Weird phenomenon on BBC EU referendum articles

I was reading the BBC news website and I noticed a weird phenomenon in its comment section.

Yougov polls suggest that support for both sides are at break-even point.

But somehow on every BBC article regarding the referendum, its comment section overwhelmingly support Leave, with a ratio of about 16:1.

I cannot seem the find the others I have read the past, but here is an example from today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36243296

What do you think this means?

Is the BBC's audience base biased towards Leave?

Is there a Shy-Remainer factor going on (see Shy Tory factor phenomenon)?

Or conversely is there a Shy-Leaver factor in polls?

Reply 1

Daimonos

Well one reason is the leave party are naturally going to be more vocal as they're the ones suggesting a change from the status quo, so have more convincing to do.

Also quite bluntly people who support leave tend to be more right wing, and as this forum is enough evidence of right wingers tend to be far more vocal and argumentative than left wingers.

But beware the guy who speaks the most is often the one who is speaking words of the least value.

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(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 2

Daimonos

Delete

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

The_Opinion

Original post by Daimonos

Well that's not true. The left are by far the most argumentative, just look at the way that left wingers attend events just to try to shut them down, they literally seek out argumentation, something the right does not do.

Reply 4

Plagioclase

Original post by The_Opinion

Sorry, I wasn't aware that these isolated students represent the entire political left wing.

Reply 5

username1221160

Leave supporters are just far more vocal, a phenomena that has been going on for years. Also, below the line comments section tends to attract a certain type of person (I suspect its the reason why the Telegraph ditched comments and the Guardian is considering it), so shouldn't be used to judge the opinion of the nation.

It's been suggested that there is a shy remain factor as online polls over estimate support for leave. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5f25de66-f5cc-11e5-96db-fc683b5e52db.html#axzz48Crkspf9

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 6

CurrentYear

I've noticed this as well, and it's not just limited to the BBC. With some exceptions, the sentiment on other media sites seems to be very pro-leave.

I'll begin with the few inconsistencies I've noticed. The Guardian comment section seems to shift between leave and remain daily and there's been some blatant vote manipulation for remain comments on the daily mail. Up until today, the Financial Times comments have been consistently pro-remain, they seem to have done a 180 after Cameron's war comments.

Looking at sites where you'd expect to find remainians such as here and Reddit, Brexiters are still a sizable minority.

Other than that, everywhere seems to be very anti-EU.

Twitter: #voteleave is considerably more active than #strongerin. Some of the content on #strongerin is Brexiters using the hashtag, the reverse doesn't seem to be true, so in reality, #strongerin is less active than it already is.
Facebook: Leave.EU is over 250,000 likes ahead of the Stronger In campaign. The now official Vote Leave campaign grew by 11,430 likes in the past week compared to 11,180 for Stronger in, however Leave.EU grew by 13,752 in the same period despite not being the designated campaign.
Youtube: Anti-EU through and through. Maybe it's just the Youtube search algorithm having adjusted to my tastes, but I can't find a pro-EU video that viewers agree with.
Google: Looking at Google Trends on the EU referendum, the interest in leave is constantly 2-5 times ahead of remain.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 7

JezWeCan!

The internet is an echo chamber.

The left (arguably) dominates twitter. That is why the last election result was such a shock to Labour. It had been going swimmingly online.

The right dominates these below the line comments sections.

You can't draw any conclusions about a referendum or a general election involving millions of votes from them. Or from the broadcast or print media. Both of whom got the last election spectacularly wrong.

We will just have to wait.