leyton.org

An interesting series of comments regarding the reporting of news stories on the BBC, in their newswatch section. The allegation - which I feel does hold true - is that the BBC reports stories about England as if they were relevant to the entire country, ignoring the fact that there are three other countries (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) as well as the Channel islands and Isle of Man. Hence the EBC - The English Broadcasting Corporation. Similarly, referring to English counties and locales, but then referring to something happening in, say, Paisley as “Scotland”.

The sensitivity is particularly noticeable to me: I grew up in southern England, and so am new to life in Scotland, and am trying to take careful note of the politics and issues up here, ahead of my first vote for the Scottish Parliament, next year. Even though I remain interested in English goings-on, it is surprising quite how frequently the stories affecting only England are broadcast nationally. A foreigner visiting and watching just BBC coverage could - perhaps! - be forgiven for thinking that England was the UK, and that Scotland was simply a big county with some funny accents. I’ve written about this mixed up perception of our country before, so good to see it getting a bit of attention.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 25th, 2005 at 12:51 pm and is filed under BBC, Media, Scotland, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.