Oxford Brookes students react to BBC's top tier resignations
Despite flaws and mistrust, BBC retains a cautious favourability among Gen Z’s
The news organisation is in the news. On Sunday evening, 9 November, breaking news arrived, ironically from the BBC on the BBC.
The BBC’s director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness resigned after criticism that a Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by Donald Trump.
An internal memo by Michael Prescott, published by The Telegraph, appeared to show that BBC’s Panorama programme edited two parts of Donald Trump’s speech, to show as if he encouraged the Capitol Hill riots of January, 2021.
Michael Prescott is a former independent external adviser to BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee. The allegations of “serious and systemic bias” also extend to BBC’s coverage of Gaza conflict and trans rights.
BBC, a public service broadcaster, relies on TV license fees from UK viewers. And it is often dogged by criticism of bias from both left and right.
What do the young think of the BBC and the latest allegations?
Gen Z’s primarily in the age group of 19-21 at Oxford Brookes University, were asked if they had heard of the recent allegations against BBC. Most had vaguely heard of the news via social media platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram. However, nobody probed further on the full news on any platform.
Abby Woodland, 21, and Kim Bordenave, 22, undergraduate students of social work at the Oxford Brookes University had heard the news.
Abby shares her view on the matter, “The BBC is more known to be one of the biggest news reporters. And so hearing that there is potential bias, then, what can you trust? We’re getting our news from there, how do we know that’s actually true.
Donald Trump has enough money. Why can’t he donate it to a charity? And then with the people (at BBC) resigning, it gives off the idea that they maybe are taking accountability for what happened. So it gives even more reason to believe that it is bias (against Trump).
As much as I’m not a fan of Trump, maybe resignation shows, is it because they’re guilty of doing that… or is it because of the power they know he has, that they don’t want to be a part of whatever he does”.
Helena, 21, an undergraduate student of criminology at Oxford Brookes, heard about the resignations, but not the reasons for it. Nevertheless, she says “it wasn’t too shocking. I can imagine very well, big news companies like the BBC, that they would do something like that.
“I think for the most part, the BBC is probably one of the most trustworthy news sources. But I am very aware with every news, every news broadcasting, they distort things. They exaggerate things, to create profits, to help people click on the articles, they are a business essentially”.
Jemma, 21, primary education undergraduate student, heard and discussed the news with her parents. She says, for more localised news, where there is less bias, she would trust the BBC, but not for global or more open-ended political news.
Academic Reaction to BBC Resignations
Dr. Leander Reeves, Senior Lecturer in Publishing, School of Arts, at Oxford Brookes University, believes the resignations were right.
She believes, “BBC plays an incredible and vital part in truth and investigative journalism, not just for this country, but is also necessary and needed in countries where truthful journalism is a dangerous profession and hard to come by. So, I think it was right that they resigned.
But I think there’s something larger which is not being talked about. Commissioning a company to make a programme (like Panorama) of this importance, and political resonance to this country and another country especially America, this is what happens when you try to make cuts, by firing and making redundant qualified investigative journalists.
The BBC should never have cut investigative journalism, and not centralised investigative journalism. And if it means we see less celebrities solving puzzles, and people dancing on ice, then so be it.
What makes me angry with the BBC is that there are a whole load of people now who are happy to sow this idea that believes the mainstream media cannot be trusted. Political influencers are now enjoying the fruits of this distrust.
And I think we have never needed trust in journalism more than now.
BBC have allowed themselves to be hysterically criticised by those who would seek to show chaos, and make ordinary people fearful and not know where they can find the truth”.
She further says, “the BBC has been under attack for decades for its public broadcasting service roles, and how it is funded, and populist regimes around the world and in the UK, who do not like public broadcasting, will see this as an invitation to attack the BBC.
There’s also a question on governance, and how such a large institution should be governed. Maybe it’s too much for one person to run the BBC, and it should be a coalition of individuals”.