Bad News for Trade Unionists

Abstract

Ever since the invention and development of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1457 mass media technology has played an increasingly important role in the development, form and struggle over ideas. The first mass use of any media technology was by Luther and his supporters in 1517. Luther’s demands nailed up on the door of the Cathedral at Wittenberg were reproduced on posters and within weeks had appeared throughout Germany and France. By 1815 the power of the Press had become widely acknowledged among ruling elites; indeed Napoleon shrewdly suggested in his maxims that, ‘Four hostile Newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.’

The findings on networked news output by the Glasgow Media Research Group … were strongly criticised by the broadcasters and we ourselves would not want to comment on the accuracy of the findings; but why do not the B.B.C. and I.B.A. themselves conduct such analyses?

Lord Annan’s Report of the Committee on the Future of Broadcasting, H.M.S.O., 1977, p. 456.