Bennett Sourcing BBC's live coverage Mumbai Norway Digital Journalism 2016.pdf (818.26 kB)
Sourcing the BBC's live online coverage of terror attacks
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-21, 06:01 authored by Daniel BennettThe live blog or live page has emerged as a bespoke format for covering breaking news online and represents an important 'site' to investigate the impact of social media on news sourcing. This article assesses whether the adoption of live online coverage has facilitated a more 'multiperspectival' journalism through the inclusion of 'non-official' sources. The article is based on comparative content analyses of the BBC's coverage of Anders Behring Breivik's killing spree in 2011 and the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. The article is strengthened by 'triangulating' data from interviews, access to BBC documents and observation work at the BBC. The comparison reveals that the incorporation of eyewitness accounts has driven an increase in the inclusion of 'non-official' sources in the BBC?s live online coverage, but it suggests that further significant increases are unlikely. In particular, the use of Twitter was becoming normalised by 2011 both in the range of actors who use the microblogging tool and the BBC's approach to sourcing content from Twitter. The article suggests that journalists' approach to sourcing continues to depend as much on conceptions of news values and editorial approach as it does on the live blogging platform through which the news is disseminated.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Digital JournalismISSN
2167-0811Publisher
RoutledgeExternal DOI
Issue
7Volume
4Page range
861-874Pages
14.0Department affiliated with
- Media and Film Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2016-04-27First Open Access (FOA) Date
2017-10-06First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2016-04-27Usage metrics
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