Wednesday 24 July 2013

Bias in the Scottish media


If the media in this country is to be believed, an independent Scotland will be a friendless, incompetent, struggling nation with a pot full of useless oil.

The referendum on Scottish independence will ultimately decide the future of the Union, and whether or not Scotland will become an independent nation.

As this is Scotland’s biggest political decision in 300 years, the press coverage has been extensive and sometimes excessive.

The campaign for an independent Scotland was launched on May 25 2012 by the Scottish National Party (SNP) and its leader Alex Salmond. This gave the opposing campaigns - the Yes campaign and Better Together – approximately 28 months to battle it out to win the votes of the Scottish public.

Many people already know how they will vote. But there are still a large number of people who are undecided. These people often get placed into the category of a ‘No’ vote, but I will go into that in more detail later.

Those who are still undecided will rely on the media to inform them and expect the portrayed facts to be balanced, whether in the newspapers they read, or the news programmes they watch.

That being the case, the points that the media put across to the public should be factually accurate and presented in a way that allows people to make their own decision.

But is this happening?

The media will play a vital role in this referendum yet they are often accused of not being impartial.

A recent example of this can be found in the newspaper, The Scotsman.

On Monday 3 June, their front page has the headline, “80% of young Scots snub independence”. When you read the story, it states that only 60% are actually opposed to Scotland leaving the UK, and 20% are undecided. The word ‘snub’ used in the headline is therefore inaccurate and used to suggest that those 20% indeterminate voters are voting no.  Is this fair and balanced?

Political editor of the Scottish Sun newspaper, Andrew Nicoll, believes newspapers publish these polls to ‘flatter their readers.’

“People buy newspapers to see themselves reflected. In some cases this is blatant bias and I don't think it’s a coincidence that the people writing the most virulent stuff are not Scottish.

“Some people make no secret of the fact that they have a mission and, if that's what they get paid to do, then that's their job. I have a rather more old fashioned view of the role of a journalist, so until I'm told to do something else, I will try to tread a middle path, pointing out failures on both sides.”

Nicoll also feels the media isn’t playing all that much of a role in the campaign just now, in reference to those undecided voters.

“Nobody is listening. People who have not yet made an unshakeable decision won't give it a thought for another year. If a killer argument has been deployed, so far I haven't seen it. The main theme in the whole thing so far is that, whether by accident or design, the SNP government has found itself in a position whereby SNP policy = independence = SNP policy and the gaps in SNP policy, their lack of homework, have been allowed to undermine the idea of independence.”

Another criticism of the media coverage in newspapers and the BBC is the use of the word ‘warn’, or ‘warning’.

When used to describe someone else's statement or comment, it implies that the person speaking agrees with it.

The BBC often, when describing someone’s opinion, uses the word “warning.”

There have been several occasion on the BBC where the words “Scottish independence” and “Warning” go together. Here are a few examples to back up that point.

“Scottish independence: Pension shortfall warning"
“UK Treasury warning that an SNP plan for a currency union after independence”
“Scottish independence: Warning over ‘weakened military’”
“Scottish independence: ‘Havoc’ warning from pensions firm”
“Scottish independence: Luxembourg warns against ‘going separate ways’”
“Scottish independence: Barroso warning  on EU membership”
“Scottish independence: Michael Moore issues warning over vote question”
“Scottish independence: ‘Border checks’ warning from home secretary”

You get the point. Is this tactical scaremongering from the BBC?

By contrast, however, it’s almost impossible find a BBC headline that positively promotes independence. You will look in vain for headlines that say “Yes campaign says independent Scotland will be eighth richest country in the world” or “Official GERS report shows Scotland’s public finances much healthier than those of the UK”. Such headlines, it seems, do not exist. Reporting Scotland is rarely, if ever led by a positive story about independence, but it is often led by negative ones.

David Ross, a representative from Better Together doesn’t buy this and believes the coverage thus far has been “fair and balanced.”

“I strongly disagree that there has been a pro-Union bias in the newspapers. In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, which was only two years ago, the SNP received endorsements from seven Scottish newspapers. Below is an extract from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre's briefing on the 2011 election to illustrate this point.”

"In the 2011 election, however, the SNP was backed by the Sun, the News of the World, the Scotsman, the Scotland on Sunday, the Sunday Herald and the Scottish Sunday Express. The highest profile newspaper intervention during the campaign came from the Sun which, in a reversal of its position in 2007, endorsed the SNP on 19 April."

Ross also disagrees with Andrew Nicoll’s assessment of the importance of the media in the campaigns.

“The media will have a crucial role in the referendum as it remains the principal means of communicating with voters, along with traditional outlets such as newspapers, TV and radio. There will also be an important role for social media (Twitter, Facebook etc.) particularly in relation to younger voters.”

How do the people who are reading and listening to these stories feel? They are the individuals who are relying on the media in this country to give a fair representation of what a Yes or No vote would entail for Scotland.

Student Collin Teasdale, 25, believes people need to make their own decision, and not rely on the media.

“There is a bias, but that’s always going to happen. Newspapers always put their own spin on things and make sure the story becomes more newsworthy. It’s a big decision so we need to read about it ourselves. I’m not sure many people will, mind you.”

