marcus evans research has recently undertaken a survey investigating UK public opinion regarding the upcoming American Presidential election, and how this area of foreign politics is reported in the UK media.  We also asked questions concerning the general dissemination of UK news, and the perceived strength and weakness of reportage.  What follows is a snapshot of the opinions captured.

American Presidential Election

Overall, the British public do feel that they have been exposed to adequate coverage concerning the upcoming US Presidential election, even at this relatively early stage of primary voting.  Nearly 60% of us believe that there had been “just the right amount of coverage” concerning this election in our media, whilst a further 27% felt that this coverage had indeed been “too much”.  A negligible percentage of people believed that the UK-wide US Presidential election coverage had been inadequate.

These survey results demonstrate that the British public believe that a Democratic victory is the most likely outcome of the American election, with the most probable candidate to take the White House, by nearly double, identified as Barak Obama, (29%).  The UK population then rated Hillary Clinton, (15%), as the second most likely candidate to win, and finally, the Republican candidate, John McCain, (7%).  However, nearly half of those surveyed refused to answer this question, indicating that many people in the UK either don’t have an opinion on the matter, or didn’t want to disclose it to the pollsters.  This theory is reinforced by that fact that over 50% of those polled stated that they were either “not that interested”, or “not at all interested” in American politics.  37% of people claimed to be a “little bit interested”, and only 10% of the British public take a “keen interest” in American politics.

The majority of UK residents have no opinion on whether any of the top three runners for American President will create a “lot of change in America”, however nearly 40% “agree” or “strongly agree” that Obama’s policies are likely to stimulate change, as opposed to the 23% who believe that Clinton’s will, and only 9% who think that McCain coming to power will have that effect. 

When asked to identify the current top priorities for US voters, the British public identified the ongoing war in Iraq, (20%), as the highest priority, followed by the perceived risk of terrorism, (16%), and then the healthcare system, (14%), and the obesity crisis, (12%), as the top four.  In contrast the top British priorities selected from the same list were identified as immigration, (17%), then jointly health, (14%), and personal finances (14%), no doubt a more popular option as result of the recent Northern Rock crisis, and lastly housing, (12%), a prominent issue no doubt at least partly, because of the recent spate of mortgage related problems, and the difficulty many people have in getting on the property ladder. 

Table 1 shows these priorities as the UK public believe Americans would rate them (in blue), and how they rate them themselves (in red).

Table 1: Current priorities for US voters and UK citizens
Series 1 represents US voters; Series 2 represents UK citizens

General Attitudes to the UK Media

The television is by far the most trusted medium through which the public access accurate information concerning what is happening in the UK, with close to two-thirds, (62%), watching the TV for this purpose.  This is followed by the radio, (14%), and then newspapers, (10%), and the internet, (9%).

Chart 2 identifies the percentage of people who selected each of the main stream television channels as the best for news on current affairs in the UK.

Chart 2: Provides the best coverage of current affairs in the UK

The vast majority of the UK public, 71%, rated terrestrial television as either “excellent” or “very good” at providing quality news reportage in the UK.  In addition, around half the population rated multi channel TV, (53%), broadsheet newspapers, (50%), and national radio, (49%), with the same top-end ratings.  Internet sites, (38%), and local radio, (32%), were rated by around one third of us as producing “excellent” or “very good” news reporting.  On the flipside, tabloid newspapers, perhaps unsurprisingly, are believed by more than one third of us, (35%), to report the news “poorly” or “very poorly”.   

In terms of preferred channel on terrestrial television, the BBC is seen to be “the best provider of current affairs” in the UK for significantly more of us than any other media format, taking over half the share, (53%), on this measure.  They are followed, in much smaller percentages by Sky, (19%), and then ITV, (15%).

46% of the population believe that the quality of journalism in the UK is good when compared with other countries, whilst 45% stated that the balance of news from home and abroad is about right.  Over 40% of us think that the British media is up-to-date in terms of the news that people want to know about, and around the same percentage believe that it does reflect our ethnic diversity.  Inversely however, 54% of us believe the UK media to be “sensationalist”, and the same percentage expressed the opinion that the UK media “always focus on negative, rather than positive stories”.  Nearly half of us believe that the UK media is “London centric in its reporting”.  44% of those surveyed neither agreed nor disagreed when asked about the UK media’s impartiality, and 40% felt the same way about the quality of UK journalism compared to other countries.

Table 3 demonstrates agreement (shown in blue), or otherwise (shown in green), with various statements concerning the UK media.

Table 3: Ratings of various statements concerning the UK media
Series 1 represents “excellent” and “good” ratings; Series 2 represents a “fair” rating; Series 3 represents “poor” and “very poor“ ratings

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