,dvLftising media planning, was the increasing provision ofmore reliable 'Ilculation data. After the First World War, the Association of British Advertising Agents (ABAA) campaigned for the release of circulation dal a, even establishing its own audit bureau ofcirculations in 1921. JJ By !l127 sufficient publishers had been persuaded to provide not merely , Ilculation figures, but also a 'territorial" breakdown of their sales, for it tP be possible for the London Press Exchange to provide 'a coverage .lllalysis' estimating the gross number of households in different regions lit the country which could be reached by alternative schedules. J4 The :\ BAA's initiative was consolidated in 1931 with the establishment ofthe :\llJit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) with the backing of advertisers, .Igencies and some publishers. A number ofleading publishers refused to ,lJ-operate with the ABC, and their circulation claims were often highly 'll,sleading.35 By 1936, however, the ABC monitored the circulation of I H6 publications 36 and circulation estimates of varying degrees of I rliability were available for most important publications not scrutinised I,v the ABC. The increasing availability and reliability ofcirculation data I allsed cost per 1000 circulation to become more important as a criterion lit media assessment. The principal beneficiaries ofthis shift were papers with cheap advertising rates and substantial circulations, regardless of t heir politics. The records of the London Press Exchange reveal, for Illstance, that the Daily Herald came to be included for the first time in major campaigns aimed at the mass market from 1927 onwards. The provision of more reliable circulation data was overtaken by a development of still greater importance for the development of media planning-the growth of readership research. Although the first lommercial readership survey was conducted in 1924, and was followed by subsequent surveys using extremely primitive methodology, it was lIot until 1930 that readership research gained some degree of 79
James Curran
respectability when the Institute of Incorporated Practitioners in Advertising (IIPA) sponsored the first official readership survey. This was followed, in the next nine years, by no less than five surveys sponsored by official advertising bodies, and over ten substantial readership surveys conducted by advertising agencies, publishers and market research companies. J7 Although readership research continued to be treated with a good deal of scepticism in some quarters, improvements in methodology and in presentation ensured that by the mid -19 30s the findings ofreadership research were accepted as a basis for media selection by many progressive advertisers and agencies. Readership research enabled advertisers to identify specified characteristics of newspaper and magazine audiences on the basis of survey data. This caused advertisers to revise some conventional stereotypes of newspaper readers, most notably those ofthe Daily Herald and Reynolds News (acquired by the Co-operative Movement in the 1920s) as being exclusively proletarian. A London Press Exchange executive advised the manufacturers of Farmers' Glory, for instance, to advertise in the Daily Herald because 'though primarily it caters for an artisan and lower middle class market, it also reaches a considerable percentage of the population of slightly higher earning capacity'. 38 This observation was perhaps influenced by the official readership survey of the previous year which had shown, among other things, that the Daily Herald reached over 50% more middle class readers than did the small circulation Times. 39 The provision of detailed statistical information encouraged in some agencies a more impersonal approach to media selection in which subjective assessments of impact played a less important part. The classic textbook of the 1930s advised that 'the first test that must always be applied to a press advertising medium is the cost of placing an advertisement of a given size before a given number of suitable readers'. 40 Whilst this precept was not new, the ability to put it into practice was-as a consequence of readership research. The shift towards a less intuitive approach was futher reinforced by an increasing tendency to conceptualise the press as a system for distributing advertisements, rather than as a conditioning and all-powerful agent of persuasion; this more realistic model, induced by disappointing responses to advertising campaigns, made the cost of exposure to the target audience seem more important compared with the putative 'atmosphere' of a publication. The trend towards a more mechanistic approach was perhaps also influenced by a feeling of marginality that encouraged a search for what appeared to be more scientific methods of
80
Advertising as a Patronage System
