A comparative study of state media reporting in two small, devolved nations – Wales and Scotland
Dr John W Robertson
Retired Professor & Chair of Faculty Research Ethics
2nd June 2023
Abstract
A four-week survey [8 May – 2 June 2023] of reporting by BBC Scotland and BBC Wales gathered objective data on fifteen measures, including references to the devolved government within reports and reports of ministers or their party being causally linked to the content. Twenty episodes and 140 reports from both BBC Scotland and BBC Wales, at around 06:30am, Monday to Friday inclusive, were transcribed and items codified, using clearly objective criteria. While there were many similarities between the two, BBC Scotland was very significantly, by a ratio of 2:1, more likely to mention the Scottish Government or the SNP within reports of problems than BBC Wales was to mention the Welsh Government or the Labour Party. Similarly, but less often, BBC Scotland was also more likely to report that the Scottish Government had been, for example, ‘accused’ of being responsible directly for a problem and to offer a platform for opposition parties to criticise the devolved government. BBC Wales did not ever platform opposition parties.
Introduction
In Scotland, for many years now, researchers and commentators have pointed to evidence of bias in the reporting of the state broadcaster against the interests of pro-independence groups, the SNP, and since 2007, the SNP in government.
In most parts of the world, where an independence movement challenges the integrity of a multi-ethnic state, that the state broadcaster would work on behalf of the state to help maintain that integrity by undermining any pro-independence movement, would not be a controversial claim.
However, in the UK, the state-funded British Broadcasting Corporation has a ‘proud’, if often only self-attributed, view of itself as impartial and ‘objective.’ This is an assessment, in particular, of its World Service, quite widely shared globally.
In the devolved nations of Wales and Scotland, there remains a tendency in the BBC, to make similar claims of objectivity in simply reporting what is happening and in the public interest.
Critics in Scotland have pointed to many examples of apparent bias in reporting, of a pro-Union culture and instances of reporting which seem to clearly indicate bias against pro-independence groups and the Scottish Government. The state broadcaster and pro-Union politicians have disputed these claims, suggesting that the inherent subjectivity and inevitable selectivity of news reporting makes them unsustainable. Indeed, some Conservative Party politicians have even claimed bias by BBC Scotland, in favour of the Scottish Government and against the Conservative Party, the main Unionist party.
There is comparatively little research or commentary making comparable claims in Wales.
Research making international comparisons of media reporting has considerable problems in terms of the size, the diversity and the background cultures operating within the states being compared. However, Scotland and Wales have relatively similar sizes, demography, history within the UK and in the autonomy of the state broadcaster departments operating within each. The main political distinctions are the presence of the Labour Party and the SNP in respective governments in Wales and Scotland and the quite different levels of strength of the two main pro-independence parties in each, Plaid Cymru with 12 and the Scottish National Party with 64 members of the devolved parliament.
This makes a comparative study of BBC reporting in Wales and Scotland a valid study.
Methods
At around 06:30am, over four weeks in May and June 2023, the BBC Scotland and BBC Wales news inserts into the BBC Breakfast show, were recorded, transcribed and coded using these objective criteria:
| Dev Gov ‘Accused’ Did the report include the use of wording from any source stating that the devolved government had been directly responsible for the problem being reported? |
| Opposition platformed Was there any naming of an opposition party in the report? |
| Negative W/S overall Did the report refer to a problem of any kind for the devolved nation? |
| Negative W/S politicised Did the report name the devolved government or the governing party specifically even if not causally? |
| Negative W/S not politicised Did the report not mention the devolved government or party? |
| Negative W/S Health/Care/Env Was the report about health, care or environmental issues? |
| Negative W/S Crime/Policing Was the report about crime or policing? |
| Negative W/S Economy Was the report about the economy, trade, employment or cost of living? |
| Negative W/S Education Was the report about education, pre-school, primary, secondary or tertiary? |
| Negative SNP/PC Was the report specifically about negative aspects of the SNP or Plaid Cymru parties? |
| Positive W/S Was the report about positive developments in the devolved nation? |
| Positive images Union Did the report show positive visual images of the UK as a whole? |
| Positive images W/S Did the report show positive visual images of the devolved nation? |
| Unreliable/partisan/single sources Did the report feature or rely upon sources with a known pro-Union agenda, from partisan groups such as trade unions, openly or hidden, or from single members of the public unsupported by any reliable statistics? |
| Positive UK Government Did the report make positive comments about reserved, UK Government, actions? |
Findings
In terms of overall negativity, which has been associated with causing anxiety and depression in some heavy news consumers and perhaps leading to conservative, status quo-favouring, voting patterns, there was a heavy emphasis on the negative in both stations. This tendency is often justified as informing and satisfying public demand. Any suggestion that this bias derived from a political agenda would require far more data than is available here.
