Consultation Response - Media 12 - Cardiff University PDF 2 MB

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Table 4.2 looks at the overall percentage of news items relevant to devolution that contained confusing or potentially misleading information. This includes those instances when news items did not include references to the geographical applicability of a story when it was appropriate to do so. When we compare BBC television with ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, we find that while 18.4% of BBC television news items about devolved issues contained potentially misleading or confusing information, 50% of items related to devolved issues on other television channels did so. Table 4.2: Percentage of news items about devolution containing potentially misleading or confusing information (N = 505) 2009 All Items 29.9 All BBC Items 27.2 BBC TV 18.4 BBC Radio 34.1 BBC Online 22.7 Other TV 50.0 We can also see that radio coverage is more likely to be potentially misleading or confusing about devolved issues than television or online news. This cannot be explained by the addition of 5 live Breakfast in 2009, since its proportion of potentially misleading or confusing news items was broadly in line with radio as whole 13 . The most plausible explanation is that many of the radio programmes in our sample tend to be structured around recently developing stories, where there is less time to prepare and where most reports are live. It is also the case that on radio the same story may generate a number of news items leading to the proliferation of the same potentially misleading or confusing assumptions. Table 4.3.categorises these instances of confusing or potentially misleading reporting in more detail, recording every instance of such reporting within a news item (as opposed to simply coding the item itself as containing confusing or potentially misleading information). In line with the data presented in Table 4.1, Table 4.3 shows that the most instances of potentially confusing coverage involved incorrect assumptions about the UK-wide applicability of a story. Most of the errors in job titles, for example, tend to follow from these assumptions. 13 Without 5 live Breakfast, the radio proportion of inaccuracies drops by just one per cent. 28
Table 4.3: 2009 Number of instances of potentially misleading or confusing information Media BBC TV Other TV BBC Radio BBC Online Total Assumption of UK-wide applicability 19 26 65 15 125 Confusion of geographical terms 5 6 12 2 25 Error in job title, etc. 7 9 14 8 38 Other misleading information 3 1 6 0 10 Total 34 42 97 25 198 So, for example, on 12 October 2009 BBC online UK reported a story headlined: “Childcare swaps ‘outside rules’”. The item was introduced with the statement that: Inspectors should not interfere in private arrangements between friends looking after each other’s children, says Children’s Secretary Ed Balls. (BBC online UK, 12 October 2009) This introduction gave Ed Balls the title ‘Children’s Secretary’ (his official title is Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with a remit largely confined to England). The general term ‘Children’s Secretary’, without any contextual information specifying his specific English remit, could be interpreted to mean that he has responsibility, equally generally, for the whole UK. In this context this is potentially misleading. The item continued: Mr. Balls has written to education watchdog Ofsted to say this is not the intention of childcare legislation. Again, it was not mentioned that the watchdog in question – Ofsted – has powers only in England, nor that the Childcare Act of 2006 applies to England and Wales only. Nothing in the subsequent report clarified these points 14 . As we found in a number of such cases, it should be noted that Ofsted itself consistently fails to mention the limits of its scope in its literature. This last point is worth stressing, since it suggests that the failure to state where stories apply may often be the product of pervasive and institutional England-centric assumptions among officials rather than simply being the fault of broadcasters. While journalists may be remiss in clarifying or failing to correct them, the widespread presence of such assumptions across English institutions undoubtedly makes their job more difficult. Similarly, on 14 October 2009 the Today programme reported on the Conservatives’ call for government to increase the number of university places. The item reported that: 14 This example was coded as containing two potentially misleading statements: one concerning job title; and the other concerning Ofsted’s remit. 29
Page 1 and 2: Task and Finish Group on the future
Page 3 and 4: 1. Introduction and Overview of Fin
Page 5 and 6: When we examined news across the BB
Page 7 and 8: We also examined BBC current affair
Page 9 and 10: correlation between the location of
Page 11 and 12: Channel 4 and Sky fell by 1.8% poin
Page 13 and 14: News items about devolved politics
Page 15 and 16: Consumer News 4 - - - 1 -1 - - 5 -1
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Page 19 and 20: This version of the item was retain
Page 21 and 22: Education 39 +25 49 +47 24 0 -2 2 +
Page 23 and 24: Our general sample, reported in Sec
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Page 27: A small number - 12 (or 4%) of the
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Page 33 and 34: Lack of devolved context The review
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Page 37 and 38: Compare and contrast While the stor
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Page 41 and 42: McGuinness MLA (17 seconds) and Hil
Page 43 and 44: …much of the criticisms in the Wa
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Page 53 and 54: The Panorama programme on terrorism
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Page 57 and 58: Subject Items Westminster Politics
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Page 63 and 64: Summary The One Show draws attentio
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Page 67 and 68: Belfast Telegraph and on Newsline.
Page 69 and 70: had failed to implement one of the
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10/11/09 Stormont debate on policin
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expenses 14/10/09 Interview with Ch
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5. Categories for [Q14 - Devolved P
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England N. Ireland Studio Gen. UK W
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20. Sources speaking in news item (
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Sample 2009 Coder Instruction Bookl
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18. Specific inaccuracies - where t
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Subjects covered by stories from th
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NI Arrests 28-Oct 3 3 Criminal Conv
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Supplementary Subjects in Westminst
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Contents Page 1. Introduction and O
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parties etc.) rather than on questi
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This suggests that the BBC website
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pattern across media outlets (Table
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Health NHS 2.1 1.6 1.8 0.9 1.7 Heal
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outlets) 9 . Overall, 14% of storie
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Religion 3 100.0 0 .0 0 .0 0 .0 3 S
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Equal rights 0 2 0 0 2 Health 13 0
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The Westminster focus of many of th
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3. Case Studies Introduction The pu
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Any confusion between England and t
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at One, which, after a brief mentio
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North Sea oil revenue goes to the T
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ITV News 1 0 6 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 BBC On
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Table 3.4: Number of times reports
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Graph 4.1: Frequency and percentage
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A high proportion of stories on New
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did not know who ran the Welsh Asse
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Three in ten BBC online stories wer
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four nations (15.9%) was broadly in
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partly be because our analysis, unl
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Table 4.13: Types of news items ass
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tanks, trade unions or the academic
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5. Current Affairs Coverage 2007 In
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URRY: It’s a scene being played o
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Some programmes referred to agencie
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BOWLBY: […] A deal to divide up t
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and now, after a decade of limited
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English are free to think seriously
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6. Five Live Phone-In Programmes (O
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Scottish caller commented that the
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Election Frequency % England 16 21.
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Westminster (together with the poss
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the wider general and election samp
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minutes. Andrew Cassell covered the
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Northern Ireland Political Process
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Political Process In the Scotsman o
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Omissions: Full List of Stories Tho
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kerb-crawlers in Scotland 17/10/07
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17/10/07 Former quango employees co
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following foot-and-mouth outbreak 2
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29/11/07 Child welfare - too many a
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put in whole questions such as “W
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would be helpful if the search coul
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10. Bibliography BBC (2003) The BBC
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11. Appendix A. Dates of Sample Ele
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C. Online Monitoring We monitored s
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E. Focus Groups Breakdown of groups
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) Can you describe the position tha
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9. Which of the following policy ar
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Election Sample Question Percentage
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