An Uncertain Future for the BBC World Service

Abstract

In recent years, the BBC World Service has undergone the most radical overhaul of its governance, finance and working practices since the Second World War. In examining these changes, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee report on The Future of the BBC World Service articulates 'clear differences' between it and the BBC about how the World Service should be governed, and 'serious reservations' about the transfer of funding in April this year from government grant-in-aid to the licence fee. With a new BBC Charter due in 2017, will the distinct ethos and culture of the World Service survive this major reorganisation?

The production of ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ on BBC Radio 4: A popular geopolitical analysis

“…FOOC was launched in the mid-1950s, broadcasting to post-war Britain in an age of waning empire when most correspondents were white, middle-aged, middle-class men with cut-glass accents (Hope, 2020). Parallels have been drawn between the placement of the BBC's foreign correspondents and the government's diplomatic network overseas, with financial ties between the Foreign Office and World Service bolstering perceptions of broadcasting as a vehicle for soft power (Pinkerton & Dodds, 2009;Webb, 2014). FOOC tapped into this imaginary, invoking an imagined network of journalists and ambassadors, and creating a lingering sense of Britain's global footprint even as the bounds of empire retreated.…”