![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
The Global Financial Crisis presented the media with numerous opportunities to tell dramatic business-based stories. However, the relationship between commercial news and the corporate world is often thought to be deferential, where advertisers wield influence over journalists who are reluctant to criticise those indirectly funding them. Because of these models of capitalist power dynamics, it is often assumed that journalists will take a gentle line when reporting the affairs of advertisers. However, such a normative ideal is essential in an era when evidence suggests that capitalism has not produced any “trickle-down” benefits for ordinary people. By taking a multimodal approach including semiotic and critical discourse analysis, this paper examines the broadcaster–advertiser relationship between ITV and Barclays PLC. Using a critical realist framework, the paper finds that in contrast to well-established theories that advertisers shape and influence business news, post-financial crisis, the United Kingdom’s largest commercial broadcaster adopted a combative role towards a key contributor to their funding. In comparison, the nation’s main public service broadcaster—the BBC—was less probing. The paper therefore challenges any simplistic correlation between advertising and news output while also arguing that a political economy perspective remains relevant in today’s commercial news landscape.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author is grateful to Dr Stephen Cushion for his feedback regarding this paper, and to Dr Allaina Kilby for her hard work when carrying out the intercoder reliability testing as part of the wider content analysis. Thanks also to the wider community of scholars at Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies for their valuable and encouraging comments when these data were presented to them during a seminar in February 2017.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. There were five bulletins that were not available on the “Box of Broadcasts” resource.
No infringement of copyright is intended and screenshots are reproduced according to advice from Learning on Screen (The British Universities and Colleges Film and Video Council). Screenshots are presented under the exception clause available under “Criticism and Review” in Section 30 of the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, which allows for limited use, provided that they are specifically related to the text and are confined within a non-commercial publication. Screenshots for were obtained from the DVD archive at Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. Screenshots for and are taken from the programme resource at https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/068D470C. Screenshot for is taken from the programme resource at https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/0696F914. Screenshots for are taken from the programme resource at https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/06E97DE1. Screenshots for are taken from the programme resource at https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/06FB8BCD?bcast=110051406. Screenshots for are taken from the advertisement breaks punctuating ITV bulletins within this list. Screenshots for are taken from the programme resources at https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/068B3816 and https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/068D470C. Screenshot for is taken from the programme resources at https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/068B3896. Screenshot for is taken from the programme resources at https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/0681F8D2.
![Supercharge Your Next Research Paper: Research and write your next paper with Jenni AI.]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/112446/MPU-L1EB.png"})