Exploring Story Selection Influences at the British Broadcasting Corporation

Abstract

This study explores the influences on story selection at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Through interviews with personnel across all levels of BBC News and observation of editorial meetings and newsroom routines at BBC World Headquarters in London, the author applies Gatekeeping theory in an effort to understand the BBC’s story selection process. Three themes emerge to inform our understanding of how stories are chosen and shaped for coverage at the BBC: respect and appreciation of the audience, the needs of individual networks and programs, and awareness of the Royal Charter.

Keywords

broadcast news format newsroom practices business of journalism in-depth interviews method British Broadcasting Corporation

Introduction

Since its first broadcast on November 14, 1922 (Cain, 1992), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has emerged as an iconic journalism entity in the English-speaking world. Unlike their American cousins who pursued broadcasting as a commercial venture, the BBC’s founders opted instead for a public service model that they believed would educate and entertain the British people while promoting British ideals to far reaches of the Empire (Potter, 2012). Historically, the BBC has been at the heart of significant global events (Baxter & Downing, 2002; Marriott, 2007; Nohl, 2010; Torfeh & Sreberny, 2010; Vaughan, 2008). Throughout its history, the BBC has projected British values and a sense of British exceptionalism (Seaton, 2007). This is in large part from a firm commitment to international news coverage that demonstrates the effects of British policies on global events. That same coverage also shapes perceptions of Britain in other countries (Mytton, 2008; Sarikakis, 2004). ITV, SKY, and Channel 4 are among the BBC commercial competitors in Britain today. Their influence, however, is limited because they do “not have the same resources or mass appeal across a number of different platforms” (Barnett, 2005, p. 61). The BBC is, simply, one of the most successful, respected, and influential media organizations in the world (Potter, 2012; Sarikakis, 2004; Seaton, 2007).

The past few years have been particularly eventful for the BBC. In early 2013, the last of nearly 6,000 BBC news employees completed their move from multiple facilities throughout London to New Broadcasting House, a £1 billion (US$1.5 billion) expansion of the BBC iconic Broadcasting House structure that sits in the heart of the city just north of Oxford Circus (Shakespeare, 2013). Inside this, 21st-century digital broadcasting hub are more than 92,000 m², or 990,000 ft², spread out across eight floors (W1 Project Comes to a Close, n.d.). NBH, as New Broadcasting House is known, houses nine television networks. In addition to multiple domestic TV channels, BBC World News is viewed in more than 300 million households and nearly 2 million hotel rooms in 200 countries (Around the World, n.d.). Eleven national radio networks originate from NBH, including the renowned BBC World Service that currently broadcasts news in 27 languages to 166 million global listeners (At a Glance, n.d.).

The BBC is an enormous organization that significantly shapes global broadcasting. With so many networks and people producing an astonishing amount of content, how does an entity like the BBC determine what stories will be covered and in what ways they will be covered? This study offers insight into the editorial process at one of the world’s most influential and respected news organizations. In March 2013, I spent several days inside the BBC interviewing news personnel, attending editorial meetings, and observing workers in the newsroom. The experience provided valuable insight into the ways in which BBC staff engage in the process of selecting and shaping stories for a global audience.

Literature Review

Much of how the BBC goes about news coverage is rooted in the history of its earliest days. As Americans embraced a commercial model in the first days of radio, the British opted instead for a public service model. The BBC’s first Director General, Sir John Reith, recognized the value of BBC radio as a propaganda tool (Potter, 2012). Through the new technology of radio, Reith understood that British culture and policy could be transmitted to all corners of the empire. In order to ensure uninterrupted transmission, BBC leaders opted not for commercial advertising as a funding source but rather a license fee attached to the sale of every radio and television set sold in the United Kingdom. The fee currently generates more than £3.5 billion (US$5.4 billion) a year (The License Fee, n.d.) and helps ensure the Corporation resists many of the commercial pressures that affect other broadcasters.

Scholars have acknowledged concerns about Western media bias (Hafner-Burton & Ron, 2013; Li, 2009), particularly in regard to the UK’s coverage of Arab and Muslim issues (Miladi, 2008; Thomas, 2012). Seaton (2008a) believed, however, that by steering clear of many profit-driven forces in modern broadcasting, the organization produces international journalism that is as objective and free of bias as possible. The result is that the BBC has earned enormous levels of trust from the British public, even with occasional lapses in judgment (Seaton, 2008b; Thompson, 2008). Rarely has that confidence wavered and when it has, the Corporation’s efforts to repair the damage leave it stronger (Hannon, 2008). Given the BBC’s place in global broadcasting and its ongoing reputation for objectivity, exploring the organization’s editorial process as it relates to story selection should yield worthwhile results.

