Analyzing BBC News: Using Photos to tell the Story

Photos are an important part of any story. They allow the viewer an inside, first-hand look at any situation in any place, far or near, providing them not only with a better understanding of the story, but also a better understanding of the world.

BBC News approaches the use of photos in a few different ways. While they do embed photos directly into each article, they also have a separate page titled "In Pictures" entirely dedicated to photo content. I clicked on the page expecting to find different photo slideshows for each story, but instead I found that they break this category down into two parts: "Day in Pictures" and "Week in Pictures." These are exactly what they seem -- they take that day's (or week's) best photos from around the world and embed them into one continuous list with a short caption to describe the image.

While I think that this is an interesting and efficient way for viewers or readers to get a "quick snapshot" of today's news in pictures, it falls short because of its lack of connectivity. Despite a one-line caption, a single photo alone does not always provide all of the information readers want to know about the situation displayed. More importantly, if the path to that extra information is not clearly marked (most likely via quick-links), readers will not stay around. Instead, they will most likely turn to Google with a few keywords, hoping to get to the story as quickly as possible. Online readers are not patient people, and the majority of them will not spend time digging around your site for the story. The Google search could lead them to another news network, meaning you just lost a valuable reader (and probably many more) because of an easily-fixable short-coming. BBC could improve by simply linking the photo or caption back to longer articles, providing readers with an easy opportunity to learn more about the story behind the photo if they please.

Of course, this won't always be the case. This photo of a hippo at a Berlin zoo is probably not worth an entire article of information. But readers probably won't be looking for it in this case. However, certain news demand more attention. This photo of Ukrainian protesters in Kiev represents an ongoing crisis in the region, and readers will probably be looking for an update. The key here is to think about and know your readers and the content -- Will readers want more information regarding the situation in this photo? Do I have more information? If both answers are yes, there is no reason to leave out a quick-link.

Analyzing BBC News: SEO

Today's main headline on BBC World News covers a familiar and ongoing topic: the Hong Kong protests. Big deal, right? Normally this would just become another article I look through on my way through the site, but after sifting the rest of BBC's coverage of the protests, I discovered an interesting trend that reveals one of BBC's tactics in securing a positive search engine optimization (SEO) for their Hong Kong content.

 All of the articles regarding the situation in China are applied the same headline: "Hong Kong protests: ..." followed by the most updated news the site can offer. The title even appears on a subsection of all Asia content dedicated to the crisis. To those who don't know about SEO, this probably goes unnoticed. But, personally, I see the brains behind this operation: not only is this a smart and efficient way to ensure their spot at the top of the hierarchy we call Google, but it also provides BBC with an effective way to organize all of their Hong Kong content for later use. The simplicity of those three words, "Hong Kong protests," also work in their favor, as these are the words people will most likely search for when looking for new information on the crisis.

And a quick Google search shows that their efforts in SEO are working. BBC shows up as the top two news sources for the most current update on the Hong Kong situation.

However, that's not the only perk BBC is getting out of their well-planned headline. By titling each post the same way, they've also created a neat archive for readers to pick through. Simply Googling "Hong Kong Protests BBC" provides readers with easy access to all of the articles BBC has written about the topic, which, in turn, generates more page views for the news site. 

Overall, I found BBC's tactics well thought-out and very well-executed. Although it may not be noticeable to most readers, the amount of traffic going through BBC's site based off of their Hong Kong coverage is probably unavoidable.

Benefits to Daily Alcohol Consumption?

Researchers at Boston University's School of Public Health spent last Thursday night debating the effects of alcohol consumption. The message from advocates? "Don't drink too much, but don't drink too little either." However, not everyone is convinced. BU students share their take on the research.

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.

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.