Fragmentation of audienceA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWFootage Length of fi lm expressed in feet.
Footprint Term used to describe the area in
which a signal from a communications satellite
can be received. See satellite transmission.
Four stages in audience fragmentation See
audience: fragmentation of.
Fourteen-Day Rule (UK) In the period after the
Second World War (1939–45) the BBC entered
into an agreement with government whereby
it would not try to usurp the functions of the
House of Commons as the supreme forum of the
nation by broadcasting on issues due to be
debated in Parliament. An embargo was placed
upon all such issues until fourteen days after
Parliament had debated them. It was a crippling
intrusion upon the editorial rights of the corpo-
ration, and the beveridge committee report
on broadcasting (uk), 1950 called for the
abandonment of the Rule. Nevertheless, succes-
sive governments held tenaciously to it. In 1956
the House of Commons set up a Select Commit-
tee to investigate the workings and effects of
the Rule: it recommended a reduction to seven
days. Pressure from broadcasters and the press
continued unabated, and within a year the Rule
was abandoned altogether (1957). See topic
guides under media: freedom, censorship;
media history.
Fourth Estate The eighteenth-century parlia-
mentarian Edmund Burke (1729–97) is thought
to have been the originator of this phrase
describing the press and its role in society.
According to Burke’s defi nition, the other three
‘Estates’ were the Lords Spiritual (the church),
the Lords Temporal (the judiciary) and the
Commons. ‘And yonder,’ he is believed to have
said in Parliament, ‘sits the Fourth Estate, more
important than them all.’
Th e implication is that the press, like the other
estates, serves the State, as diff erentiable from
government, and thus functions as a force for
social, cultural and national cohesion. Underly-
ing this argument is the assumption that while
governments might be in error, the State is benign
if not sacrosanct. A glance at states ancient and
modern would suggest otherwise. Th e classifying
of the press as the Fourth Estate points up the
ambivalent role of the media in society: does
it tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth; or, because the priorities of State
seem to require it, manipulate, conceal or deny
that truth? See elite; guard dog metaphor;
media control; power elite; watchdogs.
See topic guide under media history.
Fragmentation of audience See audience:
fragmentation of.programmes) is more likely to capture audi-
ence attention than good behaviour; hence the
distortion rather than replication of reality. See
cinéma vérité; direct cinema; surveil-
lance society.
Focus groups Focus groups are frequently
employed in market research. Members of a
group are brought together by a researcher to
discuss aspects of a product, be it soap powder,
a political party or a television programme. Th e
group is often chosen to be a representative
sample of all those who are thought to be the
actual or potential consumers of the product.
As a qualitative research method, use of focus
groups allows for in-depth discussion and
exploration of consumers’ orientations towards
and evaluations of a product. Focus groups are
also widely used by governments and political
parties as a gauge of public opinion on proposed
or actual policies. See topic guide under
research methods.
Foe creation See wedom, theydom.
Folk culture Term generally applied to the
culture of pre-industrial societies. Such societ-
ies have certain distinguishing features that are
thought to aff ect the elements of their culture:
work and leisure are undiff erentiated; there is
relatively little division of labour; the commu-
nities are small, and social action is normally
collectivist as opposed to individualist. Th us folk
songs, for example, are usually fi rmly rooted in
the everyday experience and beliefs of both the
audience and the performer.
Folk devils Stanley Cohen in Folk Devils and
Moral Panics (MacGibbon & Kee, 1972, 3rd
edition 2002) argues that societies are subject to
periods of moral panic in which certain groups
are picked out as being a special threat to the
values and interests of society. Th e media and
in particular the press play an important role in
transmitting this sense of outrage to the general
public.
Such groups or individuals are usually those
transgressing the values of the dominant hierar-
chy. It is further argued by Cohen and others that
the castigation of such groups, such folk devils,
by the media is a mechanism by which adherence
to dominant social norms is strengthened, along
with support for the forces of law and order and
an extension of their powers. See loony left-
ism; moral panics and the media.
▶Chas Critcher, ed., Critical Readings: Moral Panics
and the Media (Open University Press/McGraw-Hill
Education, 2006); Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-
Ye h u d a i n Moral Panics: Th e Social Construction of
Deviance (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).