Broadcasters too reliant on vox pop interviews and failing to challenge politicians, says study

"The report found that strict rules requiring balanced coverage directly undermined the media's ability to thoroughly examine political pledges. For the first time, the BBC's election guidelines labelled Labour, Conservatives, Reform, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP as major parties, so it is expected that they all broadly receive similar levels of coverage. The researchers found that large chunks of airtime were dedicated to vox pops, which featured in 26.3% of all Welsh television news items covering the election, at the expense of coverage of actual policy or political claims."

"Cushion, who led the project, said: In an age of multiparty politics, our new research raises serious questions about whether the UK's current due impartiality rules are fit for purpose during an election campaign period. This does not mean impartiality should be abandoned in a Fox News-style way, but the rules need to be rethought to give broadcasters the flexibility to provide greater scrutiny in day-to-day news reporting."

"The public expect broadcasters not only to cover political parties during a campaign, but to scrutinise their promises and challenge false or misleading claims. Because election rules require broadcasters to broadly provide roughly equivalent coverage of parties during the campaign, the media's ability to interrogate specific policies in-depth was severely restricted, the authors said."

UK television election coverage relied heavily on vox pop interviews and provided limited scrutiny of political pledges. A study of national elections in Wales and Scotland and local elections in England examined UK-wide television news from 2 March to 6 May. Strict requirements for balanced coverage were found to undermine the ability to thoroughly examine political claims. Election guidelines treated multiple parties as major parties, leading to broadly similar coverage levels. Vox pops appeared in 26.3% of Welsh television news items about the election, reducing airtime available for policy and political claims. Researchers said due impartiality rules need redesign to allow greater day-to-day scrutiny, and that audiences expect broadcasters to challenge false or misleading statements.

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