News Analysis; BBC’s Brexit article

Features and Functions

Picture of BBC Brexit article above the fold
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47576813

The articles features.

Multimediality is lacking, there is no use of video or audio in the article. Even though video of the announcement of the delay vote is quite easy to find.

Hypertextualilty is almost non existent within the body of text. Changes that can be made are as follows

  • Reduction of intertextual links, which offer a redundant selection of similar articles.
  • An included twitter quote later in the article, better served with a hyperlink or even a twitter widget

Tellers
This feature image used is vague and an ineffective follow up to a title that boasts a large majority vote. This photo does not give any indication of how large the vote or the majority was in any sense.

The articles Functions

A ‘ Read more from Laura’ hyperlink teases a useful redirect to a list of the authors previous articles. However it redirects to another article on the same topic by the same author.

This feels misleading a better idea instead would be to actually showcase more of the journalist, a hybrid between a keyword and a by line could serve the dual purpose of introducing the author as well as link to her articles on the website.

BBC Brexit Article

About Nikola Anastassiades 5 Articles
Sydney University Student. Currently studying Master of Publishing. Contact me @Nikola4018

1 Comment

  1. Good observations about the need for video of the vote, the lack of caption on the feature image and the issues with the reporter’s bio. This is a very long news story – actually a news feature. I think it must have changed since you did your analysis as it now has video, links to relevant stories, and a number of infographics. The related story links are key as background to the vote. What tweet would you have embedded (rather than linked?)

    On your web writing: It would have been good to start with the story link as I had to search to find it at the end. Check your post for spelling and grammar issues before you publish. Your title could be more SEO friendly, without “News Analysis” as this is indicated by the category tag. Try “BBC Brexit vote coverage needs improvement”. Image source should have caption and then source (and I’ll show you how to embed links soon). Don’t forget links should open in new tabs.

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