BBC

A. Why The BBC?

The second country that I have chosen to do in this project is the United Kingdom. I have chosen the United Kingdom because, the issue that I have chosen is involving one of the biggest oil company in the world, which originated in the UK, British Petroleum. It will be interesting to see a how a UK publication present an issue regarding one of its most influential companies. Also, the United Kingdom is applying the Libertarian Press System theory in their medias, which will make it intriguing to see how they apply this theory on the issue. Even though there are a lot of English publication that I could have chosen, I have decided to choose the BBC to do this research on.

BBC, or The British Broadcasting Corporation, is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. BBC’s main responsibility is to provide impartial public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man. The BBC is a semi self-governing public service broadcaster that operates under a Royal Charter and a License and Agreement from the Home Secretary. Within the UK, its work is funded principally by an annual television license fee, which is charged to all British households, companies, and organizations using any type of equipment to record and/or receive live TV broadcasts- the level of fee is set annually by the British Government and agreed by Parliament.

I have chosen the BBC because not only is it the largest British news organization in the UK, it is also the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23.000 staff. It is also well-known to be a trusted news organization all around the world.

B. Analysis

The BBC has a highly competent online counterpart that as a reader that is not very familiar with the site, I can find my way around it pretty easily. Their website also makes it very easy for me to search on their archives what I need to overview for this project. When I searched on their archives about this BP oil spill issue, I found around 500 articles, news reports, stories, and news segments from their TV broadcast. Even though this is a lot less than how much reporting on this issue that CNN has done- as far as number goes- it is still very apparent that BBC, too, is always reporting on the significant things that happens regarding this issue- although maybe just not as much as CNN does.

First of all- I have to say that I am very impressed with the many ways I can find information about this issue on the BBC website. Not only could I read through articles after articles and news reports after news reports, but they have also put together a timeline that has significant details on the updates of what is happening regarding that issue, which makes it easier for readers to learn about this tragedy that is definitely a historical event. From the several items that I have read and viewed on this issue from BBC, there is also one thing that comes across to be very apparent with their articles. Much like CNN, by reading those articles and news reports, I have found that they are trying to get a certain point across without being completely transparent. But, contrary to what was done on CNN, what has been done on BBC is something that it quite the opposite, but still somewhat similar. Unlike CNN’s news reports, the ones that I have read on BBC have somewhat of a positive note. They still display all of the facts and aren’t denying that what has happened is very unfortunate and tragic- but they want to come across as having a completely positive attitude on the whole situation. They want to make it known that it will get better, and that BP is doing everything they can to improve on the situation- but they are still acknowledging the fact that it is a horrible tragedy, and it is as if they’re saying “look, it is horrible, what’s happened- but it will get better and somehow BP is going to turn it around.” It is interesting to see BBC present this issue that way, which proves that even though the United Kingdom is a free country and has adopted the Libertarian Press System for a very long time, there is always a certain amount of loyalty that’s present and shows how much of a traditional country the United Kingdom really is.