Consultation Response - Media 12 - Cardiff University PDF 2 MB

Table 3.2: Percentage of explicit / implicit / no references to devolved
powers (n=505)
BBC Outlets
Other TV Outlets
Explicit Implicit No Reference Explicit Implicit No Reference
38% 33% 29% 19% 24% 57%
Table 3.3 below looks at references to devolved issues and powers in more
detail, and includes every reference across the corpus of news items relevant
to devolution (as we did in 2007) as well as those occasions when news items
relevant to devolution contained no references to devolved powers or issues.
The most striking difference between 2007 and 2009 is the sheer number of
references on BBC outlets. While the number of news items relevant to
devolution increased from 2007 to 2009 by 40% (from 361 to 505 news
items), the number of references to devolution increased nearly sevenfold on
BBC outlets (71 to 480) and threefold on other channels.
In 2007, the main issues covered by these references were health, education,
policing/crime and tax or economy – the last being somewhat surprising,
since taxation and economic issues are largely non-devolved areas. 2009 was,
in some senses, more predictable, with health, education (much of which is
devolved across the four nations) and policing (largely devolved in Scotland)
attracting the bulk of attention. Particularly notable is the significant increase
in references to devolved policies or issues in news items about crime,
policing or law, although this is largely confined to BBC outlets, where the
number of references increased from 12 to 151. On other broadcast news
programmes, the increase in relation to policing went from just one to three
references – with eight instances of a failure to reference relevant devolved
powers.
Table 3.3: Number of explicit / implicit / no references to devolved powers
by subject with frequency change between 2007 and 2009 (n= 522
references across 505 news items)11
BBC Outlets (2009) Other TV Outlets (2009)
Devolved
Powers
Explicit Change
(+/-)
Implicit Change
(+/-)
No
Reference
Explicit Change
(+/-)
Implicit Change
(+/-)
No
Reference
Health 35 +22 44 +44 42 7 +4 11 +11 14
Family 5 +5 1 +1 1 0 - 0 - 0
Crime /
Policing / 77 +66 74 +73 42 1 - 2 +2 8
Law
Tax or
Economy
17 +4 0 -3 0 2 -1 0 - 0
Transport 9 +9 0 - 0 0 -1 0 - 0
Constitutional
Reform
18 +18 1 +1 0 0 - 0 - 0
11 Table 3.3 does not include categories that featured in 2007, but not in 2009. These were:
Animal Welfare (1 explicit reference in 2007); Culture (3 explicit references); and Equal
Rights (2 implicit references).
20