Is news getting dumber? University of Westminster to mount study

Published: 13 August, 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

THE charge that television news is dumbing down is nothing new.

Now a leading academic at the University of Westminster will mount a major study into the changing nature of television news, analysing hundreds of hours of old bulletins to establish whether there is any substance to the fear. 

Steven Barnett, Professor of Commun­ications at the Marylebone-based University, will head the investigation.

He said: “There has been very little systematic study of what is actually happening to news agendas on terrestrial television.” 

The study comes after research published by Ofcom last year revealed the number of people getting their news from television has risen in recent years despite the  expansion of the internet.