Rape – how ‘your’ media choose to make you feel and how you feel affects how you vote

By Professor John Robertson OBA

Today, the BBC Scotland News Editor (James Cook) chooses to include 2 rape reports in the 7 top stories. BBC England, Wales and Northern Ireland have none.

Will that just be because there were none to report?

There were 67 928 reported rape offences in England and Wales last year.1

There were 294 reported rapes and attempted rapes (rape offences) in Scotland, in the same year.2

There were, thus, 231 times (67 928 / 294) as many rape offences in England in Wales and even per head of population, rape offences were (231/11) 21 times as many.

The BBC in England has many such offences to choose to report but they do not. BBC Scotland struggles to find such reports but does.

Why does this matter?

Research shows that voters who are anxious about the world they live in, vote for parties who seem to stand for earlier, more stable, but imaginary of course, times and who oppose radical change.3 Scottish independence is unavoidably a bold, radical move.

BBC Scotland’s fear agenda does pay off and they work at it daily. See:

New Research finds BBC Scotland is twice as likely to politicise negative reporting, to platform opposition voices and to ‘accuse’ the devolved government.

Sources:

  1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/283100/recorded-rape-offences-in-england-and-wales/#:~:text=Rape%20offences%20have%20increased%20dramatically,to%2067%2C928%20in%202023%2F24.
  2. https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2023-24/pages/6/
  3. https://wellbeing.hmc.ox.ac.uk/news/voters-feelings-matter-large-scale-study-highlights-predictive-power-of-negative-emotions-on-election-results/

Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/

The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116

About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brown_(Scottish_activis

7 thoughts on “Rape – how ‘your’ media choose to make you feel and how you feel affects how you vote”

  1. And, should you dare to complain, you get bland, word salad responses justifying BBC decisions such as this

    Thank you for getting in touch about BBC Radio Scotland.

    We were sorry to read your comments, however in the absence of any specific programme details to help us understand your concerns, as requested by the BBC’s complaints framework, we hope you’ll understand that we can only respond in general terms.

    In choosing which stories to cover each day and the extent to which they’re covered, our editors base their decisions on the editorial merits of all the stories at hand, looking at a variety of factors. We accept that not everyone will agree with each decision.

    It’s one of the BBC’s key public purposes, specifically stated in our Charter, that we must provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them. It is in the nature of news that it may be considered more negative than positive, and it’s not the role of the BBC to manage its news reporting so that audiences are protected from the harsh realities of the world. Neither is it the BBC’s role to support political parties or governments; we report impartially, reflect a range of opinions, and take no position ourselves.

    It’s inaccurate to suggest that we don’t cover stories about “successes”. We have and continue to feature a range of stories that could – depending on one’s point of view – be described in this way. For example…

    Family welcomes funding for pre-eclampsia test after son’s death – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2gdkgw964o
    The NHS clinic trying to wean patients off painkillers – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy7jkpknwwo
    The team trying to cut down on ambulance call-outs – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv2gpy2vy2ro
    Eva ‘doing really good’ after spinal surgery – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clwwzyjx98ro

    You specifically mention positive news about cervical cancer. We would highlight the following stories which cover this topic and highlight positive developments:

    ‘I’ve invented an alternative to uncomfortable smear tests’ – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckkkgvl59x3o
    No cervical cancer cases in HPV-vaccinated women – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c19132k8ke0o

    We very much value your feedback. Complaints are sent to senior management and we’ve included your points in our overnight reports. These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback in the BBC. This ensures that your concerns have been seen by the right people quickly, and helps to inform decisions about current and future content.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. While I appreciate what all of you do on this site, watch, listen or read the lies that appear daily on the M.S.M, I’m afraid that is too much for me nowadays. Since 2014, and that fateful day, to me, the brainwashing has increased substantially, in an attempt to convince the Scottish people that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and judging by the results of the recent G.E, they are proving successful. So well done to all of you providing the facts, and keep up the good work.

    Like

    Reply

    1. “So well done to all of you providing the facts ..”.

      Intuitively ‘facts’ should form a key part of informing, rebutting and changing views, but what impact do ‘facts’ actually have on voting intentions?

      There are many studies of human behaviour in elections in western democracies – albeit mostly focused on the USA – that, worryingly, question the role played by ‘facts’. As one example, a review of some leading academic studies published in New Yorker magazine in 2017 had this headline: ‘Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds – New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason.’

      Here are some extracts to give a sense of its content: I’d argue this has general relevance despite the US references (with my emphasis):

      ‘… what’s become known as “confirmation bias,” the tendency people have to embrace information that supports their beliefs and reject information that contradicts them. Of the many forms of faulty thinking that have been identified, confirmation bias is among the best catalogued; it’s the subject of entire textbooks’ worth of experiments.’

      The article also refers to the pervasiveness of an “illusion of explanatory depth’: ‘People believe that they know way more than they actually do.’ And “As a rule, strong feelings about issues do not emerge from deep understanding,” And it goes on to suggest: ‘here our dependence on other minds reinforces the problem. If your position on, say, the Affordable Care Act is baseless and I rely on it, then my opinion is also baseless. When I talk to Tom and he decides he agrees with me, his opinion is also baseless, but now that the three of us concur we feel that much more smug about our views. If we all now dismiss as unconvincing any information that contradicts our opinion, you get, well, the Trump Administration.’ (Or continuing support for the ‘precious Union’?)

      And: ‘If we—or our friends or the pundits on CNN—spent less time pontificating and more trying to work through the implications of policy proposals, we’d realize how clueless we are and moderate our views: this “may be the only form of thinking that will shatter the illusion of explanatory depth and change people’s attitudes.”

      (Any chance of Scotland’s pro-Union mainstream media changing their current practices? None! With BBC, STV and certain newspapers still capable of reaching key parts of the electorate against independence – but potentially persuadable – and the capacity these media organisations have for giving out repetitive, negative messaging – the communication challenge is huge.)

      There are now emerging many attempts at explaining Trump’s success in the recent US presidential election. Among the reflections offered by Professor Georg Lakoff and his Framelab organisation, there are these:

      ‘Frames trump facts – Once again, the facts got beaten by the frames. Trump created an alternate reality for his supporters and they bought into it and did not care about the facts. Millions of voters did not consider facts (…) to be relevant.

      ‘The facts were on the side of the Democrats, but voters accepted Trump’s framing and handed the victory to Trump. Listen, Democrats: Framing matters. This is a matter of human cognition. Democrats need to take human cognition seriously. Policy matters. But policies that help most Americans are not enough. It is how voters (largely unconsciously) frame policy that determines how they will vote.’

      Source: George Lakoff & Gil Duran (15 Nov 2024) Some lessons of the 2024 election. Framelab (https://www.theframelab.org/some-lessons-of-the-2024-election/ )

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. Some of the stuff you manage to expose and highlight is truly astounding John. Even more astounding is the unfortunate reality that the establishment gets away with manipulation of the real facts and the relevance that lies there in. More power to you!

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.