Mainstream Broadcaster Website - BBC news

www.bbc.co.uk/news

Technology
The main technologies involved are the internet and digital video – as there are many clips and entire TV shows on the website.

The website is essentially replacing watching the news on television, because this way people can choose what news they consume and when they do so. It’s significant because it’s changing the way people consume news and information, it also dramatically increases the reach for the show.

Media
à The main media text is over course a website, and then within this there is a webzine, blogs, podcasts and video clips.

The Website: www.bbc.co.uk/news The layout is much like a newspaper, probably to keep with the news theme; it is set out in 4 columns, 2 bars either side with smaller links and stories. It has a constant colour theme of grey background, blue text and red detail. It is very easy to navigate around and the text is very clear, you can even change font size and colour.

Webzine http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/default.stm
Named ‘Magazine’ the webpage is full of smaller news stories which would be more appealing to slightly nicher groups than the BBC normally targets. It has many quirky, fun features such as ‘10 things’ – this is basically a list of 10 things that the BBC has discovered in the last week, and is often topical – e.g. the Olympic torches ability to withstand 50mm of rain. It also includes a ‘quote of the day’ feature, pulled from an article, and a ‘daily mini quiz’ – also normally topical. It is very interactive, allowing lots of people to have their opinions heard with a page entitled your letters, which will publish all letters which are not offensive.

Blog: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/ ‘This blog aims to explain the editorial decisions and dilemma’s faced by the teams running the BBC’s news service’
An editor will make a post about a subject which they want to discuss, or make clearer and then readers are free to make comments, ask questions (which are moderated) and create debate. The BBC encourages readers to criticise them and want to be as open as possible, I think this a great way to keep viewers loyal as it makes them feel incredibly involved that the BBC is taking their views into account.

Podcasts http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/4977678.stm
The BBC offers a wide range of podcasts the content of which changes daily of weekly, a few examples are; BBC radio newspod – designed of people who are short of time this podcast rounds up the days most interesting interviews and features, Today in Parliament – it summarises the highlights of the day. The podcasts are free and easy to download, they also provide links to all other BBC podcasts – encouraging viewers to widen their podcasting consumption and is a good example of synergy.

Video Clips
Nearly all news stories have video clips to accompany them and you can watch the last news programme that went out on the BBC. There is also a link at the top of the news homepage called NEWS 24 which is a channel dedicated to news on 24/7. You need windows media player to access all of these, and in each viewing box there is a small paragraph or 2 telling you about what you are watching.

Audiences
I believe the main target audience for the website is 30s-40s, as this is the age group which are most likely to consume news regularly but also young enough to use and embrace new technology. Secondary audiences are under 30s which regularly consume news and enjoy the quirkier features of the website (e.g. 10 things), and also ‘silver surfers’ – the over 50s who use new technology. I don’t think social groups or class are particularly significant for the 30s-40s, only that they need the internet, but for the secondary audiences it is most likely to middle and upper class as they can afford iPods and internet phones etc which provide the updates etc.

I think the audience are using it because they enjoy being kept up-to-ate all the time and want to gain more knowledge, and the new technology allows this. Mobile updates and ‘1 minute news summaries’ allow people to consume on-the-go, to fit into their busy lifestyles. So they are now able to work their consumption around their lives, and not the other way around.

Institutions
The only institution involved is the BBC and they are using the technology to bring people more news and to diversify that news so they can target nicher groups.

The main benefit is that it helps them to exhibit the news, because all of their shows and articles are archived and they have a 24/7 news channel which you can access from the website at any time. It also helps them to market the institution as there are many examples of synergy – e.g. links to CBBC news and all their other podcasts. To a lesser extent helps them to produce because they get feedback from the audience.

Key Concepts
This website involves interactivity, personalisation, immediacy, time-shift and vertical integration.

Interactivity:
The website has a lot of interactivity in it which all helps encourage loyalty.
‘Have your say’ (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm) is an entire section devoted to interactivity and helping viewers to have their opinions heard. There is one main debate which is changed regularly that anyone can post comments on and short comments scroll along the top in a ‘Your comments’ bar (this is also an example of democratization). There is also a section entitled ‘Pictures’ which is full of pictures sent in by people, usually topical (e.g. Olympic Torch Relay). There are also an entire programme called ‘Your News’ where people submit stories about what is happening in their area and what is important to them, and then each week 2 reporters (Richard Bilton and Laura Jones) visit a different place in the UK.
The websites webzine ‘The Magazine’ has a whole page for letters from readers and the editor’s blog activity encourages criticisms and questions upon topics they are discussing which they will reply to if possible.

Personalisation
The major point to make about a website is that t will always be an example of personalisation because viewers can choose exactly what they want to consume by the small descriptions that most links include. Personalisation, much like interactivity, is used to encourage viewer loyalty as they can make the media work for them.
The BBC alerts (RSS feeds) which the website provides (a form of immediacy) can be entirely personalised to your consumption, you can choose from 300 categories and you are then kept up to date with any headlines which fall into these.
The weather up dates on the news home page can also be personalised for your area, all you have to do is entire your postcode and you can also choose to include sport.
The website also provides options such as font size and colour and background colour for visual needs.

Immediacy
The immediacy of the website allows people to consume what they want quickly because everything is broken down and easy to find – as opposed to watching a 30 minute television programme. It also makes it easier for people with busy lives to consume media.
BBC news 24 is probably their largest example of immediacy because is a news programme which runs all day every day and can be accessed from the website homepage whenever. You can also download an RSS feed called BBC alerts, you choose the news you are interested in (personalisation) and then you can either have hourly updates of new headlines, or up dates when a new headline is broadcast. It is also possible to watch a ‘1 minute summary’ which is quite literally one minute of audio news which summarises the days headlines.

Time-Shift
Time shift allows people to access media whenever they want as opposed to scheduling their lives around television programmes, the website itself does that as it is accessible 24/7 and all articles are archived, but it also has other features of time-shift.
One such example is the websites podcasts (detailed above) they allow people to quickly download them and then whenever they have spare time (bus, tube, traffic etc) they can catch up.. The website also allows you to watch the last BBC show which was broadcast on TV at any time from a quick link.

Vertical Integration
The website has many connections with other BBC programmes etc. For example, on the homepage there is a link to the CBBC news website for children, which helps to target families more, the BBC alerts feature also allows you to set reminders for all BBC radio and television shows.