THE BBC’s decision to stop showing the daily coronavirus briefings on television may affect “every aspect” of the nation’s response to the virus, a leading academic has warned.
Professor Linda Bauld, the Bruce and John Usher Chair of Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, told The National that repetition is key in public health messaging, and that positive outcomes can immediately begin to decline when the messaging ends.
She said: “There is a lot of evidence to show that, for public health campaigns and messaging, mass media [like television broadcasts] is highly effective in getting people to change their behaviour.
“The other thing that research tells you is that repetition is useful, and that is what has been happening with the daily briefings.”
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Bauld pointed to the First Minister’s frequent use of the FACTS slogan as an example of how the briefings were aiming to achieve this.
“When you stop a long-running campaign you see any behaviour change achieved decline, so it will influence behaviour. If even in a little way, I would be worried about that,” she added.
Asked if people may not have already “got the message” from the previous months of the First Ministers briefings, Bauld said they may have, “but you need to keep repeating it”.
“It is crystal clear to me that what we call traditional media [TV, radio] is disproportionately accessed by people that don’t use social media, and that is primarily older people.
“By removing it [the briefings] from TV and radio you are cutting off a section of the population from a public health message.”
The professor said we need “tailored messaging” for different age groups, and stressed the importance of “repeated public health messaging from a trusted government”.
Saying she had no interest in politics, only in public health, Bauld added: “Trust in government is much higher in Scotland than it is in England, and I think that these briefings and the broadcasts have contributed to this level of trust.”
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The professor said stopping the broadcasts may affect this trust in the messaging, as people are no longer “getting the explanation” as to why the decisions affecting them are being made.
“I'm a huge believer in that the more the public can understand why we are asking them to do things, then the more likely it is that the public will comply,” she added.
“I just don’t think this is the time to stop these briefings. If things were settled and calm I would have more sympathy, but there is a real risk we are going to have more restrictions in the future.
"Not having this platform can affect every aspect [of the nation's response].
“These briefings need to be on TV and on the BBC as a public service broadcaster.”
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