At the Lib Dem conference, Sir Ed Davey accused the BBC of giving Nigel Farage and Reform UK too much uncritical airtime — going so far as to say its coverage sometimes looks like “copy and paste” from party press releases. 🔗 www.lbc.co.uk/article/ed-d... TLDR 👇 #impartiality #journalism

My sympathies to current and former BBC executives, but here are some thoughts on reducing the endless social media grumbles. open.substack.com/pub/mattwals...

What a mess The Times’s comment section is today. Trevor Phillips phoning it in, a bonkers “satirical” article about abandoning democracy, and a notebook on Your Party making the same “splitters” joke that every bore on social media made last week.

My sympathies to current and former BBC executives, but here are some thoughts on reducing the endless social media grumbles. open.substack.com/pub/mattwals...

🔴 Broadcaster John Stapleton dies aged 79 after battle with Parkinson's trib.al/TIxhL44

Increasingly think the BBC needs to be more explicit in versioning online products for audiences. A single product encompassing local, national, mid-market and broadsheet would never be proposed by a commercial player. And when the BBC versions broadcast news for segmented audiences it does so well

Really strong edition of the Media Show this week. Bit unfortunate the BBC didn’t put up for the disco, but still a good cast and a good run through the issues. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

“The BBC has managed this story as an exercise in PR - but what Israel says is not ‘journalism’. Journalism is not PR. Journalism is reporting what has happened, what is happening, not what people say is happening if it is provably and palpably wrong.” lnkd.in/ewQ7yUeU

This thread is a really good example of why the headline value for money question is misleading. Students say degrees are not good value for money, but are broadly satisfied with them and believe they'll make them richer.

A new paper by philosopher Zeynep Soysal (University of Rochester) argues that opinion journalism, often criticised as “biased,” can actually play a vital role in public life. 🔗 tinyurl.com/bdb49uny TLDR 👇 #journalism #impartiality #impartialityproject #journalismstudies #politicalcommunication

New publication - the BBC's Chris Mason and Jonathan Munro, Sir Craig Oliver and Times Radio's Kate McCann are among those who reflect on the changes that social media, and Facebook in particular, have brought to the coverage of general election campaigns. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Latest ITV BarnCymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 poll confirms trend seen over last 6 months - neck and neck race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK for largest party, with Labour falling to even more distant third. Evidence growing of distinct realignment in Wales 🧵

MI5 admits illegally collecting data from BBC journalist’s phone www.thetimes.com/article/bf0a...

Mid-life economic insecurity is higher, and leading to greater vote switching: www.jrf.org.uk/public-attit.... You cant understand GB politics without understanding how age structures vote choice and the Conservative-Leave origins of switching voters…especially to Reform.

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BES Research Fellow @jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social has spoken with The Economist about our Parliamentary Affairs paper on how British voters are volatile, but their choices are now structured by party blocs after the Brexit realignment. Read here: www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Should the BBC be giving Reform UK so much coverage? (Cardiff Uni School of Journalism found it featured in a quarter of all News at Tens in the 6 months to June). Latest BBC Newswatch from midnight Fri on iplayer or Sat 745am BBC1/Breakfast www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Our new impartiality study out and in The Guardian - We found Reform given more airtime on TV news likely due to broadcasters taking into account the party’s latest electoral performance and sustained lead in the polls over several months. Thread 1/6: www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

Good write up in the Guardian of our research comparing coverage of Reform UK and the Lib Dems. As we say, newsworthiness is a factor in coverage but Lib Dem complaints that they’re not getting sufficient attention are not baseless. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

Day 1 of the Future of Journalism conference 2025 at @cujournmedcul.bsky.social It's time to get nerdy!

