Perceptions of impartiality

Detail man Oliver Dowden, this month's Culture Secretary, spotted some Ofcom research from last year, saying Sky News and CNN has higher ratings on perceived impartiality than the BBC.

It's from a survey by Jigsaw, and uses an entertaining methodology, which clearly favours 'fans' of various networks. It captures those who rate various attributes of their preferred service (they have to use it at least weekly) at 7 or above, on a scale of 1 to 10. Thus they found 200 regular CNN users, and, funnily enough, 70% of them said the service they liked was impartial, at least at 7 or above. For BBC TV News, there were 2878 users; 76% rated the services at 7 or above, as 'important to me personally', the highest score in that category. In impartiality, BBC TV News got 59% of its users to rate it at 7 or above for impartiality; Sky News got 68% of 959 users.

How does this play in other sections of the same research ?  By the same methodology, the survey places The Guardian/Observer as the most impartial of all national newspapers, at 69%. It also led the way on accuracy, at 81%, which will make some chuckle, and scored 81% for 'helps me make up my mind'.

Surveying websites, BBC and Sky News tie at 61% for impartiality; the Guardian/Observer falls to 49%, and the Mail props up the table at 32%.