28/03/2014 Newswatch


28/03/2014

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Hello, welcome to Newswatch with me, Samira Ahmed.

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School children around the country tried their hand at reporting the

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news on Thursday. But how does BBC News serve this age group as an

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audience? We'll hear some teenagers tell the

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Head of the BBC Newsroom what they want from the Corporation's news

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service. Are teenagers interested in the

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news? If not, does it matter? And what do they actually consider

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newsworthy? It could be a problem for the BBC if there's a generation

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growing up without the habit of accessing news on its various

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outlets. We saw some examples of that generation, not just consuming

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news, but making it, for Thursday's BBC School Report Day. More than

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30,000 children from over 1000 schools created content online, on

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radio and on TV, including an interview with Michael Gove in which

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he demonstrated his rapping skills. We asked some of those School

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Reporters from London's Richmond Park Academy to tell us what they

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think of BBC News. A lot of the time it is sort of

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aimed more at adults. It hasn't got a lot to do with teenagers.

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Most of the things aren't really for our age group. It's quite hard to

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understand what it's all about because I'm not very into the news.

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In a typical day, I wouldn't really watch news programmes or look at the

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BBC website. I get my news from the Metro.

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I don't really enjoy the news that much. It doesn't really target me.

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In a way, I think it's just something my parents should know

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about. That lack of engagement with

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traditional news bulletins represent a challenge for the broadcasters.

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But the BBC News app and mobile and online news in general are embraced

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more enthusiastically by these teenagers.

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With the app, it's really easy because you can choose which variety

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of news you want to read. UK news, international news, education and

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health news. You get to choose what you want.

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For School Report, these students have been making TV, radio and text

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reports on subjects such as exam pressure and homophobia, filming and

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editing them themselves. And there is more evidence that this is a very

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media`literate generation. I took part in a scheme where we

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managed to create an app and design an advert for it. We also did an

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advert for the sixth form. I studied digital media for a year, so that

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helped. I think that now, my generation do have to know about

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media because everything relates around it.

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No surprise then that they know their way around different media

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outlets. If I had to focus on the news

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changing and laws changing and things like that, I would normally

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watch BBC free speech. Because they tend to have a lot of opinions going

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about. It has debates and people get to project their opinions about what

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is going on. How they feel the news is maybe biased sometimes.

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Unfortunately, the debate programme "free speech" is on BBC three, which

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will become an online`only channel with reduced content next year. And

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there is another problem for this group. The way teenagers are

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represented on broadcast news, in reports like this.

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REPORTER: the teenage killer, here wearing a baseball cap...

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They are portrayed in a really negative way. There isn't much good

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news about them. Most news is about fights or someone getting stabbed

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and it's mostly teenagers doing it. But actually, it's just a minority.

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They are not taking into account the other teenagers who are actually

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doing something with their lives. The desire for more inspirational,

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positive stories, featuring role models such as Malala Yousafzai,

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reflects a wider discontent with the subject matter of TV news.

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They focus on one thing in particular. Then they string it

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along for too long and don't really move on. Adults think that things

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like celebrity gossip isn't news but it still kind of is and that is what

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my age group mostly read or listen to.

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I guess I'm just more interested in what is happening around me, so

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politics, anything that could affect my life.

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Plenty to ponder then, for executives and editors, who want to

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ensure that this doesn't become a generation lost to BBC News.

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Two of the School Reporters featured there, Rose and Tippi, join me now

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in the studio, along with the Head of the BBC Newsroom, Mary Hockaday.

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We asked you to look at a bulletin from Wednesday. It featured energy

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companies and the cultural separation and the teacher strike.

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What did you make of it as a piece of news?

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The energy News will apply to me when I am older about it is not

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something that affects me at the moment. I have school to worry

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about. The teacher strike does apply to me. That is something I would

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like to know about. That affects my education. I am coming into your

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ten. I am more interested in the other side of it. The politics, so I

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was quite engaged with the gas story and the cuts story. If you care

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enough about the actual subject matter, I believe teenagers would

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also be engaged. It is interesting. We know that

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young people want celebrity news. Some adults really hate this. This

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is a dilemma. Programmes like the main bulletins

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have a broad audience which features older people as well. We're trying

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to do a summary of what we think are the main stories of the day. But in

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a way that we hope is interesting to a broad audience, including a

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younger audience. Howl about how young people are

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portrayed? There is a perception that you see teenagers wearing

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hooded tops and they have committed crimes. But we don't see positive

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portrayals. I would hope that across the range

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we do show teenagers in lots of different lights. Some examples

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recently where talking to young entrepreneurs, including a guy who

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made a new Zap aged 17 and has managed to sell it for huge amounts

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of money. I would hope that in the round, we are talking about the real

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lives of real young people. I would also say that as well as the main

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news, there are some services which are really for young people. You

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guys may be growing out of Newsround.

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What you think about specialised content? Newsround is aimed at those

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aged up to 12. There is also BBC Three's free speech. But of course

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that channel will become online. Is there enough content for you? I

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think it is unfair that the kind of skip out our age group. Newsround

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goes up to 12 years old and then... It is more celebrity or sports which

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might not appeal to our age. Then suddenly it goes to more serious

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content. There is a big space for our age. Unless they check online,

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they don't have something that they can watch.

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This idea that you should go online, there are different applications, is

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that the answer? That is a great way for people like

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me to access the news. But it would be nice if there were TV news shows

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specifically for teenagers. I agree that it kind of skips our age gap

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aged over 12. You offer a lot of platforms, but

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actually people want a bulletin aimed at them. They are neglected.

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You're not the first people to see this. It is interesting. We have

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been thinking hard about this. I think there is a gap between the

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Newsround audience and the main news audience. And then there is BBC

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Three. There is also news be, a radio service. We know that not all

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young people listen to the radio. We're looking at ways to take more

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of the Newspeak journalism, of which you are the target audience, and

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make it available not just on radio, but in video, on digital platforms.

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I think that we will be able to do that in the next few months. We

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should have something exciting. We're also doing something with

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putting new stories onto social platforms like Facebook and

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YouTube. We always leave you to tell us we're due are going in which

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platforms you spent time on. Thank you very much.

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And you can see stories from the students of Richmond Park Academy

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and other young reporters from around the UK on the BBC School

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Report website: bbc.co.uk/schoolreport.

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Just time before we go for a couple of your comments on this week's news

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coverage, which has featured prominently the ongoing and tragic

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saga of the missing Malaysian airliner. On Monday, the airline

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said their assumption was that the plane was lost, with no survivors,

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and news bulletins showed the reaction of relatives of those on

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board. Gillian Hugh`Jones was: "Appalled and incredulous that you

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keep showing video of the anguished and devastated families and friends

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of the passengers. You could have given them the dignity of privacy at

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this time." And on Wednesday there was news of

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the "conscious uncoupling" of celebrity couple Gwyneth Paltrow and

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Chris Martin, if "news" is the word, which ` according to Gill Brooks `

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it isn't. "Is this really so important to the

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British public?" She asked. "It certainly isn't to me. This is

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frivolous showbiz gossip. If every marriage break`up was reported on

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the news, there would be no room for anything else."

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Thanks for all your comments this week. You can share your opinions on

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BBC news and current affairs by ringing 0370 010 6676 or e`mailing

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[email protected] We're on Twitter and do have a look at our website,

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bbc.co.uk/newswatch. That's all from us. Join us again

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next week. Goodbye. Thunderstorms have kept going this

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evening across parts of the Midlands and stretching into other areas.

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Some hail being reported.

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