.I\Sl:ssment. 41 I'urely subjective judgements ofinfluence continued to play, ofcourse, .1 significant part in media selection. But during the inter-war period a .ktcrmined attempt was made even to quantify influence. Between 1933 and 1939, at least five surveys were conducted-in two instances with samples of over 20,000 respondents-into the levels of attention given to advertisements, in different positions, in national newspapers. 42 Massive I rsources were also invested in the thirties by some agencies in the .lIlalysis of keyed advertisements in an attempt to evaluate the 'pulling power' ofdifferent publications. These attempts to evaluate scientifically rhe communication value ofpublications, even if based on methods that wne to be largely repudiated in the postwar period, indicated an Increasing concern to professionalise media planning and reject the llltuitive approach from which radical publications had suffered previously. This shift of emphasis in the process of media selection was part of a wider change in marketing. Although market research first developed in Britain during the 1920s, it was not until the 1930s that market research became a significant influence outside a few agencies and a smaller number of progressive businesses. The development of market research brought home the importance of the working-class market, and consequently the advertising value of media reaching working-class consumers. Typical of this shift in market orientation was the radically different advice given by J. Walter Thompson (U.K.) to its principal client, Sun-Maid Raisins, during the late 1920s. 'Research shows', wrote a J. Walter Thompson executive, 'that 91.2% of the families of Great Britain have incomes of under £400 . . . we should concentrate on reaching the immense D class market to the greatest extent possible'. 43 This belated recognition ofthe size of 'the D class' within an increasingly research-oriented agency caused J. Walter Thompson to recommend a ~hift from 'superior womens' magazines', the backbone of Sun-Maid Raisins' advertising campaigns between 1924 and 1929, to newspapers and periodicals with a mass, working-class appeal. The increased awareness of the physical size of the working-class market was accompanied by a more sophisticated analysis of the pattern of consumer demand. Whereas the first good market research textbook had treated wealth as an index ofconsumption, 44 subsequent handbooks stressed the importance of disposable income. The realisation of the intense concentration of wealth in a few hands', wrote Harrison and Mitchell, 'has led to serious undervaluation of the importance of the 81
James Curran
"mass market" ... We may sum up the position in the statement that inequalities of consumption are less than inequalities of income and inequalities of income are less than inequalities of wealth. H5 These insights derived from a synthesis of market research, academic research and government statistics, were dramatised by Odhams, the publisher of the Daily Herald, John Bull, and other publications with a mass appeal, in a sustained campaign aimed at selling the working class to advertisers. 'If the housewives who read John Bull', ran a typical advertisement, 'put their purses together next year, they could buy the Golconda diamond or Da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' hundreds of times over, then they could spend the change on the richest treasures of Bond Street or the Rue de la Paix.' 46 Another important consequence of market research was to highlight the crucial importance of women as consumers and, therefore, of advertising media with a mass market appeal among women. In contrast to Chisholm's pioneering marketing textbook of the 1920s, for instance, its best-known successor repeatedly stressed the importance of women, even claiming that 'women purchase 80% ofthe goods sold in retail shops in the country'. 47 The increasing attention given to women in advertising campaigns was reflected in the way in which readership surveys, commissioned by advertising agencies, classified readers of newspapers in terms of their sex from 1934 onwards, although this innovation was not adopted in the more conservative official readership surveys until 1939. The shift in orientation of advertisers was recognised by publishers who began in the mid-1930s to stress in particular the appeal of their publications to women readers in advertisements published in the advertising trade press. 48 The market reorientation of advertisers during the inter-war period reflected not only the development of marketing expertise but, more important, the growth ofmass market consumption. Per capita consumer expenditure at constant (1913) prices rose from £42 in 1921-to £49 in 1930 and to £54 in 1938. 49 This substantial increase led to rising levels of consumer spending on a wide range of commodities produced for the mass market: between 1924 and 1935, for instance, consumer expenditure on electrical appliances rose by 438%, on bicycles by 231 %, on cosmetics and perfumes by 1380/0, with further substantial increases on wooden furniture, radios and gramophones and women's clothing. so Notwithstanding striking differences in the level of commodity consumption between middle and working-class families during the inter-war period 51 these increases were due, in part, to rising levels of real 82
I
Advertising as a Patronage System
