BBC News: Encyclopedia - BBC News

BBC News

BBC News and Current Affairs (sometimes abbreviated BBC NCA) is a major arm of the BBC responsible for the corporation's newsgathering and production of news programmes on BBC television, radio and online. It claims to be the largest broadcast news gathering operation in the world and produces almost 100 hours of output daily. The current director is Helen Boaden.

BBC News carries out a key objective of the BBC's Royal Charter: to "collect news and information in any part of the world and in any manner that may be thought fit".

BBC News is based at the News Centre at Television Centre (TVC), Wood Lane, W12 and operates regional centres across the United Kingdom as well as 44 newsgathering bureaux around the world. Of these bureaux, 41 are based overseas. Political coverage is based at the Millbank Studios in Westminster. Due to the non-central location of TVC, however, in 2008 the News Centre is due to move to BBC Radio's headquarters, BBC Broadcasting House at Portland Place in Central London. The News department consists of 3,500 staff of which 2,000 are journalists. The annual budget of BBC News is £350 million.

BBC News output has won critical acclaim worldwide and praise for its unbiased and balanced reporting. It is, however, not free from controversies, the most recent being the Hutton Report which led to a shakeup of the corporation's operations. Within the United Kingdom, BBC News faces stiff competition from Sky News and ITN. However, research has shown that for coverage of major events such as the Iraq war and September 11th attacks viewers turn to the BBC.

In 2005, it was announced that the Six O'Clock News was the most popular daily news programme whilst the corporation's 24 hour rolling news channel, BBC News 24, was the most popular 24 hour news channel in Britain [1].

BBC News - History

The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin on November 14, 1922. On July 5, 1954, the first television news bulletin was broadcast. The BBC celebrated 50 years of Television News on July 5, 2004. The BBC television service originally carried news in the form of images with a newsreader narrating but off camera, having decided that a newsreader on screen would distract viewers from the stories. Newsreels had been in use for some time, shown at cinemas and other places of public gathering. These were adapted as Television Newsreel programmes.

Several variations in how the main news programmes were named and shown occured with programmes such as Nationwide coming and going. A major relaunch of BBC television news output in 1993 included abolition of variation in sets and titles in favour of a single set with a common theme. The times of the main bulletins —one o'clock, six o'clock and nine o'clock, were, however unchanged, and the music, whilst consistent in style, was based on the previous theme adopted by each programme. The new set was a small one which took advantage of Silicon Graphics systems to create a virtual studio which appeared to be huge. The titles commenced with the BBC News logo imposed on a spinning globe, widening to reveal a glass sculpture of the BBC coat of arms (again computer generated) in front of a panoramic view of the studio. The colour of the sets varied, getting progressively darker throughout the day. Likewise the style of the theme changed, from a bright and driving theme for Breakfast News to an authoritative and more sombre version for the Nine O'Clock News. In 1997 the programme titles were altered slighlty to incorporate the new corporate logo and in 1999 the biggest relaunch occurred, with BBC One bulletins, BBC World and BBC News 24 adopting a common style. Most significantly BBC regional news programmes adopted the new corporate image for the first time, giving a common style across local, national and international BBC television news. It also caused changes to regional news. Regional stories were incorporated into the six o'clock news headlines. The English regions lost some time, however, as these regions now rejoined London for a national round-up at 6.55. Over the next few years the regional news programmes began adopting a unified look in line with the national news. Regional headlines were also added to the one o'clock news, and the main evening news, when it moved from nine o'clock to ten o'clock.

In 1998 most of BBC Radio News joined BBC Television News at TVC in the new "News Centre" complex at the front of the building. In 2008 all BBC News, national radio and BBC World Service broadcasts will be moved to Broadcasting House in central London. The building is planned to have the largest live newsroom in the world.

BBC News - News output

BBC News - Television news

The Television News section of BBC News is responsible for the main news bulletins on BBC One and BBC Two, news output on BBC Three and BBC Four and the news networks BBC News 24 and BBC Parliament. It also provides news on Ceefax and the BBC News Website.

BBC News provides 22 hours of programming each day for the international news and current affairs channel BBC World.

The distinctive music on all BBC television news programmes was introduced in 1999 and composed by David Lowe. It was part of the extensive rebranding which commenced in 1999. The general theme was used not only on bulletins on BBC One but News 24, BBC World and local news programmes in the BBC's Nations and Regions. Lowe was also responsible for the music on Radio One's "Newsbeat". In 2003, following another relaunch of the corporation's output, all title music and graphics were altered with Lowe remaining as composer.

