Table Of Contents

Geo Television.....................................................................2
Introduction:.....................................................................................................................2
Origin of the GEO name..................................................................................................2
Popular programs.............................................................................................................2
Geo through the years:.....................................................................................................2
1999-2002: ..................................................................................................................2
2003: ...........................................................................................................................3
2004: ...........................................................................................................................3
2005: ...........................................................................................................................3
2006: ...........................................................................................................................3
Geo Super ....................................................................................................................3
Awards.........................................................................................................................3
ARY One World.................................................................4
ARY One World - 24hr News Channel ...........................................................................4
Affiliated Channels..........................................................................................................4
History..............................................................................................................................5
GEO VS ARYONE WORLD............................................6
BBC.....................................................................................9
History:............................................................................................................................9
News:.............................................................................................................................10
Television:......................................................................................................................11
CNN...................................................................................11
History:...........................................................................................................................11
Specialized channels:.....................................................................................................12
BBC VS CNN...................................................................12
The Analysis of the Data, Verbal Communication.........................................................12
The Analysis of the Data, Non-Verbal Communication ...............................................17
Conclusion........................................................................20
Our Assessment and Conclusion....................................21

1
 Geo Television
Introduction:
The founder and chairman of the Association, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman of GEO TV

Origin of the GEO name

GEO's name may come from the fact that it utilizes a geosynchronous orbit satellite for
its transmissions. However, in the Urdu language of Pakistan, the word "Geo" also means
"Live On".

Geo TV or GEO Television is Urdu-language Pakistani television network that was

established in May 2002 and officially began transmission in October 2002.[1] Its
broadcast facilities are based at Dubai Media City in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
and its uplink teleport station is Samacom, the monopoly uplink provider in the UAE.
Mir Khalil ur Rehman was the founder of the Jang Group of newspapers and his younger
son Mir Shakil ur Rehman is the present owner. Imran Aslam is the current head of GEO.

Its programming includes interactive infotainment programs, children's programs, top of

the hour news broadcasts all day every day, and current events programs. GEO TV has
been rated by Gallup and quoted by Business Week as being the satellite TV channel
watched the most in Pakistan.

Popular programs
GEO news shows include Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Sath hosted by Kamran Khan, Capital
Talk which is anchored by Hamid Mir and Jawab Deh hosted by Iftikhar Ahmed.

Many entertainment programs are also shown on GEO. Most prominent amongst these
are half-hour soap opera shows which are called drama in Pakistan.

GEO took advantage of the large pool of journalists working in the print media at the
time of its formation. Branching out from mainstream print media to electronic media
meant that there was already a ready pool of correspondents all over the country

Geo through the years:

1999-2002:
• Lattice plc built new fibre network around UK gas mains pipeline network

2
 • £450m invested in a national fibre optic network, co-location sites, data centres

2003:
• Hutchison Whampoa Limited bought network assets
• Infrastructure investment -the HWL original business

2004:
• Network build completed
• Geo brand launched & business model proven: dedicated fibre networks, no
shared equipment between customers

2005:
• Acceleration of business plan
• Extensive development of organisational capability
• Closure of major sales and significant growth in pipeline
• Service providers, systems integrators, education, government, large enterprise
• Acquisition of London network (formerly Urband Limited)

2006:
• Launch of Geo.metro London network including collocation in 13 London
Telehouses
• Contracts won in media, local government, and finance

Geo Super
In late September, 2006, after a great success of Geo TV, the company of Geo launched a
new and the first ever 24/7 sports channel of Pakistan, Geo Super. It is not yet available
overseas but has gotten a great response from all over the world, especially Pakistan. Geo
Super shows most of the sports going around the world, focusing mainly on cricket, with
secondary focuses on football and hockey.

Awards
A GEO documentary recently won the Monte Carlo Film Awards.

A documentary by GEO covering water scarcity in the Indus river delta won "The Special
Prize of H.S.H. Prince Rainier III" at the Monte Carlo TV Festival.

