Theme: Society & Culture | Content Type: Journal article

The BBC World Service: is it Waving or Drowning?

Alban Webb

nasa-Q1p7bh3SHj8-unsplash

NASA

| 1 min read

‘Global Britain’ is as much a governing instinct as it is a statement of current policy: an idea that animates the United Kingdom's international relations. And for nine decades the BBC World Service, Britain's principal agent of public diplomacy, has been its exemplar. With a reputation as a trusted source of reliable news in over forty languages, the international BBC sustains a global capacity for intercultural dialogue founded on evidence-based journalism. At a time when digital media are rewriting the strategic communications playbook and reorganising our knowledge practices and behaviours, the BBC maintains a vital link between Britain and a transnational community of close to half a billion users. Yet, despite these evident strengths, recent confusion over the organisation and funding of the World Service means that its long-term future is in doubt. This article asks how and why it has come to this and what might be done to preserve the journalistic integrity and ‘soft power’ of the BBC World Service.

Read the full article on Wiley

Need help using Wiley? Click here for help using Wiley

  • nasa-Q1p7bh3SHj8-unsplash_C6ifnj3.jpg

    Alban Webb

    Alban Webb teaches and writes about modern British political, cultural, and international history at the University of Sussex.

    Articles by Alban Webb
Volume 96, Issue 2

Latest Journal Issue

Volume 96, Issue 2

This issue features a collection titled 'Governing from the Centre Left' edited by Deborah Mabbett and Peter Sloman. In this collection, authors including Claire Ainsley, Jörg Michael Dostal and Eunice Goes examine how centre-left governments in North America, Australasia, and Western Europe have dealt with recent global pressures, and consider what lessons the UK Labour government should learn from its overseas counterparts. Other articles include a commentary by Ben Jackson titled 'Poverty and the Labour Party'; John Connolly, Matthew Flinders and David Judge on 'How Not to Deliver Policies: Lessons in Undeliverability from the Conservative Governments of 2019–2024'; Stewart Lansley on 'Wealth Accumulation: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'; and Coree Brown Swan, Paul Anderson, and Judith Sijstermans on 'Politics and the Pandemic: The UK Covid-19 Inquiry and Devolution'. A selection of book reviews feature Victoria Brittain's review of 'Palestinian Refugee Women from Syria to Jordan, Decolonizing the Geopolitics of Displacement' by Afaf Jabiri, and Anna Coote's review of 'The Care Dilemma: Caring Enough in the Age of Sex Equality', by David Goodhart.

Find out more about the latest issue of the journal