Stephen Cushion's Avatar

Stephen Cushion

@stephencushion.bsky.social

Professor of journalism & political communication at Cardiff University & night time πŸš– for my kids

183 Followers  |  91 Following  |  142 Posts  |  Joined: 23.11.2024  |  1.946

Latest posts by stephencushion.bsky.social on Bluesky

Preview
GB News’s US expansion feared to be new way for Trumpian views to reach UK audience White House backing was on full display as GB News launched The Late Show Live

NEW: Last month, a delegation from GB News entered the White House & met with Trump.

Senior Trump figures turned up at its US launch party. Could it now become Trump’s preferred outlet in Europe?

It’s reopened the debate over Ofcom’s oversight of impartiality.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

07.10.2025 11:14 β€” πŸ‘ 49    πŸ” 25    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Vacancy β€” Postdoctoral researcher Communication Science at AI, Media & Democracy Lab Do you want to be part of the AI, Media & Democracy Lab? We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with a profile in communication science.

Come work with us 🚨

We are looking for a #postdoc in our @aimediademlab.bsky.social lab.

Profile: Comm sci / poli sci/ computational social science.

Great team, timely topocs, fabulous city, good conditions.

DL πŸ—“οΈ November 1

werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

02.10.2025 14:35 β€” πŸ‘ 42    πŸ” 41    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
BBC partly upholds complaints over Bob Vylan's Glastonbury set The broadcast of Bob Vylan's set at Glastonbury broke editorial guidelines in relation to harm and offence.

The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) has ruled that the broadcast of Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set broke editorial guidelines on harm and offence – but did not breach impartiality rules or encourage crime.

πŸ”— www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

TLDR πŸ‘‡

29.09.2025 14:18 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Is the rise in use of TikTok a good or bad thing? Our new @cujournmedcul.bsky.social project will be examining the impartiality of news produced on TikTok across πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ broadcasters and comparing it to other forms of news output πŸ‘‡

26.09.2025 14:43 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Ed Davey accuses BBC of 'copying Reform press releases' and urges broadcaster to expose Nigel Farage | LBC Sir Ed Davey has accused the BBC of

At the Lib Dem conference, Sir Ed Davey accused the BBC of giving Nigel Farage and Reform UK too much uncritical airtime β€” going so far as to say its coverage sometimes looks like β€œcopy and paste” from party press releases.

πŸ”— www.lbc.co.uk/article/ed-d...

TLDR πŸ‘‡

#impartiality #journalism

22.09.2025 13:39 β€” πŸ‘ 26    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
LinkedIn This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

What if one could automatically monitor what politicians promise and enhance the ability to check, at scale, whether they deliver?

Pledgetracker, by @fullfact.org and researchers, tries to retrieve relevant evidence and reduce human verification effort.

Read their preprint here: lnkd.in/ec5gHYV9

18.09.2025 14:46 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
UK’s public sector broadcasters demand more prominence on YouTube to combat misinformation Bosses say independent news needs to be promoted on social platforms that increasing numbers of viewers are turning to

NEW: Broadcasters now in no doubt about the all consuming power of YouTube - they join forces for govt/regulators to step in for fairer revenue and prominence…

YouTube take a big slice of ad revenue.

All a sign of the power YouTube now wields…

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

18.09.2025 15:02 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Important decision now for all journalists in Wales - how much scrutiny will they pay to Reform’s policies ahead of the Senedd elections even if the party won’t speak to them πŸ€” πŸ‘‡

18.09.2025 11:21 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Society welcomes pledge by government to ensure prominence of public service media content – Society of Editors Society of Editors. Protecting the freedom of the news media

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said public service media content should be prominent on major video sharing platforms like Youtube and on "fair commercial terms", saying: "If we need to regulate we will".
www.societyofeditors.org/soe_news/soc...

18.09.2025 10:38 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Latest ITV BarnCymru 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 poll confirms trend seen over last 6 months - neck and neck race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK for largest party, with Labour falling to even more distant third. Evidence growing of distinct realignment in Wales 🧡

16.09.2025 16:47 β€” πŸ‘ 99    πŸ” 73    πŸ’¬ 10    πŸ“Œ 12
Preview
Using public opinion to serve journalistic narratives: Rethinking vox pops and live two-way reporting in five UK election campaigns (2009–2017) - Stephen Cushion, 2018 The news media are often accused of reporting politics in a too narrow and consensual way, excluding certain perspectives and issues that might better reflect t...

Late to this but we did a comprehensive study of how broadcasters construct public opinion, including in vox pops, revealing where journalistic assumptions can misrepresent the public - journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

16.09.2025 08:44 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

I have some good news for election nerds - "The British General Election of 2024" will be out this autumn, and if you're quick you can grab a 25% pre-order discount from Waterstone's by ordering your copy by 31st July, just enter code SUMMER25 www.waterstones.com/book/the-bri...