3
GEO was awarded a special award in 2005 at the Nouticaslo TV festival.

ARY One World

ARY Digital is a popular Pakistani television network that is available in Karachi,
Pakistan; Dubai, UAE and London, United Kingdom. Most programmes cater to the
needs of South Asians, especially the Pakistani community. The channel also brings Urdu
programmes and songs by Pakistani singers from the South Asian subcontinent. It is
considered a pioneer in Pakistani media and broadcasting. It has a network of channels,
each with an independent focus, they are the following:

ARY One World - 24hr News Channel

ARY Digital - 24hr Infotainment with exclusive Sports segments.
The Musik - 24hr Music Channel
Qtv - Religious Programming
The City Channel (Currently Off-air)
Affiliated Channels

Fashion TV Pakistan - Pakistani Telecast of Fashion TV

Nick Pakistan - Pakistani Telecast of Nickelodeon
HBO Pakistan - Pakistani Telecast of HBO
AlJazeera URDU [Currently in planning]
National Geographic Channel [Currently in planning]

4
Its broadcast facilities are based at Dubai Media City in the United Arab Emirates and its
uplink teleport station is Samacom the monopoly uplink provider in the United Arab
Emirates

History
The network was formerly known as The Pakistani Channel, which was owned by a
business man, who started it as a medium of social responsibility while bridging the gap
between Asians abroad and in Pakistan. Its name was changed when it was purchased by
the ARY Group. ARY Digital specialises in popular live English and Urdu programming,
such as VIDEO MIX shown on Sundays and presented by Yassir and Zaina.

The network had the rights to show Live 8 on its music channel, The Musik. It holds the
rights to "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" franchise for Pakistan. The show was on-aired
in 2002 but failed to catch the eye of viewers

ARY One World is a Dubai based Pakistani news channel. A bilingual news channel in
English and Urdu, it is a subsidiary of the larger ARY Digital Network.It was launched in
early 2004. It has a large audience and has one main competitor in Geo News. It has news
broadcasts in both English and Urdu. Most popular show is Views On News hosted by Dr
Shahid Masood, a well known Pakistani political commentator.

Current Affairs programmes are the Strengths of ARY One World and prominent
Pakistani journalists. Its programs mix covers all the genres of news & infotainment and
most of its programs are presented by top international anchors such as Dr. Shahid
Masood, P.J. Mir, Javed Malik and Ayaz Amir.

ARY One World is one of the first dedicated news channel telecasting around the clock
news from around the world especially Pakistan. It has exclusive correspondents in
almost all major capitals around the globe, a network of over 500 reporters and
correspondents in Pakistan and major international networks as exclusive partners for the
exchange of news, information and other technical facilities.

Major international television networks as exclusive partners for the exchange of news,
information and other technical facilities. Rich archive library with exclusive footage.

The core editorial staff hails from different parts of the world thus bringing the best of
journalistic talent and expertise to ARY One World.

5
 GEO VS ARYONE WORLD
ARY:
Owned by a millionaire Pakistani jeweler from Dubai (who incidentally is also an
absconder for some corruption case registered against him in the late ‘90s), ARY has
grown to become a popular private Pakistani television channel, perhaps second only to
GEO TV. And not surprisingly, GEO is its biggest competitor as well.

Like GEO, ARY squarely caters to mass taste, mixing politics, kitsch pop and religion in
a bizarre potpourri that doesn’t always taste all that great. One can actually call ARY the
FOX TV of Pakistan. But with a twist. Because where FOX blatantly forwards a pro-
government stance, this is left to good old PTV in Pakistan.

ARY actually is largely anti-government, or to put it a bit more directly, anti-Musharraf.

It is with the nature of the loud and emotional abandon it does this that makes it so much
like FOX, plus the fact, that quite like FOX, ARY more often than not takes a rather
obvious right-wing stance on most political and social issues. Some observers have also
called ARY a “jihadi channel.”

But all this is done in a cleverly evangelistic manner, when the viewers are drawn in with
a number of rather gory looking “fashion shows,” cringingly formulaic and Indianized
soap operas and emotional political talk shows, all juxtaposed with equally loud religious
programming, with regular azaan breaks, naats and impassioned lectures.

