(words 1571)
the BBC news and Wikinews
Introduction
This article will compare the characteristics by using the same news event sourced from different news platforms. In this article, four different parts will be presented, which are the backgrounds of the news platforms, the news content, online delivery, and technological delivery. Finally, combining the content of these four parts, this paper will show which platform is more suitable for the audience.
The BBC news : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgee7rl24ro
The production context of the BBC news
The full name of BBC News is the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is located in London in the UK, and the BBC news has a long history which was founded in 1922. Until 2025, it has been around for 103 years. At the beginning, BBC news was a private company. Until 1927, it was changed to a public institution, and the funding is from the government. There are many different parts in the BBC news, and this platform mainly focuses on international news. According to the BBC Media Center, the total visits to the BBC News website reached 1.2 billion from April 2020 to April 2021. However, the paper has not found a specific website to classify the audience of the BBC news. By contrast, it is obvious that the BBC has a large audience from the overall data, and the audience is not only limited to the British people but also has some audience who come from other countries. This is because the BBC website provides multilingual broadcasting functions, which means that there will be non-native English speakers watching these news.
The news content
The title of this news article is “Key takeaways from Starmer’s talks with Trump”. This news article uses seven different parts to show this event. This content mainly focuses on the conversation and visit between British Prime Minister Starmer and U.S. President Trump at the White House. From this article, it shows the whole event which is what happened at that time in the White House.
There are three advantages for this news. Firstly, this news shows detailed content and provides many videos and pictures which can improve the news reliability. This is because these pictures and videos can prove what happened in the White House at that time. When audiences watch these videos and pictures, they can believe the news content.
Secondly, it can show more relative events which may illustrate many backgrounds about this news. This is because the news article uses many relative news links which can help some audiences who don’t know much background knowledge about this news. When some audiences click these links, they can know more backgrounds about this news, and also it can improve other news visit data.
Thirdly, this article also respects the writer’s right and it has a clear and simple writing style. This is because the news shows the writer’s name which can let more people know the author. And also the news writing style is clear and simple, which is more likely to let more audiences know what happened at the White House. Then this article uses an objective aspect to show this event rather than writing by personal opinion.
However, this news article also has a drawback which is that the news may be complex because the news shows many details which could make the readers lose patience and just read some parts rather than the whole article.
Online delivery
This news is easily shared with others. This is because there is a share button on the right side, which means that people can use this button to share with their friends or family members. Bradshaw (2024,106) mentions that the platform could improve engagement by using the platform. This situation could also improve the influence of this news. Also, the sharing button includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email. And the option to copy the link means that this news could use different platforms to improve its influence. However, a drawback can also be found, which is that the audience cannot share their ideas. This is because there is no common area in this platform, which could lead to the BBC news not being able to receive the feedback about their news articles.
Technological delivery
There are many functions in this platform. It is clear that there are many different parts of news such as sport, business, arts, which means that audiences could find the news which is of their interest. However, this news platform may not be very friendly to viewers with visual impairments. This is because the words size in this news cannot be adjusted, which means that some people with visual impairments may not be able to read it properly due to the words being too small for them. And also, there are a large number of advertisements in this news. When some audiences are reading these news, the ads will come, which would reduce the reading experience.
The Wikinews:
The production context of the Wikinews
Wikinews was established in December 2004 and is managed by the Wikimedia Foundation, which is a non-profit organization in the U.S.A.. Its main financial support comes from public donations. Wikinews operates on the principle that everyone is a journalist—allowing anyone to edit news content. All articles are free for everyone to read. There is a special point for Wikinews which is that it can link with Wikipedia and Wikidata. This creates a linked network of information, making it easier for people to find evidence and sources when some people want to write a news article, which could help people improve their editing process. From Wikinews data, it clearly shows the numbers of Wikinews such as Articles, pages, edits. People could find how many news articles there are in Wikinews. And also, there are thirty-one languages shown in Wikinews to illustrate the articles data detail. However, it is difficult to find the visit data, and it is difficult to find the class of audience. By contrast, in Wikinews there are more than ninety languages, which means that the audience may come from different countries rather than only some people who come from America.
The news content
Compared with the BBC news, this news article is very short and only has 250 words. There are four significant points in this news: the discussion regarding the Ukraine conflict, the invitation for Trump to visit the UK, tariffs and trade agreements, and the relationships among leaders. Bradshaw (2024,77) mentions that the news should have five Ws and one H, which are who, when, where, why, what, and how. In the news content, there are not many details to show what happened at that time. There is only a picture to prove that this event happened, which could not improve the authenticity of the event because some people could use technology to change the photo, and some audiences could not believe that it is a true event. However, in the BBC news, many photos and videos are shown, which can let more audiences know what happened at that time and improve the authenticity of the event. Overall, this news does not describe many details in this news. However, there is one similar point that can be found in these two news platforms. Both news have super links which could describe the news background clearly. When people cannot understand the news background, they can use super links to fully understand the background of the news. And also, the news articles on WikiNews may not be professional because anyone can edit the news, which could lead to a lack of professionalism in the articles. Son (2022,25) mentions that a good news should have the process of editing, checking, and reviewing the news story. And also, Martin (2021,842) shows that although some journalists have been trained, they still do not have much experience about their jobs. However, the articles of the BBC are all professionally edited by journalists and undergo corresponding reviews. This makes the BBC’s articles more accurate and objective, and Wikinews cannot achieve it. On the other side, Wikinews has a timeline model which could show some relative news, which is better than the BBC news because it does not have a timeline mode and only has some relative news.
Online delivery
WikiNews does not have good options for sharing news, and there are not many sharing options. Firstly, the sharing button is not in a position that is easily accessible to the audience. It is located at the bottom of the article, which may make it difficult for the audience to discover and share the news. By contrast, the BBC News places the sharing button to the right of the article title, which enables the audience to find it more easily and share the news.
Technological delivery
There are two advantages of the WikiNews platform. Firstly, there are no advertisements on the Wiki platform, which allows readers to be in a good mood while reading the news. Secondly, the WikiNews platform can change the words size, which is beneficial for people with visual impairments. However, the BBC’s does not have these two advantages.
Conclusion
This article compares the differences and similarities between the BBC News platform and the WikiNews platform from four aspects. Overall, the BBC News platform is more professional and accurate in content. It could show more detail on the event and let the audience know what happened at that time. However, the Wikinews platform lacks professionalism because anyone could edit the news, which could reduce the news professionalism. Nevertheless, its web interface is clear, and it has the function of adjusting the words size, which is very beneficial for people with visual impairments to read articles.
AI statement: This paper has not used AI (ChatGPT).
Reference
Bradshaw, P. (2024). Writing for the web. In ProQuest (Firm) (Ed.), The online journalism handbook : skills to survive and thrive in the digital age (Third edition., pp. 76–105). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429321566
Bradshaw, P. (2024). Writing for social media . In ProQuest (Firm) (Ed.), The online journalism handbook : skills to survive and thrive in the digital age (Third edition., pp. 106–142). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429321566
Son, J. (2022). Online Journalism and Storytelling: A training kit. FOJO Media Institute. https://fojo.se/onlinejournalismkit/
Martin, F., & Murrell, C. (2021). Negotiating the Conversation: How Journalists Learn to Interact with Audiences Online. Journalism Practice, 15(6), 839–859. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.1907211
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