Gatekeeping

A valuable perspective from which to evaluate the BBC’s editorial process is gatekeeping. Gatekeepers are those who control the flow of news (Snider, 1967). It allows scholars to evaluate the ways in which newsroom personnel gather and consider potential stories and how editors ultimately decide which ones will be disseminated (Shoemaker, Eichholz, Kim, & Wrigley, 2001). The theory offers a meaningful foundation from which to understand the BBC’s story selection process.

Lewin (1947) first proposed the concept of gatekeeping as a means by which we could understand better the process behind our social choices. White (1950) later produced his seminal work applying the idea to mass communication. His landmark study with the editor known as Mr. Gates provided empirical data behind editorial decisions. Mr. Gates made some choices on story inclusion for reasons that could be considered intuitive: not enough space in the paper or stories coming into the newsroom past deadline. White also discovered, however, that Mr. Gates based some editorial choices in his own personal biases. Seventeen years later, Snider (1967) replicated White’s original study and found that Mr. Gates’ process was virtually unchanged.

The application of gatekeeping grew beyond the individual views of a single editor. Gieber (1964) studied the gatekeeping habits of 16 wire service editors. He concluded their story selections were guided by a sense of organizational loyalty. They saw the wire service as an entity greater than themselves, and they felt an obligation to uphold their employer’s values and news judgments. Others have suggested a social component exists in the story selection process. In his study of an Indianapolis television station, Berkowitz (1990) concluded that group consensus often shaped story selection. In contrast, Wickham (1989) and Clayman and Reisner (1998) determined that strong editors could overpower others in the room, thereby influencing the decision-making process. Other factors that affect gatekeeping are shifts in social attitudes (Brown, 1979; Gross & Merritt, 1981) and social constraints (Donohue, Olien, & Tichenor, 1989). Harrison’s (2010) exploration of how gatekeeping influenced the evaluation of user-generated content (UGC) at the BBC is of particular interest for the current study. Among other things, she found that, despite some concerns regarding the use of such material, core BBC news values were an ever-present part of decisions to use UGC on-air. For the purposes of the current study, the following research question is posed:

Research Question 1: What factors influence the story selection process at the BBC?

Shoemaker, Eichholz, Kim, and Wrigley (2001) suggested it was time to move beyond an exploration of the “individual forces” (p. 242) that shape gatekeeping and focus more attention on organizational constructs. To that end, the broad nature of the current study will provide an opportunity to investigate organizational influences on the gatekeeping process at the BBC.

The Royal Charter

One reason the BBC is unique among global broadcasters is the Royal Charter (Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, 2006). The government issues the Charter on behalf of the Queen and grants constitutional permission for the BBC to exist. It does not, as is often misunderstood, grant the British government ownership of the BBC. The Charter sets forth the license fee that funds the BBC, it outlines expectations for content, and it guarantees the Corporation independence from government interference (Charter and Agreement, n.d.). The BBC’s Royal Charter is renewed every 10 years. The current one expires on January 1, 2017.

The Royal Charter includes key provisions that have served the BBC well throughout its history, and, therefore, its potential influence should be considered in an examination of the organization’s story selection process. The document specifically states that a primary objective of the BBC is “to serve the public interest” (Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, 2006, p. 2). Furthermore, it declares that the BBC is responsible for “bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK” (p. 3). Additionally, the Charter requires the BBC to encourage learning and enrich the citizens of a civil society. These directives are often cited as the source of the BBC’s obligation to invest time and resources in covering international news.

Perhaps more importantly, the Royal Charter frees the Corporation from government interference. It specifically states “the BBC shall be independent in all matters concerning the content of its output, the times and manner in which this is supplied, and in the management of its affairs” (Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, 2006, p. 3). As a result, the government, regardless of which prime minister or party is in power, cannot interfere with the editorial decisions of the network. For the BBC, that has produced “an internal culture that jealously guards its reputation for independence from political manipulation … and a more recently articulated commitment not just to covering politics, but to playing an integral part in generating an engaged and dynamic democratic culture” (Barnett, 2005, p. 64). Given the Royal Charter’s prominence in the organization, the current study will also consider the following research question:

Research Question 2: How does the Royal Charter influence the story selection process at the BBC?

