Whose voices are heard in the news? A study of sources in television coverage of the Scottish independence referendum

Stephen Richard — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 19:02:46 +0000

Primary Author or Creator

Marina Dekavalla

Stephen Richard Fri, 09/24/2021 - 20:02

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Alenka Jelen-Sanchez

Date Published

Tue, 09/20/2016 - 12:00

Category

Media

Type of Resource

Academic Paper

Length (Pages, words, minutes etc...)

23pp

Fast Facts

This analyses the referendum coverage on BBC’s Reporting Scotland in the final month of the campaign. Findings suggest that, despite the presence of many types of sources, male-dominated political elites were the main focus in the news. The coverage more broadly manifests a liberal democratic logic whereby the media represent the views of politicians and political organisations to the public, whose role is to make an informed choice between them, with comparatively limited opportunities to participate in the mediated political debate.

More details

his article explores the prominence of different types of sources in the coverage of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum on BBC Scotland’s regional news bulletin. It combines the most commonly used classifications of news sources in the literature and proposes an integrated taxonomy, in which official, unofficial, elite and non-elite sources may take on news-shaper or news-maker roles. This taxonomy is used to analyse the referendum coverage on BBC’s Reporting Scotland in the final month of the campaign. Findings suggest that, despite the presence of many types of sources, male-dominated political elites were the main focus in the news. Although the inclusion of some grassroots and citizen sources is encouraging, the coverage more broadly manifests a liberal democratic logic whereby the media represent the views of politicians and political organisations to the public, whose role is to make an informed choice between them, with comparatively limited opportunities to participate in the mediated political debate.

British Politics volume 12, pages449–472 (2017) fulll article behind paywall

Resource Address (URL)

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41293-016-0026-4

Keywords

news media

TV news

2014 independence referendum

BBC

Language English