Research on Offensive Language
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September 2016 Attitudes to potentially offensive language and gestures on TV and radio Research report Warning: this report contains a wide range of words which may cause offence. 15-072401-01 | Final | Public | This work was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the international quality standard for Market Research, ISO 20252:2012, and with the Ipsos MORI Terms and Conditions which can be found at http://www.ipsos-mori.com/terms. © 2016 Ipsos MORI | Attitudes to potentially offensive language and gestures on TV and radio Contents 1 Executive summary ...................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................2 General attitudes to potentially offensive language ..............................................................................2 How participants experienced and thought about strong language on TV and radio ...............................3 The importance of context ..................................................................................................................3 Acceptability of specific words and gestures ........................................................................................5 Overall perceptions of different categories of words.............................................................................6 Participants’ suggested broadcast guidelines .......................................................................................7 2 Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 9 Background and objectives .................................................................................................................9 Previous research ...............................................................................................................................9 3 Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 10 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 10 Conducting fieldwork ....................................................................................................................... 11 Interpreting the data ........................................................................................................................ 11 Television and radio clips .................................................................................................................. 11 Word and gesture list ....................................................................................................................... 15 Hypothetical scenarios...................................................................................................................... 16 4 Understanding acceptability and the role of context........................................................... 17 General attitudes to potentially offensive language and gestures on television and radio ...................... 17 How participants experienced and thought about strong language ..................................................... 18 The importance of context ................................................................................................................ 20 Key contextual considerations........................................................................................................... 21 The time of broadcast and consideration of the likely and potential audiences ..................................... 22 The frequency or repetition of potentially offensive language ............................................................. 26 Audience expectations of broadcasters, programmes and genres ........................................................ 27 Audience expectations of live and pre-recorded programmes ............................................................. 29 The role of mitigating actions such as warnings, bleeps or apologies ................................................... 32 The perceived tone and intent of programmes ................................................................................... 35 5 Acceptability of words and gestures....................................................................................... 38 Unfamiliar words.............................................................................................................................. 38 How words and gestures were evaluated ........................................................................................... 39 Overall perceptions of categories of potentially offensive language and gestures ................................. 40 Debated words................................................................................................................................. 42 Perceptions of specific examples of potentially offensive language and gestures .................................. 42 15-072401-01 | Final | Public | This work was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the international quality standard for Market Research, ISO 20252:2012, and with the Ipsos MORI Terms and Conditions which can be found at http://www.ipsos-mori.com/terms. © 2016 Ipsos MORI | Attitudes to potentially offensive language and gestures on TV and radio Non-discriminatory language............................................................................................................ 44 Discriminatory language ................................................................................................................... 47 6 Participant guidelines ............................................................................................................... 57 Suggested broadcast guidelines ........................................................................................................ 57 7 Appendices ................................................................................................................................. 61 Appendix A: Methodology in detail ................................................................................................... 61 Appendix B: Recruitment Screeners ................................................................................................... 70 Appendix C: Survey and tasks for online participants .......................................................................... 99 Appendix D: Pre-task for face to face sample ................................................................................... 104 Appendix E: Focus group, mini group and in-depth discussion guides ................................................ 108 List of Figures in Each Chapter F i gure 1. 1: Key questions and steps when evaluating words and gestures ...................................................5 F i gure 3. 1: Sample overview .................................................................................................................. 10 F i gure 4. 1: Summary of participants’ key concerns around offensive language and gestures ...................... 19 F i gure 4. 2: Participant concerns and how they related to contextual factors.............................................. 22 F i gure 4. 3: Participant expectations around the watershed transition ....................................................... 24 F i gure 5. 1: Examples of unfamiliar words................................................................................................ 39 F i gure 5. 2: Key questions and steps in evaluating words and gestures ...................................................... 40 15-072401-01 | Final | Public | This work was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the international quality standard for Market Research, ISO 20252:2012, and with the Ipsos MORI Terms and Conditions which can be found at http://www.ipsos-mori.com/terms. © 2016 Ipsos MORI | Attitudes to potentially offensive language and gestures on TV and radio 1 1 Foreword TV and radio are a part of our daily lives. Whether we’re at home, work or travelling in a car, most of us switch on or tune in at some point during the day. Live TV continues to have the greatest reach of all UK media formats, with 92% of people watching each week in 2016. Furthermore, nine in ten adults tuned into the radio, listening for an average of three hours daily. 1 Our job at Ofcom is to set and enforce the rules that help protect viewers and listeners from harmful and offensive content on TV and radio. To do this, it’s essential that we keep up to date with what people consider offensive, and what they expect of broadcasters. As times change and people’s attitudes shift, it’s also important that broadcasting rules strike the right balance. Broadcasters need to be able to reflect real life situations, while being aware of what people consider offensive, and why. Our new research is the most comprehensive we have conducted in this area, and looks at what audiences think about a wide range of offensive language – including, for the first time, some newer and obscure language and gestures. The research involved an online survey, focus groups and in-depth interviews – and included people of all age groups living across the UK, as well as disabled people, people from