The Royal Charter is a unique document that has shaped the policies and traditions of the BBC from its earliest days. This research question will establish the degree to which the Charter maintains modern relevance, particularly as it applies to the story selection process.

Method

In order to study the BBC’s editorial process, I traveled to the United Kingdom for 1 week in March 2013 to conduct interviews with radio and television news employees across all levels of the BBC. Our conversations took place at New Broadcasting House, the organization’s world headquarters in central London. Leaders of the BBC’s College of Journalism, the branch of the organization responsible for training editorial staff, arranged most of the interviews. Nearly two dozen staff members across all levels of the organization were interviewed about BBC news operations. The subjects were evenly divided among male and female employees. Two of the women were ethnic minorities with Indian and Middle Eastern roots. The shortest interview lasted approximately 15 min, and the longest was nearly an hour. Most interviews ran approximately 30 min. Questions were open ended. The same questions were posed to all interviewees with some variation dependent on the individual’s role within the Corporation. Some discussions with news managers were scheduled in advance. Others, with correspondents, presenters, and producers, were arranged on location with little or no advanced warning to the interviewees. The BBC placed no restrictions on any topics of discussion or questions that I could ask. No questions were provided in advance to the interview subjects. All interviewees were briefed prior to the interview as to the nature of the conversation, and all interview subjects were told their names would not be divulged. Debriefing of participants followed the interviews, which were recorded and later transcribed in order to identify consistent themes among responses, the results of which are outlined subsequently.

In addition to staff interviews, I was granted complete access to the BBC newsroom during my visit. Corporation leaders allowed me to sit in on daily news meetings across all levels of the organization. Meetings ranged in size from 7 to approximately 40 attendees. In all cases, I was briefly introduced as an American academic exploring the organization’s editorial process. I did not participate in any meeting. BBC leaders also allowed me to sit in the control room during newscasts and spend time with workers in the newsroom.

Quantitative methods are sometimes applied to gatekeeping research; however, a qualitative approach of interviews and observation was used for this study. There is ample precedent for such an approach. Berkowitz (1990) employed interviews and observation during his study of the editorial process at an Indianapolis television station. Clayman and Reisner (1998) observed editorial meetings at U.S. newspapers in order to assess the contributions of personnel during story selection. And, although they applied the concept of gatekeeping to Public Relations (PR), Covington, Esrock, Harman, and Stebbins (1995) interviewed PR executives in order to track messages from the PR pitch to publication. Additionally, Harrison (2010) conducted an observational study in her exploration of the BBC’s evaluation of UGC. The process of observing editorial meetings and engaging in one-on-one discussions with BBC news personnel for this project, therefore, follows the previous work of these scholars.

Results

Generally speaking, the story selection process at the BBC is one that focuses on news of the day that encompasses some form of social, political, and/or economic content. The global news cycle clearly drives coverage choices. Preference is given to those pieces that are considered fresh and “hard news.” With thousands of BBC employees around the world and at the London Headquarters experienced in covering specific parts of the world, enterprise stories are a common component of the organization’s news coverage. As with any news organization, feature stories are included in many BBC newscasts; however, they are the exception and not the rule. Through interviews with BBC employees, observation of the daily newsroom operation, and attending multiple editorial meetings, three distinctive themes emerge as informing this process: a focus on the audience, awareness of the program, and respect for the Royal Charter. Each area will be addressed in this section of the article.

The Audience

The first research question asked what factors influence the story selection process at the BBC. The issue that quickly emerges as the most influential part of the process is the audience. Without exception, every employee interviewed for this project acknowledged the audience as the greatest influence that guides his or her daily routine. Because the BBC produces so much content across multiple radio and television networks, it is impossible to describe a typical BBC viewer or listener; however, those who work within each network know exactly whom they are serving. Each employee, regardless of position or rank in the organization, was able to articulate an extremely detailed demographic profile of the typical individual consuming a network’s content. This deep understanding of the audience comes from a combination of employee training, exhaustive and endless market research, and shared organizational experience. Social media also help BBC personnel connect to their audience. The Corporation’s various channels and programs are well represented on Facebook, but the most prolific interaction takes place on Twitter. Dozens of accounts represent networks and individual programs as well as on-air personalities and producers. All respond regularly to followers. The program World Have Your Say perhaps best exemplifies how the BBC taps into the audience via social media. The show’s social media pages highlight UGC, audience interviews, and viewer feedback as part of its daily story coverage.

A BBC radio news executive with nearly 30 years of experience at the Corporation says there is a conscious focus on the audience throughout the day.

