HyperrealityA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWedly taken his own life.
Lord Hutton took evidence from 74 witnesses
over 25 days and his report was 740 pages long.
He completely exonerated the government,
government communication services, the civil
service and security services and directed the
blame entirely towards the BBC. Ben Pimlott
in a Guardian survey of opinions, ‘Returning
verdicts on the judge’ (30 January 2004), spoke of
the Report’s prose style as ‘exemplary’, the clarity
‘impeccable’ and the judgments ‘unambiguous’,
yet the author knew of ‘no precedent for a major
report so black-and-white in its conclusions, or
quite so supportive of the powers that be’.
Th e publication of the report led to the resig-
nation of the Chairman of the BBC, Sir Gavyn
Davies, the Director General, Greg Dyke and
Andrew Gilligan – and it stirred up a hornets’
nest of protest and accusations that the report
had been a ‘whitewash’. See butler report
(uk), 2004; phillis review of government
communications (uk), 2004.
Hybridization Described by James Lull in
Media, Communication, Culture (Polity Press,
1995) as the ‘fusing of cultural forms’. Travel
and the global nature of much of the media and
music industries enable a cultural form which
originates in one culture to be disseminated
quickly and easily to other cultures, where it
may well be infl uenced by and merge with local
cultural forms, thus producing a cultural hybrid.
Lull gives the example of rap music that has
travelled widely from its roots in US inner-city
ghettos and has become incorporated into other
kinds of popular music in a number of other
countries. See global village.
In particular, TV is seen as a prime agency
of hybridization (or hybridity). It represents
a site of travel in which people draw images,
ideology and visions of lifestyles other than
their own. Arguments over hybridity centre
on whether TV as a travelling medium creates
cultural diversity or results in cultural homogene-
ity, or sameness. In addition to TV, and perhaps
more importantly, the internet can be seen as
an agency of hybridization.
Hyperreality Just as hyperactivity is enhanced
or beyond-the-normal activity, hyperreality, in
the age of mass production and reproduction,
offers us reality-plus. Images, simulations of
reality, serve to extend and heighten the reali-
ties they represent, to the point, in the view of
some commentators, that they are more real
than, and preferable to, actual realities. Both
the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard and the
Italian semiologist Umberto Eco cite Disney-Human Rights Watch An independent, non-
governmental organization funded by private
individuals and foundations worldwide, with
offi ces in New York, Washington, Rio de Janeiro
and Hong Kong. Formed in 1978, the Human
Rights Watch investigates and reports on the
state of human rights in Africa, the Americas,
Asia, the Middle East and the signatories of the
Helsinki accord on human rights, scrutinizing
such matters as arms transfers, women’s and
children’s rights and prison conditions. The
organization also makes grants to writers who
have suff ered from political persecution.
Hunt Committee Report on Cable Expan-
sion and Broadcasting Policy (UK), 1982
Set up by the Conservative government, the
three-man committee chaired by Lord Hunt, a
former top civil servant, was required to report
and make recommendations on the future of
cable systems in the UK. In brief, the report, the
result of a hurried investigation begun in March
1982 and fi nalized by September, recommended
a future pattern of cable transmission systems
marked by few regulations, many channels
and as much advertising as operators could
attract.
Pay-as-you-view TV was not given the green
light by Hunt on the grounds that major national
events, such as the Cup Final or Wimbledon,
might be siphoned-off from national access and
be seen only by those on cable and able to pay.
‘Cherry picking’ – cabling just for the well-off
suburbs of a city, for example – was also to be
barred. See cable television.
Hutton Report (UK), 2004 In 2003, former Lord
Chief Justice of Northern Ireland Lord Brian
Hutton conducted an inquiry in public into the
suicide of a UK government weapons-expert,
Dr David Kelly. Th e terms of the inquiry were
‘urgently to conduct an investigation into the
circumstances surrounding the death of Dr
Kelly’. Th e context was the second Iraq war; the
issue, whether government claims that Saddam
Hussain possessed weapons of mass destruction
capable of being deployed on the UK within 45
minutes had been ‘sexed up’.
Th e trigger for this controversial claim was
an early-morning BBC radio report by journal-
ist Andrew Gilligan. The source of Gilligan’s
information, kept secret by the journalist but
brought into the public domain via government
ministries, was Kelly, who was sceptical of claims
relating to WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruc-
tion). Faced by a barrage of publicity, and of a
House of Commons panel of MPs asking sharp
and often aggressive questions, Kelly had alleg-