From stewartb

The ‘broken record’

A recurring complaint of the TUSC is that journalists in the corporate media and the BBC in Scotland too often fail to inform properly by not providing CONTEXT to what they report. This is especially so in their coverage of public services and the economy.

Context is absent for reasons best known to the journalists themselves. Is it because they lack understanding of the very meaning of ‘significance’; do they lack depth of understanding of wider factors of relevance to their topic; would they claim they ‘don’t have the time’ for research – or having found a ‘negativity angle’ perhaps they just don’t want to ‘spoil’ its impact with (awkward) context?

A prime example – courtesy (again) of The Herald

The Herald’s reporting of the scale of fraudulently-claimed benefit payments in the UK is a case in point as this from the TUSC makes clear:

https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/03/20/lets-all-stick-together-in-coronavirus-uk-herald-bemoans-welfare-fraud-running-at-less-than-one-percent-of-unclaimed-legitimate-benefits-and-less-than-half-a-percent-of-tax-fiddled-by-the-rich/

The text of the TUSC article provides several points The Herald could have – should have – made in order to put the scale and significance of the reported ‘fraud’ into context. (For the avoidance of doubt – all proven fraud on the public is bad: some fraud is much bigger, more prevalent, more damaging than others.)

Driving home the point

As often the case, ‘context’ can be illustrated even more powerfully by using a graphical representation. In the chart below we’ve compared ‘for fun’ – and on a rough-and-ready basis – some big numbers (and one not so big number) from diverse sources and subjects. We let the  comparisons speak for themselves. (Couldn’t resist throwing in some headline public expenditure figures for Scotland from GERS to see what ‘emerged’! And of course more ‘context giving fun’ could be had by mixing in and matching with other big, headline numbers of your choice.)

Giving ‘context’ exposes ‘significance’ – or its absence – and always sheds light! And we highly recommend it to the mainstream media in Scotland!

Sources:

1. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18319874.thousands-welfare-claimants-suspected-defrauding-taxpayer-150m-says-report/

2) https://www.entitledto.co.uk/blog/2018/december/over-20-billion-still-unclaimed-in-means-tested-benefits/

3) https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hmrc-tax-gap-avoidance-billions-pounds-a8968591.html

4) & 5) Government Expenditure & Revenue Scotland 2018-19, Table 3.1.