This blatant tilt towards what is called the religious right in Pakistan have actually turned
talk show hosts like ARY’s Dr. Shahid Mhamood, media celebrities in the country.

The conservative sections of the masses find him to be bold and heroic, as
he liberally laces his “news analysis” with drawing room conspiracy theories (the sort
usually found on a million or so blog sites!).

All this may seem rather funny to some, almost like watching a channel that welcomes
news commentaries by quacks, but when one turns and starts hearing loads of people
echoing the glorious “insights” offered by such characters, you start to wonder.

Now, this is not to suggest that other Pakistani channels like GEO are immune to such
political quackery. Far from it, but ARY certainly takes the cake.
And while doing this, ARY also has shows that pretend to offer a lighter side to all this
passionate rabblerousing.

6
But the sum of such shows usually ends up with one watching Imran Khan as a guest
over and again, almost as if ARY was consciously pushing the great Khan as the next
Pakistani PM, as he rambles on and on sounding like a blurred cross between General
(rtd.) Hamid Gul’s careless militarist fanaticism and a fifty something member of the
British Conservative Party!
(Or for that matter, the “New Labor!”).
And then the earth shook …

Interestingly, whereas both GEO and ARY usually outshine most of its competition when
it comes to covering bombings and related political upheavals, both were humbled (if not
actually beaten all ends up), by a relative new comer in the realm of Urdu news channels,
TV.

ARY seemed to have no clue how to go about covering an event that required a portrayal
of unity among all sections of the local political set-up. Or, in other words, ARY fumbled
over an event that gave little opportunity to the rabblerousing channel to pitch its
passionate “jihadi” analysts against “secular” parties like General Pervez Musharraf,
Shaukat Aziz, the Pakistan Peoples Party, the NGO’s, etc.

Not that they didn’t try. For example, Dr. Shahid Mhamood did rant and rave in his usual
style and continue calling this earthquake “azzab-e-ilahi” (God’s wrath), so much so, for
a while I thought he was about to blame NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan for this
tragedy. Because after all, he was perhaps the only man who was actually allowed to go
on mainstream television and point-blank talk about that “Zionist conspiracy” behind the
9/11 attacks in New York!

Really, I did wonder even then that how come the same man allows breaks in his program
punctuated with exhibitions of the most crudest forms of capitalism in the shape of ugly
TV commercials, most of them of brands run by large Jew owned companies on the other
side of the globe.

Little news and much chest beating was the order of the day on ARY. And poor P.J Mir
too had little to offer through his show because his favorite guest Imran Khan is more
akin to talk about the “terrible sufferings” being faced by the people of his constituency
in Mianwalli and about Hamid Gul’s version of the ubiqutious Kashmir problem.
For the first time I actually saw a large number of Pakistanis actually repulsed by ARY
and switching to various other channels. The only “azaab” they saw was ARY’s
earthquake transmission.

GEO TV:
In aura and outlook, very little separates GEO from ARY. However, if one
puts ARY on the right sides of the local ideological spectrum, GEO can be seen taking a
“center-right” position in its views and ways, even though it does have the habit of every
now and then coming up with sudden bursts of “progressive-ism,” some of it actually
being a central plank in its overall policy, i.e.: socio-economic and political peace with

7
India.

In fact, GEO TV right from the beginning (some five years ago), and long before the
recent CBMs between the governments of India and Pakistan, has been quite vocal in
airing the “importance of peace with India.” Not surprisingly, GEO TV was also one of
the first Pakistani channels to air select Indian television programs and films.

Owned by the largest group of newspapers in Pakistan, (The Jang Group), GEO, very
much like Pakistan’s largest selling Urdu newspaper, Daily Jang, is a queer mixture of
Jamat-e-Islami sympathizers, old progressive war horses, young liberals, MQM
supporters, “agency men,” and the usual lota lot who move wherever the wind blows.

Much of the programming is done to echo mass taste and sentiment and to bag as much
advertising for as many purposes as possible, with occasional stabs at “experimental”
programming that is not scared to tackle issues like sex, drugs, rape, etc.

