Consultation Response - Media 12 - Cardiff University PDF 2 MB

A similar pattern emerges in our more detailed analysis of news relevant to
devolution in Section 3.
3. News Relevant to
Devolution and Devolved
Issues
Within the general sample of 5,177 items, we identified 505 news items that
had some relevance to devolution, regardless of whether this was made clear
by the news report in question. A number of news items about health or
education policy – largely devolved areas – fell within this category, even if
they did not actually refer to devolved powers. This corpus of news items
constituted just under 10% of the total sample, a slightly higher percentage
than in 2007 when just under 8% were relevant to devolution. Of these, 445
were on BBC outlets, with 60 on other news outlets (compared with 314 and
47 respectively in 2007). All the data in this section, including specific
examples of individual items, come from this smaller sample of 505 items
(unless specified otherwise). While we have largely retained the coding
categories used in 2007 for purposes of comparison, we have tried to refine,
simplify or develop these categories where possible or appropriate.
Table 3.1 below divides the sample into four broad categories:
• Relevant Powers Referred To (outside England) - news items making
specific reference to devolved powers in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland, even if the story was not primarily about these powers. A story
about education policy in England that made a comparison to policy in
Scotland would be coded in this category, as would a story about
education policy in Scotland.
• Devolved Political Process - news items referring to politicians, parties
or elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This would apply
to a news item that compared the MPs’ expenses scandal in
Westminster with the practices in devolved institutions, for example, as
would a report about the Welsh Labour leadership election.
• Whole UK, No Ref to Devolution - news items that are about general
UK-wide issues or events, but which involve areas of devolved
authority that are not referenced in the news report (referred to in
Table 3.1 as ‘Whole UK, No Reference to Devolution’). So, for example,
a news report about the need for citizenship education to increase
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