The Hive: Archives
David Hendy
Professor of Media & Communications
School of Media, Film, and Music
d.j.hendy@sussex.ac.uk
BBC Written
Archives
Centre
Caversham
Why written, not sound?
The organizational mind of the BBC
‘Yellow minutes’ (NCA, R3 54-93)
• Balance in Current Affairs Programmes:
• ‘DG said that after President Nixon had ordered a resumption of bombing
in North Vietnam he had heard very little in exposition of American policy.
Only in The World Tonight and Letter from America had he heard anything
of that kind. He knew that the flow of news and public comment had been
mainly in one direction, and the BBC had been right to reflect it, but he
still felt that the BBC should have made a point of paying some attention
to the other side’s case.
• DG laid it down as a general principle that whenever there was an
emotional outcry or campaign, whether it concerned Vietnam or victims
of thalidomide or any other group, the BBC’s journalists must stand back
from the fray and ask themselves whether they had paid sufficient
attention to the other side’s point of view. Had they been fair? Had they
missed anything? In recent coverage of Vietnam, DG said, it seemed to
him that the BBC had let an opportunity slip.’
• (R3/57/1: January-April 1973)
R78 (Policy) – just some examples
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R78/2519:
R78/2611:
R78/205:
R78/2639:
R78/2623:
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R78/662:
R78/1715:
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R78/2348-9:
R78/2071:
R78/various:
R78/2528:
R78/various:
R78/2843:
Czechoslavakian Crisis, 1968-89.
Robin Day, 1968-87.
Defamatory allegations against BBC staff, 1970.
Distinction between fiction and reality in programmes, 1964-1988.
Documentary Programmes: Principles and Practice, 1971-83;
Projects 1968-1988.
Entertainment Programmes: Satire, 1963-1966.
Falkland Islands: General, political reaction, press reaction,
1982-83.
NVLA, including programme criticism, 1969-82.
Nixon Interviews, The, 1975-77.
Northern Ireland, civil disturbances.
Phone-in programmes, 1973-1988.
Political broadcasting.
Enoch Powell, 1981-1986.
R78 (Policy) – just some examples
• R78/237:
Public Relations: Women’s Organisations, 1964-1972 and
1973-1981.
• R78/various: Race Relations.
• R78/2554:
Religious Programmes: Policy, 1967-1989.
• R78/1616:
Scarman Inquiry: Brixton Disorders, 1981.
• R78/various: Schools Broadcasting.
• R78/1989:
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander, 1976.
• R78/694:
Student Unrest and Demonstrations, 1968.
• R78/1895:
Subversive Publications, 1971-1978.
• R78/2873:
Sun (The), 1968-1981.
• R78/2640:
Swearing in Programmes, 1962-1988.
• R78/2184:
Margaret Thatcher, 1960-1981.
• R78/various: Trades Unions.
• R78/2133:
Windsor (Duke of), 1969-1976.
The slow accumulation of details
Weekly Programme Review Board
• 10th April 1968.
• 152. Boat Race Coverage. ‘CR4&MP said he would be
discussing the arrangements for Boat Race coverage with
HOB(R) because it appeared that the launch used by the
radio commentators was no longer powerful enough and
could not keep up. At one point, John Snagge had been
unable to see either of the university boats. It would be an
advantage, too, to have the radio launch equipped with
television monitors if that was technically feasible. HTCA(R)
and H.Pres.(R) said that despite these drawbacks radio’s
estimate of the relative positions of the university boats
had been consistently more accurate than television’s.’
‘Weekly Programme Review Board’
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See handouts:
1972 Policy document – extract.
Earlier discussion of ‘The Brother of the Bride’, Radio 3.
Countless discussions – weighing up listeners, press
coverage, own instincts, political climate, cultural
shifts, etc.
• 1972 Policy Document – an end point, not a beginning.
• Insight into how policy emerges – not usually topdown.
Exhaustiveness?
Slicing
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Horizontally
Vertically
Splitting effort:
½ systematic slow work on ‘spine’
½ scampering through ‘random’ sampling at
speed.
• The pleasure of both finding and not finding –
safety and risk.
Thank you
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David Hendy
d.j.hendy@sussex.ac.uk
Twitter: @davidjhendy
Room 310, Silverstone
(MFM)
• Public Culture Hub
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- Austerity, activist media, and civil
society
- Media history, policy, and public
institutions (Media History Lab)
- Sound and listening in public life
- New public spaces and
performances.
- Public intellectuals and public
engagement.
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/mediaandfil
m/research/researchcentres/publiccu
lturehub