If you want tabloid tittle-tattle on your television, then look no further than Channel 5′s “unashamedly populist” news bulletins.

That’s one of the conclusions of From Callaghan to Credit Crunch, an on-going study investigating changing trends in British television news, which has been extended to include the years 2004-2009.

Over half of Channel 5′s main evening news bulletins focus on tabloid stories, while Channel 4, BBC and ITV are the channels to turn to for the serious stories of the day.

But despite Channel 5′s focus on showbiz gossip, the study concluded that British television news is still making an effort to inform its viewers of the heavier stories affecting the world.

“Despite major upheavals over the last ten years in the technological and economic environment in which television news is produced, distributed and consumed, we have found no evidence of a significant shift towards a more tabloid news agenda,” said authors Steven Barnett, Gordon Neil Ramsey and Ivor Gaber.

The BBC received praise for showing “no significant change in the balance of their evening bulletins” for over 35 years. ITV bulletins remain, as has been the case since 1975, “two thirds broadsheet to one third tabloid”. Channel 4 News proved the thinking man’s choice with 80-90 per cent of its coverage focusing on a broadsheet news agenda.

The study concluded that British TV viewers are being treated to a “healthy balance of serious, light and international news coverage” across the main evening bulletins. 24-hour news channels, including Sky News, were found to mainly provide a serious news agenda.

The study also claims that, despite talk of the “imminent demise” of television news, it is proving “remarkably resilient” with the average daily viewing time increasing between 2006 to 2010.

From Callaghan to Credit Crunch is available to download from Westminister.ac.uk.

(Source: Westminister.ac.uk)

Image taken by Flickr user Mr. T in DC, licenced under Creative Commons.

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