Wednesday
16Jan2008
The BBC Will Decide on Apple
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 03:46AM
The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones wonders aloud:
..and proceeds to rate the Macworld announcements on a scale of newsworthiness. The undercurrent to this is pretty interesting: the BBC decides what people will get to read. Actually, it's more that the BBC thinks it should be the one to decide what people get to read but, given the space they actually do give to Apple, it's clear that the BBC gives people what they want to read about - just like every other news organisation.
Apple is all over the BBC site today. Even though Cellan-Jones only rates the iPhone software update a 3/10 for newsworthiness, there's a video segment demonstrating the new features right off the BBC News home page.
The big news story is that Steve Jobs has made everyone excited about technology, even people well outside the traditional boundaries of the geek crowd. That, in itself, is and remains newsworthy.
We had a big row - or rather a reasoned debate - in our morning editorial meeting about whether Apple deserves quite as much coverage as it gets. A leading economics journalist pointed out that the Ford Focus is a much bigger seller than the iPhone - but gets much less coverage. I felt the Focus was just a car – while the iPhone heralded major change in a whole industry.
But we all agreed that Steve Jobs would have to come up with something pretty special to justify news of his keynote spreading from our web journalism to mainstream TV and radio bulletins.
..and proceeds to rate the Macworld announcements on a scale of newsworthiness. The undercurrent to this is pretty interesting: the BBC decides what people will get to read. Actually, it's more that the BBC thinks it should be the one to decide what people get to read but, given the space they actually do give to Apple, it's clear that the BBC gives people what they want to read about - just like every other news organisation.
Apple is all over the BBC site today. Even though Cellan-Jones only rates the iPhone software update a 3/10 for newsworthiness, there's a video segment demonstrating the new features right off the BBC News home page.
The big news story is that Steve Jobs has made everyone excited about technology, even people well outside the traditional boundaries of the geek crowd. That, in itself, is and remains newsworthy.
Reader Comments (2)
I am still waiting for cut, copy, and paste, which isn't a feature of the iPhone's 1.1.3 update. *sigh*
> whether Apple deserves quite as much coverage as it gets
They must mean “whether Apple deserves quite as much coverage as we give it”.
@Cassie: really? I’ve only missed it once or twice since I’ve had the iPhone. When do you find you need it?