When it comes to news selection, it’s an art. It’s not a science. But it is very much rooted in thinking, ‘What works for my audience?’ It’s going out on a particular network. Does that feel right for that particular audience? So when I say to my lot, there’s a little summaries team which is knocking out bulletins on the hour every hour, I say to them, ‘Try and listen to the network that you’re serving in the run up to that. Because you’ll just get a bit of a feel for what works for that audience.’ (personal interview, March 5, 2013)

An assistant editor with BBC World News Television, who worked for other news organizations in Europe before joining the BBC, acknowledges that the starting point for possible inclusion is always a timely story that affects large numbers of people, offers the audience context about their place in the world, and carries emotional impact. From there, he believes the staff has an obligation to work with the story and frame it with appropriate context for the viewer.

I think it’s got to be a story that’s engaging. It’s got to be relevant to viewers in some shape or form. We’ve got to make it relevant and we’ve got to explain it putting it into context and give it some shape and tell people why it’s interesting. Because pictures for their own sake, yeah, you know, you can slap any old pictures on-air, but unless you explain why they’re interesting, well, it’s no good, really. (personal communication, March 6, 2013)

The idea that BBC staff feel an obligation to make international news understandable and meaningful for the audience is repeated across other interviews. The highest ranking manager interviewed for this project is a 27-year Corporation veteran with roots in radio who worked with television and online before moving into her current role dealing with all aspects of BBC news coverage. She also expresses the idea that international news coverage at the BBC must include a process of identifying ways to engage the audience.

So there’s stuff happening in Spain, austerity in Spain. Why might you want to be interested? OK, you might want to be interested because we tell you human stories and you empathize. You might want to be interested because what actually happens with the Spanish economy and the Spanish banks ultimately might affect the Eurozone. And even though we’re not in the Eurozone, then that might ultimately affect the British banking system, which ultimately might affect your pension. (personal communication, March 6, 2013)

“People around the world are commenting on all sorts of things,” observes the BBC World News assistant editor. “And it’s our job to kind of reflect some of that.” On the day I interviewed him, the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the one-millionth refugee to flee Syria, and Kenya’s presidential election were stories being covered across BBC networks. Each of them, he believed, would impact people regardless of where they live.

The BBC is here to educate, inform, and entertain. My role in part of that is making sense of all of that for the world viewer who might not kind of give two hoots about Chavez or might not really see the relevance of a million refugees leaving Syria. What does it mean for somebody living in, oh, I don’t know, Southern Africa or Australia or Peru or some place? And if we kind of explain how the world is all connected together then that’s the way to do it really.

A similar tone is struck by a BBC anchor who is one of the most recognized journalists in the United Kingdom. She is a prominent presence on both radio and television across both domestic and international networks. She is committed to the idea that part of her job is to help engage the audience in the stories she delivers. That is particularly true, she thinks, with stories she presents on BBC World News Television.

It’s our saying, ‘Look, let’s stop a moment and let’s try and understand what’s going on in Kenya. Why are we really interested in these elections? Because it was really nasty last time around!’ And we’re going to be watched by some people who know a lot about that story and we’re going to be watched by some people who know absolutely nothing. (personal communication, March 6, 2013).

The BBC’s focus on the audience extends, too, to editorial meetings. Virtually every meeting I attended during my visit included some acknowledgement or discussion of the audience. From the main editorial meeting each morning at 9 a.m., to smaller staff planning meetings for a particular show on a specific network, employees openly discussed those who would be watching or listening and how best to pursue certain stories with those people in mind. It should be noted that the BBC’s emphasis on the audience does not appear to be a matter of just giving people what they want. There is no sense of obligation that stories be sensational or simplistic in order to attract an audience. Rather, employees refer to the audience with a deep sense of reverence. The idea that editorial decisions are rooted in audience respect comes through during my conversation with the BBC World News assistant editor. “We’re beholden to the public who own this organization and who pay for it to do the best by them whether it’s at home or abroad because, you know, we are kind of affecting Britain to the rest of the world and back at home.”

The Program

In addition to audience awareness, it is clear that editorial decisions within the BBC are influenced by the personalities and identities of the various networks and programs that come out of New Broadcasting House. Because so much content is produced across multiple BBC radio and television networks, it is virtually impossible to describe a “typical” BBC story. BBC Radio 1, for example, is the Corporation’s pop music channel. Those who work for that network have a much different mind-set from those who work for BBC Radio 3, which emphasizes arts programming, or BBC Radio 4, which has a new focus similar to National Public Radio in the United States. Those who work for BBC World Service Radio are in-tune to the cultures of the languages in which they broadcast. As for the television operation, BBC World News has a global audience that never sleeps. On the domestic television side of the operation, the staff is focused on creating flagship national newscasts for 6 and 10 o’clock each night. As a result, the idea of a typical viewer or typical story varies widely depending on which program is under consideration. That is as it should be, according to the BBC radio news manager.

