Popular cultureA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZW(see audience: active audience; dominant,
subordinate, radical). Th ere is consensus
among researchers that the extent of polysemy is
to be viewed with caution.
Th e use of this term in media and communica-
tion analysis arguably refl ects the infl uence of
theoretical approaches from the fi eld of cultural
studies, and particularly those from theorists,
such as John Fiske, who argue that the meaning
of a text is produced in the act of reception and
that it is essentially subject to diff ering inter-
pretations. Th us most, if not all, texts would be
polysemic in nature. As Denis McQuail notes in
Mass Communication Th eory (Sage, 2010), from
this perspective, ‘mass media content is thus in
principle polysemic, having multiple potential
readings for its “readers” (in the generic sense of
audience members)’. It is also the case that texts
can be intentionally constructed to be more or
less open to interpretation, that is to have the
capacity to be more or less polysemic. See open,
closed texts; opinion leader; significant
others.
▶John Fiske, Television Culture (Methuen, 1987).
Pool system Practice, particularly in wartime, of
governments channelling media access to news
events through a regulated ‘pool’ of reporters;
and consequently the ‘pooling’ of information
for publication or broadcasting. Th is strategy of
news management eff ectively censors jour-
nalists by corralling them, while at the same time
claiming to off er prompt and reliable informa-
tion on events. Th e fi rst Gulf War (1991) off ered
a classic example of control through pooling. For
a similar exercise in the control of war reporting,
this time during the second Gulf War (2003), see
embedded reporters.
Poor Man’s Guardian Title of perhaps the most
infl uential radical newspaper in Britain during the
nineteenth century, edited by Bronterre O’Brien,
published by Henry Hetherington. It appeared
between 1831 and 1835, and was described by
George Jacob Holyoake, a campaigner against the
Taxes on Knowledge levied by government on
the press, as ‘the fi rst messenger of popular and
political intelligence which reached the working
classes’. Other radical papers of this turbulent
period were Richard Carlile’s Gauntlet (1833–34),
Robert Owen’s Crisis (1832–34), James Watson’s
Working Man’s Friend (1832–33) and Fergus
O’Connor’s Northern Star (1837–52), principal
organ of the Chartist movement. See stamp
duty; underground press. See also topic
guide under media history.
Popular culture See culture: popular
culture.alternatives that can or may exist. See visions
of order.
Politics of accommodation (in the media)
Potential confl ict between various individuals
and groups within media corporations and
between these corporations and a central social
authority is seen by some commentators to be
mediated by what Tom Burns in Th e BBC: Public
Institution and Private World (Macmillan, 1977)
calls a ‘politics of accommodation’. This is a
negotiated compromise in which notions such
as professional standards and the public interest
are used as trading pieces. Negotiations of this
type can be conducted at several levels: between
the professionals and the management; between
one corporation and another; and between a
corporation and the government.
Even between rival media empires there can
exist, temporarily at least, what might be termed
reciprocal silence, an agreement to censor infor-
mation that may be, if publicized, damaging to
one or other sides. A case in point is the silence
exercised by the UK Daily Mail and its sister
paper the Mail on Sunday over the controversial
take-over of the Mail’s rival, Express newspa-
pers by porn-king Richard Desmond, head of
the Northern and Shell company. Th e Labour
government’s approval in 2002 of this takeover
was explained by some commentators – though
not in the Mail, among Labour’s harshest crit-
ics – as being linked with Desmond’s 100,000
contribution to Labour Party funds.
Associated Newspapers (AN), owners of the
Mail and Sunday Mail, turned out to have a legal
agreement with Northern and Shell – a pact of
reciprocal silence – not to report the controversy
in return for the Express group’s silence concern-
ing allegations about the Rothermere family,
owners of AN. Margaret McDonagh, the-then
Labour Party General Secretary who banked
the 100,000 for Labour, joined Northern and
Shell shortly afterwards. See consensus; elite;
establishment; hegemony; media control;
mediation; regulatory favours; strategic
bargaining. See also topic guides under
media institutions; media: politics &
economics.
Polysemy Has a number of meanings; broadly
used, the term describes the potential for many
interpretations in media texts, or the capacity
of audience to read into such texts their own
meanings rather than merely the preferred
reading of the communicators. For some
commentators, audience is the ‘victim’ of media
messages; for others, it is perceived as being
capable of making its own diverse responses