“Bias” at the BBC, Really? Replicating the CPS Analysis of BBC Online’s Coverage of Think Tanks

With the next BBC Charter Review not too far off, public and political opinion about the broadcaster is going to be increasingly important. The recent CPS report “proving” bias at the BBC got substantial media exposure, yet Gordon Ramsay of the Media Standards Trust argues that in replication the report’s findings don’t stand up

Acrimonious and divisive: the role the media played in Brexit

Britain’s media is highly partisan, and this was more apparent than ever in the run-up to the EU referendum. In this extract from a report on media coverage of the campaign, Martin Moore (left) and Gordon Ramsay explain how the Leave campaign styled Remain’s warnings about the effects of Brexit as ‘Project Fear’, accusing ‘experts’ arguing for the status quo of self-interest and a lack of patriotism. Leave then went on to make immigration the key issue, with the Express, Mail and Telegraph urging voters to ‘take back control’ of Britain’s borders

UK Election 2015:Setting the Agenda

UK election 2015: setting the agenda builds on innovative work by Dr Martin Moore and Dr Gordon Ramsay started in January 2015. Using new methods for collecting and analyzing news and social media content,the report provides a fresh perspective on how political communication is changing in the digital era

The evolution of election coverage on British television news, 1979-2005

This thesis seeks to provide a comprehensive account of the nature and degree of change in British television news coverage of General Elections. By creating and utilising an in-depth content analysis coding frame, the analysis measures news quantitative and qualitative data across 270 bulletins, approximately 148hrs, of news content across the seven elections from 1979 to 2005. In doing so, it fills two gaps in the existing literature. First, it provides the first dedicated and consistent longitudinal analysis of British election news. Given the acknowledged importance of television news in the modern political process, it is important to develop an understanding of how campaign news content has changed, both as a source of information for the public at moments of democratic renewal, and also in terms of the normative role of journalism in British politics. Second, it develops a toolkit by which political news content can be accurately and reliably measured. Most of the existing empirical research into British television election news content has employed inadequate or non-replicable measures, leaving a fragmentary body of data from which longitudinal conclusions cannot be drawn with confidence. By adapting and applying a series of measures based on other longitudinal media content studies, the thesis sets out a means by which future studies of news content can be guided. The thesis thus generates new data on four aspects of election news content. First, it casts serious doubt on the "tabloidisation" thesis, demonstrating that news in British terrestrial news bulletins has retained both an overwhelmingly serious news agenda, and a substantial commitment to election news coverage. Not only have levels of campaign coverage remained steady, but campaign coverage has been given a consistently prominent place in news bulletins, indicating a lasting commitment to a more „sacerdotal‟ approach to campaign coverage on both BBC and ITV, despite increasing competition in the television environment. Second, an analysis of the balance of substantive policy content and strategic campaign coverage shows that journalists on British television news have adopted aspects of an increasingly adversarial approach to covering campaigns, and have tended to view their role ever more as interpreters of political messages and campaign actions. Third, the research shows comprehensive evidence of a dramatic shrinking of political soundbites over the period of study, and a replacement of disappearing politician speech by journalists who feature more and speak progressively more often over the period of study. Finally, in order to determine the effect of technological changes in television news reporting, the thesis compares campaign and non-campaign news output, determining that, while some aspects of change in election news can be ascribed to technological changes, the rise of the journalist as the most prominent speaker in campaign news items cannot

Investigations on the Role of the Renin-Angiotensin System in Asthma

The renin-angiotensin system is activated in acute severe asthma although the mechanism for is unclear. Angiotensin II is a weak bronchoconstrictor, potentiates the effects of other bronchoconstrictors and can be formed by inflammatory proteases. In vitro, angiotensin II is a growth promoter for human airway smooth muscle cells. The insertion/deletion polymorphism of the ACE gene accounts for variation in ACE activity and the deletion allele may be more frequent in asthmatics. In view of these facts, further clarification of the role of the renin-angiotensin system in asthma is required. Aims This thesis examines the factors causing activation of the renin-angiotensin system in acute severe asthma, the role of the ACE gene polymorphism, the putative effects of angiotensin II on the action of histamine in the human airway both in vitro and in vivo, the effects of angiotensin II on rat airway smooth muscle cell growth in vivo and seeks evidence for the existence of a local renin-angiotensin system in the human lung. 1. Mechanism of Activation of the Renin-Angiotensin System in Asthma Clinical data were obtained from 40 acute asthmatic hospital admissions and correlated with plasma levels of renin and angiotensin II. The genotype for the ACE gene polymorphism was determined in this group, a group of 20 non-asthmatic acute medical hospital admissions and 78 healthy volunteers to allow comparison of allele frequencies and correlation with both ACE activity and angiotensin II levels. Plasma renin and angiotensin II were elevated in some, but not all of the acute asthmatics and no correlation was found with any of the parameters measured. The DD homozygote for the ACE gene polymorphism had the highest ACE activity in all groups measured. There was a non-significant trend towards an increased frequency of the deletion allele in asthmatics compared with normal controls. An unexpected finding was the increased ACE activity for the DD and ID genotypes found in acute hospital admissions compared with healthy controls. The clinical significance of this is uncertain. 2. Effect of Angiotensin II on Histamine-Induced Bronchoconstriction The effect of angiotensin II on histamine-induced contraction of human bronchial rings in vitro was examined by constructing concentration-response curves to histamine (10-9M - 3x10-4M) in the presence and absence of sub-threshold doses of angiotensin II (10-7M - 10-6M). This was also studied in vivo in 8 asthmatic volunteers who had histamine bronchial provocation testing in a double-blinded fashion in the presence of infusions of placebo (5% dextrose) and angiotensin II (1 and 2 ng/kg/min). Angiotensin II in subthreshold doses for contraction of airway smooth muscle had no effect on histamine-induced bronchoconstriction in the human airway neither in vitro nor in vivo. 3. Effect of Angiotensin II on Remodelling of Rat Airway & Vasculature The effect of endogenous activation of the renin-angiotensin system by dietary sodium restriction and subcutaneous infusion of angiotensin II on the rat airways was compared to the mesenteric vasculature. DNA synthesis was measured by infusing the thymidine analogue bromo-2'-deoxyuridine subcutaneously then revealing those cells undergoing DNA synthesis using immunocytochemistry. Changes in the volume of the airway tissues were measured morphometrically. Endogenous activation of the renin-angiotensin system in rats known to increase arterial medial DNA synthesis results in increased renin mRNA expression in the renal juxta-glomerular cells with increased plasma aldosterone and plasma renin activity and manor insignificant variations in blood pressure. However, no change was seen m DNA synthesis or morphometry of the airways. Similarly, infusion of angiotensin II for two weeks in rats causes a rise in blood pressure and suppresses renal juxta-glomerular renin mRNA expression with a nonsignificant suppression of plasma renin activity. DNA synthesis increased in the mesenteric arterial media and there was a non-significant tendency towards the artery wall being thicker. No difference was found in DNA synthesis or morphometry of the airways. 4. Evidence for a Local Renin-Angiotensin System in the Human Lung Samples of normal human lung were obtained from thoracotomy specimens and were examined by immunocytochemistry for renin and ACE, and by in situ hybridisation and Northern blotting for renin mRNA, angiotensinogen mRNA, ACE mRNA and AT1 receptor mRNA. In situ angiotensin II receptor localisation and autoradiography were also performed. In human lung, ACE was identified in vascular endothelium however, no other components of the renin-angiotensin system could be found. In control rat lung tissue, angiotensin II receptors appeared to be present. Conclusion The renin-angiotensin system is activated in some acute asthmatics but the mechanism for this remains unclear

Out of the Mouths of Babes: Vocal Production in Infant Siblings of Children with ASD

Background: Younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at higher risk for acquiring these disorders than the general population. Language development is usually delayed in children with ASD. The present study examines the development of pre-speech vocal behavior in infants at risk for ASD due to the presence of an older sibling with the disorder. Methods: Infants at high risk (HR) for ASD and those at low risk, without a diagnosed sibling (LR), were seen at 6, 9, and 12 months as part of a larger prospective study of risk for ASD in infant siblings. Standard clinical assessments were administered, and vocalization samples were collected during play with mother and a standard set of toys. Infant vocal behavior was recorded and analyzed for consonant inventory, presence of canonical syllables, and of non-speech vocalizations, in a cross-sectional design. Children were seen again at 24 months for provisional diagnosis. Results: Differences were seen between risk groups for certain vocal behaviors. Differences in vocal production in the first year of life were associated with outcomes in terms of autistic symptomotology in the second year. Conclusions: Early vocal behavior is a sensitive indicator of heightened risk for autistic symptoms in infants with a family history of ASD

Recruitment to publicly funded trials - are surgical trials really different?

Good recruitment is integral to the conduct of a high-quality randomised controlled trial. It has been suggested that recruitment is particularly difficult for evaluations of surgical interventions, a field in which there is a dearth of evidence from randomised comparisons. While there is anecdotal speculation to support the inference that recruitment to surgical trials is more challenging than for medical trials we are unaware of any formal assessment of this. In this paper, we compare recruitment to surgical and medical trials using a cohort of publicly funded trials. Data: Overall recruitment to trials was assessed using of a cohort of publicly funded trials (n = 114). Comparisons were made by using the Recruitment Index, a simple measure of recruitment activity for multicentre randomised controlled trials. Recruitment at the centre level was also investigated through three example surgical trials. Results: The Recruitment Index was found to be higher, though not statistically significantly, in the surgical group (n = 18, median = 38.0 IQR (10.7, 77.4)) versus (n = 81, median = 34.8 IQR (11.7, 98.0)) days per recruit for the medical group (median difference 1.7 (− 19.2, 25.1); p = 0.828). For the trials where the comparison was between a surgical and a medical intervention, the Recruitment Index was substantially higher (n = 6, 68.3 (23.5, 294.8)) versus (n = 93, 34.6 (11.7, 90.0); median difference 25.9 (− 35.5, 221.8); p = 0.291) for the other trials. Conclusions: There was no clear evidence that surgical trials differ from medical trials in terms of recruitment activity. There was, however, support for the inference that medical versus surgical trials are more difficult to recruit to. Formal exploration of the recruitment data through a modelling approach may go some way to tease out where important differences exist.The first author was supported by a Medical Research Council UK Fellowship.Peer reviewedAuthor versio