Newsworthy

Abigail Sames
2 min readMar 22, 2021

Australia floods, US concerned by violence in Afghanistan, Palestinians begin Covid vaccinations, and Buckingham Palace ‘diversity policy review’. These are the BBC World News top stories.

Meanwhile, the NBC News Nightly broadcast begins focusing on spring breakers in Florida and continues with the headlines Homeland security chief amid migrant surge: ‘The border is closed’, Secretary of defense makes surprise visit to Afghanistan, nationwide rallies against anti-Asian attacks, and gas prices spike as more Americans return to the road.

Comparing both broadcasts further reinforces the idea that “American mindsets may not always be helpful in interpreting how international media operate and interact with their societies”.

BBC World News encompassed a broad range of stories and didn’t focus on one area of the world. Their news was informational and didn’t come with a bias. It was in depth and clear. NBC News spent the majority of its time covering stories related to the U.S. These stories were more superficial and didn’t give viewers a chance to learn.

One thing I noticed about both outlets was their YouTube channels. A brief comparison of the videos can show the types of stories they cover. BBC News most recently reported a story about the European Union while NBC News covered Covid cases.

While each broadcast seems different on the surface, it’s important to note that they each follow the social responsibility model.

Social responsibility model: First, media organizations exercise voluntary restraint to act in the social interest. But, second, government regulation is seen as both legitimate and necessary to control excesses.

Each outlet is guided by government regulations and the idea that the programming should be in the public interest. After watching broadcasts from both media outlets, it’s clear that they both abide by a clear set of rules and regulations. All reporters were professional and audience focused.

While both outlets covered a few overlapping stories, the news was delivered differently. BBC was more informative while NBC News was there to entertain.

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Abigail Sames
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Graduate student at UF. Dog mom. Adventurer. Avid cruiser. Working to understand and raise awareness of how the world grapples with the effects of #Covid-19.