We need to hold broadcasters to account for their international content

A new report commissioned by IBT tracks international public service content broadcast in 2023 and 2024. The report’s author, Martin Scott, argues that transparent and accountable public service media is vital in an age of misinformation. 

I was delighted when IBT asked me to write their latest report, Small World, where I examine patterns of international factual programming on UK public service broadcaster (PSB) channels in 2023 and 2024. 

Factual programmes, when done well, offer citizens a chance to understand the world around them, whether those shows are documentaries or entertainment formats.

Ultimately, it’s important that broadcasters, policy-makers and viewers understand how much international content is available to them, particularly as PSBs continue to evolve into digital platforms. 

The world is not covered evenly on PSBs 

Some of our findings were expected. International factual content on UK public service channels remains very heavily concentrated on a small number of countries – especially the US, Italy and Spain – while certain parts of the world scarcely feature. 

34 countries received no coverage at all in 2023 and 2024 – including Chad, the Central African Republic and Burundi, which all experienced humanitarian crises in this period. We found only one factual programme set in Central Asia.

Travelogues dominate coverage

There were also some surprises. International factual programming is now heavily dominated by travelogues. This genre can be very effective at connecting audiences with international issues. My own previous research concluded that, when talking about celebrity-led travel and adventure programmes, UK audiences frequently describe having ‘authentic, proximate and active encounters with distant others’. 

However, we also found that, amongst the 10 most frequently appearing presenters of international travelogues, Jane McDonald was the only woman, and Clive Myrie was the only non-white presenter. 

This lack of diversity is highly problematic because it is likely to reinforce stereotypes about travel and exploration being predominantly male activities. It is also likely to limit the range of perspectives being offered by such programmes – making it harder for audiences to relate or feel represented.

How the world is presented shapes people’s perceptions 

This is not the first report I’ve written for IBT. Between 2007 and 2012, I published several reports with them, looking at international programming by UK broadcasters. In Screening the World, for example, we showed that on UK television in 2007-2008, 40% of coverage of Africa was about wildlife, and 37% of coverage of the Middle East was about conflict and disaster, while Latin America and the Caribbean scarcely appeared on UK television screens at all. 

We also showed that these kinds of patterns of media coverage matter because they reinforce stereotypes about certain regions of the world being ‘dominated by disasters and/or extreme poverty, for example, in which little appears to change’. 

In The World in Focus, published in 2009, we concluded that ‘while international television content can engage and enthuse all audiences, this can only be achieved if a broad range of relevant connections to the lives of those in the audience is made in all genres of programming’. 

International content must survive in a rapidly changing media environment

A lot has changed in the past decade and half. Digital fragmentation now means that UK television channels are no longer the gatekeepers of public understanding of the wider world. 

But this digital fragmentation does not make international content on UK broadcasters any less important. The BBC’s requirement to ‘provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them’, for instance, is vital for countering the proliferation of misinformation online and ensuring audiences can access trustworthy and contextualised information.

There is no monitoring of international content by the regulator 

One thing hasn’t changed in the past decade: Ofcom still doesn’t monitor levels of international factual programming on UK channels. This makes it very difficult to hold broadcasters accountable to their internationally oriented public service principles.

As the world becomes increasingly complex, unpredictable, and precarious – due to rising geopolitical tensions and the accelerating effects of climate change – public service media will be increasingly important in helping us understand events. We need to hold broadcasters to account and ensure that UK audiences have access to the world through their screens. 

Martin Scott is Professor of Media and Global Development at the University of East Anglia