However, where reports refer to the devolved governments, regardless of any specific accusation of direct responsibility for the problem being reported, this, at the very least associates the problem in the minds of viewers, with the devolved government and, by implication blames them for it.
Examples such as this on 15 May:
“The Royal College of Nursing is warning that patient’s safety and dignity is being compromised as its becoming increasingly common for inappropriate areas such as corridors to be used for treatment….The Scottish Government says patient safety is paramount and its investing in frontline services.”
where no direct causal relationship is stated, often took this form, leaving the viewer to make a connection.
In this, BBC Scotland was significantly more likely to do so, by a ratio of 2:1 (23:12), in the space of only four weeks. This can be taken as strong evidence of an underlying agenda to undermine the SNP/Scottish Government.
Far less common and so not statistically significant, evidence of bias, lies in those cases where reports included phrases in which the SNP/Scottish Government was specifically blamed or ‘accused.’
Examples such as:
“Humza Yousaf has been accused of negligence after it was revealed a key pledge to recruit an additional 1 000 mental health specialists has been delayed, Ministers confirmed to Scottish Labour the key promise that every GP practice would have access to a mental health and well-being service by 2026 has not yet commenced due to difficult decision set out in November’s emergency budget review.”
on 18 May, or:
“Environmental campaigners have launched a legal bid against the Scottish Government over damaging scallop dredging….it accused ministers of regulatory negligence.”
on 19 May, ‘accuse’ the Scottish Government of failure in a form not found once in BBC Wales reports.
While there were few of these, BBC Scotland was more likely to do so by a ratio of 2:0.
Similarly, where a report included reference to an opposition party – Labour, Conservatives or Lib Dems in Scotland, Conservatives, Lib Dems or Plaid Cymru in Wales, this can be seen to be platforming of that party as an alternative to the devolved government party.
Examples such as this:
“The level of violence in schools is a national crisis according to the Scottish Conservatives who are calling for more to be done to tackle the issue. The education secretary, however, says new material to help staff deal with behaviour will be published soon. The Conservatives say the level of violence in schools is increasing. They highlight a rise in the number of verbal and physical attacks on teachers and the number of dangerous weapons taken from pupils.”
on 23 May, offer a platform to opposition parties to criticise the devolved government. There were no such examples in BBC Wales reporting, during the survey.
Again, though again quite rare, this happened 4 times on BBC Scotland but never on BBC Wales.
Conclusions
In the evidence presented here there is one very marked and statistically significant contrast to be seen between the reporting of two otherwise similar BBC departments operating within two broadly similar devolved nations within the UK. That the reporting within the nation, Scotland, where the pro-independence movement offers a real and present danger to the United Kingdom’s continuance, is heavily biased toward the politicising of negative information with a view to associating the main pro-independence party with that information or even of direct responsibility for it, is incontrovertible evidence. That the reporting within the nation where the pro-independence movement does not as yet offer a real and present danger to the United Kingdom’s continuance, is not heavily biased toward the politicising of negative information with a view to associating the main pro-independence party with that information or even of direct responsibility for it, is conclusive confirmation that BBC Scotland operates consistently and frequently to weaken the case for independence by attempting to cast doubt on the ability of the SNP in government to run the country effectively.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
BBC Scotland is a propaganda outlet for British nationalism and its advocates.
Partisan, biased, news management and a constant negative force in Scotland.
A disgrace!
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Good to have our suspicions confirmed John, research + analysis like this is really useful for all of us even if the BBC turns a blind eye. One point that struck me was the negative reports on policing in Wales being higher than in Scotland. I seem to remember around 2014 that Scottish police attacks were just about daily. This might have been because of the change to Police Scotland being seen as some kind of threat because it was a different approach from the rest of the Uk, or I also thought it could have been the Tories seeing themselves as the party of law and order and thinking this was a position of strength to use as an attack? As support for Welsh independence grows I wonder will the attack lines even out or does Welsh labour unionism trump any negative reporting?
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‘As support for Welsh independence grows I wonder will the attack lines even out ?’
Yes, will be very interesting to watch and to see how Welsh Labour adapt
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Welsh Labour has retained its electoral popularity by adopting a more overtly Welsh stance and is accepting of Welsh AMs and MPs expressing support for independence. It also has a formal agreement in the Senedd with Plaid Cymru. Leader Mark Drakeford has not stinted from criticising UK Labour and for praising the Scottish Government.
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True.
Will they ride the tiger and become Real Welsh Labour?
REWELA
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‘One point that struck me was the negative reports on policing in Wales being higher than in Scotland.’
I understand that the present Welsh Government wishes to have police and justice devolved to Wales. I also understand that the two main parties in Westminster – those that take turns to rule over all of us – will NOT agree to this.