Illl'ome among working-class wage-earners during the 1920s and the 1l) Hls. 52 In effect, increased consumption by the working class generated Illcreased advertising expenditure on publications reaching working,lass consumers. This trend was probably further reinforced by the ,ontinued development of brand marketing of commodities in the I hirties, supported by heavy advertising expenditure on mass market 1I11:dia designed to register brand awareness and foster brand loyalty. These market changes, combined with improvements in advertising and marketing practice, caused a shift in the growing volume of ad vertising patronage of media with a strong working-class and female appeal, irrespective of their politics. This was reflected in the substantial advertising gains made by the Daily Herald during the 1930s. Its IInproved advertising position also reflected, of course, its spectacular Increase in circulation, notably during the period 1928 and 1932, when 11 s circulation increased from 317,299 to 1,600,000Y The available ..vidence suggests, however, that the Daily Herald made disproportionate gains 54: its display advertising volume increased by 32% between 1932 ,lIld 1936, a larger increase in relation to its circulation growth than any llther national daily during the same period, apart from the News (:hronicle, also with a large working-class readership. 55 The Daily Herald's massive increase in circulation probably would not have been possible without a substantial infusion of advertising money. Admittedly, the Daily Herald continued to receive less advertising revenue than most other popular papers. In 1936, for instance, its display advertising revenue per copy (an index of comparison that takes into account differences in circulation) was little over a quarter of that of the Times, and only just over halfthat ofthe Daily Mail. 56 Due to its relative shortage of advertising at a time of heavy promotional expenditure, the Daily Herald actually made a loss ofbetween £10,000 and £20,000 a week when it became the western world's largest-selling daily in 1933,57 Despite its subsequent advertising gains, the Daily Herald continued to make heavy losses. 58 Nonetheless, the Daily Herald secured a sufficient increase in advertising patronage (obtaining over one and a half million pounds in advertising receipts by 1935) not only to keep its losses manageable despite its enormous circulation at a time when net cover prices did not cover costs, but also to compete successfully with its main rivals, spending heavily on promotion and selling at the same price. Similarly, the much smaller circulation, pro-Labour Reynolds News was able to attract a sufficient increase in advertising (over £70,000 by 1936) to survive with containable losses. 83
James Curran
The increase ofworking-class consumption, combined with changes in the process ofmedia selection, thus facilitated the survival and growth of a Labour loyalist press. 59 No less important, it also encouraged the development of a new, reformist press under commercial ownership. The increasing concern of advertisers to reach the mass market provided an increasing incentive for publishers to expand into the working-class market. Furthermore, the working-class market was highly 'accessible', partly because the pressure formerly exerted by advertising on popular publications to stay in the middle market 60 had caused the working-class market to be under-exploited by publishers. A market re-orientation implied, however, an editorial-and political-adjustment. These pressures underlay an historic event in British journalism-the 'relaunch' of the Daily Mirror in 1934-36. The Daily Mirror in the early 1930s was a right-wing newspaper with a disproportionately middle-class readership and steadily declining circulation. 61 It was also a special case in that, despite its disproportionately middle-class readership, it obtained relatively little advertising. During the 1930s there was a strong advertising prejudice against 'illustrated mornings' (Daily Mirror and Daily Sketch) on the grounds that they were looked at rather than read, and consequently commanded less attention than other papers. The Daily Mirror was thus a middle-class paper denied the advertising rewards that a middle-class readership normally produced: in 1936 it received less display advertising revenue per copy than any other paper-including the Daily Herald (see Table 3). Faced with the imminent prospect of closure, the Daily Mirror was relaunched down-market -towards the working-class public least adequately served by the press, but increasingly sought after by advertisers. This redirection was consistent with the progressive centrist views ofa number of influential people working on the Daily Mirror, who were unhappy about the extreme conservatism ofthe paper and who were able to exercise a powerful influence in the absence of a dominant shareholder after 1935, when Rothermere sold many of his shares in the paper's parent company.62 Commercial advantage thus seemed to fuse conveniently with enlightenment. As the paper's then advertising director put it, 'our best hope was, therefore, to appeal to young, working-class men and women ... Ifthis was the aim, the politics had to be made to match. In the depression ofthe thirties, there was no future in preaching right-wing politics to young people in the lowest income bracket'. 63 The new Mirror was born in muted form. Though backing the 84
Advertising as a Patronage System
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138
J. A. Litterer'
139
Charles N. Tremayne , Lawrence and Lorsch: op. cit. ., A. W. Gouldner: Pallerns of induslrial BU1"C.