Boots employee, Kayley Melville, 20, does agree there is a bias, but it benefits the Yes campaign.

“There is a bias in the Scottish media with the "Braveheart effect.” The media won’t make much of a difference to me. We are fine the way we are just now.”

Painter and decorator, Kevin Kelly, 52, worries that he isn’t being told the whole truth as he relies heavily on the media to inform him.

“I work most of the day and the only time I get to myself is spent with my family or watching TV, I don’t have the time to look deep into the issues. I watch the news and read the papers, but if they’re not being totally honest, then that does concern me.”

The media will continue to have a big say in the referendum, right up until 2014. There are Facebook pages and marches set up to try and combat the apparent bias shown, but whether or not that will be successful is up for debate. The people who have a bigger say in this decision are the voters. If they are pro-active and they get out to encourage and inspire others to make their own decision, then that will have a greater effect than the media ever will.

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Is there a lack of ambition amongst this Celtic squad?

After the highs of reaching the last 16 of the Champions League and defeating the world’s best side, who would have thought our best players would be linked with the likes of Reading, Hull and Wolves?

Celtic’s now esteemed scouting system, which is led by John Park, has brought relatively unknowns to Celtic and made some of them Europe’s hottest properties, or so we thought.

Victor Wanyama, Fraser Forster and Gary Hooper all stood-out during our European campaign, which in turn has led to numerous clubs being interested in gaining their services.

At first there were talks of Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool all being interested in the three players mentioned above, and rightly so.

Several English club have been watching Wanyama
Victor Wanyama, in my (biased) opinion, could walk into any of
they midfields and not look a bit out of place. He is a perfect fit for a club like Manchester United, even more so now that Paul Scholes has retired for a second time.

Despite this, it’s Premiership new boys Cardiff City who are chasing, and are favourites for our Kenyan midfielder.

I’m sure everyone on Twitter has seen the fans of Cardiff, Southampton and Reading slating Celtic and the SPL, claiming joining their club would be a significant step up for Wanyama or Hooper. You can see the slight amount of logic if he was joining the Premiership, but Reading? Championship Reading would be a step up? You can draw your own conclusions from that.

Celtic have already accepted a bid of £12m from Southampton last week but the midfielder’s agents, Rob Moore and Ivan Modia, dismissed the terms on offer and accused Celtic of trying to railroad a deal — with relations between the two parties now strained.

It is likely that Wanyama will join either Cardiff or Southampton, clubs that are surely below Celtic in terms of their reputation.

Today Liverpool have accepted a £6m offer for Jonjo Shelvey. If this England under-21 player is worth £6m, then surely whoever gets Wanyama for £12m will be laughing.

Wherever he goes, Celtic are going to make an extremely healthy profit, so I shouldn't lose that much sleep over the issue, but Wanyama has proved himself to be more than capable of joining a bigger club. What’s the rush? He’s still young and has plenty of time to make money. Sadly, it seems his agents might be doing the talking for him.

Another player in a similar boat is Englishman Gary Hooper.

Hooper, when playing in the Championship with Scunthorpe, outscored the then Newcastle striker Andy Carroll, who was then rewarded with a £35m move to Liverpool, only to leave for West Ham, for an expected £15m two years later.

Hooper was the player everyone was talking about in the January transfer window, with Norwich chasing the 31-goal hitman throughout the month – even sending a plane for him on the final day.

Despite shining in the Champions League, Hooper hasn’t been linked with top Premiership clubs. Instead there are talks of Hull and Reading wanting him to move down south.

Hooper scored 31 goals in all competitions last year
There are rumours that Hooper would be happy to stay, if he is to become one of the joint top earners at the club. I don’t think he is asking too much. Goal scorers are hard to come by, when you have one, you need to make sure you keep him.

Going by his attitude on the pitch since Christmas, I think it’s clear that Hooper would fancy a move away from Celtic. If this means to Reading or Hull, then that’s his decision. Will moving to one of these clubs really boost his chances of getting an elusive England call-up? Surely the Champions League is a better platform for him.

Former Celtic striker, Frank McGarvey had this to say about Hooper;

"I understand the financial pull of a club that can effectively double your wages.

"But what Gary also has to ask himself is what are his ambitions?

"Celtic's aim this summer is to have a crack at the Champions League again – and there is silverware and medals on offer too."

Times have changed for Celtic, they can’t compete with the ludicrous amounts of money that the English clubs have to spend, but not that many years ago Celtic aces were getting their chance to move to the big teams.

Liam Miller, a flop, I know, got his dream move to Manchester United. Hooper and Wanyama are significantly better players than the Irishman.

Henrik Larsson went on to play for Manchester United and won the Champions League with Barcelona.

One of my favourite Celtic players from recent years is Georgios Samaras. Not only for his qualities as a player, but he has shown the kind of commitment and passion to Celtic that is a rare thing in today’s footballing climate. This quote from the Greek sums up the attitude that every footballer with ambitions and morals should abide by.

“At the end of my career, I'd rather count my medals than count my money.”

Maybe some of this current Celtic squad should look at this and realise what their priorities are.