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Does the Political Context Shape How “Due Impartiality” is Interpreted? An Analysis of BBC Reporting of the 2019 UK and 2020 US Election Campaigns

Ceri Hughes Orcid Logo, Marina Morani, Stephen Cushion, Maria Kyriakidou

Journalism Studies, Volume: 24, Issue: 14, Pages: 1715 - 1733

Swansea University Author: Ceri Hughes Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/1461670x.2023.2173956

Abstract

Balance and impartiality are central principles in journalism, but this study argues their conceptual application in news reporting should be subject to more academic scrutiny. In the UK, the way “due impartiality” has been applied and regulated by broadcasters has raised concerns about promoting a...

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Published in: Journalism Studies
ISSN: 1461-670X 1469-9699
Published: Informa UK Limited 2023
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62465
first_indexed 2023-01-27T14:38:48Z
last_indexed 2024-11-14T12:21:00Z
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spelling 2024-09-16T16:35:59.2383403 v2 62465 2023-01-27 Does the Political Context Shape How “Due Impartiality” is Interpreted? An Analysis of BBC Reporting of the 2019 UK and 2020 US Election Campaigns ea8460af971fe3e3aceb250c199a0f14 0009-0003-9537-9016 Ceri Hughes Ceri Hughes true false 2023-01-27 CACS Balance and impartiality are central principles in journalism, but this study argues their conceptual application in news reporting should be subject to more academic scrutiny. In the UK, the way “due impartiality” has been applied and regulated by broadcasters has raised concerns about promoting a ‘she-said-he-said’ style of reporting, which constructs balance but not scrutiny of competing claims. In this study, we analyse how the UK’s “due impartiality” was applied by journalists in different political contexts by assessing how the BBC dealt with competing party-political claims. We develop a nuanced quantitative analysis of BBC journalist interactions (N = 967) with claims made by the four main party leaders during the 2019 UK and 2020 US elections. Overall, we found BBC reporting robustly challenged claims by US politicians, whereas coverage of UK politicians often only conveyed claims and counterclaims with limited journalistic intervention, particularly on television news. We argue that impartiality should be viewed more as a fluid than fixed concept given that the context shapes how it is applied. As concerns about misinformation have grown over recent years, we conclude that more finely tuned studies are needed to understand how journalists apply concepts about balance and impartiality in political reporting. Journal Article Journalism Studies 24 14 1715 1733 Informa UK Limited 1461-670X 1469-9699 Misinformation, impartiality, broadcast news, election reporting, public service broadcasting, political journalism 26 10 2023 2023-10-26 10.1080/1461670x.2023.2173956 COLLEGE NANME Culture and Communications School COLLEGE CODE CACS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University. AHRC. 2024-09-16T16:35:59.2383403 2023-01-27T14:33:59.4220172 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR Ceri Hughes 0009-0003-9537-9016 1 Marina Morani 2 Stephen Cushion 3 Maria Kyriakidou 4 62465__27052__ff95dbab938c4684bf52e0d8e6502614.pdf 62465.VOR.pdf 2023-04-14T15:23:02.6597633 Output 1718464 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Does the Political Context Shape How “Due Impartiality” is Interpreted? An Analysis of BBC Reporting of the 2019 UK and 2020 US Election Campaigns
spellingShingle Does the Political Context Shape How “Due Impartiality” is Interpreted? An Analysis of BBC Reporting of the 2019 UK and 2020 US Election Campaigns
Ceri Hughes
title_short Does the Political Context Shape How “Due Impartiality” is Interpreted? An Analysis of BBC Reporting of the 2019 UK and 2020 US Election Campaigns
title_full Does the Political Context Shape How “Due Impartiality” is Interpreted? An Analysis of BBC Reporting of the 2019 UK and 2020 US Election Campaigns
title_fullStr Does the Political Context Shape How “Due Impartiality” is Interpreted? An Analysis of BBC Reporting of the 2019 UK and 2020 US Election Campaigns
title_full_unstemmed Does the Political Context Shape How “Due Impartiality” is Interpreted? An Analysis of BBC Reporting of the 2019 UK and 2020 US Election Campaigns
title_sort Does the Political Context Shape How “Due Impartiality” is Interpreted? An Analysis of BBC Reporting of the 2019 UK and 2020 US Election Campaigns
author_id_str_mv ea8460af971fe3e3aceb250c199a0f14
author_id_fullname_str_mv ea8460af971fe3e3aceb250c199a0f14_***_Ceri Hughes
author Ceri Hughes
author2 Ceri Hughes
Marina Morani
Stephen Cushion
Maria Kyriakidou
format Journal article
container_title Journalism Studies
container_volume 24
container_issue 14
container_start_page 1715
publishDate 2023
institution Swansea University
issn 1461-670X
1469-9699
doi_str_mv 10.1080/1461670x.2023.2173956
publisher Informa UK Limited
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR
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description Balance and impartiality are central principles in journalism, but this study argues their conceptual application in news reporting should be subject to more academic scrutiny. In the UK, the way “due impartiality” has been applied and regulated by broadcasters has raised concerns about promoting a ‘she-said-he-said’ style of reporting, which constructs balance but not scrutiny of competing claims. In this study, we analyse how the UK’s “due impartiality” was applied by journalists in different political contexts by assessing how the BBC dealt with competing party-political claims. We develop a nuanced quantitative analysis of BBC journalist interactions (N = 967) with claims made by the four main party leaders during the 2019 UK and 2020 US elections. Overall, we found BBC reporting robustly challenged claims by US politicians, whereas coverage of UK politicians often only conveyed claims and counterclaims with limited journalistic intervention, particularly on television news. We argue that impartiality should be viewed more as a fluid than fixed concept given that the context shapes how it is applied. As concerns about misinformation have grown over recent years, we conclude that more finely tuned studies are needed to understand how journalists apply concepts about balance and impartiality in political reporting.
published_date 2023-10-26T08:15:16Z
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