A Journalism Question (aka William's "wtf @ britishes journalism" thread)

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

When I read stories at the BBC News website, a stylistic difference from U.S. journalism jumps out at me.

From the current Cuba story:
The BBC's Stephen Gibbs in Havana says the situation in Cuba is calm, but security has increased.

From "Iraq civil war warning for Blair":
BBC correspondent Paul Wood said although the document does not contradict government denials that civil war is imminent, "it is a devastating official assessment of the prospects for a peaceful Iraq, and stands in stark contrast to the public rhetoric".

Why are correspondents named in the body of the story instead of a byline? It implies that they're doing the legwork in the far-off bureau and the story is written by an editor in London. It's off-putting to me to see a reporter's name in the story as though he/she were part of the story.

Is this strictly a BBC style, or do non-BBC news agencies in the UK do this too?

― Whitman Mayonnaise (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 3 August 2006 20:21 (eighteen years ago)

I'd imagine the logic is that you're getting a subjective statement from a correspondent rather than reported "facts." I'm not sure why the Brits do that and we don't but it makes sense to me.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 3 August 2006 20:29 (eighteen years ago)

I think it's a TV/radio style more than anything else - it's certainly not something you see in the British press, but it does resemble a piece written for a news anchor to read out, introducing a report from the correspondant.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 3 August 2006 20:30 (eighteen years ago)

exactly, the BBC website is likely maintained by copy editors who file text version of broadcast pieces.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 4 August 2006 15:50 (eighteen years ago)

Okay, that makes sense...I still hate it though.

― Whitman Mayonnaise (Rock Hardy), Friday, 4 August 2006 20:06 (eighteen years ago)

It does seem like self-aggrandizement by the network, Whitman, I agree.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, 4 August 2006 20:08 (eighteen years ago)

No, you see that in UK papers too. Stuff like "Scenes of almost biblical devastation were visited upon the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince, David St. Hubbins reports."

― novamax (novamax), Friday, 4 August 2006 23:35 (eighteen years ago)

eight months pass...

Another thing that pisses me off on the BBC News site is that they don't capitalize all the letters in acronyms. It's NASA, not Nasa, asshats.

― Rock Hardy, Saturday, 21 April 2007 00:55 (eighteen years ago)

haha david st. hubbins

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 21 April 2007 00:59 (eighteen years ago)

We don't do this either. If you say it as a word, it is a word. So Nasa, Uefa, Aids, Nato but ICBM, WMD, CIA

― stet, Saturday, 21 April 2007 01:00 (eighteen years ago)

An acronym is an acronym is an acronym, no matter how it's pronounced, and should be all caps. Except for scuba.

― Rock Hardy, Saturday, 21 April 2007 01:05 (eighteen years ago)

And radar and laser?

― Alba, Saturday, 21 April 2007 01:09 (eighteen years ago)

(actually we don't capitalise the first letters of radar and laser, so it's not like there's some amazing consistency at work, but still, I understand why the BBC and many others don't put acronyms all in caps. It looks ugly as fuck.

― Alba, Saturday, 21 April 2007 01:11 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah!

Proper-noun acronyms should stay capitalized.
xpost

― Rock Hardy, Saturday, 21 April 2007 01:12 (eighteen years ago)

GTF

― stet, Saturday, 21 April 2007 01:18 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

Breastfeeding trust hormone clue

STOP THROWING FOUR NOUNS TOGETHER AND CALLING IT A HEADLINE, YOU CUNTS.

― Rock Hardy, Friday, 18 July 2008 13:08 (sixteen years ago)

Instead of reading the BBC online, maybe you should try reading something that's written in English.

― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 18 July 2008 16:46 (sixteen years ago)

We don't do this either. If you say it as a word, it is a word. So Nasa, Uefa, Aids, Nato but ICBM, WMD, CIA

Exactly. Capitals fuck up the look of a page, halt the reader's flow and generally stick out unnecessarily, so we also use the rule above.

However, I arbitrarily decreed last week that ABBA should have all caps, so maybe I should butt out of this.

― CharlieNo4, Friday, 18 July 2008 16:54 (sixteen years ago)

eight months pass...

North Korea says it intends to test-fire the rocket between the 4 and 8 April.

Are we really intended to read this as "between the four and eight April"...? Seriously? Not "between the fourth and eighth of April"? And if the BBC News website is made up of broadcast pieces repurposed for the web, did some newsreader really say "between the four and eight April" on the air, in front of God and everybody?

UK journalism -- WHY???

― WmC, Friday, 27 March 2009 15:35 (sixteen years ago)

think it's just a typo - it says "the 4th and 8th of April" now. the website doesn't use the same script as broadcast on air. it has its own reporters, but since they're office-bound they rely on the broadcast correspondents for a lot of their info that's not on the wires.

― joe, Friday, 27 March 2009 15:58 (sixteen years ago)

This was where I read it -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7967202.stm -- still wrong at the moment. I'm not convinced it's a typo; I've seen that usage before, such as "the 10 December" instead of "the 10th of December" or, god forbid, "December 10th."

― WmC, Friday, 27 March 2009 16:03 (sixteen years ago)

oh well, it's different here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7940125.stm

just wanted to say it's not a uk journalism thing, or at least only as much as illiteracy is a uk journalism thing. "10 December", "December 10", "the 10th of December" all defensible. "the 10 December" is weird.

― joe, Friday, 27 March 2009 16:08 (sixteen years ago)

four months pass...

I was in a backstage interview dealie where I and two other reporters alternated asking questions to the interviewees. Am I obliged to ask the other two to sign off before I upload the videos (which include all of our questions) to Youtube, with links to their sites as well?

― Leee, Saturday, 8 August 2009 04:13 (fifteen years ago)

And because of a technical glitch, I may ask one of them for a transcript or a summary of a portion of an interview that I failed to record.

― Leee, Saturday, 8 August 2009 04:24 (fifteen years ago)

four months pass...

Apple and Nokia's battle hots up

w
t
f

― WmC, Friday, 11 December 2009 18:38 (fifteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.