Immersion
gathered under one banner, that of impartial-
ity – what Schlesinger refers to as the central
mediating factor in news-processing at the BBC,
‘the linchpin of the BBC’s ideology’.
Schlesinger found this a notion ‘saturated
with political and philosophical implications’
and classifi es the ‘ideology of detachment’ as in
essence an example of ‘latter-day Mannheimian-
ism’. In Ideology and Utopia (Routledge, 1936),
Karl Mannheim explained how a ‘socially unat-
tached intelligentsia’ could play a role in society
that was above all confl ict, capable of represent-
ing to society all relevant views.
It is a theory which has regularly been
condemned as an unrealistic dream, though the
doctrine has remained persistently attractive:
by virtue of their education, argued Mannheim,
the intellectuals, déclassés, are exposed to the
‘infl uence of opposing tendencies in social real-
ity’; thus theirs is the potential to improve social
integration, to produce a new consensus by
means of ‘dynamic mediation’.
Th e theory implies that it is possible to view
the world in a value-free way, and to act accord-
ingly. Schlesinger calls value-freedom ‘a myth’,
yet one that in terms of the BBC’s aspiration to
impartiality, to being above the fray, ‘is believed
by those who propagate it’ as well as being
‘essential for public consumption’. Such beliefs,
Schlesinger argues, ‘anchor news production
in the status quo’. What the BBC produces as
news is ‘structurally limited by the organization’s
place in Britain’s social order’ and the main
consequence of that position is that ‘the outputs
of broadcasting are, in general, supportive of the
existing social order’.
Schlesinger’s fi ndings were a snapshot in time,
and it would be interesting to survey them in
relation to the trouble the BBC encountered
with government in 2003 in their reporting of
the war in Iraq and their questioning of offi cial
claims concerning weapons of mass destruction.
See hutton report (uk), 2004. See also topic
guide under media issues & debates.
Imperialism in information systems See
media imperialism.
Implication In the production of texts, particu-
larly the news, much is left implicit: assump-
tions about prior knowledge, expectations about
response are implied rather than made manifest,
and this implication is generally if not always
ideological. As Tuen van Dijk says in ‘Media
contents: the interdisciplinary study of news as
discourse’, in A Handbook of Qualitative Meth-
odologies for Mass Communication Research
(Routledge, 1991), edited by Klaus Bruhn Jensenit can no longer be used during the newsday in
question.’ Immediacy is not only a vital factor
in the selection of a story for treatment; it also
helps fashion that treatment. Pace is what counts
in presentation, especially in TV news where the
priority is to keep the audience ‘hooked’.
Th e danger with such emphasis on immediacy
is that news tends to be all foreground and little
background, all events and too little context,
all current happening and too little concentra-
tion on historical and cultural frameworks.
Schlesinger rounds off his article by saying that it
is plausible to argue ‘that the more we take note
of news, the less we can be aware of what lies
behind it’. See effects of mass media. See also
topic guide under news media.
Immersion Th e degree to which the virtual, the
invented – as in virtual reality – submerges
the real perception system of the user. Th e more
that VR works to the exclusion of contact with
the real, physical world, the more it is classifi ed
as being immersive. Th e prospect of near-total
immersion, on the part of some users, is a matter
of interest and concern. As Frank Biocca says in
‘Communication within virtual reality: creating
a space for research’ in Journal of Communica-
tion, Autumn 1992, ‘If people eventually use
VR technology for the same amount of time
that they spend watching television and using
computers, some users could spend 20 or more
years “inside” virtual reality.’
Impact of the mass media See effects of the
mass media.
Impartiality Just as Professor Stuart Hall doubts
the existence, in media terms, of objectivity,
so Philip Schlesinger, in a remarkable study of
the workings of BBC News, has cast doubt on
the possibility of impartiality. Between 1972
and 1976, Schlesinger had a unique research
opportunity to conduct in the newsrooms of
Broadcasting House and the Television Centre,
London; fieldwork which attempted ‘to grasp
how the world looks from the point of view of
those studied’ – the reporters, correspondents,
editors and managing editors in the most
prestigious media organization in the world. He
interviewed more than 120 members of BBC
news staff and spent 90 days in observation.
His fi ndings were published in Putting ‘Reality’
Together: BBC News (Constable, 1978; Methuen/
University paperback, with new Preface, 1987).
Several key words framed the basic principles
of news production: balance, objectivity, respon-
sibility, fairness and freedom from bias; and these
were, in the ‘ordinary discourse of newsmen’ for
the most part ‘interchangeable’. Th ey could be