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~t~-'= t..: ~~~-,.2~ e~~'E;~ ~ C'~!«'d considerable reaction amongst senior male staff- 'male nlill II· 11.1, I wearied of anything that smacked of guts and oVaril'\ "lid I" women's talk, and longed for something cosier, SL'xil'l, .11 1,1 .J!." womansy'.5\ As another practising journalist has 1'"1 II I ' "
A crucially important economic fact is that women spend 80% of the money which is laid out on consumer goods in our society.47 Thus for many advertisers women are the prime target, and women's fears, anxieties, ambitions, life-style, skills and interests have been carefully researched and dissected in the drive to discover how to make them buy. Because, to a large extent, women are faced merely with brand competition, and any serious consideration of alternatives would probably prompt them merely to buy the cheapest, it is important for advertisers to create and sustain the image of the 'professional' consumer. This is a role to which is assigned a variety of characteristics implying taste discretion, competence, knowledge and experience, The point to be stressed, however, given the nature of the division oflabour in advanced societies and the belief that specialisation leads to these characteristics, is that the role is portrayed as separate and selfcontained, and as constituting a defined and satisfactory occupation. This image of the professional housewife is one which advertisers must strive to maintain in order to appear that they are appealing to something fundamentally rational when they enjoin her to differentiate between packages containing essentially the same material, or to buy a product the utility of which is ultimately dubitable. Advertising for domestic and consumer goods aimed at women, implying 'domestic expertise' and 'consumer rationality' in the role of the housewife/purchaser greatly reinforces the division of labour between the sexes. Advertising for the wide range of 'feminine' goods (clothes, cosmetics, etc.) emphasising the need for women to concentrate on their sexual attractiveness if they are to be taken seriously by men (and other women), reinforces their dependence on men. 250
I
251
Roger Smith
profession for us, but it's a business for them'. 52 The economic reliance of the newspapers on advertising revenue leads to a far closer relationship between the women's sections and the advertising department than would be tolerated on the newsroom floor. Wintour admits that many of the duties performed by staff who work in advertising goal fields are little more than public relations with actual and potential advertisers. 51 It should also be noted that a high degree of control can be exercised by advertisers over the copy and information which is made available to journalists who work in these fields. Often they provide copy in the form of handouts and photographs. More significantly, invitations to receptions, demonstrations, and shows, and facility trips paid for and hosted by commercial concerns whose desire it is to achieve favourable 'editorial' reviews of their products and services, are the only way that journalists working in these fields can continue to function efficiently. This social control exercised by producers and advertisers over personnel working in advertising goal fields is reflected by the fact that Tunstall found this group to have suffered more sanctions than any other group of specialist journalists. 54 The sections of the papers most explicitly directed at women, and which incidentally have the highest concentration of women 'controllers', are thus in a very close financial partnership with advertisers and producers. It is difficult to have much faith in the idea of an 'independent' press in such areas when one closely examines the economic interdependence which exists. It would, of course, be extremely unwise to imply that advertisers have toral control over the contents of the women's sections. The fact that most women's pages have dealt with serious issues of direct relevance to women, and that certain female journalists have become popularisers of many of the ideas of women's liberation would seem to indicate that this is not the case. But all the evidence points to the conclusion that the needs of advertisers have done much to narrow the range of issues discussed, and the types of images of women which are predominantly employed in the women's sections. If!omen in news and features
