Listening Journal - NPR NEWSCAST

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NPR NEWSCAST with Carol Van Dam on Saturday Oct. 10, 12 a.m (duration: 4 min 49 sec)

This newscast included stories from all over the world, including the gunmen attacks on a main Pakistani army facility, killed NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, multiparty negotiations with North Korea about its nuclear weapons program, UN peacekeepers that were killed in a plane crash in Haiti, Pennsylvania's new budget, fires in California, the opening of the ski season in Colorado and Nevada, the US president speech to a gay rights group and several sports news. Most of the bulletins were readers and natsound was only used once for the story about the governor of Pennsylvania signing the new budget. Other than that some bulletins hosted NPR nationally and internationally posted correspondents.

I was surprised at how much better I could follow the NPR newscast than the BBC one. Hence, it's only natural that I found this NPR newscast much more interesting. The sentences were clear and concise and were all connected in context. I also liked that there was a sports section at the end. However, I found that only half of the newscast was focused on international news, the other half dealt with national news. And this is completely fine, considering it's called NPR, i.e. "National" Public Radio.

The quality of sound was great except for the recording of the correspondent in the Haiti story. It sounded like it was recorded over the phone. The sound was low and a bit muffled. I wish, the announcer would have mentioned that this was recorded over the phone. Maybe then I wouldn't have noticed it that much. As for the natsound, Van Dam only used one soundbit of the governor of Pennsylvania when he spoke about the new budget. I liked the use of that soundbit because it summed up what actually happened and also gave some background information.

The announcer's voice was good. Carol Van Dam seems to know what she's talking about and doesn't seem rushed in anything.

At the end of the day, I really liked that newscast. Even though it fit more stories into less time than BBC's newscast, I felt I could actually follow the information. The balance between natural sound and the information that was selected to make the bulletins conclusive was exactly right.

(Picture: copyright Carol Van Dam - The announcer of this newscast)

Listening Journal - BBC Worldservice Newscast

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BBC WORLDSERVICE - Excuse me, can you repeat that?

Hourly Newscast (Sat., 11 a.m.) with David Laing (duration: 5 min)

This newscast covered several international news such as a gunmen attack on a checkpoint in Pakistan, talks with North Korea about its nuclear weapons program, the death of 11 UN peacekeepers in Haiti, the Lisbon treaty of the European Union, rescue works in the Philippenes after the landslides, the conviction of a Canadian financier to 13 years in prison and the first clown in space. Most of the bulletins included reports by BBC's foreign correspondents and only one story was accompanied by an actuality.

To be honest, this newscast wasn't particularly interesting. But then again, is a newscast supposed to be interesting or informative? Hence, yes. It was definitely informative - however not particularly interesting. I don't quite understand how they decided on the ranking of the newscast. However, I do understand that casualties usually come first in a newscast. But recently so many things have been going on in Pakistan. Almost every day, people die in attacks or suicide bombings. If we are talking in terms of "interestingness", then this story has become quite "boring. I would have preferred to maybe have another angle on the story, other than the one of previous attacks. In the last sentence, the reporter mentions the Taliban that are somehow connected to the attacks. This would have been something that they could have elaborated on or given additional information instead of some of the information that was offered. Also, in order to say whether this newscast was interesting, I would have to have completely understood all the information that was given. Now, this might be because I'm slow but I'm asking, could it be that BBC presenters talk unbelievably fast? In fact, I could only fully understand everything the presenter said after I went back a couple of times. But what if I was just listening to the radio and was unable to rewind? There is absolutely no way I could have understood everything.

However, the quality of sound and David Laing's voice were good. I would have loved to have more natural sounds incorporated in the bulletins. But considering the content of today's news, I have to admit that it is hard to find any natsound that would go with the stories. So, the only natsound that was used was in the story about the first clown in space and I have to admit, that this is the story that stuck most in my memory, even though it might have been the least important and the very last in the ranking.

Timewise, the newscast was exactly right. However, I would have preferred to listen to one or two stories less in the same amount of time. Eight stories in a 5 minutes newscast: How can the announcer not talk fast and leave out some important additional information? It's impossible. So, if I was the producer, I would have given the announcer less stories and therefore more time to read and include facts that might further the understanding of the listener.