Though most of GEO’s political programming is usually left to the whims of former print
journalists who more often than not have been accused in the past of being on the payroll
of the intelligence agencies, or those who got a sudden shot at fame by claiming to have
interviewed Islamist rascals like Osama bin Laden, GEO’s political talk shows remain to
be a little less sensationalist or populist compared to those run by ARY. Even though, the
producers do keep in mind the common sentiment and beliefs of the “masses.”
But since GEO most certainly has the biggest viewership in the religiously volatile
society of Pakistan, it is important to keep track of its religious programming too.

And though much of GEO’s religious programs are a far cry from ARY’s unabashed tilt
towards a bizarre form of cosmopolitan Deobandist/Tableeghi school of Islam, it is GEO
that has landed with the most controversy in this respect.

It usually plunges into the field claiming to give voice and opinion to all sects of Islam,
but the truth is, it has thus far only managed to brew even more confusion while
attempting to or claiming to bring important religious issues and matters out into the
open. The attempts do so do look admiringly brave, but the results at times have been
rather catastrophic! Quite the opposite of what was initially desired.
And then the earth shook …

For the first time in its short but dynamic history, GEO looked beat as the leading
Pakistani news channel covering a headlining national event. Hampered by its desperate
competition with ARY (and vice versa), both channels simply failed to recognize the
potential of AAJ TV to actually challenge their proven supremacy in the field of reporting
and coverage.

The truth is, both ARY and GEO got trapped by their own programming formulas and
tone, being pathetically unable to define the scientific sides of the calamity or fully
capturing the human side of it without some “Islamic scholar” or the other calling in to

8
confidently and sweepingly declare the earthquake to be “Allah ka azaab!” Is this what a
victim of such a tragedy or someone who lost his children, would like to hear in this
desperate hour of need? That he or she was sinful and that’s why his child, father, wife
and whomsoever died under tons and tons of rugged concrete?

It was interesting to note many hosts at GEO trying hard to diplomatically push the
“azaab” theory under the carpet, but the truth is, apart from dramatized chest beating,
they had very little to offer as a more sensible and intelligent alternative.
In fact such a state of numb confusion GEO was in during the initial hours of the event,
that one actually had to switch to insignificant news channels like Indus News to find out
(in Urdu), exactly what was going on. GEO were then busy showing its usually large
numbers of bad TV commercials and formulaic Ramadan programs. All of a sudden, a
giant now seemed like a confused mouse squeaking shrieking little nothings.

BBC
History:
The original British Broadcasting Company was founded in 1922 by a group of
telecommunications companies (including subsidiaries of General Electric and AT&T) to
broadcast experimental radio services. The first transmission was on 14 November of that
year, from station 2LO, located at Marconi House, London

The Company, with John Reith as general manager, became the British Broadcasting
Corporation in 1927 when it was granted a Royal Charter of incorporation and ceased to
be privately owned. It started experimental television broadcasting in 1932 using an
entirely mechanical 30 line system developed by John Logie Baird. It became a regular
service (known as the BBC Television Service) in 1936 alternating between a Baird
mechanical 240 line system and the all electronic 405 line EMI system. The superiority of
the electronic system saw the mechanical system dropped later that year. Television
broadcasting was suspended from 1 September 1939 to 7 June 1946 during the Second
World War. A widely reported urban myth is that, upon resumption of service, announcer
Leslie Mitchell started by saying, "As I was saying before we were so rudely
interrupted..." In fact, the first person to appear when transmission resumed was Jasmine
Bligh and the words said were "Good afternoon, everybody. How are you? Do you
remember me, Jasmine Bligh...?"

The European Broadcasting Union was formed on 12 February, 1950, in Torquay with the
BBC among the 23 founding broadcasting organisations.

Competition to the BBC was introduced in 1955 with the commercially and
independently operated ITV. As a result of the Pilkington Committee report of 1962, in
which the BBC was lauded and ITV was very heavily criticised for not providing enough
quality programming,[8] the BBC was awarded a second TV channel, BBC2, in 1964,
renaming the existing channel BBC1. BBC2 used the higher resolution 625 line standard

9
which had been standardised across Europe. BBC2 was broadcast in colour from 1 July
1967, and was joined by BBC 1 and ITV on 15 November 1969. The 405 line
transmissions were continued for compatibility with older television receivers for some
years.