The coverage of women in the press which most blatantly employs a very narrow range of stereotyped images is that which comprises advertising and the women's pages. What I now wish to go on to argue is that the treatment of women in other sections of the papers is also subject to distortion, and whilst a number offactors are important 2 J~ ~1
Images ,mel Ej/"JI/t\':
[f'O/IJ(/}
alld the National Prcss
in constructing a full explanation of this phenomenon, advertising and commercial interests play an important part. It is clear from any examination of the national press that women, either as individuals or in organised groups, feature very little in the news pages. Recent research has suggested that most newspapers devote more than 800/0 of their entire coverage to men. 55 Apart from a handful of women politicians, the only category of women regularly considered newsworthy is that comprising celebrities like pop and film stars, and women with high satellite status like Jackie Onassis and Margaret Trudeau. The newsworthyness of such individuals seems determined by the fact that they exist, rather than on the basis of particular activities. 56 Such women feature regularly in 'news' stories, generally accompanied by large photographs. They serve both as sex-symbols and as glamorous role-models exemplifying a consumer society-a part of the press has collaborated with the fashion and entertainment industries 10 create jet-set celebrities, the Beautiful People, who as superconsumers are used to promote all kinds of conspicuous consumption. Their news value is, then, very much underlined by their potential economic usefulness to the press. They are above all /(lShionable women; newspapers give them excessive coverage, thereby performing a service for fashion and other industries; therefore they can expect to keep up the flow of advertising revenue. 51 The treatment of women in 'hard' news has also been seen to involve the use of a series of distorted stereotypes. 5H What consistently emerges from content analysis is concern with totally irrelevant factors like physical appearance, and actual or potential domestic role. The latter is generally seen as highly salient-women being seen against the background of a family (of origin or procreation), or discussed in terms of their relationship with a male. 59 The effect of this is to portray women as perpetual dependents, and rarely as individuals worthy of exclusive attention in their own right. It would be difficult to maintain the thesis that advertising and other commercial pressures are responsible for the use of stereotyping in this latter category. The employment of such stereotypes is clearly discernible in a wide variety of institutions in which there are no obvious direct COlnmercial pressures, and to a large extent can be SCl']] to mirror the ways in which females are seen and treated in SOCll'" ,II large. However, given the raised consciousness of women ]11 ,1"'111l, HMSO, London, 1968; Central Statistical Oflice; 'Social commentary: men and women, Social Trends, Vol. 5, pp. 8-25; R. Davies: Women and Work, Arrow, London, 1975; C. Benn and B. Simon: 'Curricular Differences for Boys and Girls; Edu,wion Survey, No. 21, HMSO, London, 1975; T. Blackstone: 'The education of girls today', In]. Mitchell and A. Oakley: The Righrs and Wrongs of Women, Penguin, London, 1976;]. Coussins: The Equalitv Reporl, National Council for Civil Liberties, London, 1976; H. Land: 'Women: supporters or supported?' in D. Barker and S. Allen (eds): Sexual Divisions and Sociery: Process and Change, Tavistock, London, 1976. 2 D. Gillespie: 'Who 'has the plJwer? The marital struggle', ]o"mal of Marriage and Ihe FamJly, August 1977, pp. 445-458; D. Barker: 'A Proper Wedding', in Marie Corbyn (ed): The Couple, Penguin, 1978; C. Bell and H. Newby: 'Husbands and Wives: the dynamics of the deferential dialectic', in D. Barker and S. Allen (eds): Depend,'nd ,ill.! Exploilallon in Work and iWarriage, Longman, London, 1976.
