McGuffi n
dynamic in relation to X (the issue). McLeod
and Chaff ee take this model and apply it to mass
communication. In ‘Interpersonal approaches
to communication research’ in the American
Behavioural Scientist, 16 (1973), they too refer to
a ‘co-orientational approach’.
In their model there are three major ‘players’
forming the frame of the kite – the elite, the
public, and, in a mediating role, the media –
orientated towards each other and to the tail
of the kite which represents current news, and
issues in the news – an endless stream of new
matter which the media process with the elite
and public in mind, and serving, as it were, both.
Such a balanced, symmetrical arrangement is
closer to the ideal than a refl ection of realities,
for quite clearly the elite (see power elite)
have considerably more infl uence over media
performance than the public; indeed ownership
and control of media lie largely with the elite in
one form or another.
To obtain a more accurate representation of
the co-orientational nature of the relationship
between the key players in the drama of media,
it would be necessary to shift the axis a little,
with the media being in much closer proximity
to the elite than to the public. However, the
kite metaphor remains a useful one, in that the
situation in which all the players fi nd themselves
is unstable, and it is the stream of Xs – events,
innovations, developments, changes – which
causes that instability. Th is model should alsointerest-relief on loans which papers would need
if they were to modernize their printing meth-
ods and cut costs. Like so many inspired ideas
emerging from royal commissions, the proposal
got nowhere.
In its final report (1977), the Commission
recognized the anti-Labour bias in most of the
nation’s press: ‘We have no doubt that over most
of this century, the press had treated the beliefs
and activities of the Labour movement with
hostility.’ Th e Commission recommended that
the Press Council be strengthened, its infl uence
increased; that, for example, its lay members
be equal in number to its press representation.
Th is recommendation was accepted, though the
Council demurred at other advice. See commis-
sions/committees on the media.
McGuffin Film director Alfred Hitchcock
(1899–1980) was fond of using this expression
to describe any device or element of plot that
captures the attention and interest of the audi-
ence, but which is intended to be, and acknowl-
edged to be, merely a means to an end: an
amiable red herring. Hitch himself described the
McGuffi n as ‘that which spies are after (in fi lms)
but the audience don’t care’. See narrative.
★McLeod and Chaffee’s ‘kite’ model,
1973 Th is is best studied in conjunction with
newcomb’s abx model of communication,
- Newcomb focuses on interpersonal links in
relation to issues, believing that each element
(Person A and Person B) forms a triangular
McLeod and Chaff ee’s ‘kite’ model, 1973