Abstract

The focus of the thesis is an examination of the role of the television personality within the context of recent debates about public service broadcasting and the economic consequences of moving into the digital age. In particular, those broadcasters intent on maintaining a public service identity, notably the BBC and C4, have the task of demonstrating their appeal and purpose beyond entertainment and consumer choice to a commitment to processes of social and cultural engagement. Certain figures on television have a regularity and constancy of presence within and across genres. Their appearance is familiar, their appeal ‘everyday’, whilst generating a sense of authority and authenticity. Drawing on the work of John Langer (1981) expanded upon by others [Ellis: 1982; Bennett: 2008 & 2010; Bennett & Holmes: 2010] this has been identified as a specific and deliberate part of televisual address to its audiences. The research focuses on the examples of Jamie Oliver, Jonathan Ross and David Dimbleby and their strategic development by either C4 or the BBC at particular points during the period 1999-2011, through analysis of industry debate and programme discourses. It is argued that between them, they represent constructions of nationhood, citizenship, culture, different embodiments of masculinity and the role of television as part of social history and nostalgia. These discursive values, it is argued, are increasingly important as a part of PSB channel and broadcaster branding in a fragmenting attention economy.