This is Photomusications Photomusications - the printed archives of Transdiffusion - media history as seen at the time
 
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Dr Hill's prescription
Newspapers The Newspaper Archive
The media has always been obsessed with itself.  This comes as a shock to those who believe that the phenomenon is a new one.  Certainly, there is more media news now than ever before, but then there is more media now than ever before.

And media news has always sold newspapers.  This also comes as a shock to those that think only 'anoraks' are interested in the inner workings of broadcasting.

A new look for a TV channel rarely makes front page news in any paper.  But, especially in the broadsheets, a new style of presentation will make it into the first 5 pages, and usually on to the leader page as well for comment and analysis.

When TV was younger, this was still true.  The newspapers breathlessly reported industry gossip, the discussions on broadcasting regularly held in Parliament, the plaudits and brick-bats offered by the ITA, the Postmaster General and the BBC Board of Governors.

When a major story breaks, be it a franchise round, a company in crisis or a White Paper, the news then makes the front pages and stays there - sometimes for weeks.

The financial pages regularly cover television - even the state-owned BBC - because these are multimillion pound businesses with outlets in virtually every home in the country.

The letters pages will catch fire for weeks after a major story, as correspondents attempt to outdo each other with ideas and suggestions that broadcasters unfailingly ignore.

The Photomusications cuttings library contains thousands of media-related cuttings, dating as far back as 1935 and as far forward as the present day.  The bulk of the cuttings date from the late 1960s - by co-incidence, one of the most fascinating periods in British broadcasting history.

 

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