Philip Elliott

'Terrorism' and the state: a case study of the discourses of television

The legitimacy of the liberal-democratic state is no settled question. At the best of times, when peace and prosperity might appear to be the natural order of things, the state seems unshakeable, and the mobilization of popular consent through the medium of representative institutions to be an adequate expression of its solid foundations in civil society. This smooth functioning, however, is sustained by a considerable and continuous process of ideological labour-one which is thrown into relief as we enter a period of crisis. In the present period of profound economic dislocation dating from the early 1970s, Western capitalist democracies are undergoing complex and manifold processes of recomposition of the state and civil society. The question of how ideological processes work to sustain the legitimacy of the social order is now of especial interest. Within liberal-democratic political thought, the state is usually understood to derive its legitimacy from its constitutionality, from fair and free elections, its foundations in rational-legal norms respecting individual rights, and an adherence

A SOCIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY OF TELEVISION PRODUCTION

Social scientists working in the field of mass communication have been almost exclusively preoccupied with questions about the audience for the media. This paper is based on the premise that this type of investigation should be complemented with an analysis of the struaure and process of media production itself, so as to establish how it is that the audience is provided with one type of media output rather than another. Its purpose is to put forward a sociological framework within which answers to such questions may be attempted. At a theoretical level two principal difficulties face us in this task. First, in attempting to answer questions about media output, the physical produa which is the result of the social interaction has to be incorporated into the analysis. In the case studies of industrial sociology, for example, the technology of production and features of the product may be taken into account as variables explaining various features of organisation and interaction., but they are rarely themselves the subjea of study. Secondly, there is, we feel, a very artificial distinction between macro and micro levels of sociological analysis. In the course of the next seaions we shall examine two approaches, the sociology of art and the sociology of organisations, which, while both obviously relevant, are neither entirely adequate because each is largely restriaed to one particular level of analysis. The sociology of art has tended to produce statements about the relationship between general cultural themes and relevant features of the social struaure. Organisation theory, on the other hand, has been preoccupied with institutional structure and with behaviour at the level of interpersonal interaction. This paper can be seen as an attempt to integrate these two approaches.

Book reviews : Newspapers and Democracy: International Essays on a Changing Medium, Anthony Smith (ed.), Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1981, xiv + 368. pp., £15.50

The newspaper was the political steam engine of the nineteenth century. The analogy appealed to writers on the press because the newspaper seemed to be an effective source of power. The press embodied the technical achievements of the age so that the energy of the rotary press and the railway distribution system, could be symbolically translated into political muscle. The only comparable analogy in recent years has been the small arms typewriter of All the Pre.rident’.r Men. The changing analogy shows how the press, once a performer on the centre of the stage, has been relegated to a place in the wings. The assassin’s bullet may be effective but it is hardly central to the political process. The contrast can be pushed even further by noting that the steam engine stood for the power of an institution, the gun was wielded by employees. Not that the revolver analogy will really do for the complex political process which toppled Nixon. The point is the value it has in showing the change in the social standing of the press. On close examination contemporary journalism’s most heroic symbol turns out to be something marginal and subversive. Technological symbolism appears to be inappropriate for the press now that electronics have taken over from steam. Nevertheless, electronics and computers

The Professions in Society

The professions have always occupied a marginal position in society, peripheral to the main divisions of class, status, power and interest. This is still the case even though the professions have changed from being an addendum to the nobility and gentry to being part of the occupational elite in modern society. Change in the position of the professions has been contingent on changes in the society around them. The aristocracy’s traditional claim to power and status has lapsed in favour of the utilitarian claims of the industrial, commercial and political elites. Among such elites the professions stand out as a group whose members share common socio-economic origins, educational experiences and life-styles and a common, if confused, ideology of professionalism. In contrast, other contemporary elites, though they may be more closely linked internally through such traditional mechanisms as kinship ties, tend not to appear as such a unified group.2 The professions have benefited from the process whereby occupation has become the main basis of differentiation in modern society. They appear to fill the vacuum in mass society,2 but this appearance can be challenged both on the grounds that they do not constitute a conscious, coherent elite group and that their grasp on power and rewards in society is limited and insecure.

Selection, Recruitment, Education and Training

Some professions are among the most prestigious and highly rewarded occupations in modern society. Studies of occupational prestige in Britain and the United States have consistently shown that the older professions are still accorded the highest status.1Professional income is also higher than average. Blau and Duncan found in their study of the occupational structure of the United States that the self-employed professionals were the occupational group with the highest average annual income.2 There was a striking difference between their income,

The Development of the Professions in Britain

12,048 p.a. in 1962, and that of business managers,

Demonstrations and communication : a case study

7,238. Blau and Duncan point out that the category ‘managers’ includes a small business elite which is probably more affluent and more powerful than the professional group, but it was too small to appear separately in their survey. The group of affluent professionals is larger, more widely dispersed through the community and so more visible as a privileged group to others in society.

Televising "terrorism" : political violence in popular culture

Modern professionalism is a composite phenomenon, the product of a variety of different historical developments. In the course of this book an ideal type of professionalism will be developed to give the subject conceptual unity, but first an historical perspective is necessary to understand the way such an ideal type emerged and the form which it takes in different societies. Such a perspective is particularly necessary in Britain, to distinguish British professions from their American counterparts and to examine the way in which changes in professions and professionalism were interrelated with other processes of social change. The United States is a country with a small past and a large present. Much of the work on the contemporary situation in the sociology of the professions, discussed in later chapters, has been carried out there. But the course of social change which lies behind the present situation is more easily traced in the longer time-scale available in Britain.