BBC Scotland News constructs a far more anxious and conservative world than STV News does: A comparative content analysis study of state and corporate media in a small, devolved nation.

Professor John Robertson OBA – Retired Professor & Chair of Faculty Research Ethics

Abstract

A four-week survey [6 to 30 June 2023] of news reporting by BBC Scotland and STV gathered objective data on fifteen measures, including references to bad news, to the devolved government within reports and reports of ministers or their party being causally linked to the content.  Twenty episodes and 102 reports from both BBC Scotland and STV, at around 06:30am, Monday to Friday inclusive, were transcribed and items codified, using clearly objective criteria. While there were similarities between the two, BBC Scotland was very significantly more likely to report bad news, by a ratio of more than 5 to 3. It was 3 times more likely to link bad news to the Scottish Government or ministers and had a significantly heavier emphasis than STV News on reporting problems in those infinitely improvable and central public services – health, policing and education. STV News was twice as likely to report good news about events in Scotland. Researchers have found that heavy consumption of negative news triggers the release of stress hormones and consequent increases in anxiety [i], [ii], [iii]. Studies of voting patterns have found that those with a ‘negativity bias’ derived from fear and anxiety about the world they live in, have a tendency to vote for conservative political groups promising to prevent change [iv], [v], [vi].

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.’

STV News, though not a public service broadcaster with a royal charter requiring it to operate with the highest standards of ‘Fairness, due impartiality, due accuracy, and editorial integrity’ [vii], does also insist on being ‘accurate and fair.’[viii] However, it seems likely that a corporate group might not share the same agenda as a state broadcaster and, rather, knowing that around 50% of its audience is pro-independence, be concerned not to repel that group and so maximise its audience, increasing then its advertising revenue.

In the light of the above, a comparison, using an objective content analysis method, of these two news broadcasters, is justified.

Methods

At around 06:30am, over four weeks in May and June 2023, the BBC Scotland inserts into the BBC Breakfast show and STV news inserts into ITV Good Morning Britain, 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 at all 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 Was the report specifically about negative aspects of the SNP?

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 the above counts for several criteria, no significant difference between the BBC and STV figures can be observed but with regard to 8 of these, clear evidence suggesting a possibly different underlying agenda is evident.

1. In terms of overall negativity, which has been associated with causing anxiety and depression in some heavy news consumers, potentially leading to conservative, status quo-favouring, voting patterns (sources above), there was an emphasis on the negative in both stations. This tendency is often justified as informing and satisfying public demand – ‘good news is no news’. Confirming the hypothesis that this bias derived from an explicit political agenda would require more qualitative data than is available here. Nevertheless, it is notable that BBC Scotland had around 50% more reports of this nature thus constructing a significantly more worrying and pessimistic world for their viewers. When reports refer to the devolved government, 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.  In this practice, BBC Scotland was significantly more likely to do so, by a ratio of nearly 3:1 (32:11), in the space of only four weeks. This suggests an underlying agenda at the editorial level to undermine the SNP/Scottish Government.
2. By a ratio of around 2:1, BBC Scotland was more likely than STV to report bad news regarding health, policing and education. These are fields in which many viewers may harbour strong feelings of anger or anxiety regarding performance, leading as discussed earlier, to an aversion to more radical, change-oriented politics such as those embraced by the SNP. Devolved areas of infinite improvability such as these, offer opposition groups convenient opportunities to call for ever-better performance or for ministers to be sacked. The economy, in sharp contrast remains seen as largely a UK Government responsibility and thus less useful in criticising.
3. Direct criticism of the SNP around the arrests of the Chief Executive and the First Minister were of little interest to STV but featured 4 times, in this period well after the events, on BBC Scotland. This might be further evidence of an awareness in STV editors of the nature of their audience.
4. Positive reports of events in Scotland were notably more commonly found, by a ratio of 2:1 (16:7), in STV broadcasts. Once more the differing underlying agendas are suggested in these data.
5. Finally, BBC Scotland was much more likely, by a ratio of 3:1 (6:2) to rely, contrary to its own editorial guidelines, on single-person sources and unreliable but unchecked surveys by partisan groups such as trade unions or charity groups.

Conclusions

In the evidence presented here there are two marked contrasts between the political landscapes and wider emotional atmospheres, created by BBC Scotland and STV News reporting.

First, there is in BBC Scotland broadcasts, a far darker climate with 50% more reporting of bad news, far fewer good news reports, and, according to researchers, a consequent incubation of the kind of fear and anxiety levels, regarding public services, which lead to conservative tendencies in voting behaviour, rejecting radical change-oriented groups such as the SNP.

Second, in BBC Scotland News there is a heavy emphasis on bad news linked by at least implication to the Scottish (SNP) Government’s actions, sometimes based on unchecked, single or partisan sources. While STV News does make such connections it does it far less. This may be evidence of the commercial priorities of a corporate broadcaster aware that around 50% of its audience favours independence, contrasted with the state preservation agenda of a state-funded broadcaster.

In 2021, Ofcom found STV News had a 35% audience share, higher for the first time than BBC Reporting Scotland, at 31.%. It seems viewers had begun to sense the differences revealed in the findings presented here, years earlier.

Finally, returning to the important but unavoidably subjective assessment on fairness, claimed by both, the evidence offered here strongly suggests that STV New is by some way more fair than BBC Scotland News.

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[i] https://patient.info/news-and-features/is-watching-the-news-bad-for-your-mental-health

[ii] https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/11/strain-media-overload

[iii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9135112/

[iv] https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201612/fear-and-anxiety-drive-conservatives-political-attitudes

[v] https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/fear-motivator-elections

[vi] chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/158607199.pdf

[vii] chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/how_we_govern/updated-framework-agreement-may-2022.pdf

[viii] https://news.stv.tv/who-we-are