In 1974 the BBC's teletext service, Ceefax, was introduced but was not finally
transmitted in-vision as such until April 1980. In 1978 the BBC went on strike just before
the Christmas of that year, thus blocking out the transmission of both channels and
amalgamating all four radio stations into one.

Since the deregulation of the UK television and radio market in the 1980s, the BBC has
faced increased competition from the commercial sector (and from the advertiser-funded
public service broadcaster Channel 4), especially on satellite television, cable television,
and digital television services.

The BBC Research Department has played a major part in the development of
broadcasting and recording techniques. In the early days it carried out essential research
into acoustics and programme level and noise measurement.

The 2004 Hutton Inquiry, and the subsequent Report raised questions about the BBC's
journalistic standards and its impartiality. This led to resignations of senior management
members at the time including the then Director General, Greg Dyke.

News:
BBC News is the largest broadcast news gathering operation in the world,[24] providing
services to BBC domestic radio as well as television networks such as BBC News 24,
BBC Parliament and BBC World, as well as BBCi, Ceefax and BBC News Online. New
BBC News services that are also proving popular are mobile services to mobile phones
and PDAs. Desktop news alerts, e-mail alerts, and digital TV alerts are also available.

Ratings figures suggest that during major crises such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the
United States, the 7 July 2005 London bombings or a Royal Funeral, the UK audience
overwhelmingly turns to the BBC's coverage as opposed to its commercial rivals [25].

On 2005-07-07, the day that there were a series of coordinated bomb blasts on London's
public transport system, the bbc.co.uk website recorded an all time bandwidth peak of
11 Gb/s at 12:00 on 7 July. BBC News received some 1 billion total hits on the day of the
event (including all images, text and HTML), serving some 5.5 terabytes of data. At peak
times during the day there were 40,000 page requests per second for the BBC News
website. The previous day's announcement of the 2012 Olympics being awarded to
London caused a peak of around 5 Gb/s. The previous all time high at bbc.co.uk was
caused by the announcement of the Michael Jackson verdict, which used 7.2 Gb/s.

10
Television:
BBC One and BBC Two are the BBC's flagship television channels. The BBC is also
promoting the new channels BBC Three and BBC Four, which are only available via
digital television equipment (now in widespread use in the UK, with analogue
transmission expected to be phased out from 2008). The BBC also runs BBC News 24,
BBC Parliament, and two children's channels, CBBC and CBeebies, on digital.

BBC One is a regionalised TV service which provides opt-outs throughout the day for
local news and other local programming. In the Republic of Ireland the Northern Ireland
regionalised BBC One & BBC Two are available via analogue transmissions deflecting
signals from the North and also carried out on Sky Digital, NTL Ireland and Chorus.

From June 9, 2006 the BBC began a 6-12 month trial of High-definition television
broadcasts under the name BBC HD. The corporation has been producing programmes in
the format for many years, and states that it hopes to produce 100% of new programmes
in HDTV by 2010.

Since 1975, the BBC has also provided its TV programmes to the British Forces
Broadcasting Service (BFBS), allowing members of HM Forces serving all over the
world to watch and listen to their favourite programmes from home on two dedicated TV
channels.

CNN
History:
Since CNN's launch on June 1, 1980, the network has expanded its reach to a number of
cable and satellite television networks (such as CNN Headline News), 12 web sites, two
private place-based networks (such as CNN Airport Network), and two radio networks.
The network has 42 bureaus around the world and more than 900 affiliates worldwide.
CNN has launched many regional and foreign-language networks around the world. CNN
debuted its news website CNN.com (then referred to as CNN Interactive) on August 30,
1995.

A television movie, Live from Baghdad, was later made about the network's coverage of
the first gulf war. Coverage of this and other conflicts and crises of the early 1990s
(including, perhaps most famously, the Battle of Mogadishu) led to the coining of the
term "the CNN effect", which testified to the perceived impact its pioneering real time,
24 hour news coverage had in influencing the decision-making processes of the American
government.

