Thread by @rasmus_kleis

UK General Election now well under way–what did journalists learn from 2017 election and #Brexit referendum, and what has been done to address problems like lack of diversity, lack of reporters outside London, over-reliance on inside sources and polls? Thread with some reads 1/12

First, @risj_oxford data on public's view. BBC, ITV, and some newspapers broadly trusted, but just 40% say they trust news media (and only 10% news in social media), and in 2018 55% said they are concerned over stories spun to push a particular agenda digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2019/un… 2/12

One problem, @helenlewis writes, is that many “political journalists are stuck in the Commons and on Twitter"
newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20… 3/12

But most people are anywhere but Westminster, and "wherever we go, with good reason, most people we meet have no sense of which bit of government is responsible for this or that aspect of their lives" @johnharris1969 and @JohnDomokos writes
theguardian.com/cities/comment… 4/12

So, being far away and perhaps too reliant on polls and Twitter, as @caitlinmoran has written "there is one thing that is taken absolutely as fact at the moment – that pollsters, politicians and journalists have totally lost touch with public" thetimes.co.uk/article/caitli… 5/12

And as a result "in the June 2017 British general election the media and political classes were hoisted by their own ignorance of the nature of the society they were reporting" @jonsnowC4 says pressgazette.co.uk/jon-snow-on-wh… 6/12

So now, @arusbridger writes, "there was too much false news, not enough reliable news. There might soon be entire communities without news, or without news they could trust" theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/… 7/12

And "journalists are having doubts about their ability to pontificate," @CharlieBeckett from @MediaLSE writes, "but there is a big media demand for ‘opinionating’ and little time to seek evidence beyond polling and other pundits’ opinions"
blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2017/06/… 8/12

And, worryingly, in 2017 "misinformation in the UK election came from misleading headlines, graphics and statistics from the mainstream press, political parties and hyper-partisan websites" @EveWatling et al from @firstdraftnews notes
medium.com/1st-draft/type… 9/12

The situation is "chilling", in @OborneTweets's view, "From the Mail, The Times to the BBC and ITN, everyone is peddling Downing Street’s lies and smears. They’re turning their readers into dupes" opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra… 10/12

And @helenlewis sees a similar problem and adds “Why has “Get Brexit done” gained such traction? Because of an unspoken pact between politicians and the media over the framing of the process.”
theatlantic.com/international/… 11/12

And @katiehind is among those who point to lack of diversity "there is an issue with women not being given the opportunity to cover big news stories–the readers, and the general public, are not getting the full story", problem around gender and more blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview… 12/12

For some academic analysis of 2017 UK election, see e.g. @bournemouthuni book here bournemouth.ac.uk/news/2017-06-1… & @lborouniversity analysis of media coverage blog.lboro.ac.uk/crcc/general-e…

Know other good reads on role of journalism in British politics and elections? Add them to the thread!