Review: The War of Words, the Image Empire
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207202700220 |
| Published date | 01 June 1972 |
| Author | F.W. Peers |
| Date | 01 June 1972 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
322
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
THE
WAR
OF
WORDS
The
History
of
Broadcasting
in
the
United
Kingdom,
vol
Im
Asa
Briggs
London:
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press,
1970,
xviii,
766
pp,
$25.00
THE
IMAGE
EMPIRE
A
History
of
Broadcasting
in
the
United
States.
III.
From
1953
Erik Barnouw
New
York:
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press,
1970,
396pp,
$10.75
We
now
have
three
volumes
in
each
of
these
authoritative
but
otherwise
very
different
histories
of broadcasting.
Erik
Barnouw's
last
volume
deals
with
the
boom
years
of
television, from
1953
to
the
present,
whereas
Asa
Briggs,
in
a
more
leisurely
and
heavily
documented
treatment, has
now
reached
the period
1939
to
1945.
His volume
covers
wartime
changes
in
the
BBC,
the
record
of
its
radio
services
in
providing
news
and
entertainment
programmes
for
domestic
and
foreign
listeners,
and
its
participation
in
such
propaganda
efforts
as
the
V
for
Victory
cam-
paign
and
the
encouragement
of
resistance
movements.
Not
only
the
times
but
the
societies
dealt with
are
different.
Yet
it
can
be
argued
that
in
the
two
books
each
broadcasting
system
is
portrayed
at
the
peak
of
its
prestige
and
influence
in
the world
at
large.
The
British
excelled
in
the
spoken
word
and
in
the radio
arts
making
use
of
the
spoken
word.
But
never again
would
they
be
called
upon
to
transmit
messages
of
such
critical importance
as
they
were
during
the
second
world
war
-
to
their
own
people,
to
occupied
Europe,
to
the
lands which
had
formed
a
once-great
empire,
and
to
allies
and neutrals
alike,
spread
around
the globe.
In
that
period,
United
States
radio
did
not
have
the
same
interna-
tional
force,
partly
because
the country
itself
had
not
fully
emerged
as
a
world
power,
but
also because
American
broadcasting
developed
under
private
auspices
as
an
auxiliary
to
advertising,
and
the
business
men
in
consumer
industries
concerned
themselves
mainly with
domestic
markets.
In
those
years,
the
radio
broadcasting
systems
of
most other
countries
were
in
some
measure
under
national
ownership
and
control,
and
the
different
style
and
character
of
American
broadcasting
was
generally regarded with
a
degree
of
suspicion
or
even
hostility.
Canada
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