The BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation.
The BBC was founded by John Reith and George Villiers. Reith
was a Scottish broadcaster who replicated the tradition of independent public
service broadcasting. As for Villiers, he was a British conservative politician.
The pair made the BBC what it is today, with its fashion for serving a
educational and informative service for Britain and around the world.
The BBC is the first major broadcaster in the world. It is
an impartial public broadcasting service – it’s impartial due to the fact that
it has no ‘boss’ (unlike other broadcasters such as Sky and ITV) to influence
the way they broadcast news or certain shows, that’s what makes the BBC
different to other broadcasting companies – it is owned by the consumers and is
funded by the government (foreign office) as it is used as a tool of
information across the world.
The BBC is an influence for radio as well as television. The
BBC took over radio with having national radio based in London from during the
war time, to taking over a number of regional stations and transforming them
into BBC quality listening. Again the government used the BBC radio as a tool
for information as the television side of things where put on hold for seven
years from 1939 to 1946.
As well as the Television side to the BBC the radio side has and
is continuously adapting to the times and audiences it’s growing with. The BBC
introduced Radio 1 with introducing people to new pop music and changing the
way we experience radio. In later years the BBC came up with new ideas for
radio stations for a variety of diverse audiences such as BBC 4, Sport etc.
The BBC has a vast and influential abundance of television
history, for example during the world war two the BBC aired many of Winston
Churchill’s iconic speeches, and they also aired the Queen’s coronation and
many other royal events such as Diana’s Funeral in the 90’s. In more
recent events they hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
One of the most incredible facts about the BBC is that it
has some of the most successful TV and radio shows of all time, space and
history. For example the most obvious soap opera conducted by ‘the beeb’ is
Eastenders, the longest running soap opera which was launched in the 80’s and
is still going today. BBC is also father to the longest running radio
drama ever which is the archers – but soon its early and present listeners will
be passed to the other side soon, so maybe there will not be audience for much
longer?
Recently the BBC has been known for some of its most popular and
successful employees to be paedophiles and obviously this is not on the
positive side but this task is about the BBC and this is now sadly apart of the
BBC. For Example the Jimmy Saville scandal, The BBC has been hit hard by the
scandal and the media and press have been taking a toll on the corporation – a
media frenzy occurred. The BBC shamefully did a cover up of the wrong doings
and this obviously breeched the legal and ethical conditions. This caused for
the chairman of the BBC to announce a police investigation. I have seen nor
heard of any BBC staff apologising for the circumstances which I again think
breeches the terms of legal and ethical constraints.
The BBC has its own regulatory code. This means that unlike other
television or production companies such as ITV, if you wanted to complain about
them you would go to Ofcom, however with the BBC you get in contact straight to
them. Which in my opinion I feel like it is more approachable for the consumer
and makes them feel worthy. I found this quote from the BBC regarding their
regulatory code “Our
Code of Practice sets out our principles as Trustees. We are committed to the
highest standards of integrity, impartiality and objectivity.
We promise to be open, responsive and accountable to licence fee
payers”
For example the incident with people not liking the baby cot
death plot in popular soap opera Eastenders – the most vast quantity of
complaints recorded ever by (at least) the BBC. The BBC themselves dealt with
these complaints, apologised and then dealt with the situation with slightly
changing the story line.
The BBC host a range of opportunities for job roles and
experiences’ such as work experience, tours and most obviously job
opportunities. The BBC appeal to their potential employees by using their
website (bbc.co.uk) which launched in December 1997. People can browse and
search for certain locations, jobs and roles within the BBC. The BBC are very
helpful with the job and work experience side of things – for example they give
you advice and tips on how to succeed within the BBC and television industry on
their website.
From my own experience trying to get a job in the BBC, I went to
the main television centre in London. When I was there I simply asked a
receptionist if they had any opportunities for work experience and she
helpfully gave me a list of email addresses and told me to research programmes
I would like to work for and try and find the contact details of the producers
etc.
There are plenty of job opportunities within the BBC media
sector – such as camera work, lighting, editing, acting, researcher, designer,
artist, photographer, health and safety, director, cleaner, architect and many
more. So all kinds of people from all around the world have a chance to work
for ‘the beeb’.
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