Study reports drop in BBC Scottish stories

The BBC covered far fewer stories about Scotland this year compared to 2015, new analysis shows.

A two-week snapshot study of BBC television and radio news coverage found that while the corporation had improved labelling of devolved stories, reporting from Scotland more than halved.

Cardiff University academics analysed the BBC’S coverage compared with independent networks for four weeks in 2015 and two weeks in 2016.

The report found: “The combined proportion of reporting about (or in) Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland fell significantly across BBC outlets. So, for example, on BBC television news outlets there were more than twice as many items from Westminster as items about any topic reported from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“The proportion of items about devolved issues also fell significantly, with stories about England dominating the domestic agenda.

“Devolved politics outside England represented just 1 per cent of the overall news agenda.”