As usual a slightly different angle: Campaign Diary 17/5/83 and 20/5/83 Election Diary (1) 27/5/83 Election Diary (2) 1/6/83 - 8 days to go Election Diary (3) 3/6/83 Last Election Diary 8/6/83 & a preview of the BBC Studio
The 1983 Election coincided with my thirteenth birthday. I well remember coming out of the Music Block at senior school while the electorate cast their votes!
There is a variant of the Nationwide intro when the politician 'on the spot' feature was part of the programme in the 1983 season. Haven't found an example from the video archive yet. The 'NW' logo was not part of the intro, as the simplified map graphic instead 'opened' to a photo of what politician was to be on the spot instead of the 'NW' logo, and there was no 'NW' logo drawn over the map at the start of the graphic sequence
"Tonight we look at" what we an elite in one-sided control of this process choose to broadcast one-sidedly to you. We make that sound like the casual natural nature of progress. Ain't it the best thing in our generation that we have progressed beyond that? This manipulative one-sided broadcasting, while it still exists, is no longer the peak ability we have reached, or the bear-monopoly of our info. We now have the web, posting to each other here + on social media, making blogs, videos, even making sites with hosts like Wordpress + Wix facilitating it. Question has moved onto what impact this has? The TV era is now thankfully a past stage on the stairway, a snapshot in history.
You realise there was also newspapers, including trusted local ones, hustings, leaflets and door-knocking. I'm not sure a bunch of random fanatics on social media is the pinacle of political discource.