"Cowardice is the enemy of good journalism (…) Facts are our superpower", @jodieginsberg.bsky.social, ceo of the Committee to Protect Journalists, opens the Future of Journalism Conf in Cardiff. Her keynote tackled how to save journalists & journalism in an age of rage @cujournmedcul.bsky.social

Prescriptions from @jodieginsberg.bsky.social to protect journalism at this moment: -do your job (don't just be a stenographer - report properly & courageously) -show your workings (explain the enterprise to the public) -celebrate your impact (report on the industry) Good opening keynote at #FOJ25

Excellent keynote session at #FOJ25 by @jodieginsberg #CPJ

Reset the clock

Opening Future of Journalism conference @cujournmedcul.bsky.social , @mattwalshjourno.bsky.social starts with a tribute to journalists killed or at risk, especially in Israel and Gaza. "The silencing of journalists equates to the silencing of truth." #FOJ25

Anyone who's studied British political parties, and especially Labour, will be sad to hear this news - Sir Bob was a true pioneer in the field. RIP.

It’s been absolutely ages since Mandelson has had to resign from a public position.

Is the government squaring up for a fight with GB News? Lisa Nandy takes aim at "political polemic presented as news". Singles out Nigel Farage's GB News show. Says news coverage is fracturing and democracy at risk if the boundaries are blurred....

Lisa Nandy is quite right on this. It's important that the rules are clear to all and fairly applied. At the moment, there's a sense that the landscape has changed without consultation with industry or the public.

deputy leadership race latest - MP support so far: Bridget Phillipson 44 Lucy Powell 35 Bell Ribeiro-Addy 8 Emily Thornberry 7 Paula Barker 3 Alison McGovern 2

Good to see our latest AHRC @cujournmedcul.bsky.social research informing debates about the due impartiality of broadcasters with @mattwalshjourno.bsky.social @perkinskeighley.bsky.social @maxwellmodell.bsky.social 👇

Soaring from 16% in2021 to 25% today. A change certainly. Soaring though??

You might not be interested in climate change, but climate change is interested in you

Tim Davie is defending the decision to report more fully on Reform UK as a result of sustained opinion poll leads. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

Oli Hawkins from the FT talking about AI in the newsroom bringing together the most technical editorial staff with the most story focused technical staff ... I wonder if there's a masters out there for people who can bridge that gap? </plug> www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgr... #datajconf

Does Reform UK and Nigel Farage feature more in TV news than Lib Dems and Ed Davey? Our new study in @theipaper.com shows they do which suggests broadcasters are applying more weight to the latest polls than no. of MPs in impartial news reporting (thread 1/5): inews.co.uk/culture/tele...

Putin denies justice for Marie Colvin by harbouring Assad www.thetimes.com/article/2471...

Ignore the stand first, this is an interesting and well sourced data column on immigration and costs/benefits. How much impact do migrants have on public services? www.thetimes.com/article/4490...

Ooh we've opened our call for small research grants. £10k for any humanities or social sciences research. Open to independent scholars. We use partial randomisation to allocate the funding: random allocation between all that meet the quality threshold www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...

I am reminded, once again, that for a long time Bloomberg banned us from using the word "reshuffle" on the grounds that "it makes it sound like the process is random".

Most nerve wracking moment of the year. I practice for days and still worry I’ve messed them all up!

Great write up of our political debate show study in The Media Leader - 'Broadcast debate shows prioritising Labour and Tory guests despite third-party surge' uk.themedialeader.com/broadcast-de...

Our new @cujournmedcul.bsky.social study on political debate shows raises topical questions about how broadcasters interpret impartiality - do Reform get too much coverage? Or should they get more coverage so our leading journalists get scrutinise the party’s policies and claims more? 👇

A new study from @cujournmedcul.bsky.social reveals that broadcasters are struggling to reflect the surge in support for third parties in the UK, and - in a finding that may upset some on BlueSky - may not be giving Reform UK enough airtime...

Should the intro to a news piece about the Lisbon funicular crash killing at least 15 start with these words? Reads like AI slop. #Journalism #BBC

"One could make the argument we should have sided with Hitler," a guest told Tucker Carlson's podcast last month. Yair Rosenberg writes about the MAGA influencers who want to rehabilitate the Nazi leader—and what they hope to gain by doing so.

And manages to immediately misuse the mother of parliaments quote. At least he managed not to talk about The Magna Carta

Look like Friday morning will be spent pressing refresh on the browser

With Melvyn Bragg retiring, @tomwhyman.bsky.social introduced me to the best episode of In Our Time where Bragg just kicks off at the guest historian for --reasons--. (Skip to 14:40 if you don't have the patience to listen to the whole thing.) www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...