Bryan-Javier Canabal-Saavedra

MC51002A
Media History and Politics

Evaluate the social or political significance of one moment in media history

The General Strike is a significant moment in UK media history for two reasons. Firstly, it was the
first time that the press and broadcasting media were put in direct competition with one another
in terms of a news service and political arbiter. Secondly, its political fallout lay the foundations for
the BBC as well as sowing the seeds for the concept of 'public service broadcasting', a concept that
had been a keystone to television and news broadcasting culture in the UK. During the strike the
two main media institutions at the time, the press and the BBC, were put under tremendous
pressure to remain relevant during a time of great inconvenience. This pressure was both logistical
and idealogical in character (though the BBC suffered more from the latter and the press more
from the former). This is pressure was exacerbated by the introduction of both government and
TUC (Trade Union Congress) backed papers. In one way, this is can be seen as a time in British
media history where there were many models of news dissemination, a 'co-operative' model from
the TUC, a commercial model from the traditional press, a state model from the government and a
'neutral' model from the BBC.

The General Strike describes a period of national industrial action called by the TUC that lasted ten
days in the spring of 1926 in reaction to the bad working conditions, increased hours and low pay
of British coal miners (Phillips, 1976, p.23-133). This strike was wide ranging as it was undertaken
my many working men; miners, train drivers, tram drivers, railway clerks, porters and even gold
beaters (Symons, 1957, p.61-65). With such national disruption, mass communication was severely
compromised for both sides. The importance of mass communication could not be overstated as
that is how the strike would be principally presented to the public and the side which would have
framed the strike in the most successful way would have the upper hand in terms of mass appeal
and sympathy. This can be in a quote that Herbert Tracey of the TUC Publicity Committee:

“The real reason for [the] close shut-down of all printing was to enable [the] General Council
through its Publicity Committee to maintain absolute control of all news or propaganda connected
with the strike”(Phillips, 1976, p.169)

The government also recognised this fact as a result, both the TUC and Government printed their
own newspapers. The TUC paper was called the British Worker and consisted mostly of positive
propaganda to “show the spirit of our people, the unity of our action, and the enthusiasm and
loyalty with which the General Council's instructions are being carried out.”(Phillips, 1976, p.170).
The British Worker, unlike the Government printed British Gazette, did not include conventional
news items which was deemed to distract from the main objectives to relaying information
regarding the strike an maintaining workers morale. The British Gazette on the other hand was
meant to break down the strike as well as appearing to be a legitimate news source, albeit from a
highly partisan stance. These two approaches of mass communication by the government and the
TUC General Council show an interesting way in the two sides tried to reach and persuade the
greatest number of people. On the one hand, the British Worker could be described as having gone
for quality1 not quantity and the British Gazette gone in the opposite direction, going for greater

1 “The British Worker was no less propagandist in character than the British Gazette but in the circumstances of the
circumstances of the strike it was less tempted to falsification. In some respects it might be said to have had the
better of the polemical arguments” (Phillips, 1976, p.171)
market penetration2 rather than any attempt of journalistic standards3. Despite these opposing
strategies, neither side particularly succeeded in their aims. Due to the ad hoc nature of the British
Worker's publication and distribution network, its impact in terms of public awareness were
limited4. This could be because perhaps their aims were too narrow. Rather than trying to identify
with the the greater populace, the paper became more of a newsletter between the General
Council and local unions rather than a paper that addressed local needs (Phillips, 1976, p.175). The
British Gazette failed principally because it was a government run newspaper. Even though it had
“the largest newspaper circulation in the world”(Phillips, 1976, p.178) at the time, it lacked
credibility. Not only in presentation5 but also in content6. This is because much of the editorial was
clearly propaganda with no reference to reality at all. In one instance, the paper had said the 200
buses were on the streets of London when the actual figure was 86. Such a disparity between its
reporting and reality were to undermine the efforts of the government to appear as a legitmate
source of news.

