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The Loughborough Communication Research Centre at Loughborough University has been instrumental in improving the impartiality of BBC news and current affairs coverage of events in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The Centre was commissioned by the BBC Board of Governors (and its successor body, the BBC Trust) to assess its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (in 2006) and of the Arab Spring (in 2011). The analyses of BBC output led to demonstrable, on-going and significant changes in the BBC's way of providing impartial coverage of these conflicts. The reports have also precipitated considerable media debate in the UK and internationally indicating the significance and reach of our research.
Essex research on the causes and consequences of devolution substantially changed the way BBC News and Current Affairs reports on the nations of the United Kingdom. Professor Anthony King's research on devolution underpinned a 2008 report that he was commissioned to prepare for the BBC Trust. The report examined BBC News and Current Affairs' coverage of the UK's nations and made recommendations as to how this coverage could be improved. The BBC Trust and BBC management accepted the bulk of King's recommendations. The result, still in evidence, has been a transformation in the quality and quantity of the BBC's relevant television, radio and online output, including a seven-fold increase in references to devolved institutions in subsequent years' broadcasts.
This case study focuses on impact by the Media Policy and Industries Group within the Communications and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), specifically the complementary expertise of Jean Seaton and Steven Barnett. It shows how research on policy and historical issues related to public service broadcasting and journalism in the UK has informed and influenced policy debate and practice in respect of Parliament, the Leveson Inquiry, Ofcom and the BBC. Specifically research-based expert advice has improved the quality of evidence on three House of Lords Select Committee Inquiries (Investigative Journalism; British Film and Television Industries; Ownership of News); evidence and policy-making at the BBC; public and stakeholder understanding of key issues addressed by the Leveson Inquiry; and policy-thinking at Ofcom on local media ownership rules.
Research by Popple has focused on the potential for public collaboration and democratic engagement with digital archives. The main impacts have been to:
The research also served to demonstrate to cultural heritage organisations like the BBC the strength of public commitment to, and the benefits of moving towards, more collaborative partnerships with audiences in order to establish open and democratic digital spaces.
Since 2007, Open University (OU) researchers have been examining the BBC World Service (BBCWS) from the perspectives of its diaspora broadcasters in London and its diaspora audiences worldwide. Multilingual migrants have always enabled the BBCWS to broadcast in many languages, creating a cultural bridge to global audiences. Increasingly, BBCWS audiences themselves are diasporic: living outside territorial `homelands'. The research made the BBC aware of its diasporas for the first time. By demonstrating their significance, it led to changes in BBCWS strategy, editorial practices, human resources management and institutional memory. The historic collaboration between the BBC and the OU has acquired new dimensions.
Though the individual research agendas have distinctive emphases, the contributions of Aughey, Birrell and Trench have become integral elements in understanding the development of devolution in the United Kingdom (UK). The impact of this work, through engagement with Parliamentary Commissions, Parliamentary and Assembly Committees and policy think tanks, helps define for politicians, administrators, interest groups as well as the general public the relationship between English and British identity, how devolved institutions operate in the context of central government programmes and the options for policy makers in devising financial arrangements which respect devolved autonomy, English interests and UK equity.
UWE research insights into a sustainable future for local digital news and the democratic deficit of declining local news coverage focused on the need for Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs, here the BBC) to support the input of semi-professional and amateur news producers by creating partnerships and developing co-production and training models between BBC and community news media. These informed UWE leadership of the Bristol-BBC Anchor Local News and Journalism Group which tested out ways of creating change in Bristol's media ecology: brokering partnerships between the BBC and community media companies and networks; devising co-production practices between PSB/voluntary sector journalists as a way of opening up the news agenda to voices outside the mainstream; testing out practices for skills sharing and training. Through its influence on the design of the Newshare pilot, UWE research findings created benefits: for the BBC in meeting its Public Purpose remits; enhancing the sustainability and diversity of Bristol's media ecology by providing co-production and training initiatives and business intelligence; and for the public by strengthening relevance and diversity in local news content.
The impact that the Communication Research Centre at Loughborough University (LCRC) is claiming is raised awareness and understanding of the media's representation of two socially significant topics: general elections in the UK, and government policy on drug usage. The former analyses have led to repeated commissions, and the latter proved central to the UK Drug Policy Commission's report to government, and its recommendations to combat negative stereotyping of users.
Research by members of the Department of Media and Communications on news and journalism in the digital age has been critical in three main areas of impact. Most importantly, it has been used to develop civil society engagement and high-level recommendations to media policy-makers and politicians, on media reform and the Leveson Inquiry. Secondly, this research has been used by the news industry itself in developing its practice for the digital age. Thirdly, recommendations made in the research on collaborative relationships between news organizations and civil society associations have been implemented across the country by the Media Trust.