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The decline of BBC News online

(November 2018)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
AN
Andrew Founding member
Recently the BBC News website doesn’t seem to think that the BBC News reputation of high quality news is a good enough pull, they instead seem to want a chunk of the tacky click bait tabloid market as well.

For example this story about rail delays today. For some reason they feel we want to read a load of half baked twitter opinions within the story.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-46096385

This sort of thing has dominated the entertainment section for a while but is now spreading to the main news section.

There have been many other examples recently

Has anyone else noticed a change in tone and quality with BBC News online?
SE
Square Eyes Founding member
Definitely. It's usually Newsbeat articles that are the most click-baity and are given undue prominence on the main page ahead of worthy news but its been a general trend now for many months.

Then of course earlier in the summer they went completely overboard on all things Love Island. The night of the final had 2 articles in the main headline section.
SE
Square Eyes Founding member
Case in point. At the moment the most read news article on BBC News is "This woman's tweet may have changed KFC chips".
JA
JAS84
May have? They outright said so in a print ad!
RD
RDJ
The problem is is that most of those stories belong on the Newsbeat website. But since they deemed it too costly and just amalgamated it into the usual News website it's just bringing down the reputation of the website as a whole.

If the BBC want to go down the path of clickbait, they really need to reinstate the Newsbeat website to distinguish the two.
Jeffmister and Brekkie gave kudos
JA
Jamesypoo
Surely embedded tweets are just the digital evolution of the traditional vox pop but for a different medium? Yes it's lazy but only marginally lazier than standing on a street somewhere sticking a camera in some random person's face asking their opinion?

At least (in this example anyway) the people whose tweets have been used are people who are actually affected by the story in question, making them somewhat relevant.

I think the proliferation of Newsbeat content has come as a result of that website being brought under the main news site umbrella. The content is being produced so why not use it? It is probably part of a wider strategy to get more of the Radio 1 target audience on board with the wider BBC.
AndrewPSSP, Lou Scannon and Spencer gave kudos
CL
clh
If the BBC themselves decide it's an issue, then in their top 10 they could multiply newsbeat stories by some weight to require more views to get them to the top, however then that wouldn't be a top 10, and some pedantic so and so would whine about it - like with the old clock on the homepage.
SP
Spencer
I guess it comes down to the BBC's constant Catch 22 dilemma. By being too populist, they face accusations of providing a poor-quality service which could easily be provided in the commercial sector; by being too serious and worthy, they risk not serving enough licence payers.

The trouble is, like it or not, stupid people pay for the BBC too.

Perhaps the solution is to launch a corporation-wide BBC Stupid brand, bringing together things like Mrs Brown's Boys, stories about KFC chips, and anything featuring Dominic Littlewood.
JA
james-2001


Perhaps the solution is to launch a corporation-wide BBC Stupid brand, bringing together things like Mrs Brown's Boys, stories about KFC chips, and anything featuring Dominic Littlewood.


Will all the Nigel Farage coverage go on there too?
Lou Scannon and Brekkie gave kudos
SP
Spencer


Perhaps the solution is to launch a corporation-wide BBC Stupid brand, bringing together things like Mrs Brown's Boys, stories about KFC chips, and anything featuring Dominic Littlewood.


Will all the Nigel Farage coverage go on there too?


I'll leave that one for you to decide, as I can hear the TVF mods' Brexit Discussion Warning Siren sounding already. Wink
GO
gottago


Then of course earlier in the summer they went completely overboard on all things Love Island. The night of the final had 2 articles in the main headline section.

To be fair BBC News Online has had articles like this since it began. Do a Google search on Big Brother or X Factor back when they were at their peak and you’ll find endless articles about them. I don’t mind those articles, they’re about events that a lot of people are talking about so they have their place.

What I do mind is the awful quality videos they allow onto the site, produced by people who’ve clearly not had any sort of training in how to use a camera or edit. I appreciate they’re probably made on zero budget but if they’re not fit for broadcast they shouldn’t be allowed onto the site.

I’d give anything to see the genuinely atrocious BBC Trending canned ASAP. While they’re not as prevalent as they were a year or two ago they’ve still been responsible for some the most irritatingly irrelevant, blown out of proportion articles the site has ever seen.

I also can’t bear the site’s use of “here’s what you need to know” every morning. No one “needs to know” anything about some of the drivel they include in the list.
IT
itsrobert Founding member
Surely embedded tweets are just the digital evolution of the traditional vox pop but for a different medium? Yes it's lazy but only marginally lazier than standing on a street somewhere sticking a camera in some random person's face asking their opinion?

At least (in this example anyway) the people whose tweets have been used are people who are actually affected by the story in question, making them somewhat relevant.

My problem with the use of social media on TV and in news articles is that it's not a true, random cross-section of society. Believe it or not but not everyone is a user of social media. So, if they increasingly go down the route of using social media content as opinion, they are excluding a probably quite large section of society. At least by standing there harassing people in the streets, they were more likely to get a cross-section of all walks of life.


To be completely honest, I see it as just another symptom of the general dumbing down of society. There is very little left in the mainstream that is actually high brow and treats people as intelligent beings - be it TV, news, politics or anything else. We've now got a "celebrity" driven, politically correct, lowest common denominator culture that is permeating every aspect of society.

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