Janet Morgan

Abstract

This account follows the three themes of the symposium: authority, style and choice, each considered in relation to broadcasting and its future. The themes were taken up one by one and in each discussion it came about that the participants explored three aspects: what is understood by this term—authority, style or choice—where broadcasting is concerned? what paradoxes are revealed? what assumptions lie beneath the way we talk about authority, style and choice in relation to broadcasting? These deliberations led members of the symposium to consider what principles they believed it essential for broadcasters to follow, by what criteria broadcasting authorities should seek to operate. From there, the discussion turned to the last question: what sort of broadcasting systems will be most likely to cherish such principles and follow such criteria? Indeed, what type of broadcasting systems will allow and encourage debate about exactly those issues which the symposium sought to understand: the meaning we give to ‘authority’, ‘style’ and ‘choice’; the paradoxes we perceive; and the underlying assumptions we make.