Media

Newspapers

Although Arransia is a relatively small country, it does not have a truly national press, and most large towns have their own daily morning newspaper that is widely read in the surrounding area. Evening papers are relatively rare, and are only found in Danby, Stainton and Hebburn. There is a high rate of newspaper purchase and readership, with an average daily sale of over 3 million supporting over 40 different daily titles, the smallest among which have daily circulations under 20,000.

Arransian newspapers, almost without exception, have a format half-way between a UK tabloid and broadsheet, similar to the recently relaunched Guardian. Although virtually every newspaper has a clear political line on its editorial pages, a strict distinction is always drawn between news reporting and opinion. The Bugle, based in Ellerdine, Bucklow, is notable for having continued to put across a very cogent and erudite Conservative argument even though the Conservative party has long been eclipsed in Arransian politics. However, the Bugle won itself few friends with its vocal and long-standing opposition to extending the role of women in the armed forces.

Many newspapers have unusual and distinctive names reflecting their local economy, so Ormsby has the Hop Bine, Sabden the Shepherd, Holborough the Anvil and Beadnell the Ensign. Arransians are well-known for their love of a good argument and the correspondence columns are often the liveliest items in newspapers. Most national news is taken from press agency reports and is often similar across different papers.

The only newspapers that can be said to have a national reach are three based in Danby - the upmarket Journal, which claims to be Arransia’s newspaper of record, but perhaps undermines this by its clear long-standing bias towards the Liberal Party, the business-focused Recorder and the Torch, which is the nearest thing Arransia has to a tabloid newspaper and was the first to introduce colour printing in the late 1980s. The Torch, with a typical daily sale of 400,000, is by far the country’s best-selling newspaper. Most newspapers use fairly antiquated presses and have a somewhat dry appearance with relatively few photographs - even in 2005, only a handful use any colour. The typical selling price of a provincial daily is 40 or 50 pence, the most expensive being the Journal which is 80 pence. The Journal is also the only true full-size broadsheet.

Another newspaper that enjoys a wide regional circulation is the Northern Echo, published in Barcaldine, which circulates throughout most of Edirn (although Aldminster, Marske and Lemingore have their own papers) and along the north coast as far west as Verne Island, where it is the largest-selling paper. It is well known as a strong supporter of the whisky distilling, farming, whaling and fishing interests (and indeed of Arransian maritime interests in general) and during his lifetime lionised the hard-nosed Edirn politician Alec Rankine.

Stainton is the only city in the country where there are two rival papers with clear party political allegiance - the Labour-supporting Herald and the Liberal Monitor. It is fair to say that the majority of the press tends to be Liberal-inclined, but there are a number of Labour-supporting papers such as the Anvil in Holborough and the Posthorn in Wrangle. The Independent in Hebburn lives up to its name by being even-handed between the two parties.

There are somewhat confusing rules governing press ownership which are meant to prevent conflicts of interest, with the result that there is considerable diversity in control of newspapers, including independent companies, wealthy individuals, charitable trusts, general publishers and general industrial companies. The Shepherd in Sabden and the Trident in Marske are now the only papers with old-fashioned editor-proprietors, respectively Diane Clegg and Patrick Ainslie.

Most of the smaller regional papers do not publish on Sundays, and so Arransia has two quasi-national Sunday papers, the populist Weekly News and the more upmarket Sunday Mercury. In addition, the Journal publishes a Sunday edition which has over twice the circulation of the daily paper.

Arransia has a strict privacy law and newspapers generally do not delve too deeply into the private lives of celebrities - indeed newspaper coverage of the rich and famous is widely felt to be somewhat fawning. A weekly colour celebrity magazine called People enjoys a very wide sale. The Weekly News is the nearest Arransia comes to a scandal-mongering newspaper but even this is very restrained.

Radio and Television

The shape of the crescent of hills separating Arransia from Brunswick has always meant that it is difficult to receive terrestrial radio and television transmissions from Brunswick in most of Arransia, although whether this is a blessing or a curse is a subject of debate.

The first Arransian radio station, the Arransian Radio Corporation, was set up in 1924 and by 1928 was able to be received across the whole of the country. This was government-owned, but was established as an arm’s length public corporation, partly funded through taxation and partly through advertising and sponsorship. Arransia has never had any kind of radio or TV licence. While nominally independent, the ARC was always sympathetic to the government of the day, and under the Ormond administration in the late 1930s became effectively a government mouthpiece. Until the Great War, ARC only broadcast one channel and enjoyed an effective monopoly. In the areas of Teviot, Holburn and Stainland where Brunswickian broadcasts could be heard, it was reckoned that they amounted to over half of all listening. While Brunswick introduced television in the 1930s, Arransia did not follow suit.

