BBC World Service: Overseas Broadcasting, 1932–2018

Description

This book is the first full-length history of the BBC World Service: from its interwar launch as short-wave radio broadcasts for the British Empire, to its twenty-first-century incarnation as the multi-media global platform of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The book provides insights into the BBC’s working relationship with the Foreign Office, the early years of the Empire Service, and the role of the BBC during the Second World War. In following the voice of the BBC through the Cold War and the contraction of the British empire, the book argues that debates about the work and purposes of the World Service have always involved deliberations about the future of the UK and its place in the world. In current times, these debates have been shaped by the British government’s commitment to leave the European Union and the centrifugal currents in British politics which in the longer term threaten the integrity of the United Kingdom. Through a detailed exploration of its past, the book poses questions about the World Service’s possible future and argues that, for the BBC, the question is not only what it means to be a global broadcaster as we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, but what it means to be a national broadcaster in a divided kingdom. Front Matter ....Pages i-x From Empire to World Service: An Introduction* (Gordon Johnston, Emma Robertson)....Pages 1-22 The Empire Service and English-Language Broadcasting (Gordon Johnston, Emma Robertson)....Pages 23-57 The BBC and Foreign-Language Broadcasting (Gordon Johnston, Emma Robertson)....Pages 59-98 Overseas Broadcasting and the Second World War (Gordon Johnston, Emma Robertson)....Pages 99-156 The BBC and the Cold War (Gordon Johnston, Emma Robertson)....Pages 157-221 One Voice, Many Accents? The BBC and Empire After the Second World War (Gordon Johnston, Emma Robertson)....Pages 223-279 Security, Trust and the Future of the BBC World Service (Gordon Johnston, Emma Robertson)....Pages 281-316 Back Matter ....Pages 317-338