Analyzing BBC News: Audio Reporting

I have to admit, I am more than disappointed by the lack of quality audio reporting done by BBC World News. Not only did it take more than a few minutes of navigating through their website to find any sort of audio at all, but when I finally stumbled across a page dedicated entirely to audio news recordings, I was let down again. After scrolling through a couple of the links listed on the page, it becomes clear -- each link invites you into the middle of a raw interview with very little, if any, natural sound and almost no voiceovers. And without these key components to audio reporting, it's easy to become lost, especially when the reporter doesn't even bother to clarify what you're listening to. It feels abrupt, awkward, and, above all, confusing.

It almost seems pointless.

Take these two recordings -- both come from Scottish citizens who voted "yes" in the Scottish referendum for independence and were disappointed by the results on Thursday.





Taken away from the context provided by the title or in the short body of the piece, it would be hard to define the story behind the audio a month, week, or even maybe a few days from now. It's missing the "stand-alone" element that is so important with audio reporting.

A more effective way to compose the piece would be to include some natural sound at the beginning -- are there people crying after hearing the results? Are there people still protesting? The piece would then continue with a voiceover explaining where we are and what just happened, before allowing these interviews to show how part of the population feels about the vote. Another interesting aspect to think about is how to include both the people who thought the vote was a victory and those who thought it was a loss. This would provide a little more contrast and conflict within the story, and ultimately show that it wasn't necessarily one-sided -- after all, it was a pretty close vote.