In 1942 a second radio station, the Forces Channel, was introduced, with a lighter mix of programming including more emphasis on the popular dance music of the day. This proved very popular and allowed the development of a more informal approach to radio broadcasting, although listening to programmes in retrospect the crude anti-Brunswickian tone is often difficult to stomach. Listening to Brunswickian radio broadcasts became an offence during the war, but large numbers of people continued to do so. The war also saw two successive heads of the ARC sacked for taking too independent a line. The radio broadcast in May 1949 in which King Andrew IX (1901-65) announced the armistice with Brunswick is something that made a profound impression on the popular memory.

After the war, the two radio stations were relaunched as the National Channel and the Variety Channel, but the ARC monopoly was retained. A decision in principle to introduce a television station was made in 1952 but this did not actually start up until 1956, when ARC was renamed the Arransian Broadcasting Corporation. At first, television transmissions were restricted to three hours a night, but this was gradually expanded. While television was about two-thirds funded from taxation, it did have advertisements, which in the early days seemed to be almost exclusively for beer and cigarettes. Even in the 1950s, commentators were decrying the “dumbing-down” effect of television on popular culture.

In 1967, the Scullion government controversially gave the go-ahead for a second, entirely commercial television channel, Arransian Independent Television, which rapidly secured about 75% of the market through its unashamedly populist programming. In 1995, a second independent station called Channel Three was launched, which tends to have a more quirky and eclectic mix of programming. Arransian television is generally considered dull and bland, dominated by nostalgic drama series, cosy situation comedies and worthy documentaries. There is a strong element of self-censorship and a marked reluctance to include anything that might be considered offensive to Brunswick. While Arransians in general are deeply unmilitaristic, coverage of naval reviews and air shows is surprisingly popular.

In the late 1980s Brunswick introduced satellite television which, unlike Brunswickian terrestrial broadcasts, could easily be received in Arransia. Not surprisingly, satellite dishes began to spread rapidly through Arransian residential areas and it is now reckoned that about 40% of households have satellite TV. This was widely criticised as “beaming a torrent of filth and rubbish into Arransian homes”, but society has not fallen apart and indeed the satellite programming is often more intelligent and innovative than that on terrestrial television. The satellite broadcaster BSB now offers five specificially Arransian-themed channels.

A frequent source of controversy has been BSB’s attempts to buy up the rights to Arransian sporting events. In 1999 the Bell government set out a list of major sporting events (including football, rugby, cricket, golf, athletics, horse-racing, motor racing, snooker and darts) which were reserved for terrestrial television. This led to complaints that Arransia was violating trade treaties, but BSB, aware that it was unwise to trample too much on Arransian sensibilites, kept a low profile. The reserved events are generally only major finals and internationals, and BSB has quietly acquired the rights to much regular sport, a lot of which was never shown on terrestrial TV anyway. The SportArransia channel is BSB’s most popular offering in the country.

The revolution in popular music in the 1960s left much of ABC’s radio output sounding very staid and dated, and from 1964 onwards a number of usually Brunswickian-owned “pirate” radio stations began to broadcast to Arransia from ships outside territorial waters. In 1965, one of these was boarded by the Navy and towed into Beadnell, but the resulting attempts at prosecution embarrassingly backfired, and the Scullion government subsequently turned a blind eye to the pirates. The often ferocious winter storms in the Sleeve were more of a concern, and in January 1970 the ship hosting Radio Liberty capsized and sank with all hands before any rescue vessels could reach the scene. Not surprisingly, this put a dampener on the pirates’ activities and from 1970 onwards they became summer-only operations.

In 1972, the Rostron government, as part of the move to create a 200-mile fishing limit, specifically outlawed unlicensed broadcasts to Arransia from within the 200-mile zone. The remaining pirates, who seemed to have lost their initial enthusiasm, were quickly rounded up, but were simply served with injunctions rather than prosecuted for anything. As a concession, ABC was allowed to set up a third radio station, the Modern Channel, concentrating on pop music which had only been sparsely covered by the Variety Channel. In 2003, the Bradshaw government controversially sold this off to the private sector, as it was felt to be inappropriate for a publicly-funded station. It has been renamed Galaxy Radio but has kept a similar programming mix.

Independent local radio stations were permitted from 1982, but many parts of the country still do not have one, and their typical parochialism and predictable music choices make them something of a standing joke. In 1996, three franchises for national commercial radio stations were allocated, which have been taken up by a talk station concentrating on sport, and music stations focused on rock and dance music. The rock station in particular, unimaginatively called Rock Radio, has proved extremely popular.

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