Your opinion on reporting of the pandemic

The BBC is becoming incapable of reporting anything impartially. I want the news - not their opinion of it

speedwaysue

I agree totally GrannyGravy13, the death figure yesterday was 2. I know that for the families of those 2 it is terrible news, but how many people die or are seriously injured on the roads in a day, or from other illnesses?

Both figures were given. My feeling is that the correct figure is somewhere between the two. There are still people in hospital 28 days after having had a positive Covid-19 test, who are definitely suffering from it. I guess it's important that England is now consistent with Scotland, but I suspect we now have underreporting.

maddyone

Get yourself an iPad growstuff it’s quick and easy to use.

Too expensive and I don't like little gadgets. I like a proper PC with a big screen and proper keyboard and mouse.

(Sorry! Off topic)

Alegrias
Absolutely, you’ve hit the nail on the head. In my opinion, there is a huge amount of journalistic opinion given rather than actual news.

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/sitting-comfortably-not-six-oclock-news/

Let me be very clear about the purpose behind this thread (Sorry 4allweknow, I’m channelling the FM ? )
I am not downplaying the situation, I understand how serious it is. I’m not crazy Christingle. 50,000 dead in the UK. I have friends and family in the US, Brazil and Australia so I know what’s going on. I don’t need to hide from the truth Frankie51.

My point is that the news coverage is misleading and generates an atmosphere of fear unnecessarily throughout the population. As for the idea that they have to frighten us so that we obey the rules, that ceases to be news and becomes propaganda. But that is what has happened, as JenniferEccles says. Pictures of people dying in intensive care wards and interviews with grieving relatives are not news, they are manipulation. On Radio Scotland this morning I heard the phrase “a deadly second wave was unleashed”. Really? How does that inform or educate the population?

Can we all try to understand the difference between responsible reporting and sensationalism?

I hope it all worked out for your daughter growstuff. Its not perfect in Scotland but we’re doing OK just now.

As the late great Clive James wrote: "Mass death dies hard". He was writing about the Press's response to anthropogenic climate change. As he pointed out, those newspapers which didn't carry terrifying stories were losing out to those which did. The same applies to TV. There is no interest in balanced and careful reporting. Last week saw the first day since early March when there were NO hospital deaths from Covid-19. Did you see that reported anywhere? It was on NHS England website, with an accompanying graph. The same day the BBC gave a lot of time to 'second spikes' in various countries around the world, 'hotspots' in NW England and 'increases in R value'. You would think that 0 Covid deaths in hospital would be a real way-mark in our journey through this pandemic, but it didn't fit their purpose! The BBC is the worst offender, I think. Don't expect any reporting integrity from them any more! Even Hugh Pym, their health correspondent, has been seen shaking his head on screen when his more hopeful message was being ignored by Sophie Raworth on the Ten o'clock news, when she tried to get him to say something he didn't. I despair of the main stream press!

varian, you left out India. Huge statistics there. In a population such as theirs, where many very poor people live in cramped unhygeinic conditions, it is difficult to keep to social distancing and hand washing. We in Britain can social distance and wash hands so it is difficult to see why we are the fourth worst country in the world as regards covid deaths.

To be honest I’ve got better things to be doing than scouring every news reel. I did in the beginning and it was mind blowing how at odds they all were. The media love to stir it all up, so until I’m told to stay at home again I’ll carry on as I am,abiding by the present guidelines.

I feel there is too much news on Covid and most is negative. We do need to be made aware when lockdowns are in place to avoid travel to places etc. I have given up watching daily bulletins (I did watch the Scottish FM too and nearly fave up the will to live, found her "let me be clear" almost dictatorial). The UK is made up of very differing populations. Some English cities have populations bigger than the whole of N.Ireland, Wales and Scotland. To deal with a concentrated population of 60 million compared to a widespread 5 million must be harder to manage and control and different approaches may be needed. At times I wonder why there appears to be discord from the virologists, epidemiologists, pandemic experts we seem to have in the UK. Why did the experts not lead all the media bulletins and not politicians? After all the politicians constantly remind us they only act on the expert advice and recommendations given to them on how to manage Covid-19. R number up or down; this doesn't
mean a thing if you are the one who catches the virus and have to cope with the horrible debilitating after effects. We need short, precise bulletins, info on any lock downs and travel restrictions. And of course a lighthearted item to end the bulletin on eg Pop star helping with Uni fees!

