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Can we trust the broadcasting media?
Julian Glover
This article originally appeared in the Guardian, 28 July.
DATELINE: 30/7/07
Following the scandal of fake phone-in competitions and the recent revelations of wrongly edited film footage of the Queen in the RDF documentary, the broadcasting industry faces its biggest crisis of public confidence. Earlier this month Mark Thompson BBC director general suspended all phone-in competitions, and announced a far reaching action plan for editorial training after further serious breaches of standards had been uncovered. Now a Guardian/ICM poll reported on Saturday 28 July has revealed a crisis of public confidence in the broadcasting industry. Julian Glover writes in the Guardian:
Public trust in the BBC has fallen sharply in the wake of the scandal involving fake phone-in competitions on high-profile programmes and wrongly edited footage of the Queen, a Guardian/ICM poll shows today.
The poll also reveals a wider crisis of public confidence in the broadcasting industry as a whole, with viewers strongly sceptical of what they see on television, even when they are told the scenes are real.
Fifty-nine per cent of those questioned say they now trust the BBC less than before. Only 37% say their opinion has remained unchanged, despite the BBC's admission that it had made mistakes and would ensure that they were not repeated.
Older viewers in particular have lost faith, with 67% of over-65s saying that they now trust the BBC less than they used to.
Last week Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, said he wanted the corporation to become "a different place" within a year, rebuilding the reputation of the licence fee-funded organisation.
The BBC has long-prided itself on its reputation for accuracy and honesty, but the poll suggests that viewers think its channels are no more honest than those of commercial rivals such as ITV and BSkyB.
Asked whether they think the BBC is more likely to tell the truth than its rivals, only 37% agree. A clear majority of viewers and listeners - 58% - said they thought that there was no difference between the BBC and other channels.
The organisation, which promises that it aims to be "independent, impartial and honest", has been battling to defend its reputation for accuracy after a series of embarrassing admissions.
Heads rolled at the BBC after it was revealed that Children in Need, Comic Relief and Sport Relief had all featured fake competition winners and that during an episode of Blue Peter a studio guest had posed as a competition winner.
The BBC also had to issue an apology for a misleadingly edited BBC1 trailer which wrongly implied that the Queen had stormed out of a sitting with the photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Last week its director general, Mark Thompson, said the organisation had experienced "a rude awakening". He promised to send staff on retraining courses to restore a culture of honesty.
Public concern about the reliability of what they see on screen also runs more widely than the BBC. A large majority of those questioned - 74% - agreed that many things on television are made up, even when they look real.
Only 22% of viewers said that they trusted what they saw.
Some in the industry have defended fictitious claims in some supposedly factual programmes, such as Gordon Ramsay's The F Word and Born Survivor, on the grounds that the shows are intended as entertainment.
But today's poll shows that the public do want to be shown the truth, at least by the BBC. Asked whether they think that the BBC's job should be to entertain, even if it means dishonesty at times, only 31% of viewers agree.
Most - 67% - do not, suggesting that there is strong public backing for the corporation's attempt to impose clear values on its output.
Only younger viewers, those under 24, are more sympathetic to the idea that entertainment is more important than telling the truth: 46% agree, against 54% who do not.
- ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,005 adults aged over 18 by telephone on July 20-22. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
MediaGuardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
Last modified: Monday, July 30, 2007
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
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Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
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