Policy And Business Giving Way To Posh And Becks, Says Report On TV News
Subscribers to the theory that television news is “dumbing down” have been given vindication of sorts with the release of a report that shows the percentage of bulletins devoted to tabloid staples such as royalty, showbiz and crime stories has increased over the last 25 years.
The report, titled “From Callaghan to Kosovo: Changing Trends in British Television News 1975- 1999” analysed over 700 terrestrial channel news bulletins broadcast since 1975 and was funded jointly by the ITC and the BBC.
News studied was categorised as either “Broadsheet”, for items such as politics or economic policy, social affairs, health, education and so on, “Foreign”, or “Tabloid” where stories dealt with subjects such as tragedies, crime, consumer issues, entertainment or human interest. It was found that while 25 years ago bulletins on the BBC and ITV were along similar lines, with around 60% broadsheet, 15-20% tabloid and 20-25% foreign coverage, today there is much more diversity between different channels and even between different time slots on the same channel.
The report suggests that some fluctuations in the percentage of foreign news compared to broadsheet news over the years could be accounted for by the affairs of the day. For example the events leading to Mrs Thatcher’s resignation saw the level of broadsheet news rise across all bulletins in 1990, while the increase in foreign news towards the end of the 90s could be put down to conflicts in the Gulf and Eastern Europe.
However, on the whole at the BBC, the 6 o’clock bulletin appears to have emerged as a more “lightweight” option than the 9 o’clock bulletin. Where the former had, in 1999, just under 45% of the content of its bulletins devoted to broadsheet news, nearly 30% to tabloids and over 26% to foreign, the latter gave 43% to broadsheet, 13% to tabloids and 42% to foreign news.
ITV, whose news coverage has been in the spotlight since it scrapped News at Ten (see
Channel 5 figures are only recorded for 1999. They show that 45% of news is tabloid, 30% broadsheet and 23% foreign. The most consistent performer over the years has been Channel 4. Its 7pm bulletin has retained around 50-55% broadsheet coverage, 38-40% foreign coverage and 5-10% tabloid coverage since 1985, positioning it with the BBC 9 o’clock bulletin as more “serious” news coverage.
The writers of the report do not draw conclusions as to whether this trend is a good thing. “Is this proof that there is indeed a degenerative process of ‘dumbing down’ in television news, or is it a much needed injection of accessibility into what 25 years ago was a deeply serious and dull approach to news?” they ask.
Certainly there is an argument that the current news offerings are more democratic, offering everything from the serious concerns of the BBC’s 9 o’clock bulletin and Channel 4 News to the more lightweight, tabloid-heavy approach of Channel 5. With the birth of more competition in the form of 24-hour cable, digital and satellite news services, WAP phones and the internet, perhaps having enough diversity to please all palates will be key to the survival of terrestrial news as we know it.
“From Callaghan to Kosovo: Changing Trends In British Television News 1975-1999” is available from the University of Westminster. Contact: [email protected]