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Behind the scenes on political programmes at the �鶹Լ��

2016-06-10T10:45:18+00:00

Adam Fleming, political reporter at Daily Politics and Sunday Politics has investigated some of the guidelines �鶹Լ�� programmes are following during the EU referendum campaign. We've collected his films below. They're also available on the Daily Politics website.

How is the Question Time audience chosen?

In this film, Adam speaks to Question Time chairman David Dimbleby about how the audience for the weekly TV debate have been selected during the referendum campaign. Hundreds apply but only 150 are chosen following questions about gender, voting in the last election, the subject the audience member wants to talk about and where they are on the referendum debate.

Adam also looks forward to the Great EU Referendum debate at Wembley's SSE Arena on Sunday 21 June and explains how the 6000-strong arena audience is selected to ensure it is balanced.

Andrew Marr, John Piennar, and Andrew Neil on interviews

Political presenters talk impartiality

Andrew Marr says that he tries to 'keep it calm' and smile during interviews. Looking at people in the eye and asking the obvious questions the viewer would want asked is crucial for an impartial interview.

Starting from a position that we are impartial is, for John Pienaar, important - everything after that is 'easy', he says. Recognising there is no place for personal prejudices or a personal take on things, then the questions that follow will fall into the necessary category and then make sense.

Referendum Guidelines

What are the �鶹Լ��'s referendum guidelines?

The �鶹Լ��'s Chief Political Adviser Ric Bailey says that guidelines for a referendum detail that the �鶹Լ�� must achieve broad balance. "It’s not about maths, it's about really good judgment and being fair to both sides in a consistent way. The balance we are trying to achieve is that between the arguments - the arguments for remain and the arguments for leave."

Political Panellists

How do political programmes pick their panels

The Editors blog - Impartiality and coalition government

2010-05-17T10:08:17+00:00

"We're all in new territory: government, opposition - and broadcasters. Coming to terms with the "new politics" of coalition sets us some new challenges, just as we're trying to recover our breath from the extraordinary events of recent weeks". Ric Bailey, the �鶹Լ��'s chief political adviser.

Over on the Editor's blog, Ric Bailey discusses the challenges faced by the �鶹Լ�� to achieve balance and impartiality under our new coalition government.

You can read Ric's blog in full and comment on the Editor's blog.

The final Prime Ministerial Debate - a press round-up

2010-04-30T14:38:56+00:00

Last night �鶹Լ�� One broadcast the last in a series of historic prime ministerial debates in front of a studio audience, live from the Midlands. You can watch Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg battle it out on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer until 6 May. Watch the final Prime Ministerial debate.

The broadcast was well received by the press. The Independent reported an audience of eight million watched the final leader's TV debate which focused on one of the more significant policy issues: the economy. It was the best debate so far according to The Times, which described it as "a good gig in Brum" and The Telegraph, which called it "a victory for the �鶹Լ��".

The Scottish National Party did not succeed in their attempt to take part in the prime ministerial debate or stop it going ahead. In an interview with The Herald, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said, "We lost support because we weren't allowed to turn up. It's an issue of fairness." In an article for The Guardian, Simon Jenkins describes the decision not to include the SNP in the debate as "bizarre" and "grotesque". But Mr Salmond had his say on a live �鶹Լ�� Question Time with Ed Balls and Vince Cable following the show.

So there it is: the final debate before polling day. But are you any clearer on which way to vote? Join the debate on Radio 5 Live

Democracy Live

2009-11-02T13:22:11+00:00

If you're a user of Twitter, you may have spotted the quiet arrival of the �鶹Լ��'s new website called Democracy Live at the end of last week.

The site is officially launched today, but for technical reasons we lifted the barriers to the outside world on Thursday evening. Although we didn't announce its availability, such is the power of social media that people were quick to find us and start tweeting about the site.

Total Politics even reviewed Democracy Live on Friday and concluded by saying: "It brings a decidedly 21st-century edge to watching parliamentary discussion."

"DL", as it's become known in the �鶹Լ��, is the result of about 18 months of development work.

It brings together, for the first time in the �鶹Լ��, live and on-demand video coverage of proceedings in our national political institutions and the European Parliament. Democracy Live builds on previously available content in the form of video streams, guides and biographies.

But the real magic lies in the site's search function, which is unlike anything the �鶹Լ�� has done before.

By its very nature, the business of politics can be lengthy. Can you/would you watch an entire six-hour long debate from the House of Commons? Possibly. But you'd need to be a battle-hardened political observer or someone with a very keen interest in the subject to do so.

Democracy Live gives you the ability to search for a specific word or words spoken in the proceedings and the results will give you links to the points in the video where they were spoken. The ability to home in on the passages which are of direct interest and relevance to you is at the heart of Democracy Live's purpose.

Our search is powered by a speech-to-text system built by two companies called Blinkx and Autonomy which create transcriptions of the words spoken in the video.

Generally speaking, the industry standard for accuracy in speech-to-text systems is reckoned to be about 80%. In Democracy Live tests, we've seen slightly higher than that. We've taken account of different accents across the UK but the system might still be a bit confused by some words. Have a look at the explanation of how the site works for more about search and other questions you may have.

One aspect we're particularly proud of is that we've managed to deliver good results for speech-to-text in Welsh, which, we're told, is unique.

Blogs and websites have become as much a part of political reporting as traditional print and media outlets and that's why we're making as much of our video as possible available for embedding elsewhere.

At launch, you can take content from all the institutions with the exception of the House of Commons and the House of Lords (discussions continue with the authorities at Westminster). However, you can't edit our video for embedding. What you see is what you get.

You can also "Follow" a representative. Choose a biography - these come to us from the parliamentary experts Dods - either by searching for it or getting there from the 'Your representatives' section and click on the button in the top right. The 'Follow' function will appear on the site shortly.

Another innovation is the video wall on the home page. You'll be able to spot quickly when proceedings are live, and when they're not you can click through to an earlier item of business.

Elsewhere on Democracy Live, you'll find guides to each institution and a guide to who makes decisions in the UK's devolved system of government.

Politics and political debate are part of our everyday lives and events of the last few months have seen a renewed interest - for positive and negative reasons - in what goes on in our political institutions.

We hope that Democracy Live proves a useful addition to how people access and understand these processes. Let us know what you think by email at democracylive@bbc.co.uk. You can also follow us on Twitter at bbcdemlive.