CNN is still, however, second in world rankings when it comes to international news
coverage, getting just over half of the audience the BBC does, perhaps due to its relative
youth compared to the oldest largest news and broadcasting institution in the world. The
BBC differs from CNN International which uses local reporters in many of its news-

11
gathering centers, although they cover stories from an international (some would still say
U.S.) perspectiveOn September 11, 2001, CNN was the first network to break news of
what would prove to be the September 11 attacks. Anchor Carol Lin was on the air at that
time. Sean Murtagh, CNN vice-president for finance & administration, was the first
network employee to get on the air.

CNN launched two specialty news channels for the American market which would later
close amid competitive pressure: CNNSI shut down in 2002, and CNNfn shut down after
nine years on the air in December 2004.

Jim Walton is the president of CNN Worldwide. The current President of CNN/U.S. is
Jonathan Klein. He was appointed in November 2004.

In 2006, reacting to the wide-spread growth of social media and user-generated content,
CNN launched CNN Exchange and CNN iReport, initiatives designed to further
introduce and centralize the impact of everything from blogging to citizen journalism
within the CNN brand.

Specialized channels:
• CNN Airport Network
• CNN en Español
• CNNfn (Financial network, closed in December 2004)
• CNN Headline News
• CNN International
• CNN Pipeline (24-hour multi-channel broadband online news service)
• CNN Plus (CNN+, a partner network in Spain, launched in 1999 with Sogecable)
• CNN Sports Illustrated (also known as CNNSI), the network's all-sports channel,
closed in 2002.
• CNN TÜRK
• CNN-IBN An Indian newschannel.
• CNNj

BBC VS CNN

The Analysis of the Data, Verbal Communication

When we take a quick look through the data, there are some characteristic features
of both newscasts which describe the way each channel presents news and consequently
should be distinguished at the beginning. In relation to the length of the newscasts, it
appeared that BBC World has a longer newscast concerning both the elapsed time and the
word count categories. This data is a consequence of the fact that CNNI has a one minute
commercial break three times in its newscast; and BBC World only has a few seconds of

12
break between parts of the newscast, otherwise they are both considered as nine o'clock
news lasting until nine thirty, including the weather forecast.

If we take a closer look at the structure of the newscasts it reveals that both begin
with the headlines. This is carried out similarly at both channels, as the presenter
announces the main news in short sentences, while recorded motion pictures illustrate
each unit being mentioned. However, at the end of the program - in both cases a sentence
beginning with `that's all' finishes the newscast - BBC's presenter once again as a
reminder summarizes the main happenings of the day, while on CNNI, the presenter
quickly says thanks to the viewers for watching and terminates the newscast. So the
editing strategy is different here. The reminder can be helpful as it is useful for those who
missed parts of the newscast, and it can serve as a reassurance as well, so people have
heard the main news three times by nine thirty. On the other hand finishing the program
quickly can suggest the editorial intention of, `let's quickly tell them the news, without
any boring parts if possible, and let them do other things during the night'.

Another striking phenomenon is the `still to come' part in the newscasts

(appearing once in every BBC World news, and three times during a CNN newscast),
which is intentionally selected to be an exciting news item and never precedes directly
the news item it mentions. Consequently after this interruption the speaker has to recreate
the atmosphere which characterized the preceding part of the newscast, and the strategy
in both cases is to carry on with the next news item immediately without any comment.
On CNNI this `still to come' part always precedes commercial blocks, it consumes
around 10 seconds, and the aim is clearly to invite the viewers to stay there, because there
is still lots of interesting news to come. In the case of BBC World, however, the purpose
is different; since there are no commercials included and these `still to come' parts are
usually placed at the middle of the newscast. There is only a short pause in the flow of
news after these sentences, and the aim is possibly to maintain the interest of the audience
by referring to a forthcoming curiosity.

