Drawing on interviews and archival material, this thesis examines how the crisis of the 1970s and the rising power of business under the neoliberal settlement that followed impacted on the BBC’s organisational structure, policies and journalistic practices. Part I focuses on the breakdown of social democracy. Orientated towards and legitimised by the social order that seemed under strain, the politically appointed BBC leadership took a conscious conservative turn and, under pressure from the government, sought to curtail the influence of union militancy and sixties radicalism and to stem its own ‘fiscal crisis’ through wage repression. Meanwhile, despite facing criticism over its economic reporting, which routinely blamed trades unions for the perceived economic decline and crisis, the BBC leadership refused to even seriously question long standing editorial conventions. This, it is argued, left an explanatory vacuum that the New Right were able to skilfully exploit. Part II describes the process of change that the BBC then underwent in the wake of Thatcherism. It argues that the highly unpopular organisational reforms introduced under the leadership of John Birt represented an institutionalisation of the new neoliberal order at the BBC. It describes how business journalism came to displace social democratic patterns of reporting as a result of both top down initiatives and a range of external factors including privatisation and financialisation, the changing political economy of the private media and the power of advertising and public relations. By analysing archival and interview material in the light of scholarly work on neoliberalism, broadcasting and power, the thesis offers an empirically rich account of the subtle ways in which journalistic norms are shaped by wider social forces and a more satisfactory account of the BBC and its role in British society than existing studies.

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En esta tesis se hace un estudio de las élites de poder en Caravaca durante la Segunda Mitad del Siglo XVIII, tanto a nivel familiar, como a nivel de poder político y de la relación de este con su poder patrimonial. Se parte del análisis de las principales familias que configuran el poder local, y a partir de él, se procede a establecer los lazos de parentesco y matrimonios que se dan entre dichas élites. Pero el centro de la tesis lo constituye el estudio de los comerciantes desde dos vertientes: La primera como instrumento económico que va a favorecer el tráfico y comercio de la zona introduciéndola en las principales rutas interiores del comercio de la lana, mientras que la segunda vertiente hace referencia, a su influencia como poder político, a su introducción paulatina en los cargos del concejo y la ocupación de los puestos de mayor relevancia. / This thesis is intended as a study of power elites in Caravaca during the second half of the 18th century from the perspective of the families involved and the relationship between their political and patrimonial powers. The main families that shaped local power have been analysed and the bonds and marriages between their members have been brought to light. The core of the thesis, however, is the study of local merchants from a double perspective: (i) their role as economic agents that encouraged traffic and commerce in the area by introducing it in the main inland routes of wool trade; and (ii) the gradual increase of their political power, as shown by the fact that they tended to hold the most relevant posts in the local council.