The world’s biggest news websites have been ranked by the University of Maryland’s International Center for Media and the Public Agenda according to their openness and accountability.
The study looked at 25 international news websites, ranging from The New York Times to Sky News to Al Jazeera. The Guardian came in at first place.
By comparison, the BBC fared pretty badly, receiving a “poor” verdict. As a former news editor at the BBC News website, I was surprised by the results, until I realised that the study had looked at the BBC World Service site, rather than the actual BBC News website.
It is hard to understand how the authors of the study could have considered the World Service site as the main BBC global news site. This is a fundamental error in methodology.
The World Service site is not the BBC’s global news offering online. All the news on it is scrapped from the news website.
The BBC News website is a separate operation, based in a different building, with a dedicated team of journalists, developers and designers. So to be valid, this study should have examined the BBC News website. It is the one of the world’s top news sites, not the World Service site.
As a result, the study is not comparing like with like. This basic mistake seriously undermines the credibility of its findings. For example, it ignores initiatives like the BBC editors’ blog, an attempt by senior news executives to be more open about editorial decisions.
Unfortunately, there is no way to leave feedback on the study’s website.
(Via CJR Daily)
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Hi Alfred,
I’m not sure if the study has been adapted since your post, but looking at the site now the BBC lies in 3rd place (behind Guardian and NYT) and has a rating of ‘excellent’ (http://www.icmpa.umd.edu/pages/studies/transparency/bbc.html). And if you click on the BBC link it goes through to the main BBC news site.
Have results been revised?
Martin
The results were revised after I alerted the BBC to the error. One of their editors got in touch with the group and it has now revised the results. Except, of course, the ICMPA does not have a corrections page in which it explains its error.
[...] June 14, 2007 Posted by Alfred Hermida in BBC, journalism, news. trackback Following on from my post on Wednesday, expressing concerns about a study on the accountability of news websites, the researchers have [...]