Between the headlines and the closing sentences there is the mixture of the news
units, but there is a noticeable lining-up in the newscast itself. Clearly the newscast
begins with the enumeration of the main events, than goes into details about these usually
politically or diplomatically important items. In the middle of the newscast we get the
less important news items and by the very end we get almost entertaining items with no
real international significance. The sequence is constructed after considering the
international importance of the event; still there seem to be a difference between what is
important for the two channels' audience. If we accept the idea that whatever news unit
appears on screen first is the most important, and what appears at the end of the program
is the least significant, we can clearly state that the Iraqi crisis, for example, was more
important for CNNI than for BBC World. During the examined three days, whenever
there was something newsworthy about the UN-Iraqi crisis CNNI put it in the first place
while BBC News' editors in most cases found that the Indonesian Clashes and Central
American reports were more significant. The editors, when creating a newscast, consider
many things, including the spectacularity (whether there are special illustrating pictures,
reports) and excellence of the item. Also, they have to select from the material they gain
from the correspondents. Of course, they are entitled to do that, but one can wonder

13
whether there is a general international viewpoint, since the rankings of these two
prominent global news channels are so different. Of course, there are many items during
the newscasts that are not included in the other channel's schedule. These are smaller
pieces of news and in most of them we can find some hidden international or even
national interest of the news producers. Such an item was the one about Michael
Jackson's suit against a British newspaper, which was included on BBC World but not on
CNNI, while the item about Japan was reported on CNNI, and omitted on BBC World.
This phenomenon shows that there is a perceptible difference between the national biases
of the two countries, as the above mentioned units do not or rarely co-occur on the two
channel.

It is hard to characterize the types of news units concerning their subject matter,
however the average person would probably say the biggest part of a newscast is made up
of political and diplomatic affairs. On BBC World, an average of six news items concerns
matters of politics or diplomatic happenings, which means that almost half of the
newscast is made up by them. The other part of the newscast mostly contains nationally
important event (the international relation is still there in the background) that can be
interesting for international audiences, and of course, many exciting items which by their
entertaining natures gain significance in the newscast. On CNNI, however, there seem to
be a more stricter order concerning the topic of individual newscasts. The majority of the
newscasts are made up of matters of diplomacy and politics, and only around one fifth
remains for other less serious events. On November the 13th, CNN only had two items of
entertaining value, one about the extremely cold winter in Russia (B.III.8), and another
concerning trade via the internet.

If we take a look at the sentence construction of both newscasts we can say that
the presenters usually employ longer sentences (around 18 words in a sentence) when
announcing a news unit. However, when live conversations or reports take place we can
notice several very short sentences (around 11 words per sentence) which reflect upon the
more immediate function of the language. Here It must also be mentioned that there is no
definite end to most of the sentences used by the reporters, and sometimes a whole
paragraph could be viewed as one coherent unit since the intonation sometimes did not
carry extra information about the sentence structure. This phenomenon was mostly
observable on CNNI when some reporters with a faster rate of speech sometimes joined
sentences together. Real questions appear solely when talking live to an expert or
correspondent; the use of rhetoric questions are quite rare in the overall text, and then
these are probably intended to emphasize the significance of certain events.

The elapsed time factors of the newscasts reveal several things. The first thing that
is ascertained is that the period of time effectively used (while news was being reported)
during the newscasts of BBC World is longer than the interval used up on CNNI's
newscasts. It revealed that BBC World News has around 200 more seconds of useable
time per newscast.

The original intention of measuring the elapsed time for each news unit was to
obtain information about the timetable of the newscast and to compare different units by
measures of importance. Excluding the headlines, the `still to come', `that's all' parts, and

14
also the sentences introducing sports news, we can say that there are two types of news
units concerning length. The first type is the most common and forms the framework of
both BBC World's and CNNI's newscast. These are longer units which generally expand
100 seconds with greater international importance, always illustrated with motion picture
and are reports or live conversations on various subjects. The second type is used when
the subject of the report does not have an international importance; it is a curiosity which
either arouses the viewers' interest or has international importance, but the core of the
news can be stated in a few sentences. These items take around 30 seconds and are
usually read out by the presenter, but do not necessarily include illustration. There is,
however, a third type, which is a mixture of these two types and after playing recorded
material, the presenter asks questions from the reporter. With the usage of these values it
was possible to examine the claimed difference between the two television news services
concerning the proportion of interpreting measured in minutes.

