pecific notion of British society also brings with it a national factor. If the key to the BBC lies in its role as the voice or vision of the British nation, one cant ignore the national identity associated with its programming (MacCabe, 52). Given the great range that is penetrated by BBC broadcasts, the idea of Britishness can easily be reinforced throughout the national grid. Therefore, a national unity can be created by the BBC although the audio-visual messages it sends to the audience may be at complete odds with the existing political, cultural, and social realities. In their Commitment to You, the BBC promises to respond to devolution and political change in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, however, each year the Department of National Heritage reports people to be critical of the BBC for reflecting the views and culture of only a small part of the population, reflecting the sentiments that were expressed close to sixty years ago. People living in the other parts of the United Kingdom want the BBC to broadcast more programs made in their area about their area and the people living thereand in addition those which consider national and international issues from a regional viewpoint (Heritage, 12). While all areas of the region are in some ways British, they are not all as British as the BBC deems them. Perhaps an Irish or Scottish community might object to a single nation covered by a single broadcasting outlet that claims its public service broadcasting is conducted with national policy in mind. The term national policy [itself]implies a degree of socio-political cohesion absent from out multi-racial society [and] it is the persistence of a powerful nation-wide network of communication that enables the perpetuation of this myth of unity (MacCabe, 43). Funding for the BBC is carried out through a license fee, collected by the government as a hypothecated tax and paid for by everyone owning a television set, which t...