On 5 December 2022, the BBC News website had this headline: ‘Westminster to keep Welsh police and justice powers under Labour plans.’
The BBC reported on the recommendations of Gordon Brown’s ‘commission’ on reforming the UK constitution: it ‘recommended youth justice and probation be handed to ministers in Cardiff’.
The (no doubt selective) reporting in the BBC article nevertheless shows up the slipperiness of Labour that we in Scotland know so well. We learn:
1. ‘Launching the report, leader Sir Keir Starmer promised the “BIGGEST EVER TRANSFER of power from Westminster”.’ (my emphasis)
2. The report says: “new powers should be made available to the Senedd and Welsh government” but makes few specific recommendations.’
3) Then the soft soaping: ”Mr Brown’s report said there was no “constitutional reason why matters which are devolved in Scotland… could not also be devolved in Wales”.’
4) And then the carefully crafted ‘but’: ‘But the report suggested that the ability of Welsh institutions to handle new powers in Wales COULD BE A REASON NOT TO GO FURTHER. It said devolution should be “constrained only by reserving those matters which are necessary to discharge the purposes of the UK as a union, AND IN PRACTICE BY THE WISHES OF THE SENEDD ITSELF… and OF COURSE BY THE PRACTICAL CHALLENGES OF TRANSFERRING NEW POWERS AND BUILDING THE CAPABILITY TO OPERATE THEM”. (my emphasis)
A hint of the too wee, too stupid the end of point (4)?
The article also has this: ‘Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts said the report “BACKTRACKS FROM PREVIOUS LABOUR PROMISES – the 2017 Labour manifesto having promised the devolution of policing to Wales”. What a surprise!
We’re told: ‘Welsh Conservative shadow minister for the constitution Darren Millar said: “There is no great public appetite in Wales for further powers to be devolved to the Senedd.’ Again only too predictable!
It’s all too familiar: Wales’ future is in England’s hands!
What is notable here is this will be true EVEN IF Wales and England vote Labour into government in Cardiff and London respectively!
The reports of Gordon Brown’s speech at his Edinburgh event includes multiple examples of mockery and disparagement aimed at the Scottish Government and the SNP. He may be looking to build a political consensus over constitutional reform across the UK but already this excludes c. 50% of voters in Scotland and Scotland’s largest political party and party of government. Reform will be done to Scotland!
That’s OK: Scotland’s come too far to be content with yet another Brown-inspired ‘nearest thing possible to federalism’ or ‘most powerful devolved government in the universe’ type guff!
So in Scotland as in Wales: whilst in this Union, Scotland’s future will always be in England’s hands and will be so whether under a Labour or a Tory government in Westminster.
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Policing is not devolved in Cymru/Wales – it is the responsibility of the (four) Police & Crime Commissioners and the Westminster government. Nor are most legal matters.
Given the controversy over the issue of non-jury rape trials in Scotland and the violence that erupted in Cardiff, both during the period of the study, this major difference in devolution could have (partly) affected the results. The PCC who faced the controversy over the Cardiff deaths was, however, the former Labour First Secretary/Secretary of State.
I do think there is value in studies of this type and would like to see them over a longer period and with the differences in the devolution framework also identified and data adjusted appropriately.
There are other significant differences – Labour has been the dominant electoral party for a century in Cymru/Wales and as well as being the leading party in the Senedd and Government for the whole of its 24 year history was also the governing party at Westminster for a further 22 years before that, and aspires to that role at the next UK election. Apart from having an 8 year shorter period at the helm of the devolved government, the SNP have never been the governing party previously at Westminster (albeit there was a brief period 1978-79 of a supporting arrangement the repeat of which is already ruled out notionally).
Regional BBC TV News in England also has some big differences in the way it covers such issues in my experience, particularly London which has a regional focus in the form of the Mayor; however this role is not as significant as that of the Scottish government, although the BBC regional news coverage in my view exagerates its role as in a 5 minute broadcast it is easier to focus on a single personality than the 33 authorities that between them are actually responsible for more services (and ‘London’ is actually much bigger than the governmental region in terms of TV news). In places like the North West and Southern regions there are dominant political parties, but no single regional locuses of power to focus on as in Cymru/Wales and Scotland, so their coverage is very different.
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Well done!
While it confirms my own bias, it also has a good degree of rigour. I hope some MSPs and MPs use it to question BBC staff when they appear before Parliamentary committees. The BBC is a public body and is, therefore, accountable.
Even if the issue were raised in one of these committees would the media actually report it?
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Well said a good reminds me of the case you did on them before I think they are even worse now.
This below is a good laugh but it is not really funny.
Maybe BBC Scotland will show it.
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Thanks for a great piece of work John, this needs broadcast far and wide.
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Thanks
Share, share…
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