Half of Britons think sport and US politics get too much coverage, with the public tending to see science and lighthearted stories as underreported on
Everyday, newsrooms are filled with discussion about which stories and topics should get into newspapers and onto news bulletins, with editors keen to grab the public’s attention, while making sure they cover a diverse spread of interests.
The good news for TV and newspaper editors is that the British public tend to think they cover most key topics we asked about to a reasonable degree, with more Britons feeling eight of the twelve news areas polled are covered ‘about right’ than feel they are covered ‘too much’ or ‘too little’.
With crime or the economy, for instance, a majority of Britons (51-55%) think they are covered about right, with around one in five (20-21%) believing they don’t get enough attention on the news and between 12-17% of the public feeling they get too much of a focus. A similar story is true of business stories and world news, though nearly three in ten (28%) do feel they hear too little about international affairs.
Only a quarter of Britons (27%) agree with Brenda from Bristol that “there’s too much politics”, with most of the public (53%) feeling British politics is covered to a reasonable degree by TV and newspapers. Only 9% of Britons are hardcore ‘politics junkies’ who feel that the Westminster soap opera is reported on too little.
There are, though, some exceptions to what editors get ‘about right’. Only one in three Britons (32%) feel that US politics gets an appropriate level of coverage, with half of the public (48%) feeling that they hear too much about politics from across the pond.
Sport’s place in the news agenda is treated with similar scepticism, half of Britons (49%) feeling it is overcovered within newspapers and news bulletins, against just 5% who feel they see too little sports news. This fits with the Reuters Institute’s recent study of news consumption, which found that those interested in sports news were most likely to say their news needs were met.
At the other end of the scale is science, which half of the public (49%) feel is reported on too little, compared to only one in three Britons (33%) who see current levels of science reporting as adequate and only 3% who feel science is given undue prominence by editors.
And finally, more than four in ten Britons (43%) feel there are too few lighthearted stories in the news, clearly more than the one in nine (11%) who feel that such stories are given excessive focus.
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Photo: Getty
