BBC NEWS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Last update of this source description: 2 June 2008, current as at 12 October 2011.
Mission/Mandate:
“BBC mission: To enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.” (BBC Website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/purpose/, accessed on 2 June 2008)
Target group:
Internet users worldwide.
“BBC News Online is the BBC's news website. Launched in November 1997, it is one of the most popular news websites in the UK reaching over a quarter of the UK's internet users, and worldwide, with around 4 million global readers every month.” (Wikipedia: BBC News, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_News#cite_note-52, accessed on 2 June 2008)
Objective:
“bbc.co.uk serves the BBC's public purposes through the provision of innovative and distinctive online content, and through distinctive propositions that reflect and extend the range of the BBC's broadcast services, available to all. bbc.co.uk enables the BBC to develop a deeper relationship with licence fee payers and to strengthen accountability. It acts as a starting point on the internet from which users can develop their use of the medium and provides a trusted guide to the wider internet. bbc.co.uk aims, at all times, to balance the potential for creating public value against the risk of negative market impact. […] Reach: bbc.co.uk should contribute towards the maintenance of combined BBC weekly reach for all BBC services at over 90% by aiming to increase its own weekly reach. Quality: Audience approval of bbc.co.uk and perceptions of it as high quality and innovative. Impact: Licence fee payer awareness of bbc.co.uk and audience perceptions of bbc.co.uk as engaging and challenging. Value for money: bbc.co.uk's cost per user reached.” (BBC Website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/statements2007/future_media/bbccouk.shtml, accessed 2 June 2008)
Funding:
The expenditure of the bbc.co.uk online services in 2007 amounted to £116m, out of which £83.2m was spent on content production, £8.8m on distribution and £24m on infrastructure and support (cf BBC: Annual Report and Accounts 2006/2007, Part 2, p. 149, 12 June 2007, http://www.bbc.co.uk/annualreport/pdfs/bbcexec_eng.pdf, accessed on 2 June 2008).
“The site is primarily funded by the television licence, paid by all UK households owning a television set, and used to carry no advertising. The World edition has received some subsidy from the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office through its grant-in-aid to the BBC World Service. […] In November 2007, the site did start to carry advertising.” (Wikipedia: BBC News Online, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_News_Online, accessed on 2 June 2008)
Scope of reporting:
Geographic focus: Worldwide.
Reporting methodology:
“Each page is published by the teams of online journalists based in the main newsroom in BBC TV Centre at White City, west London, at BBC World Service at Bush House in central London, in national and regional newsrooms across England, in Glasgow, Belfast and Cardiff and in an increasing number of the BBC's many international bureaux worldwide.
Much of the material is written by these journalists and the rest comes from writers in the BBC's specialist units, covering everything from business and social affairs to foreign news. Many of the BBC's correspondents operating worldwide also contribute as well as those at BBC Monitoring. Non-BBC journalists are frequently commissioned to contribute. […]
A wide variety of sources is used in the preparation of material - including BBC News, BBC World Service and a large number of internationally-recognised news agencies. They include the Press Association, Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.” (BBC Website, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3281815.stm, accessed on 2 June 2008)
Publication cycle:
News articles are published constantly, special reports compiled and updated according to topicality, country profiles (compiled by BBC Monitoring) updated frequently.
Languages:
Every article is available in English; selected articles also in regional languages, including French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Portuguese, Albanian, Macedonian, Romanian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Hausa, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Somali, Swahili, Pashto, Persian, Azeri, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Bangla, Hindi, Nepali, Sinhala, Tamil, Urdu, Burmese, Indonesian, Vietnamese (cf BBC News Website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/languages/, accessed on 2 June 2008).
Navigation of website:
Navigation bar on the left of the Website contains links to world region sections (Africa, Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, South Asia), country profiles, special reports and other columns.
“Clicking on any of the lists on the left takes you to that section's homepage. Several sections are then split into sub-sections. Most of the sections also contains invitations to "Have Your Say" on the latest news and action plus an Archive of older events. […] On the right side there are links to our audio and video content. Across the middle and at the bottom of the homepages are background links to topical features, online debates and competitions.” (BBC Website, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/default.stm, accessed on 2 June 2008)
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