The commercial press on the other hand did not face such problems. Unlike the TUC or
government papers, they had two key advantages. Firstly they already had a (nominal)
production/distribution network in place and secondly, they had already had an authority and
respect in the realm of news journalism. Many papers were still printing dailies, even though they
may have been of limited number an of limited content7.But, unlike the Worker or the Gazette
their content was not 'partisan' in the sense that the independent press had the choice to either
support the government or not. Though the natural bias of the press was overwhelming
conservative8, the fact that it was not a propaganda paper, like the Worker or Gazette ,gave some
papers the space to be more independent in their reporting at least. This was the case with The
Times, whose editorial stance condemned the general strike yet it still “upheld its reputation” with
“impartial reporting”(Philips, 1976, pg.182). One key factor for the continuation of the commercial
press, other than the increased appetite for news consumption, was the inherent value that 'the
product of 'news' contained. Symons argues that

“...many of those who helped in the production of newspapers had some sympathy for the strikers,
but felt it was morally wrong and practically unwise to deprive the country of news.”(Symons,
1957, pg.162)

This is significant because it implies that news and journalism had a moral value and a benefit to
society as a whole and also suggests that information was more important than opinion. This
thinking is what formed part of the idea of public service broadcasting. Through this strike, the

2 The circulation of the British Worker on the 12th May was approximately 700,000 whereas the British Gazette was
well over 2 million.(Philips, 1976,p.177-179)
3 “It [the British Gazette] was attacked for printing biased news and unfair statements, and for showing continual
partiality in the selection of news statements”(Symons, 1957, p.160)
4 “Distribution of the British Worker was very patchy. Many large towns did not see copies until the strike had in
force for a week, and had to rely for news upon the BBC and pro-government publications.”(Symons, 1957, p.171)
5 “In the first issue, also, the two middle pages were blank, nominally so that the paper could be conveniently be
pasted up on the walls but I fact because of setting difficulties, an din several of the later issues the same news items
appeared on two successive days”(Symons, 1957, pg.158)
6 “'The Gazette was often read with derision', wrote the London correspondent of the New York Times. 'Certain
Ministerial dabblings in journalism did not produce the desired result'.”(Synoms, 1957, pg.160)
7 “...the Newspaper Proprietors' Association had been to pessimistic about the capacity for improvisation shown by
the skeleton staffs remaining at work. Almost every London newspaper produced some kind of edition,...”(Symons,
1957, pg.161)
8 “The press also tended to interpret conflict within a conservative framework. Most national newspapers portrayed
retrospectively the 1926 General Strike...as a conflict between a minority and the majority.” (Curran & Seaton,
2010, pg. 47)
importance of news was given a moral value as well as an economic one (though some cynics
believed this 'bi-partisan' approach was a way to expand its subscriber base 9).

So far,we have seen two main issues with the dissemination of information during the strike. Only
the government had the sufficient resources and power to effectively publish information to great
numbers of people and this is seen the very high circulation that the Gazette achieved. The
information it contained however had no value as it was clearly propaganda. The independent
press, on the other hand, faced the problem of information with 'value', but no effective way is
distributing it. Though the commercial press did publish print, it was in any means comparable to
the reach of the government backed Gazette. It therefore lay in the hands of the BBC to fulfil this
gap in the market, so to speak. Only the BBC had the method of truly broadcasting to an audience
larger than that of print and an uncodified convention of neutral reporting 10. Reith, the mythical
father figure of the BBC was key in guiding the company down the path of neutral unbiased
reporting of the strike. In his eyes, such an opportunity could be used to show the value of the BBC
as the public service that he wanted it to be11, a fully functioning information organ serving in the
interests of the people and the state. This role became particularly important during the strike
because it filled the void which the union press, government press and commercial press failed to
fill in great swathes of the UK. Firstly, the technology that the BBC used to transmit information
was superior to that of of the press. It was immediate, ubiquitous and free and despite the
Newspaper Proprietors' Associations' best efforts in previous years 12, they could not remove the
fact that in May 1926 ,the BBC was the only reliable news source in many parts of the country 13.
Secondly, it was 'neutral'. The neutrality of the BBC during the strike can be debated because on
the one hand the BBC was objectively reporting the both sides of the strike 14 yet internally it sided
with the government. This can be seen in a memo from Reith to the company:

“There could be no question about our supporting the Government generally, particularly since
the General Strike had been declared illegal....We could not therefore permit anything that wa
contrary to the spirit of that judgement, which might have prolonged or sought to justify the strike,
but we are able to give authentic impartial news of the situation throughout” (Briggs, 1961,
pg.363)

