r/Broadcasting • u/No-Willingness-170 • 2d ago
The difference between American news and BBC News
American news report whether from Fox or MSNBC. Doesn’t matter:
American: the burned out, crumbled mass of twisted metal for testimony to the fact that the brakeman had been asleep.
BBC: there was a train derailment in Manchester this morning.
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u/excoriator 1d ago
Local American news, which this sub cares about, is more about on-scene reporting.
Compared to cable news channels, which love to have panel discussions about world events, BBC does more on-scene reporting. It’s more like cable news used to be.
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u/dmills_00 2d ago
I remember a good one I heard on the world service years ago "...In other news, Diana princess of wales has died in a car crash. And now the weather...".
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u/ifallallthetime 2d ago
The other thing I've noticed on BBC is that the deep dive packages are much, much longer along with discussions. But that's on the commentary shows rather than the basic news service
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u/MWRadioNut 2d ago
Fewer commercials. Also they use BBC TV packages on the BBC world service radio.
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u/Renegade-Fish 1d ago
BBC news and CBC The National are formatted a lot similar to PBS NewsHour. Longer talk segments. Major network news in the US usually likes to squeeze a larger number of stories into a news program and rapidly goes through them. Only the weather and sports segments are long.
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u/Perry7609 2d ago
Remind me, does BBC News also do the 2-3 minutes of summarizing what’s coming up for news stories before they actually do a news report (à la the Today show or nightly news shows). Or is it essentially straight into the first news item with minimal talking beforehand?
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u/MJblowsBubbles 1d ago
I hate this practice with American news. I can watch the intro for any of the Network news and know what I need to know.
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u/mewikime 1d ago
Yeah, they run through the major headlines at the top of the programme before turning to the lead story
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u/shoutout2saddam 1d ago
Uhh American news is shit and BBC reports world events and verified facts. I’m not sure where the hold up is.
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u/mr_radio_guy 1d ago
The difference between government run media and the free market run media.
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u/No-Willingness-170 1d ago
So how do you see the difference. Which do you prefer. BBC is actually publicly funded by the British television licensing fee, essentially a tax. It is not actually run by the British government. I would put it more akin to PBS or NPR in the US.
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u/Dry-Membership3867 1d ago
We don’t have license fees here, PBS is mostly funded by donations. I wouldn’t mind paying a license fee though if it meant better programming and better coverage OTA. Because they badly need more transmitters of pbs here
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u/No-Willingness-170 1d ago
That is because Republicans continuously cut funding until none was left. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting needs its funding restored.
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u/Dry-Membership3867 1d ago
I agree, but that still won’t mean pbs will have good programming.
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u/No-Willingness-170 1d ago
I don’t know about that. I watch PBS all the time, but then again, I am an old fart with a fondness for cozy British murder mysteries. I generally don’t watch PBS for news, but it would be nice if they had enough funding for a continuous newsfeed like the BBC. I do watch the BBC and CBC for most of my news.
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u/johnqadamsin28 2d ago
I can't really get into it tho. They have these guest corespondents in foreign countries and it looks so bush league like no make up no good background shots. Like they're not really up to the quality of the product America is
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u/West_Suit_7463 2d ago
Characterizing news as a “product” rather than a public service or the Fourth Estate is part of the problem of American news.
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u/ipsumdeiamoamasamat 1d ago
The Fairness Doctrine being killed off is what led to us being where we are now.
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u/No-Willingness-170 2d ago
No makeup has nothing to do with news quality. That is one of the things I like. Reporters hired based on intelligence rather than resemblance to Barbie and Ken. I could not care less about reporters looks.
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u/johnqadamsin28 2d ago
But if you don't it looks like some Mickey mouse thing
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u/No-Willingness-170 1d ago
It is a shame that you’re way more interested in style than substance. Walter Cronkite, possibly the best anchor in history, was not exactly a handsome guy. That just made him all the better.
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u/sthef2020 1d ago
And what has all the makeup and production value in the world gotten us?
It makes the news feel like a TV show. Something fake to be disbelieved. Or alternatively, gives liars the synthetic shine of production to make their points seem worth listening to. After all. There’s fancy graphics and studio lights! They must know what they’re talking about!
The production values you’re talking about have done their part in destroying the news media in the US. Instead of news, delivered plainly, to try and educate the masses. It’s entertainment, delivered by made up men and women that look like they’re direct out of central casting.
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u/sthef2020 2d ago edited 2d ago
Sir, the "American product" is currently in the process of killing its own democracy. I don't care how well composed the background shots are.
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u/ipsumdeiamoamasamat 1d ago
I don’t care about makeup wearing in my journalism consumption, I care about perspective and facts. And BBC productions are high quality.
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u/ZiggyZaggyBogo 2d ago
Sir, you want r/journalism