Analyzing BBC News: News Values and Content

Overall, BBC News provides a lot of options for the average news-goer looking for the hottest topics around the world. Not only does it provide a list of the world's most recent breaking news on its homepage, but it also allows you to delve into different regions to allow for more concentrated reporting that obeys one of the news values we learned in class: proximity. But it was both of these features together that attracted me to BBC News for my NewsTrack blog -- I appreciate how they stress importance of both issues near and far away.

This week we are focusing on certain valuable features of news articles, including everything from timeliness to emotional appeal. I chose to analyze BBC's piece, "Obama says Ebola outbreak a 'global security threat'" because I feel like it exemplifies many of the traits we discussed in class in a unique and strategic way.

Timeliness, Proximity and Prominence

President Obama's recent announcement provides BBC with a gateway in their ongoing coverage of the Ebola outbreak. Obviously this is one of the newest updates regarding the issue, allowing BBC to cover the disease in a new and timely manner -- they help keep readers up to current speed. But Obama's presence also granted BBC the values of proximity and prominence.

While Ebola's attack has remained mainly throughout a few countries in Africa, Obama's announcement brings the global issue back home to the United States. He talks of new measures to be taken, "including ordering 3,000 US troops to the region and building new healthcare facilities," which gives Americans another reason to pay attention to and take interest in the issue. Obama's presence also provides a notable figure involved, giving the story prominence. Furthering this is the picture and mention of Dr. Kent Brantly, who recently recovered from an Ebola infection after receiving experimental treatment in Atlanta. He provides the notoriety of someone who has defeated the disease, providing more incentive and motivation to fighting it worldwide.

Impact, Magnitude and Emotional Appeal

By bringing the issue back home, BBC was then able to show the impact Ebola has on the US. President Obama called for the deployment of 3,000 US troops, the construction of 17 healthcare facilities, the training of "as many as 500 health care workers a week" and the delivery of 50,000 home health care kits to Liberia this week. Although BBC fails to highlight exactly how much this will cost the US, readers are still provided with information regarding how the US is getting involved in fighting the Ebola outbreak, and can assume that these programs will have to come out of some US budget. BBC also does a great job of highlighting the magnitude of the Ebola crisis, both throughout text within the article, but also with an infographic that breaks down the number of Ebola deaths into each country affected. 

BBC emotionally appeals to the reader through their use of multimedia in covering the piece. Video, photographs, stand-alone quotes, and statistics are all used to intensify the severity of the disease and to show how desperate the world is becoming in the search for a cure. 

 

Room for Improvement

One thing that the BBC article failed to report on was why the Ebola crisis has been so difficult to contain. There has been considerable pushback in the process of getting treatment from the communities most affected with Ebola, mostly because of fear or a stigma attached to hospitals and, ultimately, the end result of death associated with the disease. However, this pushback directly correlates with the struggle to contain the disease; if people resist hospital treatment and instead allow family members to attempt to treat them, they ultimately end up spreading the disease to family and friends themselves. I think if BBC had elected to cover this part of the issue, they would have hit the news value of "conflict," even if it does not present itself in the most typical way.