Global Broadcasters Various Coverage of News

With many broadcasters and news agencies reporting the same news there is a worry that they will become impossible to tell apart.

If you choose one story, analyse it you will see differences. This variation is apparent in language, sources used, any bias? How was it reported? Was it objective?

This story is about a suspected Pakistani suicide bomber. The accounts analysed were from BBC, Reuters, CNN, Al-Jazeera and IRNA.

In this exercise, BBC fared the worst. They released an account that had a spelling mistake, didn’t have background, didn’t use enough sources, and showed bias.

Reuters, had a better introduction, use of sources, provided more facts and background on the event. It illustrated bias in its reporting by linking the bomber to Al -Qaeda.

CNN had a better story with better sources. It was more informative. They mentioned terrorism but attributed it to a source.

Al-Jazeera was very good in its reporting and the use of language when quoting sources. It was also very objective.

IRNA, was biased, it came across as a human interest story. Whilst the others reported that there had been attacks in the past weeks, IRNA remarked that it was peaceful.

This exercise therefore proves that, when broadcasters and agencies are rushing to get a story they sometimes cut corners to be the first to break the news.