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Comment by davidsong | Hacker News Reader

> Nine charts which tell you all you need to know about North Korea

You won't believe number 6!

What on earth happened to the BBC?

Don't get me started. The BBC used to be a flagship for balanced, meaningful and insightful news. I've been reading the BBC news website for at least 15 years.

In the last couple of years I've noticed a stark movement towards clickbait titles and imagery and a movement away from emphasis on balanced news reporting.

Looking now, the home page is in fact littered with click bait titles:

- The degrees that make you rich... and the ones that don't

- How one abuse victim found foster help for her dog Dusty

- The deadly problem with US fraternities

- What you may not have realised about acid attacks

Back in the day, that first headline would have been something much more specific. For example "Computer, maths and science degrees lead to highest paid jobs".

Sadly, I guess just reporting the facts does not bring the visitors, which is a shame.

> In the last couple of years I've noticed a stark movement towards clickbait titles

I have too (have been reading bbc for past 5 years). Do you have any recommendations for what to read instead?

To be honest I don't think anybody should rely on one single source of the truth for their news. The ideal scenario is that you take your news from a couple of sources, and come to your own conclusions.

Sources I use for news in no particular order:

- Reuters

- Al-Jazeera

- Russia Today

- The Guardian

- Reddit - although admittedly this is less for the news itself and more for the commentary that inevitably follows in various news sub Reddits

Just as I was giving up on the BBC, they published this incredibly in-depth article by star journalist Jim Muir that bought them a reprieve in my books: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35695648

I don’t know if the BBC has ever published anything that even-handed, in-depth, thorough, and expansive prior.

"The BBC used to be a flagship for balanced, meaningful and insightful news."

Take a look at Deutsche Welle.[1][2] It has impressed me with its high quality, relatively in-depth reporting, and very little clickbait. I only wish it had more international coverage.

[1] - http://www.dw.com/

[2] - http://rss.dw.com/rdf/rss-en-all

Someone saw buzzfeed and went "me too!"

Other public broadcast RTV (radio & television) such as the Dutch NOS also suffer from this. My theory is: its the intense pressure from the commercial broadcast, as well as the Internet as a whole. It makes public broadcast RTV less relevant, and as the elder pass away they're trying to cater to youth to remain relevant in the longer run. Youth like e.g. clickbait. Clickbait also generates pageviews hence ads or at least statistics showing relevance. Of course, those statistics are manipulated by short-term benefits.

They now see themselves as a competitor to commercial media and entertainment networks - not sure why other than to justify the very high salaries of their so-called 'talent'?

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