BBC World News - to 14th January 2013

When the channel moves to Broadcasting House next year, it's getting tweaked lower thirds. And I was putting the idea out there that we might get some new animations on the astons like they have on BBC Arabic...

Make sense?

Whoopsy! Nik Gowing's cameraman on The Hub tried to emulate the previous story: an earthquake during a live news broadcast in Latin America, with much shaking of the set and camera.

As a joke, the BBC World cameraman thought he would shake Nik up with a copy of the shaking camera whilst wrapping up the latest bulletin.

Poor Nik did look shaken.

Not wishing to unleash a torrent of conspiracy debates, I was just watching the coverage of the September 11th attacks as they unfolded on BBC World in 2001 (see http://archive.org/details/bbc200109110834-0916). I didn't see it happen live myself (I was at school and didn't have 24-hour access to BBC World at that point anyway) but watching it back now, I can't help but disagree with those who have commented underneath the video about the ineptitude of BBC World and Nisha Pillai. Trying to watch it without the benefit of hindsight (ie as if I didn't know what unfolded), I can fully understand both why they decided to return to Sport Today and take a break before the top of the hour as well as miss the second collision.

Firstly, at about 20 minutes into the video, Nisha cuts in with a brief newsflash to bring the news and pictures to viewers. At that point, I imagine it just appeared to be an explosion/fire and with absolutely no details I think they were justified in taking a short break. Nisha returned at the TOTH and so followed the rolling coverage. Secondly, a few minutes after the TOTH, Nisha is just repeating the sketchy details available set to the pictures of the burning tower, at which point a plane flies into shot and explodes. Now - trying to see this without knowing how it unfolded - I imagine that Nisha thought it was probably just new footage of the crash/explosion that had happened earlier. At that point, she couldn't possibly have known it was terrorism; that only became evident once the second plane crash was confirmed, as Jim Fish pointed out a few minutes later. So, personally, I think the amount of criticism levelled at BBC World's handling of the disaster is a little unfair. It's very easy to point the finger in hindsight, but in the moment I suspect it was very confusing.

Anyway, one thing did strike me while watching that video - just how much news presentation has changed in the past 10 years. Firstly, in 2012 it would be unheard of to take a break during breaking news like this, even with few details. They'd just keep recylcing it until some new information came to light. And secondly, it's amazing to think that not one person in my school heard about the attacks. I happily played badminton and went to chemistry class and only found out about the news when I got home. These days with iPhones and Twitter the news would be round the world in a flash. Even though 2001 is only 11 years ago, it feels like a lifetime in terms of news technology.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. I know it can't have been easy for her to cover, but the emotionless voice is just awful. At 33.47 Nisha shows recorded pictures of the 2nd plane - so this time she knows it's another plane - and still she sounds like a robot. Any normal person would have had some emotion in their voice as that was replayed. Not her. She describes "A huge explosion there." as if it's a nice putt on the 16th.

Compare this (5m 13s in):



I know this is edited, but at least there's some emotion.

It's a shame there's no publically available copy of the News 24 coverage. From my memories of it (I started watching at the TOTH, which by then was already in rolling coverage mode, after a pointer to a "plane crash in New York" by one of my parents. Moments later the second aircraft hit, which was picked up by immediately be the presenters. Likewise the collapses.

The World coverage is far worse, and it is a shame that that version is the one which everyone else in the world thinks we were watching, and that it's a fair representation of the way the BBC handled breaking news (which even if true for World, was far from the truth for N24).

I take your point, Moz. Watching some more hours of the BBC World coverage, it seems all the newscasters from that day - Nisha, Nik Gowing and Philip Hayton managed to maintain their composure. I think it was probably a case of unique personalities - obviously Jon Nicholson found it more overwhelming than Nisha did at the same time. Personally, I don't think that's a criticism of Nisha. I suspect it might have been a case of her running on adrenaline and not really taking in the severity of what was unfolding around her? Sometimes that sort of thing only sinks in later on.

Ah that's interesting. So it seems there was some level of ineptidue at World then, if the second crash was picked up instantly on News 24. Then again, Nisha was talking to a reporter on the phone when the second plane hit so maybe she didn't have her full concentration on the pictures? In any case, though, one would expect someone in the gallery would have noticed it?

Edit - one interesting comparison to 2012: do you think if the attacks had happened now, News 24 and World would have simulcasted? I think probably so. It seems strange now that the only times the two channels joined together was for a David Dimbleby programme during the evening of the 11th and overnight. During all the rest of the time they were probably fighting each other for resources/correspondents/guests etc. I'm surprised no-one took the decision to merge the two.

I was 9 when the attacks happened and can remember coming home from school to a friends house and hearing the news.

The difference in the two clips is strange, as itsrobert said I thought the BBC on events like this simulcast the two channels to pool resources and so just starting the TOTH with "Your watching BBC News, Joined by BBC World viewers" or something similar, so it surprises me that this didn't happen.

The truth is BBC World used to be terrible on breaking news, they used any chances they had to go back to regular programing. This has changed somehow in recent years.

I was overseas at the time and I remember BBC World's initial coverage not being great. I know there's obvious reasons why CNN (which I watched for most of the night) would have been much better but having since been able to compare it to some of News 24, ITV and Sky's coverage from that day it does seem especially poor. When I did flick back to World, it always seemed to be a long way behind the current situation which was especially noticable with it being such a quickly-changing event.

I do remember watching the Dimbleby special, which would've been in the early hours of the morning for me and provided a good recap of events and by the next day the channel was full of the same high quality reports that would've been playing on the domestic channels.

You're right, ginnyfan. I first watched BBC World in 2000 and for a few years I always thought it was poor on breaking news compared to News 24. Like you say, they always seemed reluctant to break into scheduled programming unless it was very serious indeed, like September 11th. I think they saw themselves more as a news & features channel back then. I remember on weekdays there were far fewer editions of WBR et al and programmes like Holiday, Rough Science and Top Gear would broadcast. At weekends there were several 50-minute documentaries each day, such as Great Railway Journeys. The news bulletins definitely weren't as important back then. In many respects, I think the 2008 relaunch of BBC World and the inclusion of programmes like GMT, Impact and The Hub have really helped. BBC World News is a much, much better news channel than BBC World was. Interestingly, CNN used to be a good news channel but it has gone the other way in recent times with lots of inane filler programmes during weekdays. I think the BBC have made the better decisions the past few years.

By the way, does anyone know when Nisha Pillai last presented on BBC World? Her LinkedIn profile says 2011 but I think it's been longer than that since I last saw her. One thing I do miss about the 2001 BBC World era is some of its presenters. The likes of Philip Hayton, Keshini Navaratnam, Stephen Cole, Anita McNaught and Adrian Finighan. The channel itself has got better in recent times, but I think the 'old guard' presenters were the best. Thank goodness Nik Gowing, Lyse Doucet, Martine Dennis, Mishal Husain and Zeinab Badawi are still around!

I think I remember seeing Nisha on WNT last year on a few occasions.

Good point about BBC and CNN going into opposite directions.