One can argue that it was his overwhelming traditional values that made him side with the
government on this issue or that he was simply being pragmatic in protecting the fledgling
institution against over zealous government minsiters (then Chancellor Churchill was for a plan of
using the BBC as a direct government mouthpiece15) . What ever the case be, regardless to say that
9 “...criticism from Lord Burnham, representing other proprietors, that Printing House Square was taking advantage of
the General Strike to poach new readers 'at the expense of more patriotic papers'.”(Philips, 1976, pg.182)
10 “When the British Broadcasting Company was formed in 1922, one of the main concerns was the possible danger of
'controversial broadcasting', though there is actually no specific reference to 'controversy' or 'controversial
broadcasting' in the original licence of January 1922.”(Tracey, 2000, pg.26)
11 “Reith favoured changing the status of the BBC from a company in the private sector,...to a corporation in the public
sector under the authority of the state , because he believed it would give broadcasting a greater degree of freedom
and independence in the pursuit of the ideals of public service”(Scannell, 2000, pg.49)
12 “The resrictions imposed on broadcasting in the yers up to the General Strike were severe and wide ranging, news,
for, example, effectively being limited to a 7 p.m bulletin (when all the papers were deemed to have been sold) with
materail provided by the news agencies.”(Tracey, 2000, pg.27)
13 “The news broadcast by the BBC was accepted in many places where the British Gazette was regarded with distrust
or derision. In thousands of country districts the wireless set was almost the only means of obtaining
news,...”(Symons, 1957, pg. 181)
14 “Messages from both sides were broadcast: reference was made to the British Worker and the British Gazette; a
conscious effort was made to distinguish between agency copy and government copy: and many of the items
broadcast were...accurate reports of verifiable events.”(Tracey, 2000, pg.38)
15 “There was a continuous debate within the Cabinet as to whether the they should in fact commandeer the BBC for
it is Reith's definition of neutrality that is most interesting. In the context of the General Strike, his
definition allowed the BBC to be impartial without generally treading on the government, the
opposition or the TUC. But in the context of the ethos of Public Service Broadcasting, it throws up
an interesting paradigm. Reith described the function of the BBC as the time was “as fully to kill
falsehood as to announce truth; and the former can derive automatically from the latter”(Tracey,
2000, pg.38). This statement suggests that reporting was at the heart of the BBC news strategy,
providing a clear information with which individuals can make up their own minds. But the last
part of this also suggests that the BBC was also claiming to some universal truth that can be
attained in the denial or rejection of some news. This empirical view of the news and the concept
of truth is one that affected the way that public service broadcasting was likely to evolve. Under
this paternalistic conservative view of broadcasting, it suggests that there are some items are
necessary for a mass communication channel, regardless of any other content and such items
would include educative programmes and news. In this sense it was believed that “Broadcasting
should give lead to public taste rather than pander to it”(Scannell, 2000, pg.47). A such an 'illiberal'
idea could only be fully realized in a situation where traditional means of mass communication
collapsed, as was the case with the General Strike of 1926.

The General Strike of 1926 was a point in media history where the usefulness of an impartial BBC
was tested and its success led to the establishment of the modern BBC and the concept of public
service broadcasting. This is done for two reasons. Firstly, the power of the radio as a means of
reliable mass communication highlighted its usefulness as a commodity and therefore led to its
eventual monopolization. Secondly, the effects of a fully government run news organisation (the
British Gazette) highlighted the importance of impartiality and quality. These two factors are what
cemented the future of the BBC as a legitimate information node as well as providing a historical
president of neutrality and monopoly upon which the idea of public service broadcasting was built.

BIBILOGRAPHY

Philips, G.A. (1976). The General Strike: The Politics of Industrial Conflict, London: Weidenfeld and
Nicolson

Symons, J. (1957). The General Strike: A Historical Portrait, London: The Cresset Press

Curran, J & Seaton, S (2010). Power Without Responsibility: Press, Broadcasting and the Internet in
Britain, London: Routledge

Tracey, M (2000) The BBC and the General Strike: May 1926. In E, Buscombe (Eds.), British
Television: A Reader (pg. 25-44). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Scannell, P (2000) Public Service Broadcasting: The History of a Concept. In E, Buscombe (Eds.),
British Television: A Reader (pg. 45-62). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Briggs, A (1961). The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Oxford: Oxford University
Press

the duration of the strike, Churchill, then chancellor of the exchequer, being the main advocate of such a
move,...”(Scannell, 2000, pg.32)