Cover not available

Article published In: Popular News Discourse: American and British newspapers 1833-1988
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 15:2] 2014
► pp. 314–330

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Popular newspaper discourse

The case of UK TV criticism from the 1950s to the 1980s

 | Roehampton University
Published online: 21 July 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.15.2.08rix
Journalistic discourse, the world over, has developed over time, reflecting changes in the news industry and the wider society. Likewise television criticism, a specific form of journalism, has also had to evolve over time. Initially, as television critics sought recognition and respectability in the quality newspapers, they developed a form of writing similar to the way other forms of culture and art were reviewed. However, as journalists began to develop more popular ways of writing, and with the spread of soft news throughout newspapers and into new magazine supplements, television critics also found themselves having to follow suit. This was such that by the 1970s a number of critics had moved away from trying to mimic other forms of reviewing or criticism to creating their own, more popular form of discourse. In this article I will explore some of the ways the language of critics changed between the 1950s and the 1980s, and how these developments were similar or different to the wider changes in journalism happening at this time.
References (50)
Biressi, Anita, and Heather Nunn (eds.). 2008. The Tabloid Culture Reader. Berkshire: Open University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Black, Peter. 1954a. “Teleview.” Daily Mail. 7 April. London, 6.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1954b. “Teleview.” Daily Mail. 8 April. London, 6.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1954c. “Teleview.” Daily Mail. 12 April. London, 6.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1954d. “Teleview.” Daily Mail. 21 April. London, 6.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Briggs, Asa. 1995. The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Competition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cooke, Lez. 2003. British Television Drama: A History. London: BFI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coren, Alan. 1975a. “Look Stranger.” The Times. 8 April. London, 9.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1975b. “Love Thy Neighbour.” The Times. 18 April. London, 11.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1975c. “Giving the Depression a Facelift.” The Times. 29 April. London, 9.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crozier, Mary. 1958. Broadcasting: Sound and Television. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Curran, James, and Jean Seaton. 2010. Power without Responsibility: The Press and Broadcasting in Britain. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dunkley, Chris. 1982. “Newspaper Duty.” Television 19 (1): 18–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fiske, John. 1994. Television Culture. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gander, Leonard Marsland. 1954a. “Light Brigade Charges Again.” Daily Telegraph. 20 April. London, 8.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1954b. “Stark Force of Pirandello.” Daily Telegraph. 21 April. London, 8.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1954c. “Snobbery and the Social Ladder.” Daily Telegraph. 28 April. London, 8.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gripsrud, Jostein. 2008. “Tabloidization, Popular Journalism, and Democracy.” In The Tabloid Culture Reader, ed. by Anita Biressi, and Heather Nunn, 34–44. Berkshire: Open University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hazard, Patrick (ed.). 1966. TV as Art: Some Essays in Criticism. Illinois: National Council of Teachers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacobs, Jason. 2000. The Intimate Screen: Early British Television Drama. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
James, Clive. 1975. “The Main Thing about Main.” Observer. 27 April. London, 33.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1981. Visions Before Midnight. London: Picador.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
LeMahieu, Dan. 1988. A Culture for Democracy: Mass Communication and the Cultivated Mind in Britain. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McArthur, Colin. 1980. “Point of Review: Television Criticism in the Press.” Screen Education 35 (Summer): 59–61.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McDonald, Ronan. 2007. The Death of the Critic. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Naughton, John. 1994. “The Amateur’s Point of View.” Guardian. 11 April. London, 16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ornebring, Henrik, and Anna Maria Jonsson. 2008. “Tabloid Journalism and the Public Sphere: A Historical Perspective on Tabloid Journalism.” In The Tabloid Culture Reader, ed. by Anita Biressi, and Heather Nunn, 23–33. Berkshire: Open University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Own reporter. 1954. “Televising From A Theatre.” Guardian. 21 April. Manchester, 4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parker, Derek. 1975a. “Play for Today.” The Times. 25 April. London, 13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1975b. “Long-Life Jokes.” The Times. 11 April. London, 13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Petley, Julian. 1997. “Faces for Spaces.” In A Journalism Reader, ed. by Michael Bromley, and Tom O’Malley, 251–272. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poole, Mike. 1984. “The Cult of the Generalist: British Television Criticism 1936–83.” Screen 25 (2): 41–61. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1994. “Lowering the Box.” Guardian . 4 April. London, 12.
Purser, Phillip. 1992. Done Viewing: A Personal Account of the Best Years of Our Television. London: Quarter Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R.P.M.G. 1954. “The Trial of Christ. Judas’s Character.” Daily Telegraph. 12 April. London, 7.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Radio Critic. 1954a. “American at Home.” Guardian. 10 March. Manchester, 5.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1954b. “The Grove Family.” Guardian. 14 April. Manchester, 5.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, Michael. 1975. “Man Alive.” The Times. 25 April. London, 13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reynolds, Stanley. 1975. “Thriller.” The Times. 14 April. London, 9.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rixon, Paul. 2011. TV Critics and Popular Culture: A History of British Television Criticism. London: I.B. Taurus. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seymour-Ure, Colin. 1993. The British Press and Broadcasting Since 1945. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shayon, Robert Lewis (ed.). 1962. The Eighth Art: Twenty-Three Views of Television Today. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sparks, Colin. 1992. “Popular Journalism: Theories and Practice.” In Journalism and Popular Culture, ed. by Peter Dahlgren, and Colin Sparks, 24–44. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Technician. 1938. “H.M.V. Model 901 Television.” Daily Mail. 7 April. London, 17.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Times. 1975. “Last’s Nights TV.” 25 April. London, 13.
Thumim, Janet. 2004. Inventing Television Culture: Men, Women, and the Box. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Turner, Graeme. 1992. Film as Social Practice. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Kevin. 2010a. Get Me a Murder a Day! A History of Media and Communication in Britain. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
William, Kevin. 2010b. Read All About It! A History of the British newspaper. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Worsley, Terence Cuthbert. 1970. Television: The Ephemeral Art. London: Alan Ross.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

From, Unni
2019. Criticism and Reviews. In The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Rixon, Paul
2017. The impact of new forms of digital communication on press-based TV critics and the emergence of new forms of critical debate. Journalism 18:2 ► pp. 226 ff. DOI logo
Toolan, Michael
2016. Peter Black, Christopher Stevens,classand inequality in theDaily Mail. Discourse & Society 27:6 ► pp. 642 ff. DOI logo
Toolan, Michael
2018. The Language of Inequality in the News, DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue