The Leveson Inquiry in 2011-2012 investigated the governance structures in newspapers and their newsrooms, and in a series of hearings editors were questioned on the editorial processes that they oversaw. Some exchanges revealed relatively detailed processes of internal discussion and decision-making on story publication (Leveson Inquiry, 2012a, pp.99-155). Most UK national newspapers (and the larger publishers of regional newspapers) release details of detailed guidelines supplied to journalists for the provenance of stories before publication and of newsroom training (Independent Press Standards Organisation, 2019a). Others publish their editorial guidelines for journalists, detailing the newsgathering process (Financial Times, 2020). Academic quantitative content analysis research has demonstrated the news values that inform how UK newspapers build their news agendas (Harcup & O’Neill, 2017).
The UK’s broadcasters are guided by a series of rules and regulations on the approaches taken when conducting journalism and covering stories of political significance, via the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. The BBC is also obliged by the terms of its Royal Charter to produce a set of Editorial Guidelines, alongside which is also published a detailed list of guidance notes for all employees. A 2007 BBC document provides a detailed account of the procedures by which stories on the BBC made it onto air (Boaden, 2007). Studies of the BBC’s editorial processes have shown how the Corporation employs detailed professional assessments in story selection, but in doing so can fail to achieve some of its journalistic functions (Wahl-Jorgensen et al., 2016). Additional research has shown that UK broadcasters as a whole are influenced by external factors when constructing news agendas around political stories, notably the published content of national newspapers (Cushion et al., 2016).