It varies by channel, and it should vary by channel. And it should vary enormously, I think, on the audience you’re trying to reach. It’s about knowing your audience. Rob McKenzie who does Newsbeat for Radio 1, which is very much the pop youth channel, the news agenda as expressed in the [morning editorial] meeting … probably isn’t going to work for him because he’s looking at a young, working class, racially diverse audience whose interest ain’t necessarily the interests of mine doing stuff for, say, Radio 4 Today [Britain’s morning news program of record], which is listened to by some educated, pretty well off people. (personal communication, March 5, 2013)

One deputy editor of domestic television with 25 years of experience at the BBC agrees. “There isn’t a typical radio story or a typical bulletin story,” she says. “It’s not one size fits all.” She acknowledges that each day presents core stories that will be covered across networks. After that, however, the shape of the story will be driven by discussions among the staff of how a story can be best adapted for a particular program.

We tend to think of the six o’clock news as our main customers because that’s where the audience is. In the millions. And most people will see that output if you provide something really strong. It resonates. It carries on the next day. It works on the website, bits of it, so that is where we invest most of our money. And then the news channel, for instance, is kind of on an after circle so they would get that film from the main bulletins and we might set them up some live coverage around it for the rest of the day. We might do a smaller version for breakfast which starts the day, and then save some very good case studies, for instance, to give it a bit of punch in the evening. (personal communication, March 5, 2013)

Even within networks, the needs and personalities of different programs can vary widely. The BBC World News Television assistant editor recognizes that a large part of his job is appreciating the subtle differences among programs on his network. That awareness is always with him, therefore throughout the day it influences how he will shape stories for coverage.

We try as editors to encourage programs to sort of come up with different story treatments and they’ll look and sound different so you’ll see GMT presented by George [Alagiah] has got, because of the format, treats some stories in a different way to Impact, and I think Global is different again. We have these afternoon bulletins which are different. So it’s not just kind of like churning it out hour after hour after hour in terms of weekday coverage. We do try and kind of still offer a bespoke service, and also we’re conscious that audiences, certainly for World News, are watching in different parts of the world at different parts of the day. (personal communication, March 6, 2013)

For someone like the World News assistant editor, his focus is always on his particular network. Others in the organization, however, serve multiple masters. Among them is an international development producer who has worked at the BBC for about 10 years. Each day she works with correspondents across the world who are covering a variety of international stories. It is then her job to present those stories to the various BBC networks. An awareness of each program’s needs and personality is central to her process.

If you were talking about a story about British football fans being caught up in violence in Germany, you know that the program that’s going to be most interested in that, radio wise, is Five Live. And you’d approach Five Live about it. If it’s, um, you know, a story about European politics then the Today program would be much more interested in that than Five Live. So yes, all our main news programs have slightly different agendas, and slightly different audiences. You do tailor your story to a particular output. (personal communication, March 5, 2013)

The way in which a story might be shaped for programs across the BBC is perhaps best demonstrated by the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, which occurred while I was in London. Various BBC networks reached out to their language service, which staffs the multiple languages of BBC World Service Radio. Chavez and Venezuela had a strong relationship with Moscow, so personnel from BBC Russian Service were made available to discuss that nation’s relationship with Chavez. One of the notable times that occurred was when BBC World News Television had a large American viewing audience. BBC Latin America Service and BBC Africa Service were also heavily utilized that day so that coverage had added context across programs.

One international development correspondent with 27 years of experience at the BBC appreciates the orchestration that takes place among networks, programs, and personnel in the organization. For him, a system that pays such close attention to the needs of various programs gives reporters better exposure and a greater opportunity to share their stories.

