Micro-myth, macro-myth
attached to the Majority beveridge committee
report on broadcasting, 1950, and, contrary,
to Beveridge, who supported a continued
monopoly of broadcasting for the BBC, argued
that independent, and commercial, competition
would be a good thing. Author of the Minority
Report was Conservative MP Selwyn Lloyd, who
produced a scheme for a Commission for British
Broadcasting to be set up which would license a
number of rival broadcasting stations.
Lloyd wrote, ‘Having considered these argu-
ments put forward by the BBC on behalf of
monopoly, I am of the opinion that independent
competition will be healthy for broadcasting.’
His view had considerable support in the Tory
party and in the business world: commercial
broadcasting in the UK was on the horizon. See
topic guide under broadcasting.
Miracle of Fleet Street Description by Lord
Northcliff e (1865–1922) of the redoubtable UK
Daily Herald (1912–64), a sometimes swash-
buckling radical paper which, despite having
a substantial circulation and vast readership,
received little advertising. Th is was as a result
partly of its left-wing views, but perhaps more
importantly because of its insistence on thor-
ough reporting of political issues, considered at
that time to appeal more to male readers. When
other national popular papers were priced at one
penny, the Daily Herald was forced to charge
two pence. Yet it lost very little in circulation,
due to the energy and leadership of its greatest
editor, George Lansbury, MP (1859–1940).
The Herald was the first newspaper in the
world to reach a circulation of 2 million – in
mid-1933 – though it was soon overtaken by
Beaverbrook’s Daily Express. By the time the
Herald had reached its peak circulation of 2.1
million in 1947, the Daily Mirror and Daily
Express were pushing 4 million and by 1960,
sales had tumbled to 1.6 million. The Herald
struggled on until 14 September 1964. See topic
guide under media history.
Misinformed society As the means of commu-
nication expand, the assumption that more
and diverse information equates with better-
informed citizens has been challenged by many
commentators. In asking the question, How far
have media succeeded/failed to provide informa-
tion for citizenship?’ Peter Golding argues that
the so-termed information society ‘is a myth’.
In ‘Telling stories: sociology, journalism and
the informed citizen’ in the European Journal
of Communication (December 1994), Golding
believes that we live in a media society, in which
information is available at a price, or not at all’,in the mobile consumer market, faced by the
entrepreneurial genius of apple macintosh
with all its ground-breaking innovations in the
fi eld. However, diversifi cation has always been
key to Microsoft’s ambitions. Th e company took
a US 240 million equity stake in facebook in
2007 and attempted to buy the platform in 2010.
It created Bing search engine to rival google
and this is now integrated with Facebook, allow-
ing users to see, directly from search results,
what their friends have ‘liked’. From 2010 Bing
powered yahoo! searches in the US and Canada.
Micro-myth, macro-myth Philip Schlesinger in
Putting ‘Reality’ Together: BBC News (Constable,
1978; Methuen/University Paperback, 1987)
examines the BBC news machine at work,
and identifi es what in his view are two myths
entertained by those who work in BBC news: the
micro-myth, that production staff are permit-
ted autonomy within the organization; and the
macro-myth, that the BBC is an independent
organization, largely socially unattached. See
impartiality.
Milieu Th e social environment of the individual,
group, culture or nation.
Milton’s paradox On the one hand the English
poet John Milton (1608–74) is famous for his
stalwart defence of the freedom of expression
(see areopagitica); on the other, Milton did
not entirely practise what he preached. Domi-
nant in Milton’s own life was anti-Catholicism.
Th e paradox arises from the diff erence between
principle and practice: during the period of the
Interregnum, 1649–60 (the Commonwealth of
Oliver Cromwell) Milton was an offi cial censor,
though apologists argue that the poet was less
involved in censorship than in editing and
supervision.
In ‘Milton’s paradox: the market-place of ideas
in post-Communist Bulgaria’, in the European
Journal of Communication, September 1997,
Ekaterina Ognianova and Byron Scott believe
that ‘in a simplistic way at least, Milton repre-
sents a perennial confl ict between general beliefs
and specifi c behaviour, between concepts and
practice when it comes to the question of how
much freedom to permit’.
Mimetic/semiosic planes In narrative,
the mimetic is the plane of representation, the
semiosic the plane of meaning production. See
codes of narrative; connotation; narra-
tive paradigm; propp’s people; semiology/
semiotics.
Minneapolis City Council inquiry into
pornography See pornography.
Minority Report of Mr Selwyn Lloyd Th is was