‘Auntie Beeb knows best.’ Such was the patronising attitude among administrators in the early years of the development of the British Broadcasting Corporation – also known informally as, ’the Beeb’. Nearly a century later, the venerable institution has shed her matronly nickname, jumped from airwaves to satellite relays and gone online in 33 languages. But even now, after having swollen into one of the largest broadcasting systems in the world, the BBC retains its avuncular-like wisdom. At least this is so in the eyes of the large number of young leaders such as myself in Europe, Russia and North America, who rate it as an authoritative source of news. In fact, our reference-points are clearly dominated by British media in general, judging by the results of the British Council's Making a difference survey conducted in 2007 among young influencers on both continents. Is that dominance narrowing down our international perspective? Or on the contrary, equipping us properly in what we need to know, as the generation shaping the future of transatlantic relations? Questioning the legitimacy of a British dominance of viewpoint in this, my contribution to the TN2020 initiative, a British Council-sponsored project, may look downright reckless – just call me a devil's advocate.
Yet isn't it thought-provoking that the website of the BBC is our third-most used online tool, behind the world's two most popular search engines (Google and Yahoo)? Isn't it intriguing too that The Economist, The Financial Times, The Guardian top the list of our most-read international press (in the dead-tree format), with The New York Times and the weeklies, Time and Newsweek, close behind? As a journalist trained at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, I am tempted to blow the trumpet of British journalism and its principle of fair, balanced and accurate reporting. After all, the British press corps have – probably deservedly – earned a reputation for tougher interviewing and more skeptical coverage of say, the USA's ‘war on terror’, than their American counterparts. Hence their credibility advantage. But does it mean the British media is more impartial?
Even such a trustworthy organisation as the BBC cannot escape certain pitfalls, especially when approaching a story involving such a tricky subject as, say, Islam. Take ‘Teddygate’, for example. When covering the story of the British teacher who was jailed in Sudan for allowing her pupils to name a bear Muhammad, the BBC tried to get comments from all parties involved - standard good practice. One of its magazines also took a look behind the headlines, putting out a feature about what could or could not be named after the Prophet. By allowing visitors to the website to leave their comments, the BBC was creating an open debate. But then, a local radio presenter made a joke on the subject (about the teacher having a dog named Muhammad), a Muslim listener took offence, and the BBC had to broadcast an apology.
Justified or not, this is exactly the kind of situation that encourages the news organisation to move away from thin ice, towards political correctness. It's just so hard to invoke religion without offending somebody, somewhere. However, the ‘PC’ direction is also one of blandness, if not downright restriction of free speech and, ultimately, of the ability of a society to tackle its own problems.
Still, it is precisely because there are no easy answers that the BBC is always working on what its commitment to impartiality means. For instance, it held an internal seminar on the matter in 2006. During that workshop, senior executives admitted to a liberal bias, according to reports in other media. The same BBC officials then had to counter and explain those allegations. They even went so far as to water down accusations of political correctness by rewriting Wikipedia articles about criticism of the BBC, reported several newspapers. So another round of sparring followed. In other words, this news organisation is kept on its toes by its watchful smaller competitors. The point is that no single news outlet is 100% reliable, unbiased or unfailing. But a free debate about the coverage of events itself is as close as we will get to healthy, democratic plurality.
After all, being truly informed is simply making sense of multi-faceted issues via multiple sources offering different angles. Although UK-based media represent our primary gateway to an international perspective, our generation is by no means wearing Union Jack-coloured lenses. Even less so given that magazines such as The Economist or Newsweek do not jingoistically reflect only British or American viewpoints, but provide a truly international outlook, thanks to their extensive networks of correspondents and stringers. The same is true of quality newspapers like The New York Times, which, in spite of its regional name, relies on more than 20 overseas bureaus to offer sophisticated, global reporting.
As eager consumers of news, we use many different references. This is particularly true online, where we ‘shop around’ websites, blogs and other alternative sources, but also in the newsstand and library, where we show ourselves to be voracious readers of not only the international press, but also of national newspapers, trade press, essays and even fiction. To name just one popular example, a memoir such as Reading Lolita in Tehran or, my favourite, Daughter of Persia, will give us at least as much background in helping to understand current issues concerning Iran as pieces in the best academic journals.
And, last but not least, we young influencers from either side of the pond are – still according to the same British Council study – well-travelled, multilingual, networking people. Eager to travel and interact with other cultures, we shape our perceptions by so much more than just the news that we chose to expose ourselves to! I fully trust all of us to make the most of our personal experiences in order to grasp global issues and find novel ways of addressing them within the transatlantic network. In the meantime, I must leave you. It's time to catch up with the Beeb.
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