Scottish Media

Putting the Scotland into BBC Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday Mail, January 17th 2016 It has been a tough few years for the BBC – with challenges from every direction, and potshots and criticism from every quarter. This week Tony Hall, BBC’s head, gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament alongside BBC Scotland boss Ken MacQuarrie. Hall set out the BBC stall. Despite cuts, a range of digital possibilities and platforms were unveiled centred on the iplayer. MacQuarrie answered questions on BBC Scotland’s leaked plan for a new Scottish channel which he said ‘was never a plan’, but a set of brainstorming

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A Revolution is coming to BBC Scotland – let’s seize it and make it happen Gerry Hassan Sunday Herald, September 6th 2015 The BBC is one of the key institutions of Scotland and the UK. It arouses passion in many forms: identification, reverence for some of its past glories, fury at current and historic shortcomings. These can come from anywhere on the political spectrum. In Scotland, many views of the broadcaster have become interwoven with how it covered the independence referendum. No-one really thinks the BBC had a good campaign. This unleashed allegations of bias, demonstrations at the BBC, and

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Scotland’s Football Revolution of Recent Years Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 6th 2015 The last few years have seen the natural order of things disrupted in Scotland. The once dominant force in the land has been humbled, its traditional place and authority usurped by others, and a series of ineffective and incompetent leaders have promised salvation and then not delivered. This is the story of Glasgow Rangers, although there are similarities with the recent experience of Scottish Labour. And yet until the last six months or so of the indyref, the big news story of our country was not

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The Crisis of BBC Scotland – A Lack of Vision, Integrity and Accountability Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 4th 2014 The independence referendum has thrown a spanner in the works of large parts of institutional Scotland. So far the biggest meltdown has been CBI Scotland becoming a registered ‘No’ supporter, then baulking at the consequences. Another was the maneuvering of SCVO on the second referendum question and then being left on its own when the politicians agreed on a single question. But fast coming up the tracks in the incompetence stakes is BBC Scotland. The latest instance is the

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BBC and STV are Falling Short in Scotland’s Great Debate Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, March 5th 2014 The BBC and STV are failing the people of Scotland in their coverage of the independence referendum, despite the best attempts of some of the many talented journalists still in these organisations. The reasons for this are deep-seated: historic, structural, and about the failure of management to lead, be bold and creative. The independence debate could not have come at a worse time for the BBC and STV. It caught both bodies ill-prepared, under-resourced, and basically, not taking Scotland or Scottish politics that

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A Memo to James Naughtie on his Return to Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, October 10th 2013 Dear Jim, It has come to my attention that you planning to move north to cover the independence referendum, admittedly for only two days a week. Since you last worked in Scotland in 1977 a lot has altered that you might find at first a bit bewildering. Scotland has changed, not entirely in ways immediately apparent or straightforward. Some institutions which have the same names as 36 years ago have changed, nearly totally out of recognition. New bodies and different ways of things

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The Independence Debate is not a Non-Event but Changing Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, September 28th 2013 How often have you heard it said: the independence referendum is a non-event and as boring as paint drying? This has become the uncontested view of part of mainstream Scotland and many in public life and the media. Last week ‘Newsnight Scotland’ anchor Gordon Brewer stated as fact that the whole thing was ‘dull as dishwater’, while others regularly pronounce that it is ‘turning off voters’, ‘deadening’ and ‘never-ending’. It is a cliché, caricature and articulating a world-weary, cynical, Paxmanesque attitude of condescension.

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Scotland’s comforting stories and the missing voices of public life Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 24th 2013 Scotland in its politics, culture and sense of its identity likes to tell itself a comforting story. There was once a Labour Scotland optimistic story of lifting working people up, and now there is a Nationalist account about the possibilities of independence. There is even a positive pro-union version that has not been fully articulated in public for many years. All of these are partial accounts, and one of the many challenges they face is the continued existence of negative stories which emphasise

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Yes to a Different Scotland Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, September 18th 2013 One year to the Scottish independence referendum. A historic milestone. A host of mainstream media programmes, discussions and items yesterday and today are marking it. One of the most important was ‘Newsnight’s’ Berwick upon Tweed programme on Tuesday broadcast to a British wide audience which looked as though it was filmed in the ‘Great British Bake Off’ tent! The programme was revealing and fascinating, from Kirsty Wark’s conspicuous slips showing her bias, to Margaret Curran, Shadow Secretary of State’s constant reciting of the word ‘separation’ in her opening

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Minority Report Scotland:  Politics and Ideas in a Substance Free World Gerry Hassan National Collective, September 6th 2013 A week in Scottish politics. Two discussions and two long-term, deep challenges in the independence referendum debate showcased. These are how we address social justice, poverty and exclusion, and the way the mainstream media and broadcasters in particular are portraying this debate. The two examples I wish to draw from are a ‘Newsnight Scotland’ ‘special’ on Monday (September 2^nd) and a ‘Scotland Tonight’ ‘special’ on Thursday (September 5^th).  Both addressed, if that is the right word, the subject of welfare and pensions;

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