255
Images and Equality: Women and the National Press
Roger Smith , J. Mitchell: Wom,,,,'s ES[ule, Penguir" London, 1971; S. Rowbotham: Womun',Consciousn",s, .Hun's World, Penguin, London, 1973; A. Oakley: IIouseldJe, Penguin, London, 1974. P. Marks: 'Femininity in the CIa's Room: An Account of Changing Attitudes', In J. Mitchell and A. Oakley (cds) op. cit: J. Shaw: 'Some Implications of Sex Segregated Education', in Barker and Allen: Dcpendence and Exploi[a[ion, c[c., op. cit; J. Bornat and J. Lown: Teaching Girls ro h, U"omcn, edited papers given at conference at Essex University, 1977; A-M. Wolpe: 'Some Processes in Sexist Education', Women's Research and Rcsources CoUre I'amphler No.1, W.R.R.C., Lnnd"n, 1977. 4
5 L. Ray: 'The AmCflcan \X'oman in Mass Media: How Much Emancipation and What Docs it ,\lean?', in C. Safilios-Rothschild (cd): T()"lI:ards a Soewl,'gv 0/ Women, Xerox College Puhlishing, Lexington, 1972; H. Burcher et a1: 'Images ,)f Womcll in the media', Stencilled Occasional Paper No. 31, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, BIrmingham University, 1974; T. ,\Aillum: Images ,J/ Women, Chatto and Windus, Londoll, 1975; C. Adams anll R. Laurikietis: Aiessages and Imuges, Virago, LonlloJ1, 1976; B. Dixon: Sex, Raceulld Cluss in Ch,ldrell's Fiellon, Pluto Press, London, 1977:J. King and M. Stott: Is [his Y<Jur LIfe?, Virago, London, 1977. 6 A. LeslIe: 'Woman in Fleet Street', in V. Brodsky (ed.): Flee[ S[ret'!, Macdonald, London, 1966.
These figures, collected by the Natlonal Council for the Training of Journalists, were made available to me by the National Union of Journalists. 1
Sathyamurthy: 'Women's Occupations and Social Change: The Case of Social Work'. Paper given at the British Sociological Association Conference, Aberdeen, 1974. " Roger Smith: 'Sex and Occupational Roles in Fleet Street', in Barker and Allen, Dependence und Exploi[a[ion, e[c., op. cil., 1976. 19
Guardian, June 19th, 1970.
11)
ibid., Jan. 7th, 1976.
" c. J. Bundock: The Nalional Vnion oj Journalis[s: A Jubllcc His[ory, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1957, p. 14. " ibid., p. 56. 23 The full wording of the rather lengthy motion which led to the setting up of the Committee can be found in the N.U.]. Committee on Equality, pamphlet 'Equality', available from union headquarters, not dated.
24
N.U.J, Annual General Repor[, 1973, p. 32.
25
ibid., 1975, p. 20.
26
ibid., 1976, pp. 22-3.
11
ibid., 1977, pp. 25-6.
28
N.U.]. 1977, press release, op. cit.
29
ibid., Images oj Women, eu., op, cit.
, 1974 was, unfortunately, the last year in which this publication was produced. , It will be noted that the number of ednorial posts exceeds the number of women holding editorial positions; this is because individual women often hold multiple editorships, women's page editor and fashion editor being the most common combination. II)
J. Tunstall: Journalis[s
aI
Work, Constable, London, 1971.
" For 1974 I managed to get 12 our of a possible 17 breakdowns; for 1977, II out of 17. While it would obviously have been preferable to get complete coverage, it is fair to generalise on the basis of these returns, since the full range of tvpes of paper is covered (daily, Sunday, popular 3nd quality). " G. Gerbner: 'Institutional pressures upon mass communicators', in J. Halmos (ed): The Sociology oj Aluss Aiediu CommunicalOrs, Sociological Review MOllograph, No. 1.1, VllIversirv of Keele, 1969. 14 National Union of Journalists Equality Working Party: Images of Women: Guidelines for Promoting Equality Through Journalism, N.U.J., Acorn House, Grays Inn Road, London, 1977, p. I!. I'
N.U.].: 'Survey reveals widespread discrimination', press release, 1977.
" Roger Smith: 'Women and Occupational Elites: The Case of Newspaper Journalism in England', in C. Epstein (ed): Access 10 Powa: Women ill Decision Alakillg PosiriollS in Cross-No[/onal PerspeClive, George Allen and Cnwin, 1980.
'" reported in the U. K. Press Gaze11e, April 29th, 1974. JI
Davies, op. cit.
J1
D. Lockwood: The Blaekeoa1ed Worker, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1958.
Jl
G. Cleverly: The Flee[ S[ree[ Disas1er, Constable, London, 1976.
'4 Economist Intelligence Unit: The Nalional Newspaper Indusrry, E.LU., London, 1966: O. McGregor et al: Reporl oj The Royal Commission on [he Press, HMSO, London, 1977, Cmnd. 6810. ]j A news item in Socialis[ Challenge on October 6th, 1977, revealed that N.U.]. representatives of one of the largest union chapels in the ,Hirror group, negotiating pension rights, placed equality well down their list of priorities, despite the fact that the dependents of a woman contributor receive nothing on her death.
