When COVID-19 hit sending the UK into a full lockdown, millions of us turned to broadcast news for answers.

But how well did that coverage tell us what we needed to know? Our academics quickly turned their attention to analysing the avalanche of stories.

Professor Stephen Cushion, based at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, explains: “In March 2020, we were experiencing a massive historic event. And in that moment, many people turned to Auntie, with 20 million viewers tuning into the BBC’s network coverage of the UK Government’s announcements in the first week of the lockdown.

“The role of journalists at this time was essential, as people tried to make sense of the latest developments. But while there is no doubt that journalists were working around the clock to feed this demand, the coverage we looked at raised questions about how effectively they were serving all nations of the UK.”

Health is a devolved issue for the UK – meaning that decisions made in England by the UK Government are largely independent to what governments in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland choose to do.

“During the first couple of weeks of the pandemic, most people wouldn’t have known that the first lockdown was a four-nation agreement,” Professor Cushion says. “News coverage of the first announcements were all primarily focused on the prime minister and UK government.

“As the weeks rolled on, and each nation of the UK moved to their own rules, the lack of understanding of these devolved powers really became apparent.

“Each government took different approaches. The challenge for journalists has been how to explain that in a clear, concise way to ensure nation-specific public health messages are understood by all viewers of network programming that represent the whole of the UK.”

Professor Cushion and his colleagues were well placed to examine these issues, after fifteen years of researching the role that broadcasters play in communicating devolution.

Their study of television news during the lockdown highlighted a lack of clarity around the reporting of different COVID-19 restrictions in each nation. Their findings were submitted to the Future of Public Service Broadcasting Inquiry, run by the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. They were also submitted to the Senedd Cymru inquiry, in July 2020, into the pandemic’s impact on journalism and local media.

But perhaps more importantly, Professor Cushion’s insights were fed directly into newsrooms, via long-standing links the team has built up with editors during the course of their work. They engaged with the major UK broadcasters during the pandemic at BBC News, ITV News, Channel 4 News, Channel 5 News, and Sky News.

Read more on the Cardiff University website