:00:00. > :00:11.come on that but now it is time for our Newswatch and reaction to the
:00:12. > :00:16.BBC's Mandela coverage. Welcome to Newswatch. It has been
:00:17. > :00:22.described as a momentous week but the commemorations following Nelson
:00:23. > :00:29.Mandela's death warrant so much coverage? Does BBC News coverage
:00:30. > :00:32.given an unfair advantage to its presenters taken part in Strictly
:00:33. > :00:38.Come Dancing? And look at the BBC's new online platform documenting
:00:39. > :00:41.stories trending on social media worldwide but just because we are
:00:42. > :00:47.talking about it, does that make news? Since the death of Nelson
:00:48. > :00:51.Mandela last Thursday, South Africa has been commemorating its former
:00:52. > :00:57.president with a memorial service on Tuesday in Soweto attended by
:00:58. > :01:02.dignitaries and heads of state and Jews of thousands to see lying in
:01:03. > :01:10.state. The BBC has broadcast all of these and also Question Time
:01:11. > :01:14.appeared from South Africa. The BBC will have coverage of his funeral on
:01:15. > :01:17.Sunday. Well over 2000 viewers have been in contact with various
:01:18. > :01:27.complaints about the nature and length of the coverage. David
:01:28. > :01:34.Lavelle had comments typical of many. I thought the coverage was
:01:35. > :01:39.long and unnecessary. I think the expense must have been enormous and,
:01:40. > :01:43.having switched the programme of and come back after two or three hours,
:01:44. > :01:47.it was still on. Eventually, I switched to another channel and
:01:48. > :01:53.watched the news on that side. It presumes that there was not any
:01:54. > :01:59.other news going on in the world, just Mandela and South Africa.
:02:00. > :02:15.Christine Szymanski also add the following concerns.
:02:16. > :02:26.Mary Hockaday, head of the BBC newsroom joins me now to respond to
:02:27. > :02:29.those points. The director of news last week said that Mandela was the
:02:30. > :02:36.most significant statesman of the last century. I want to ask if you
:02:37. > :02:40.have misjudged the significance of Mandela's death to viewers in the
:02:41. > :02:45.UK. There are many viewers were different opinions. It is true, we
:02:46. > :02:48.have had a lot of people getting in touch questioning the coverage we
:02:49. > :02:53.have done of Nelson Mandela's death and subsequent events. We take these
:02:54. > :03:00.contacts from audiences and comments into account. We are also evaluating
:03:01. > :03:04.the news and events in terms of our professional judgement. You are not
:03:05. > :03:08.listening to what they're saying. They did not want hours and hours of
:03:09. > :03:12.stadium events were actually there was not anything happen. Why didn't
:03:13. > :03:19.you just cut back the amount of rolling news and make, say, a
:03:20. > :03:22.half-hour special of the highlights? There are people who felt it was too
:03:23. > :03:26.much but at the same time, across the week on our television and radio
:03:27. > :03:32.coverage, we have had good audiences. We have taken that into
:03:33. > :03:36.account as well. The stadium event was unusual but there is no doubt
:03:37. > :03:50.that it was significant as a music event. It is unprecedented still
:03:51. > :03:54.have. But four hours of an event like that is too much. You could
:03:55. > :04:00.have recorded it and made a condensed special. Some of our
:04:01. > :04:06.output is live coverage of live events. Then are other output is
:04:07. > :04:11.bulletins, where we are making selections. Yes, we reported on that
:04:12. > :04:17.event but we had room for other news as well. What is the funeral
:04:18. > :04:24.coverage to be like on Sunday? We will broadcast its life as a live
:04:25. > :04:34.event. On BBC One and on the news channel. At the same time? That will
:04:35. > :04:40.depend mix at the time. BBC One is taking it as a scheduled event and
:04:41. > :04:43.BBC Breakfast will be on BBC Two. The news channel will make its
:04:44. > :04:47.judgement if it is the most significant event happening at the
:04:48. > :04:52.time then a good part will be taken. Officer, we will make judgements
:04:53. > :05:00.with the funeral and other events of the day.