16
J7
ibid., p. 106.
J8
E. C. Hughes: Men and Their lFork, Free Press, Glencoe, 1958.
" Cleverly, op. cit., p. 34. .11
" J. Mattfield and C. Van Aken: Womell alld Ihe ScicnllJic ProJeHions, M.l.T. Press, London, 1965; J. White: 'Women in the law', AfldllgUII Luw ReI'letc, Vol. 65, 1967, pp. 1,051-1,123: C. Phelps: 'Women in American Medicine', }ourtlul oj Medicul Educa[ioll, Vol. 43, 1968, pp. 916-924: G. Brager and]. Michael: 'The sex distribution in social work', Soc;ul Casework, Vol. 50, 1969, pp. 595-601: A. S. Harris: 'The second sex in academe', Alllericull ASSOClu[;<J1l of Vn;I'ersitv Professors Bul/ain, Fall 1970, pp. 283-294; C. F. Epstein: !f<mwll's Place, Umversity of California Press, Berkeley, 1971; M. Fogarty, l. Allen, J. Allen and P. Walters: Women in Top Jobs, Allen and Unwin, London, 1971; A. (,riffin: Women il1 Top hnuncial]obs, H. E. Griffin, Oxford, 1973; C.
2'56
Tunstall, op. cit., p. 56.
ibid., p. 37.
41 Acton Press Group: A Submission [0 [he Royal Commissioll on [he Press, Mimeo, Acton Press Group, 9 Poland Street, London, 1975, p. 34.
41
See J, Whale: The PoMics oj [he Media, Fontana, London, 1977, p. 157.
41
C. Wintour: Pressures on [he Press, Andre Deutsch, London, 1972, p. 35. A. Sampson: The New AnalOmy oj Brilain, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1471,
p. 381.
257
\
1
Roger Smith 45 J\1illum, op. cit; Butcher et ai, op. cit; G. Lang: The mosr admired woman: news media i",paC! on sex srereorypes, paper presented at conference on Women and the News Media, San Francisco, 1975; King and StOlt, op. cit. 46 I am quite prepared to concede that a similarly distorted series of male stereotypes is also widely employed. While this is an important issue, its treatment is beyond the scope of the present article. 47
JOURNALISTS' OCCUPATIONAL IDEOLOGIES AND PRESS COMMERCIALISATION
Harry Christian
C. Faulder: 'Advertising' in King and StOlt, op. cit.
.. Tunstall, op. cit., p. 7. " P. Barr: 'Newspapers', in King and StOlt, op. cit. so Stott: 1975, p. 70. 51
Guardian, Jan. 31st, 1977.
N. Van Hoffman: 'Woman's pages: an irreverent view', Columbia Journalism Review, July-August, 1971, pp. 51-4. !2
51
Wintour. op. cll., p. 19.
54
TunSlal1, op. cit., p. 169.
lS
See N.V.}. /Jnnual Reparr, 1978, p. 27.
56 This is not to say that they do not attract attention from the media as a result of particular activities in their lives-Margaret Trudeau being a notorious example. The point is that their newsworthyness has already been decided by their mere sexuality or satellite status. 17 What is also significant is that these women are frequently used in advertisements to endorse a particular product or service.
'" Butcher et al op. cit; N.V.}. 1977 op. cit; Barr, op. cit. " The treatment of women in crime stones, particularly political crime is a good example of this. '" R. Miliband: The Srare in Capirallsr Soczdy, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1969; P. Lazarsfeld and R. K. Merton: 'Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action,' in B. Rosenberg and D. M. White (eds): Mass Cullure, The Popular Arrs irl America, 1957; Sampson, op. cit.