The BBC is very much organized with news gathering on one side, the reporters on one side, and the management structure and then programs on another side. So whether there are some reporters who work for programs, most of us work right across all of the programs. And all of the program editors are at [the] planning meeting. And that’s a really powerful bit of commissioning. (personal communication, March 5, 2013)

The BBC anchor interviewed for this project believes the process of tailoring stories across programs creates collaboration, which is critical, given the thousands of employees working to gather news each day:

Ultimately we might do stories in a very different way, but each of us sort of recognizes that someone else has a particular audience that they have to cater to. So we’ll sometimes joke about a certain story, you know, ‘I can’t believe so-n-so is doing so much on it.’ But we’ll know that actually there is a segment of their audience which is in their mind. (personal communication, March 6, 2013)

The Royal Charter

The second research question asked how the Royal Charter influences story selection at the BBC. Interviews with current BBC news employees reveal an underlying awareness of and commitment to the Charter’s mandate of “bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK” (Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, 2006, p. 3). The Charter clearly outlines the organization’s mission to inform, educate, and entertain (Charter and Agreement, n.d.). It is a mission that virtually every employee interviewed for this project was able to articulate in a meaningful way. The BBC World News Television assistant editor is among them.

The three words are still the same that they’ve been all the BBC’s history, and that’s to inform, educate, and entertain, Those don’t change for me at all in any shape or form. Even with all the new technology that exists we’re still there to provide those three basic things to people. (personal communication, March 6, 2013)

The high-ranking BBC news manager contends that the Royal Charter is an integral part of the story selection process. That is particularly critical, she believes, in regards to shaping international news coverage for audiences.

It’s a fundamental public service remit. The trick for us is that for those audiences when the stuff is happening which we think, ‘You know what? You may not want it but you’re gonna have it because you really ought to, and actually it’s important.’ (personal communication, March 6, 2013)

International news is extraordinarily expensive, which is why most American networks have cut staff and closed foreign bureaus (Williston, 2001). Although BBC budgets have been scrutinized and cut (Lyall, 2011) including a round of cuts in 2015 that eliminated more than 1,000 positions, employees balk at the idea they would curtail such coverage. The BBC World News assistant editor says that’s due to the Royal Charter.

Yes, it is expensive business. Really expensive business to get all of these people in the right place. But I think there’s a benefit which is kind of incalculable, really. I think to walk away from it would be a terrible, terrible tragedy. And I don’t see that our commitment to international news is waning.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of the Royal Charter in shaping story selection at the BBC is the inability of the government to interfere in the editorial process. One notable exception was a six-year period from 1988 to 1992 during which the government barred the BBC from putting representatives from several pro-IRA groups in Northern Ireland on-the-air following a time of increased violence. Still, the BBC radio news manager says the Corporation and the government have a “robust relationship.” When asked what level of concern exists that the government might retaliate against negative coverage, he quickly responds, “Absolutely none whatsoever.” This sentiment is echoed repeatedly across all of the interviews conducted for this project. When asked if there is ever hesitation in covering negative stories about the government, one 20-year Corporation veteran, who serves as a managing editor, responds without hesitation, “Oh, no. Quite the reverse.” When asked to elaborate she adds, “I don’t think that people ever have any sense of, ‘I’m doing this because the government would like me to do this’” (personal communication, March 5, 2013). The deputy editor for domestic television believes that the license fee that funds the BBC is at the heart of the organization’s independence from government interference.

We feel it [the license fee] allows us to be completely neutral when tackling stories. You know you don’t have to answer to anyone who owns us. We don’t have to answer to our advertisers. So we feel that gives us a neutrality when we’re chasing any kind of story. (personal communication, March 5, 2013)

The BBC radio news manager believes the Royal Charter’s mandate limiting government involvement deserves much of the credit for the Corporation’s long-standing reputation for objectivity and fairness.

If the public out there thinks we are going soft on the political classes, we’ve had it. There is no justification for the BBC at that point. We have to be balanced. And sometimes you can get into some quite fraught negotiations and discussions about well, ‘show me you’re being impartial. Show me that you balanced that particular argument.’ That’s particularly critical during election periods where there are very, very hard and fast rules about having to show, having to provide balanced coverage and proving that that is what you’re doing.

Discussion

On any given day in any media organization, numerous factors influence a story coverage decision. The sheer size of the BBC with its multiple radio and television networks and thousands of employees magnifies these possibilities. Through interviews with personnel and observation of newsroom functions, the current study identifies three primary influences that guide BBC staff through their daily story selection routines.

