Country Studies / Mass Media

An airay of satellite dishes on a block of flats

Then in the European Parliament elections in 1987, the Green Party -won 2.3 million votes, and Mrs Thatcher realised that she was actually losing votes as people became interested in the environment. She dropped the topic, and the media followed her lead. Reporting of green issues in the newspapers and on TV went back to the same low level as before, and has stayed there ever since.

With only five terrestrial channels available, it is not surprising that many people have switched on to satellite TV. One of the biggest visual changes in British cities in the last ten years has been the appearance of satellite dishes on houses and flats, especially in working-class areas; more than a quarter of all households have one. In addition, about 7 per cent have cable TV. Both of these systems offer lots of channels - Sky Movies, Sky Sports, Cartoon Network, Discovery, UK Style and many more. These channels make their money by charging subscriptions and through advertising, and they are doing very well commercially. But their contribution to the quality of TV is questionable: they make their own news and sports programmes,

& very little else. Unlike the five terrestrial channels they do not invest in original programme making; they recycle material made by others.

Radio

Radio is, in a sense, the Cinderella of the media: it is often left out of discussions, or, as in this chapter, left until last. Television is more glamorous, and eveiyone watches it. But 90 per cent of people say that they listen to the radio in their spare time -in fact, it is the third most popular leisure activity after watching TV and visiting friends. But in spite of predictions when television first arrived, radio has not died, in fact its popularity has risen.

Fifty years ago, families listened to the radio together.

Because radio is comparatively inexpensive, it can fill far more niches than television: there is local radio even in small communities, and there are hundreds of specialist stations. People living in Birmingham, for example, can receive 27 stations on FM, including no fewer than nine BBC stations (national and local), a Welsh language station, and a variety for pop music. At one time, the BBC had a monopoly on radio in Britain, -whereas today it has to compete with lots of commercial stations, both local and nationwide. Radio 3, the BBC's classical music station, is very academic and serious, but it used to do quite well because it had no competition. Then in 1992, Classic FM came on the air, with Vivaldi, Mozart, jokes and recipes all day long, and Radio 3 lost most of its audience. Surprisingly, however, in the pop-music field, BBC Radio 1 fought back against fierce competition, and it remains the favourite music station for young people in Britain.