:05:01. > :05:02.Now, users of the BBC News website may have noticed the recent
:05:03. > :05:07.appearance of a new platform called BBC Trending which investigates
:05:08. > :05:12.social media trends around the world. With agreements to explore
:05:13. > :05:19.what is popular and why, the series has covered stories in text, and
:05:20. > :05:29.video in a range of serious and not so serious subjects. Such as the
:05:30. > :05:35.mass hysteria caused by Black Friday and why a racy polish the deal has
:05:36. > :05:40.had so many views on YouTube? And the Ukrainian protests and a
:05:41. > :05:46.Croatian same-sex marriage ban. So, where does this leave the BBC's own
:05:47. > :05:49.editorial responsibility? Richard Pattinson is a commissioning editor
:05:50. > :05:56.at BBC global news where this was developed. Did you tell us what
:05:57. > :06:01.exactly this is and what it is for? It is about what is trending on
:06:02. > :06:05.social media and why. Social media is important as a tool for
:06:06. > :06:08.journalists in terms of getting information and finding out what
:06:09. > :06:12.people are talking about and also getting our content out to
:06:13. > :06:16.audiences. It is also increasingly where audiences are finding our
:06:17. > :06:20.content. It is about looking at what people are talking about around the
:06:21. > :06:28.world and applying BBC journalism to decide what an interesting subject
:06:29. > :06:32.trending and why. We call on our generalists to have like at what
:06:33. > :06:37.people are talking about and investigated from a journalistic
:06:38. > :06:49.point of view and report on why it is trending. I have had people
:06:50. > :06:52.criticising this saying that the BBC is not in the business of just
:06:53. > :07:03.jumping on whatever is trending. Yes, if we were just running a story
:07:04. > :07:08.because it was popular. But we have had stories from all over the world,
:07:09. > :07:13.and the point is bringing stories about what people are talking about
:07:14. > :07:18.in other countries to our audience globally and here in the UK. There
:07:19. > :07:24.is a question about BBC editorial responsibility. If you're going for
:07:25. > :07:29.stories that are trending already because they are interesting but
:07:30. > :07:35.should you be looking for stories which should be reported just
:07:36. > :07:38.because they are important? Yes, but it is not just about stories which
:07:39. > :07:46.are already trending, it is also may about stories that haven't become
:07:47. > :07:53.news stories yet. But is that really news? I think things that can reveal
:07:54. > :07:57.the conversations which are going on in the world are absolutely relevant
:07:58. > :08:00.journalistically and can absolutely be news. We did a story recently
:08:01. > :08:08.looking at a conversation around mixed sex accommodation around
:08:09. > :08:11.students in Turkey. It represented the conflict between more liberal
:08:12. > :08:18.and conservative aspects of Turkish society. That is important. There
:08:19. > :08:21.was rioting over that recently. Picking up on these trends and
:08:22. > :08:26.adding journalistic insight is absolutely what we should be doing.
:08:27. > :08:30.Just time for some of your other comments. One of the week's most
:08:31. > :08:37.contentious stories has been the decision of IPSA to raise MPs'
:08:38. > :09:12.salaries. One comment was... There were more complaints of bias
:09:13. > :09:21.from viewers with regards to BBC Breakfast coverage of its presenter
:09:22. > :09:27.Susanna Reid who is appearing in stripper come dancing. Many thought
:09:28. > :09:55.that coverage of her partner Kevin was a step too far.
:09:56. > :10:12.We asked for a response from BBC Breakfast and they said...
:10:13. > :10:17.Finally, viewers who tuned into the news channel just before 6pm on
:10:18. > :10:38.Thursday were treated to this oddity.
:10:39. > :10:42.# ground control to Major Tom. # not everyone enjoyed this.
:10:43. > :11:00.Joe Hubbard e-mail... Thank you for all your comments this
:11:01. > :11:11.week. Do share your opinions on BBC News and current affairs by calling
:11:12. > :11:17.us or e-mailing us. Or you can tweet and look at our website. That's all
:11:18. > :11:33.from us, we'll be back next week. A much more chilly and clearer night
:11:34. > :11:39.across the British Isles. Tomorrow, the story will change quite rapidly
:11:40. > :11:45.so it is worth keeping up with the forecast if you have plans to get
:11:46. > :11:47.ahead on your Christmas preparations. A