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1 – 10 of over 6000Television has long been cited by viewers as their primary and most trusted source of news, especially in relation to news of national and international affairs. Aims to explore…
Abstract
Purpose
Television has long been cited by viewers as their primary and most trusted source of news, especially in relation to news of national and international affairs. Aims to explore the issue of trust in the television news.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper combines narrative and analysis. Questions whether public trust in the BBC was damaged by the Hutton inquiry: would the BBC's reputation as the nation's premier news service be tarnished in the longer‐term and had public trust in journalism been severely compromised.
Findings
Events that followed the transmission of a report about the veracity of the government's case for going to war carried by a BBC radio news broadcast on 29 May 2003 called into question the Corporation's competence as a reliable news provider. The story alleged that an informed source had told BBC correspondent Andrew Gilligan that the government had exaggerated the immediacy of dangers posed to the west by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. The source who was eventually exposed was a Ministry of Defence expert on Iraq, Dr David Kelly, who later killed himself. The Prime Minister ordered a public inquiry into Dr Kelly's death, led by Lord Hutton, who severely criticised the competence of the BBC's senior management and the quality of its journalism practices. These conclusions prompted the resignation of the Corporation's Chairman and Director General. Hutton's findings had wider implications for the future governance of the BBC and invoked far‐reaching questions about the trust that the public could place in journalism. The evidence indicates that while the public felt that the BBC had been culpable for failing to launch its own internal inquiry into the Gilligan report, the public perceived this incident as a one‐off aberration rather than as being symptomatic of some wider malaise. Indeed, the Hutton inquiry had impacted more upon public trust in the government and led people to question the independence of the Hutton inquiry.
Practical implications
While trust in journalists is far from universal, the public differentiate among journalists in terms of the news organisations they work for. Among these, the BBC remains one of the most widely trusted.
Originality/value
An exploration of the issue of trust in the television news following the Dr David Kelly/Andrew Gilligan report on “The Today Programme” and subsequent Hutton enquiry.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore young people's views, both positive and negative, about BBC services, and to investigate their preferred means of accessing news.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore young people's views, both positive and negative, about BBC services, and to investigate their preferred means of accessing news.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports recent research for the BBC conducted in November 2007 by the Regional Audience Council for BBC London, as part of a study covering all of England on behalf of the Audience Council England which advises the BBC Trust. Data were gathered from questionnaires and focus groups. The sample comprised 42 young adults.
Findings
Results show respondents were most interested in discussing television content, delivery, and BBC services. Secondary topics raised included the image/reputation of the BBC, scheduling matters and presentation issues. Findings indicated that although modes of access may be changing, television remains the preferred means of accessing news within this group.
Research limitations/implications
Differences regarding social variables in the respondents are not considered in the analysis.
Practical implications
Knowledge of the preferences of discrete audience groupings is becoming increasingly important to broadcasters as “mass” audiences fragment and more opportunities to view are offered. This paper offers insight on the preferences of the youth market.
Originality/value
This paper makes a contribution by updating and contributing to the debates about young people's media consumption within the context of today's competitive multi‐media environment.
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Media power plays a role in determining which news is told, who is listened to and how subject matter is treated, resulting in some stories being reported in depth while others…
Abstract
Media power plays a role in determining which news is told, who is listened to and how subject matter is treated, resulting in some stories being reported in depth while others remain cursory and opaque. This chapter examines how domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is reported in mainstream and social media encompassing newspapers, television and digital platforms. In the United Kingdom, newspapers have freedom to convey particular views on subjects such as DVA as, unlike radio and television broadcasting, they are not required to be impartial (Reeves, 2015).
The gendered way DVA is represented in the UK media has been a long-standing concern. Previous research into newspaper representations of DVA, including our own (Lloyd & Ramon, 2017), found evidence of victim blaming and sexualising violence against women. This current study assesses whether there is continuity with earlier research regarding how victims of DVA, predominantly women, are portrayed as provoking their own abuse and, in cases of femicide, their characters denigrated by some in the media with impunity (Soothill & Walby, 1991). The chapter examines how certain narratives on DVA are constructed and privileged in sections of the media while others are marginalised or silenced. With the rise in digital media, the chapter analyses the changing patterns of news media consumption in the UK and how social media users are responding to DVA cases reported in the news. Through discourse analysis of language and images, the potential messages projected to media consumers are considered, together with consumer dialogue and interaction articulated via online and social media platforms.
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Keywords