Tune in, drop out: TV adding to apathy?

TV may be adding to the public's apathy with politics, new research has claimed.

Programmes claiming voters are disinterested in politics and voting are adding to disengagement, according to a report from the Economic and Social Research Council.

An in-depth study of more than 5600 British and US television news reports, published on Monday, found most portrayed the public as generally passive and apolitical.

It found 95 per cent of references to the public on British television news offered no clear political leaning at all - despite reporting key issues such as health, crime and terrorism.

Researchers also concluded that public opinion is rarely included in reporting as opinion polls featured in less than two per cent of political stories.

The most common reference point for reporters and presenters were inferences to what the public thought without any supporting evidence. This occurred in 44 per cent of the programmes analysed.

Demonstrations made up just three per cent of output - though the survey was carried out before the anti-war rallies that took place in the lead up to hostilities in the Gulf.

"Although we have recently seen people taking part in huge protests - whether for the countryside or against the war - this engagement doesn't seem to connect to an interest in representative politics," said Professor Justin Lewis of Cardiff University.

Producers are more likely to use "vox pops" as a way of gauging the public's response - they accounted for 39 per cent of programming - but the study warned they are rarely based on reliable survey data.

"Polls, for all their flaws, are the most systematic form of evidence we have about what people think about the world - yet they're used surprisingly rarely in television news," said Lewis.

"While television often refers to public opinion, these results suggest that we rarely hear any evidence for the claims being made."