Who's out of step ?

Some papers have been reporting a survey commissioned by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called "The Value of BBC News". It was published on 16th December, but The Times, amongst others, has lighted upon a theme: "Seven in ten Britons think BBC News needs to change to meet the requirements of society". This has been misleadingly transformed into the headline "BBC News is out of step with UK society". 

It's a view of the future, workshopped in 16 online focus groups and in 8 one-hour interviews, and simply makes the case for change as society changes.   Chapter 3, largely unreported, sets out current perceptions and behaviours towards BBC News. Key findings include:

High levels of satisfaction in BBC News (60%), with most people finding it valuable to them personally (72%) and to UK society as a whole (77%).

Those who say it is valuable gave a wide range of reasons, including impartiality, trustworthiness, accuracy, and coverage. Those who say it is not valuable focused more on a perceived lack of impartiality and bias.

Attitudes towards BBC News are related to trust in the wider news landscape. Those who did not trust the news generally were more dissatisfied than satisfied with the quality of BBC News.

The survey found that most people (around 3 in 4) used at least one BBC News service in the last month or so, and about half said BBC News was their most used news source.

Participants described their BBC News usage in ways that range from routine-based habits through to using it for specific purposes such as to fact check a story seen elsewhere. In some cases, participants rarely used BBC News, tending to avoid this content although BBC Sports News was often an exception to this.