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Audio Clips-- Are They Necessary?

After last week's discussion on audio, I thought I would try to look for a significant area of audio on BBC News- World online. In class we are learning how to create a compelling audio piece to complement text. Since BBC has television and radio, I thought it would be easy to find audio that went along with text for certain articles, but instead I found that they have an entirely separate section for audio in the "radio" tab. This links you to their various radio stations, which include mainstream music, talk shows, sports talk shows, and regular world news.

I thought separating audio and text was practical, given they are a very media-oriented company and must have so much to work with, but I also agree with the benefits of complementing a purely textual piece with audio and some visuals. I think it allows those who are more visually-oriented a choice between reading, listening to audio, or watching a video. Whichever way gets the information across quickest and easiest for everyone is the most conducive to a news outlet's final aim.
A lot of the audio content that went along with the text was in video form, which makes sense since visuals have the potential to make a great impact and make understanding a story much easier.
After giving it some thought, I have come to the conclusion that BBC News-World online does really need to complement its text with audio. It already has plenty of video content, which offers both audio and visuals, plus, it has an entire radio section where, if you really like audio, you could spend hours listening in. I suppose this does not have the same effect as a short, well-edited audio clip, but it does offer people a great deal in terms of choices. Just look at all their radio stations!

The Syrian Conflict and its News Values

Today's top story on BBC News-World was about the Syrian conflict, and the continuation of heavy fighting in the Syrian capital, Damascus, as well as the northern city of Aleppo. Since this is BBC News- World, the headlines would be very different from what would appear on the New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, etc., publications which cater to a more specialized audience. An article on Syria would not be attempting to appeal to any particular demographic, rather, it would just be for informative purposes.
You really could not say timeliness is one of the relevant news values, because this has been an ongoing conflict for the past year, with bombings and lives lost daily. Proximity would not be relevant either because anyone anywhere in the world could read this. Novelty would not be relevant because there is nothing new about this.
It does however have impact, magnitude, conflict, and some emotional appeal.

Conflict, or who hates whom, is the central news value here. President Bashar al-Assad and the forces loyal to him are fighting against those who demand his resignation. What's worse is that with major powers unable to agree on a way forward at the UN Security Council, Mr Assad showing no signs of leaving power and the opposition deeply divided, there appears to be no end in sight.

Magnitude, or who was affected (how many thousands of people) is crucial here because this has been an ongoing conflict since March 2011. Almost 25,000 Syrians have died in the conflict between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule. In addition, the United Nations refugee agency has registered more than 200,000 Syrians who have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey, and expects those figures to rise. A further one million are thought to have been internally displaced because of the fighting.

Impact, or what effect it will have, is key here because Syria is located in one of the most volatile parts of the world. You cannot expect a crisis of this magnitude to be contained within the area. This can potentially have an affect on Syria's neighbors and cause global ramifications. It has already caused refugees to flee to countries in the area.

Finally, there is indeed some emotional appeal here. Though this is a conflict in a (relatively, I suppose for most people who read BBC News-World) distant part of the world, and one that is known for having a great deal of conflict, there are certainly moments that focus on those being affected by the conflict: the civilians, the women, the children. Here are some examples of the emotional impact a story like this can have:

Also, I wanted to share some multimedia that I found very educational about the history of the Syrian conflict. Not everyone has been following the story for the past year, so I thought this was a very smart way to get people in the loop about a long-term topic. I think they should do this for other long-term stories.

And an interactive map details the areas of conflict. Another example of convergence journalism.

My take on BBC News- World

For my newstrack blog, I have decided to do BBC News-World. There are many reasons behind this, the first one being that I need to keep up-to-date with general news for all my classes, and this is a way to kill a few birds with one stone. Also, I like the general layout of the site, I think it is very easy to navigate and for some reason I have always found it to be more user-friendly than the New York Times, Boston Globe or other sites. Perhaps because it uses more color and is not as serious as those nwspaper sites. Thirdly, I didn't want to chose an American site because I feel like every time I read an American newspaper or browse an American news site I get mostly American stories and stories that affect only America. I suppose this is true of most countries, but I really just find it very self-absorbed and I do want to know what is going on in other parts of the world. I also don't want that overflow of Middle East stories, plus I would like to know more about the situation in Europe since I find that topic to be very interesting right now. This week in class we talked about some very important topics: convergence, or multimedia journalism, which is the taking of different types of media and putting them together to create a coherent story; parallel reporting, which is telling the same story, just using a different form to tell it; interactivity, which is not just reading a story, but also being able to participate; evergreen, which is a story that is always going to be relevant and useful, and finally the good ol' user-generated content, a way to make everyone published. Most of BBC's news posts are structured like this: at the top is a picture or a video, and then comes the narrative story. This is similar to most news sites.What I find I don't like about BBC was that there is no space feedback or commentary from users. This is the modern day version of "letters to the editor" and allows you to get a grasp on what others are thinking. It is sad that BBC does not leave this space for its users to comment. After a thorough inspection of the site, I have decided that it was far too simple and not visually appealing enough. I understand that many of these news sites like to keep the pages simple and clean, but I just think there could be a lot more interesting things going on. Why not have more multimedia up on each of their stories? I do like the interactive map of the world that takes you to each section of the world. Since it is BBC News-World, this is an important thing to have, but I feel like it should be incorporated in a more visually appealing way. I do like the idea, though. I also liked the "Day in Pictures" slide show. It is an example of parallel reporting, or just telling the same story, like the story of September 11 in Georgia Tech, just in a visually interesting way.