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Rethinking balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm

Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Mike Berry, Iñaki Garcia-Blanco, Lucy Bennett, Joe Cable Orcid Logo

Journalism, Volume: 18, Issue: 7, Pages: 781 - 800

Swansea University Author: Joe Cable Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/1464884916648094

Abstract

This article reconsiders the concepts of balance and impartiality in journalism, in the context of a quantitative content analysis of sourcing patterns in BBC news programming on radio, television and online in 2007 and 2012. Impartiality is the cornerstone of principles of public service broadcasti...

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Published in: Journalism
ISSN: 1464-8849 1741-3001
Published: SAGE Publications 2017
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa61062
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first_indexed 2022-10-18T10:27:40Z
last_indexed 2023-01-13T19:21:38Z
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spelling 2022-10-18T11:32:02.9748905 v2 61062 2022-09-06 Rethinking balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm 9ae0bfdbaa1e5b5fb2c82cdeec309ce0 0000-0002-2585-3419 Joe Cable Joe Cable true false 2022-09-06 AMED This article reconsiders the concepts of balance and impartiality in journalism, in the context of a quantitative content analysis of sourcing patterns in BBC news programming on radio, television and online in 2007 and 2012. Impartiality is the cornerstone of principles of public service broadcasting at the BBC and other broadcasters modelled on it. However, the article suggests that in the case of the BBC, it is principally put into practice through juxtaposing the positions of the two main political parties – Conservative and Labour. On this basis, the article develops the idea of the ‘paradigm of impartiality-as-balance.’ This paradigm prevails despite the news organisation’s commitment to representing a broader range of opinion. The paradigm of impartiality-as-balance means that only a narrow range of views and voices are heard on the most contentious and important issues. Further, it results in reporting that focuses on party-political conflict, to the detriment of a journalism which provides much-needed context. Journal Article Journalism 18 7 781 800 SAGE Publications 1464-8849 1741-3001 BBC, European Union, immigration, impartiality, journalism practice, objectivity, publicservice broadcasting, religion 1 8 2017 2017-08-01 10.1177/1464884916648094 COLLEGE NANME Media COLLEGE CODE AMED Swansea University The author(s) received financial support from the BBC Trust for the research reported in this article. Funding from the Cardiff University Open Access Fund supported open access publication of the article. 2022-10-18T11:32:02.9748905 2022-09-06T12:03:25.2565056 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR Karin Wahl-Jorgensen 1 Mike Berry 2 Iñaki Garcia-Blanco 3 Lucy Bennett 4 Joe Cable 0000-0002-2585-3419 5 61062__25485__3235d35aa3d0411daaae7f751ac273e0.pdf 61062_VoR.pdf 2022-10-18T11:25:50.7021935 Output 110020 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License true eng http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Rethinking balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm
spellingShingle Rethinking balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm
Joe Cable
title_short Rethinking balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm
title_full Rethinking balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm
title_fullStr Rethinking balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm
title_full_unstemmed Rethinking balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm
title_sort Rethinking balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm
author_id_str_mv 9ae0bfdbaa1e5b5fb2c82cdeec309ce0
author_id_fullname_str_mv 9ae0bfdbaa1e5b5fb2c82cdeec309ce0_***_Joe Cable
author Joe Cable
author2 Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
Mike Berry
Iñaki Garcia-Blanco
Lucy Bennett
Joe Cable
format Journal article
container_title Journalism
container_volume 18
container_issue 7
container_start_page 781
publishDate 2017
institution Swansea University
issn 1464-8849
1741-3001
doi_str_mv 10.1177/1464884916648094
publisher SAGE Publications
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
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description This article reconsiders the concepts of balance and impartiality in journalism, in the context of a quantitative content analysis of sourcing patterns in BBC news programming on radio, television and online in 2007 and 2012. Impartiality is the cornerstone of principles of public service broadcasting at the BBC and other broadcasters modelled on it. However, the article suggests that in the case of the BBC, it is principally put into practice through juxtaposing the positions of the two main political parties – Conservative and Labour. On this basis, the article develops the idea of the ‘paradigm of impartiality-as-balance.’ This paradigm prevails despite the news organisation’s commitment to representing a broader range of opinion. The paradigm of impartiality-as-balance means that only a narrow range of views and voices are heard on the most contentious and important issues. Further, it results in reporting that focuses on party-political conflict, to the detriment of a journalism which provides much-needed context.
published_date 2017-08-01T04:19:40Z
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score 10.997933

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