29.07.2025 15:25 β€” πŸ‘ 87    πŸ” 29    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 5
Preview
BBC under fresh pressure over extent of Reform UK coverage Nigel Farage’s party featured in considerably more News at Ten bulletins than Lib Dems over six months, study finds

Our new impartiality study out and in The Guardian - We found Reform given more airtime on TV news likely due to broadcasters taking into account the party’s latest electoral performance and sustained lead in the polls over several months. Thread 1/6: www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

12.09.2025 08:42 β€” πŸ‘ 19    πŸ” 15    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 6
Preview
Interpreting UKIP's β€˜Earthquake’ in British Politics: UK Television News Coverage of the 2009 and 2014 EU Election Campaigns UK broadcasters came under fire for the amount of airtime UKIP and its leader Nigel Farage received after the party won the most votes in the 2014 EU election. Our content analysis of television news...

With more resources, we could have gone back into 2024 but that didn’t coincide with Reform lead in opinion polls which was our focus.

I have been studying Farage for a lot longer - see this study of UKIP and its leader in 2009 and 2014 - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

14.09.2025 09:16 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Yes, we looked at and found evidence of that - (see link) - a longer and more detailed study could explore the concept of issue ownership in media coverage (immigration in particular) bsky.app/profile/step...

14.09.2025 09:02 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Agree on need for debate - hopefully our studies and data can provide some evidence to inform future debates bsky.app/profile/step...

14.09.2025 08:09 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Thanks - that would be really helpful and something our project can look closely at πŸ‘

14.09.2025 08:07 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I don’t suppose you have any documentation saved from official guidance in the past about prioritising number of seats - it would be interesting to contrast that with current guidance?

14.09.2025 07:53 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

It’s a debate that should be had - how should broadcasters allocate airtime within regulatory rules www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and...

14.09.2025 07:52 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Blog β€” Researching the impartiality of political news

It’s a complicated issue - one of our studies examining debate programmes like question time found it was mainly Lab and Con politicians featured - so limited airtime for Reform, Lib Dems etc - hopefully our project can provide hard evidence to this debate: www.enhancingimpartiality.com/blog

14.09.2025 07:42 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

Anyone interested in reading the full Cardiff University @cujournmedcul.bsky.social study about coverage of Reform mentioned on this week’s Newswatch can find it here: bsky.app/profile/step...

13.09.2025 08:09 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Israel's war in Gaza and proportionality | BBC News
YouTube video by BBC News Israel's war in Gaza and proportionality | BBC News

Our new video on Israel's war in Gaza and proportionality is on the BBC News YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m3m...

12.09.2025 18:40 β€” πŸ‘ 25    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

I had a great time test driving my new project on politicians being interviewed on celebrity podcasts.

Podcasts are transforming the dynamics of set-piece political interviews. Moving from news logic to content logic.

We need to start integrating this new set of practices and their consequences.

12.09.2025 14:56 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
BBC under fresh pressure over extent of Reform UK coverage Nigel Farage’s party featured in considerably more News at Ten bulletins than Lib Dems over six months, study finds The BBC has come under renewed pressure over the amount of coverage dedicated to Reform UK after an analysis showed Nigel Farage’s party featured in a quarter of all News At Ten bulletins over six months. Reform featured in 49 bulletins between January and July this year, whereas the Liberal Democrats – the third party in parliament with 72 MPs – featured in 17.9% of bulletins, with 35 references. Continue reading...

BBC under fresh pressure over extent of Reform UK coverage

12.09.2025 08:15 β€” πŸ‘ 323    πŸ” 114    πŸ’¬ 27    πŸ“Œ 19
Preview
BBC under renewed pressure over Nigel Farage coverage following study

The BBC is coming under fresh pressure over its coverage of Reform UK after a university study found it featured in a quarter of News at Ten bulletins over six months

12.09.2025 13:05 β€” πŸ‘ 99    πŸ” 68    πŸ’¬ 6    πŸ“Œ 1
Post image

The traditional broadcast interview is dead - @maxwellmodell.bsky.social persuasively argues at @cujournmedcul.bsky.social #FoJ2025 - as podcast interviews offer low risk spaces for niche audiences.

We’ll be exploring the impartiality of broadcast interviews soon as part of our AHRC project πŸ‘‡

12.09.2025 13:23 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Good to see our @cujournmedcul.bsky.social study informing debates about impartiality. Be interesting to hear how Newswatch audiences think broadcasters should interpret due impartiality πŸ‘‡

12.09.2025 13:07 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Should the BBC be giving Reform UK so much coverage? (Cardiff Uni School of Journalism found it featured in a quarter of all News at Tens in the 6 months to June).
Latest BBC Newswatch from midnight Fri on iplayer or Sat 745am BBC1/Breakfast www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

12.09.2025 12:55 β€” πŸ‘ 83    πŸ” 53    πŸ’¬ 33    πŸ“Œ 6

Lib Dems featured so little they didn’t receive much scrutiny

12.09.2025 12:42 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Excellent evidence based analysis from BBC Verify - much needed context/background to understand the issues

12.09.2025 11:09 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

@stephencushion is following 20 prominent accounts