Ever since White (1950) first applied the concept of gatekeeping to media, scholars have identified numerous factors that influence the story selection process. Many are recognizable in the daily process at the BBC, including the influence of core BBC values on the gatekeeping process (Harrison, 2010), a strong sense of organizational identification (Gieber, 1964), and a collaborative social atmosphere in editorial meetings (Berkowitz, 1990). Beyond these, however, a focus on the audience emerges as the most important influence in the story selection process for those inside the BBC. Every person I encountered acknowledged the audience. Additionally, the audience was a point of discussion in almost every meeting I attended. It is clear that BBC news employees respect those who will consume their product; therefore, decisions are rooted in providing context that will make the stories more meaningful and lead to greater understanding. What’s also striking is the degree to which the BBC employees interviewed and observed for this project displayed none of the personal biases that White (1950) and Snider (1967) identified in Mr. Gates. To the contrary, when asked if their personal opinions influenced story selections they acknowledged that there may be certain stories or parts of the world they care about, but ultimately those stories would not be pursued without a genuine sense that they would be worthwhile for the audience.

The audience can be an abstract concept at the BBC due to the fact that there is no correct way to describe a typical BBC viewer or listener. As a result, the program or network is another influence on the story selection process. There may be universal understanding among BBC personnel that a particular story is one that must be covered on a given day; however, how each network treats it, shapes it, and frames it will be largely determined by the people a network or program serves.

Scholars have long observed that the Royal Charter (Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, 2006) molded the BBC into the news organization it is today (Potter, 2012). For nearly a century, the Charter has outlined a mandate to focus on international news coverage. During my visit to the BBC, it was clear that current personnel are ever mindful of this mandate and that they’re vigilant to ensure appropriate emphasis is placed on global stories. This reflects the protective sense of ownership in the organization described by Barnett (2005).

In addition to acknowledging an obligation to cover international news, the BBC staff interviewed for this study articulated a sense of responsibility to provide context and demonstrate why such stories are important. Several employees quoted verbatim the Charter’s mandate to “bring the world the UK and the UK to the world” (Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, 2006, p. 3). Although it seems intuitive that employees of a global broadcaster would be mindful of crafting international coverage in meaningful ways, the degree to which BBC employees demonstrated awareness of the Charter as a cornerstone of their daily operation was striking. Additionally, despite concerns about Western media bias among some segments of the audience (Hafner-Burton & Ron, 2013; Li, 2009; Miladi, 2008; Thomas, 2012), the Royal Charter is credited by many as the reason BBC news remains relatively objective and bias free (Seaton, 2008a).

It should be noted that this study reflects my experiences during my brief time in London. I was not able to interview individuals with all networks or programs; therefore, it is entirely possible that certain coverage choices are made at the BBC for reasons outside of the factors explained in the current study. However, I was exposed to BBC news personnel at all levels of the organization, from upper management to heads of networks to show editors to producers to anchors and reporters. They represented both radio and television. Additionally, while observing editorial meetings I was exposed to groups of individuals from those networks where I was not able to spend extensive time. The focus on shaping stories for the appropriate audience, ensuring suitable stories for a particular program, and serving the public as dictated in the Royal Charter was consistent across all encounters I had at the BBC.

The BBC has been a cornerstone of British culture for nearly a century (Potter, 2012; Sarikakis, 2004; Seaton, 2007). Their pursuit of a public service model allows reporters to pursue important international stories without significant commercial pressures (Potter, 2012; Seaton, 2008a). The BBC enjoys enormous trust among both British (Hannon, 2008; Seaton, 2008b; Thompson, 2008) and international audiences (Mytton, 2008; Nohl, 2010; Vaughan, 2008). This project reveals key factors that guide the daily editorial process inside this influential global broadcaster. Its audience, programs, and history all help shape the types of stories that are covered. These principles are embedded in the organizational culture, which suggests that the ways in which BBC personnel select and shape stories for coverage is unlikely to change as they prepare to enter a second century of pursuing global journalism.

Footnotes

Authors’ Note

A previous version of this study was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Montreal, Quebec, April 2014.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

Around the World. (n.d.). The British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whatwedo/aroundtheworld/

At a Glance. (n.d.). The British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/Who-We-Are.html

Barnett

(2005). Can the BBC invigorate our political culture? The Political Quarterly, 76, 58–69.

Baxter

Downing

(Eds.). (2002). The BBC reports on America, its allies and enemies, and the counterattack on terrorism. Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press.

Berkowitz

(1990). Refining the gatekeeping metaphor for local television news. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 34, 55–67.

Brown

R. M.

(1979). The gatekeeper reassessed: A return to Lewin. Journalism Quarterly, 56, 595–601, 671.

Cain

(1992). The BBC: 70 years of broadcasting. London, England: The British Broadcasting Corporation.

