Analysing a news story from a legacy outlet

2023-03-10 Callum Sayer Mon 5-8 Class with Sharon, Uncategorized 0

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-64907772

 

For my first post, I decided to pick a story that was very much at the forefront of the British news agenda.  In the last few years, the number of small boats carrying migrants crossing the English Channel has risen, and comparisons have already been drawn between the way The Australian Government has handled this (Operation: Sovereign Borders) and the (lack) of action taken by the UK.

Given that the UK Government has decided to push legislation through Parliament to combat this, I decided to choose the most recent story that the BBC has published, which concerns a radio interview that Suella Braverman, the UK Home Secretary gave to a podcast/BBC Radio 4 programme on the matter.

 

So far, the story is very BBC in its formatting (minus the advert, because outside the UK, the BBC relies on advertising as it cannot draw income from the licence fee). It’s worth noting that elements of the digital sphere are increasingly coming in here. There’s a button to share the story, however, rather than allowing the user to share the story to multiple platforms, it allows the reader to simply copy the link across to the desired social media, or messaging app. I also found it interesting that the BBC has also included a timestamp of when the story was published, given that it’s recent advertising campaign on television places accuracy above speed, but given the digital realm, I suspect that even BBC News has to be first to break the story.

 

Ok, so far so good.  Conscice, albeit ‘clunky’, but it’s standard BBC.  Right.  What does Part 2 look like.

 

There are lots of hyperlinks here, designed to give more context and analysis to the story. Again, they could have made an effort to include a tweet from the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak given that he has made this a top priority for this Parliamentary session.

 

After examining this, I then moved down to the ending of the story.  And truth be told, I expected at least a few tweets from Government ministers or Opposition MPs.

I did find it slightly bizarre that there wasn’t a link to a statement from the United Nations Refugee Agency, but the links at the bottom of the story do at least allow the reader to examine and take a look at more topics if they so wish.

 

Overall, a good story, and a standard length news item as well.  I would say though that, the BBC does need to invest in it’s digital journalism, particularly as it formats itself away from linear broadcasting towards a digital first corporation (in the words of it’s director general).  Having said that, compared to some upstarts that have an explicit political leaning, such as GB News (which is supposedly a digital first outlet that has opted for a linear television and radio station) or Huffington Post, this is impartial and I would choose the BBC or the ABC over a digital first partisan outlet for my news!

About Callum Sayer 2 Articles
MECO 6925 student with an interest in Australian and British politics. Occasionally also interested in the Sydney radio market.

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