After so much seemingly contradictory and alarming Covid “news” I decided to limit my intake to a once a day catch-up. Most irritating to me was the use of “probably/maybe/forecast/estimated” etc in both TV and newspaper reporting This isnt news. Its supposition and hypotheses presented as “news” Some of which has turned out wide of the mark. So what to believe? To me this is one of the scariest outcomes of the pandemic. You dont know who or what to believe when everything you read/see is so subjective. Maybe say nothing at all until you have clear empirical “facts”. But that wont fill news bulletins or copy space......

The death figure is 2 because they’ve changed the way they count up who’s died, to put it basically. If you look, the numbers suddenly and drastically dropped...and that’s aside from the stuff about did they die with it or from it,,, You can manipulate all the figures if you try hard enough....and the media manipulate them for their own good so that we’ll read what they’ve written. You could argue that the government sources manipulate them as a way of controlling the population. I believe they stopped the press conferences for this reason. There would be public pressure to be more accountable, and then that might have lead to unrest....which might have lead to people not following the advice etc etc.

I think the pandemic reporting needs to be negative to make people realise it is a serious illness. I know 2 people who are still very ill having recovered from it and one who died.
Others were not badly affected. This wasn't like seasonal flu or a bad cold.
It could have been devastating without the media constantly showing us the negative side and scaring us into taking care and reinforcing the lockdown . There is quite a strong possibility of a second wave in the winter. As can be seen from the lockdown easing, some people take enormous risks, thinking its all over. Tbe media showing "positives" would make this worse.
.The reality is we are going to have a deep recession, large increases in unemployment, the economy is going to suffer, the high Street especially. Our lives are going to change.
Some countries are really suffering from this nasty virus, India and South Africa for example.
I don't think its the media's job to gloss over the news, giving it a positive spin. It is depressing to watch, I agree, so the thing to do is not to watch it, give yourself a break until you feel better able to deal with it. I don't think it's the job of news reporters to look for the positive news in the time of a global pandemic.
I live directly across the road from a major hospital, which has an intensive Covid care unit, and knowing so many people have been dying there has really brought it home to me.

I've always thought the BBC actually enjoy imparting bad news!

I agree totally GrannyGravy13, the death figure yesterday was 2. I know that for the families of those 2 it is terrible news, but how many people die or are seriously injured on the roads in a day, or from other illnesses?

Newspapers sell by their headlines and the more terrifying and doom-laden they are, the more papers they will sell! Yes, the number of infections are going up. Obviously this is mainly younger people who are going out more and aren’t too worried about Covid. I know older, more vulnerable people who still won’t leave the house. They won’t catch it. In addition, hospitals are coping much better with the disease and can offer more treatments. Yes, there will be isololated outbreaks requiring lockdown but overall death rates are going down rapidly. As another poster pointed out, it is a shame that recovery rates are not being announced. They used to be. I do wish the Press Briefings had continued - even just once or twice a week. And I wish Johnson had sacked Cummings. But that’s not going to happen, is it?

Hospital were able to claim extra cash for covid deaths.Lot of people didn't die of covid but it was a contributing factor so they put cause covid on death certificate and claimed the cash

There are lies, damned lies and statistics!!!!
It depends on the slant you put on the figures, and the way you process them and present them!
Having deaths reported as covid deaths, that are, when looked at individually, clearly not, muddies the water even further.
As a statistition, I am deeply upset by the statistics.

This is crazy. Just take yourself back to when almost a thousand people were dead each day due to COVID. I can't think why anyone would choose to believe this is not extremely serious. The whole world has been in lock down and that is why figures are better now. If the R rate keeps climbing and selfish people do as they want, we are in for a very bad time,

IMO the media has acted disgracefully throughout the pandemic, just to produce headlines every day. The BBC seems to be the worst of all, distorting facts to give a good story. Also, the ‘official facts’ will, I believe, be questioned in retrospect. In a year or two, there will be a painful ‘post mortem’ on all of it and (some) heads will roll (not least because we live in a blame culture). All statistics can be manipulated and that is what is happening now. Yes, to answer your question, I think we do deserve better. Unfortunately, their coverage has worked beautifully as most of us are too full of fear to question anything.

reporting of all news from the media.. concentrates on BAD News

hence the Bible and the Gospel, that is the Good News

Such an interesting thread. I can see both sides so will sit on the fence but definitely thought provoking...

Get yourself an iPad growstuff it’s quick and easy to use.

It doesn't help when people talk about being "cooped up". Isolation was/is needed to protect people, not to imprison them.