Broadcasting and Day to Day Routine: Britain

Abstract

Imagine a world without broadcasting. What would we miss if, from tomorrow, say, there were no more radio and television? The nightly news, favourite soaps or comedy series, the ways in which listening and viewing help to pass the time, especially in the evenings or at weekends; the live coverage of big occasions (the Olympics or a royal wedding); the special programs on special days such as Christmas … these losses we might point to quite readily, hut they would not sufficiently account for the effects of the absence of broadcasting. The media are today, one taken for granted element in the day to day life of members of our societies. In this article I want to pay attention to the unobtrusive ways in which broadcasting sustains the lives and routines, from one day to the next, year in year out, of whole populations, and to reflect on some of the implications of these processes. I will try to account for the ways in which the times of radio and television are organised in relation to the social spaces of listening.