Charter and Agreement. (n.d.). The British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/governance/regulatory_framwork/charter_agreement.html

Clayman

S. E.

Reisner

(1998). Gatekeeping in action: Editorial conference and assessments of newsworthiness. American Sociological Review, 63, 178–199.

10.

Covington

Jr. Esrock

S. L.

Harman

J. D.

Stebbins

. (1995, 4). An exploratory study of relationships, news releases, and the news media. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Central States Communication Association, Indianapolis, IN.

11.

Department for Culture, Media, and Sport. (2006). Broadcasting: Copy of Royal Charter for the continuance of the British Broadcasting Corporation. London, England: The Stationery Office.

12.

Donohue

G. A.

Olien

C. N.

Tichenor

P. J.

(1989). Structure and constraints on community news gatekeepers. Journalism Quarterly, 66, 807–812, 845.

13.

Gieber

(1964). News is what newspapermen make it. In Dexter

White

(Eds.), People, society and mass communications. (pp. 173–182). New York, NY: The Free Press of Glencoe.

14.

Gross

E. G.

Merritt

(1981). Effect of social/organizational context on gatekeeping in lifestyle pages. Journalism Quarterly, 58, 420–427.

15.

Hafner-Burton

Ron

(2013). The Latin bias: Regions, the Anglo-American media, and human rights. International Studies Quarterly, 57, 474–491.

16.

Hannon

B. P. D.

(2008). Creating the correspondent: How the BBC reached the frontline in the Second World War. Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, 28, 175–194.

17.

Harrison

(2010). User-generated content and gatekeeping at the BBC hub. Journalism Studies, 11, 243–256.

18.

Lewin

(1947). Frontiers in group dynamics: Concept, method and reality in sciences; social equilibria and social change. Human Relations, 1, 5–40.

19.

(2009). Chinese nationalism in an unequal cyber war. China Media Research, 5, 63–79.

20.

License Fee. (n.d.). The British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/licencefee/

21.

Lyall

(2011, 1 27). BBC, facing budget cuts, will trim world service and lay off 650. New York Times, p. 6.

22.

Marriott

(2007). The BBC, ITN and the funeral of Princess Diana. Media History, 13, 93–110.

23.

Miladi

(2008). Mediating wars and conflict: North African TV audiences in the UK and the changing security landscape. Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, 1, 245–257.

24.

Mytton

(2008). The BBC and its cultural, social, and political framework. Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, 28, 569–581.

25.

Nohl

A. M.

(2010). Changing expectations: Notes from the history of the BBC’s Turkish Service. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 3, 171–191.

26.

Potter

S. J.

(2012). Broadcasting empire: The BBC and the British world, 1922–1970. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

27.

Sarikakis

(2004). British media in a global era. London, England: Arnold.

28.

Seaton

(2007). The BBC and metabolising Britishness: Critical patriotism. Political Quarterly, 78, 72–85.

29.

Seaton

(2008a). Foreward: Journeys to truth: The BBC as a pragmatic ethical engineer at home and abroad. Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, 28, 441–451.

30.

Seaton

(2008b). Trustworthiness: Ancient and modern. The Political Quarterly, 79, 300–302.

31.

Shakespeare

(2013, 4 22). Entwistle is still at large. Evening Standard, p. 17.

32.

Shoemaker

P. J.

Eichholz

Kim

Wrigley

(2001). Individual and routine forces in gatekeeping. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 78, 233–246.

33.

Snider

P. B.

(1967). “Mr. Gates” revisited: A 1966 version of the 1949 case study. Journalism Quarterly, 44, 419–427.

34.

Thomas

(2012). British press representations of Yasser Arafat’s funeral. Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, 5, 129–145.

35.

Thompson

(2008). The trouble with trust. The Political Quarterly, 79, 303–313.

36.

Torfeh

Sreberny

(2010). The BBC Persian service and the Islamic revolution of 1979. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 3, 216–241.

37.

Vaughan

J. R.

(2008). The BBC’s external services and the Middle East before the Suez crisis. Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, 28, 499–514.

38.

W1 Project Comes to a Close. (n.d.). The British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/posts/W1-Programme-comes-to-a-close

39.

White

D. M.

(1950). The “gate keeper”: A case study in the selection of news. Journalism Quarterly, 27, 383–390.

40.

Wickham

K. W.

(1989, 8). The generation of story ideas: An exploratory study of gatekeeping in local television news. Paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Convention, Washington, DC.

41.

Williston

(2001). Global news and the vanishing American correspondent. Transnational Broadcasting Studies, 6. Retrieved from http://www.tbsjournal.com/Archives/Spring01/Williston.html