258
Introduction:
IN recent years conflicting occupational ideologies and strategies among British journalists have been brought into public attention on many occasions, most notably during the controversy surrounding the passage through Parliament of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Bills of 1974 and 1976. A sustained campaign by newspaper proprietors, the Guild of British Newspaper Editors and the Institute of Journalists tried to prevent the National Union of Journalists regaining the right to pursue closed shops which these Bills were intended to restore to trade unions in generaL This campaign typically portrayed the N.U.}. as dominated by subversive elements who were trying to impose left-wing censorship on a free press, helped by legislation which it was implied would compel the introduction of a closed shup in journalism. The controversy was also often described as an inter-union squabble between the 'moderate' Institute and the 'extremist' Union. As in most other uses of this conventional dichotomy it misrepresented a more complex state of affairs and ignored the long term changes in social conditions which I suggest were interdependent with the variations in occupational ideology and strategy among British journalists. Among the range of opinions held by British journalists four significant clusters of views can be identified which I suggest constitute distinctive occupational ideologies and which are related to differing strategies for the defence or advancement of the occupation. Individuals may hold combinations of these views, not always consistently, and the organisatiuns that British journalists have created contain within them ranges of views with differing strengths. Journalists' support for these ideologies and their manifestation in policies and actions have also varied over time. The current situation is very much the outcome of a long history of conflicting ideas and actions. I wish to argue that the changes in occupational ideology and strategy are inter-related with the changing structure and character ofthl' Bill I,ll press over the past hundred years and constitute journali,,,' ,,'
259
HLlrrv Clzrisliponsored students on NCT] one-year courses, while prospects at higher and further education levels for further innovations in journalism training and education seemed bleak. Both the NCTJ's preentry and block release programmes were threatened by the continuing development of in-company training courses. The Open Uniz'ersily
I The author was engaged by the Royal Commission on the Press as part·time consultant from January 1975 to June 1976. l'art of his work for the Commission involved co-operation with an independent research agency, Social and Community Planning Research, in establishing survey procedures for a national study of journalism training provision.
2 It is important to note that the NCTJ was not the first venture into formal journalism traming. Lee has described one or two short-lived nineteenth century experiments. A. J. Lee: 'Early Schools of Journalism Training-from 1878-1900; .Journalism Srudiel Review, Vol. I, No 2, 1977, pp. 35-7; while Hunter has reminded us of the London University Journalism Studies Diploma Course, 1919-1939. F. Hunter: 'What Became of Mr. Khoo?' UK Press Gazelle, August 22nd, 1977, pp. 11-12. A few enterprising publishing companies also launched in-service training arrangements. But it is unlikely that formal training ever reached more than a very small proportion of all new entrants until recently, or that it was anywhere regarded as an absolute requirement for advancement in the profession. Shorthand, however, has always been regarded as important, and many journalists before the time of the NCTJ made their own arrangements where instruction was not provided by the employing company. Even so many illustrious journalists have thrived without the aid ofa good shorthand capability. J Journalism courses which are taken before entry on to newspapers are described as 'pre-entry'. These are generally taken at either post-'A' level stage or at post-graduate level. Courses which arc taken during the first few years of actual newspaper experience, leading to the NCT]'s Proficiency Test, are described as 'block release', because they last several weeks at a time in contrast to the 'day-release' pattern that preceded them. 4
P. Elliott: The Sociology of Ihe Proj'ellions, Macmillan, London, 1972, p. 79. B. Turner: ExplOl'ing Ihe lnduslrial Sub-C1Ilrure, Macmillan, London, 1971, p. I.
" Cf. Dale, 'Additionally, it has been argued (by Andre Gorz 1972) that many technical and vocational qualifications are not actually essential to the performance of the jobs for which they provide qualification (since Gorz argues most of these jobs can be performed as well on the basis of experience as on the basis of a paper qualification). Rather these qualifications serve to legitimise the hierarchical division of labour to those at every level of it' (R. Dale: 'Work Cultures and Consciousness', Unit 9 of Pcc'ple 'lIId Work, Open University, 1975; A. Gorz: 'Technical Intelligence and the Capitalist Division of Labour', Telos, No. 12, Summer, 1972, pp. 27-41). , G. Esland: 'Professions and Protcssionalism', Unit 12 of People