Public Issue Radio: Talks, News and Current Affairs in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Hugh Chignell’s well-researched volume tells the story of the development of current affairs programming on British radio, which, we learn, is inextricably tied to the ‘painfully slow development of news’ programming on the BBC. To explain the significance of the separation and elaboration of these two forms of broadcasting, Chignell begins with the Victorian ‘rigid class hierarchies’(p. 16) separating mere reporters (who dutifully wired the raw facts of unfolding events on the front lines) from highly educated correspondents (who sent their reflective and more subjective pieces by post) (p. 16). This sharp distinction between news and current affairs was unique to the British system and, Chignell argues, it influenced ‘the shape and nature of public issue radio for the rest of the century’