Thursday, January 17th, 2008
How not to break news online
Suw and I needed a good chuckle, and we got one with the Times’ coverage of the crash landing of BA Flight 38 at Heathrow. (I would expect this wording to change after a sub has had a more rigorous look at this. Or maybe not, the story hasn’t been updated for an hour.)
All available fire engine cover was deployed to assist the stricken flight BA38 from Beijing after it fell short of the runway, after reportedly approaching the ground at an angle. Three passengers are reported to have sustained minor injuries.
While one certainly wouldn’t want his or her flight to approach the ground at say a 90-degree angle, but if a plane doesn’t approach the ground at an angle, it might prove difficult to land at all. And according to the Times’, Gordon Brown only barely escaped injury or even certain death.
It is believed the stricken flight eventually came to a halt, just 1000m from the Prime Minister’s flight. There is believed to be no terrorist link.
Now, as an American not well versed in the metric system, even I know that 1000m is a kilometre, which as “Mike Bibby, St ALbans, England -not EU” says in a comment on the piece, “1000 metres? Thats not even a near miss!”
This shows us once again why news is too important to be left to the cult of amateurs.
But seriously, newspapers should break and update news online, as I’ve said before. However, after the initial crush of the story, you have to hone the piece. Don’t let sloppy writing stand.
UPDATE: Suw pointed out that there was interesting response to the broadcast coverage on Twitter and then later in blogs. Our friend Ewan Spence provided excellent rolling updates on Twitter, and had this comment about BBC News 24’s coverage:
Giving up on BBC News 24 coverage. Too emotional and trying to get passengers on mobiles to say words like scared, frightened. Radio 5 wins.
Our friend Vince had some strong words for ITV’s coverage:
Earlier in the same program they had an interview with one of the passengers who categorically stated that it felt like a very rough, but otherwise normal landing and it was only when they’d been evacuated from the plane and saw bits of aircraft and landing gear strewn across the grassy strip before the tarmac that they realised they’d had a lucky escape.
Yet when it comes to wrapping up, newscaster Mark Austin completely ignores the witness account - the facts - in favour of the sensationalist, unsupported hyperbole above.
Suw made the suggestion that more news organisations should monitor Twitter for instant reaction, not just to the news event itself but also to their coverage.
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January 17th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
What part of America are you from that you are not well versed in the metric system? North, Central, or South?
January 17th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I’m with Spence on the rolling TV coverage though - too much ‘how did it make you feel’ and not enough actual news and information. It’s one thing I really dislike about 24 hour news reporting is that when they have to fill with the biggest story, they oftenpad out the time when they are learning nothing new with reporters trying to force out the emotional reaction they think will play best. Get the information, don’t pad.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
News sources should hire some people who know how to speak “technical.” If I want credible information, I look to sources like Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_BA38
January 18th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Mark, North America, the US. The metric system still isn’t what most people in the US use as their day-to-day measurements. Yes, we were taught the metric system, especially in science classes. But if you asked someone from the US how far away something was in kilometres, they either wouldn’t have a clue or would have to think about it and convert. I thought that this was common knowledge. Oddly, even in the UK, they still frequently use miles for distance, even though they use kilometres for speed.
Rachel, I agree with you and Spence. The TV coverage was light on information and heavy on emotional coverage. Hey, they’ve got 24 hours to fill. It’s quite clear to anyone but the folks who work in rolling television news that this is flawed way of working. There needs to be a more creative way of dealing with the gaps than padding them.
January 18th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Did I miss something when I was away? When did we change to km for speed???? As far as I know it’s still mph, both on road signs and on car spedometers.
I still think imperial for weights and measures - converting if needed, and for many distances, except I use both cm and inches. I was only ever taught metric though.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Hi Rachel. Yeah, we still use miles for long distances, and metric for weights and measures. Bonkers if you ask me, cos I still think in imperial most of the time.
I was born the year that the UK decimalised, 1971, and was taught both, so my mental measuring system for distance goes like this:
thous (thousandths of an inch); mils (millimetres), centimetres, inches, feet, yards, miles, solar units, light years.
Notice the absence of metres and kilometres. This caused some significant problems when being forced to buy fabric in metres as I had no idea how long “3m” was. Turned out to be “lots”.