On the 8th of November 2005, it was announced that a controller of BBC News 24 would be appointed and that a single editor for the One O'Clock and Six O'Clock news programmes would be used rather than two individuals. On the 16th of December 2005, the News 24 editor was named as Kevin Bakhurst, whilst Amanda Farnsworth became editor of the One and Six O'Clock bulletins. The position of editor of the Ten O'Clock News is currently being advertised.

The full directory of all the BBC's regional news programmes can be found here.

BBC News - Radio news

BBC Radio News produces bulletins for the BBC's national radio stations and provides content for local BBC radio stations via the General News Service (GNS). BBC News does not produce the BBC's regional news bulletins, which are produced by the BBC nations and regions. The BBC World Service broadcasts to some 150 million people in 40 languages across the globe.

BBC News - Online news

BBC News Online is the BBC's news website. Launched in November 1997, it is one of the most popular news websites in the UK with around 15 million visitors every month. The website contains exhaustive international news coverage as well as entertainment, sport, science, and political news. Many reports are accompanied by audio and video from the BBC's television and radio news services. Certain BBC current affairs programmes such as Newsnight and Question Time are available to view on the site after they have been broadcast. The same is available with BBC News television bulletins and radio programmes. Certain radio broadcasts are available for download as podcasts as part of the BBC's download trial.

BBC News - Opinions of BBC News

The BBC is frequently complimented in the public arena, both in the United Kingdom and globally.

Alternative views are also expressed in print from time to time. Notable examples have been Stop castrating the language, published in The Observer, and The Disgrace of the BBC, published in The Weekly Standard.

BBC News - Censorship

BBC News has been banned in several countries primarily for unbiased reporting which has been unfavourable to the ruling government. Most notable examples have been in Uzbekistan [2], China [3] [4], Sri Lanka [5], Zimbabwe [6] and Pakistan in 2005 [7], though the details of the last are still unclear.

BBC News - Hutton Inquiry

BBC News was at the centre of one the largest political controversies in recent years. Three BBC News reports (Andrew Gilligan's on Today, Gavin Hewitt's on The Ten O'Clock News and another on Newsnight) quoted an anonymous source that stated the British government (particularly the Prime Minister's office) had embellished the September Dossier with misleading exaggerations of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities.

The Government angrily denounced the reports and accused the corporation of poor journalism. In subsequent weeks the corporation stood by the report, saying that it had a reliable source. Following intense media speculation, David Kelly was finally named in the press as the source for Gilligan's story on 9 July 2003. Kelly was found dead, apparently by suicide, in a field close to his home early on 18 July. An inquiry led by Lord Hutton was announced by the British government the following day to investigate the circumstances leading to Kelly's death, concluding that "Dr. Kelly took his own life."

BBC News - Aftermath of Hutton report

In his report on January 28, 2004, Lord Hutton concluded that Gilligan's original accusation was "unfounded" and the BBC's editorial and management processes were "defective". In particular, it specifically criticised the chain of management that caused the BBC to defend its story. The BBC Director of News, Richard Sambrook, the report said, had accepted Gilligan's word that his story was accurate rather than checking Gilligan's records more thoroughly.

Davies had then told the BBC Board of Governors that he was happy with the story and told the Prime Minister that a satisfactory internal inquiry had taken place. The Board of Governors, under BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies' guidance, accepted that further investigation of the Government's complaints were unnecessary.

Due to the level of criticism of the corporation in the Hutton report, Davies resigned on the day of publication. BBC News faced an important test, reporting on itself with the publication of the report, but by common consent managed this both independently and impartially. Davies was followed by Director General Greg Dyke the following day and Gilligan on January 30. While doubtless a traumatic experience for the corporation, an ICM poll in April 2003 indicated that it had sustained its position as the best and most trusted provider of news.

BBC News - Editors

• Political Editor: Nick Robinson
• World Affairs Editor: John Simpson
• Economics Editor: Evan Davis
• Business Editor: Jeff Randall
• Europe Editor: Mark Mardell
• Middle East Editor: Jeremy Bowen

See also

• BBC News Online
• BBC Sport
• BBC Weather
• BBC World
• List of current BBC News Readers and Journalists
• List of former BBC News Readers and Journalists

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "BBC News", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki