Consultation Response - Media 12 - Cardiff University PDF 2 MB

Table 2.3 below breaks all these data down by news outlets, and includes
news items about Westminster as a separate category (as we did in 2007) 6 . It
indicates that the most significant increases in the coverage of Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland were on BBC outlets. So, for example, BBC
television items related to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland increased by
6.4%, compared with an increase of 4.7% on BBC radio and an increase of
2.7% across ITV, Channel 4 and Sky. BBC online coverage of Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland also increased (by 6.2%), although from a much higher
base (overall coverage in both 2007 and 2009 is higher online because the
sample involved the ‘Politics’ page, which is more likely to feature stories
relevant to devolution, and as Table 2.3 suggests, from Westminster). Table
2.3 also shows a slight increase in news items about Westminster on BBC
television and BBC online, with decreases on other television outlets and on
BBC radio. Conversely it shows a decrease in the coverage of England by BBC
television and online, and increases on BBC radio and other television outlets.
Table 2.3: Geographical relevance by media outlet (percentage) with
percentage point change between 2007 and 20097
Media England %
Point
Change
BBC
TV
Other
TV
BBC
Radio
BBC
Online
Northern
Ireland
%
Point
Change
Scotland %
Point
Change
Wales %
Point
Change
Westminster
%
Point
Change
60.3 -8.6 3.7 +1.2 6.7 +3.4 3.8 +1.8 25.5 +2.2
67.5 +4.0 3.3 +1.2 4.1 +1.2 1.3 +0.3 23.9 -6.6
61.4 +6.5 3.4 +2.0 7.2 +2.4 2.2 +0.3 25.9 -11.2
39.0 -10.0 2.1 -1.3 11.2 +5.5 2.7 +2.0 45.0 +3.8
Overall 58.4 -1.7 3.2 +1.0 7.1 +3.0 2.5 +1.0 28.7 -3.4
Total
100
N=522
100
N=394
100
N=642
100
N=331
100
N=1,889
Table 2.4 below develops the issue of geographical relevance to look at news
items that involve a reporter on location in the UK (where a reporter is either
live or produces a package on location). It shows that BBC outlets have,
overall, increased the proportion of stories reported from Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland. The increase is most striking on BBC television news, where
the proportion of news items featuring reporters on location in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland increased by 4.6% from 2007 to 2009 (with 2.6%
fewer items reported on location from England, and 2.1% fewer items from
Westminster/Downing Street). By contrast, the proportion of news items with
reporters on location in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on ITV,
6 This does include the 5.5% of Westminster-based items that related to issues in England or
England and Wales, but where the primary focus of the item was on Westminster politics.
7 As in 2007, this Table excludes those news items with multiple locations, which constituted
only 2% of the total.
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