Professor John Robertson OBA

BBC Scotland’s short inserts in BBC Breakfast would have you not leave the house today. In a quickfire, punchy sequence, the editor had chosen for you – a surge of uncontrolled paedophilia on social media; cuts in social care; the restraining and seclusion of pupils with additional needs and the Scottish Government supposedly failing to manage the NHS [the best in the UK] to tackle long waiting lists. Then quickly, before the weather might cheer you up, a funeral.

BBC Wales, always shorter with fewer stories, only had worries over low credit scores; a group evicted from a chapel hall for not being Christian and, before the weather, increases in Puffin sightings – yeah!

Is the contrast always so stark? No, not always but try watching them both for a few days and you’ll see a big difference.

We need some research to confirm this.

In June 2023, I did a four week survey comparing BBC Wales and BBC Scotland, finding that BBC Scotland was twice as likely to feature and to politicise negative reporting, to platform opposition voices and to ‘accuse’ the devolved government than BBC Wales. The full report is here:

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

Looking at negativity more broadly, I did a similar comparison with STV’s short inserts into ITV’s breakfast show, that same year, to find BBC Scotland News constructs a far more anxious and conservative world than STV News does. The full report is here:

Research: BBC Scotland News constructs a far more anxious and conservative world than STV News does:

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].

The implications of this for Scotland’s independence vote are clear to me and, I feel sure, to BBC Scotland’s senior staff.

Sources:

[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