Figure 1.: 1-live conversations; 2-the presenter announces the news unit; 3-reporter's
coverage

The interpretation and further explanation can be found in both newscasts when a
discussion took place between the presenter and a reporter or an expert; in BBC World's
newscasts the number of conversation (there were no satellite connections to reporters) is
one per newscast and in CNNI's case two live conversation are the minimum per
newscast. It appears that during three days the viewers of BBC World can see a total of
446 minutes of live interpretation (see figure 2.) while on CNNI this same measured
value was 1058 minutes (see figure 1.).

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Figure 2.: 1-live conversations; 2-the presenter announces the news unit; 3-reporter's
coverage

Of course, the effectiveness of using live coverage in the newscasts depends on the
reliability of the person, and, in this respect the method BBC World is using seems to be
more effective. However, it seems that both channels have a characteristic way of
dividing the newscast for different kinds of presentations.

It seemed to me at that point that no matter how properly the elapsed time component
showed the possible difference between the two newscasts, the word count category
would be the real authority in deciding the efficiency of the news programs. In addition to
this, if we consider the view point of the audience it is probable that the information
partly lies in the number of words heard during the program. The first thing that was
obvious, was that if BBC World News has 200 more seconds per night, it should have an
equal surplus of words as well. After counting the total amount of words and averaging
the results it occurred that BBC World mediates around 700 more words than CNNI per
night/broadcast. By measuring the number of words unit by unit, the types observed in
the category `elapsed time' are similarly significant, there are longer reports with up to
around 600 words, and shorter reports with a minimum of 50 words.

After counting the words in each newscast, it seemed worthwhile to count words
per minute value to make distinctions between different types (see chart 1, column type,
also antecedents) of news units according to this new category. We also counted the
average speed of speaking per newscast which indicated that there is no significant
difference between the two channels newscast in this perspective. The average speed
seemed to be around 170 words per minute in both cases. However, it seemed obvious
that there should be some news units which accelerate, and others which slow down the
flow of the news program. It occurred that the live conversations are those that have an
average far above the 170 word per minute average, producing values around and well
over 200 words per minute in both newscasts. Live coverage seem to be a more effective
way of reporting news, and from a psychological angle it is also possible that viewers
believe people whom they see live, still editors do not use this too often. Instead they use
the more convenient way of classical reportage, which has a more human way of
reporting news. This is the case when the reporter prepares video material with his or her
voice interpreting the news and the motion picture, which usually contains reports and
illustrating footage. The interpretation in these cases sometimes sounds like a `poetic
description' with intermissions and carefully executed intonation, consequently, these
produce a much slower 160 average words per minute speed of speaking.

There is a significant uniformity in the words per minute values of the headlines
as well, when the presenter is reporting the main stories in some sentences, as the
illustrating pictures are running on the screen. A relatively slow average value of 125
words per minutes mean that news presenters do not hurry with the headlines. Once they
make the audience curious and let them capture the pictures and the message conveyed,
they will probably have them watching the newscast until its end. Furthermore there seem
to be a difference between the speed of saying goodbye as well. As it has already been
mentioned the last part of CNNI's newscasts is quick and there is no reminder of the main

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news, however, on BBC World the presenter summarizes the main news before saying
good bye and thanks to the audience. CNNI's presenter Sonia Ruseler made a 270 words
per minute value when closing Friday's newscast and on the same day Philip Hayton only
made 164 words per minute finishing the BBC World News.

Another similarity can be found observing the percentage of the illustration in the
newscast. In this category, the reports (type `2') sent in by correspondents form the major
part of the illustration. It occurs from the numbers that on CNN's newscasts the
percentage of illustrated material in contrasted with other scenes is around 63 percent,
while in BBC World's newscast the same value of percentage is 64. These percentages
indicate the intention of editors, showing at least a photograph when presenting a news
unit, since television carries both visual and audible information.

The Analysis of the Data, Non-Verbal Communication

So far, the direct characteristics of the speech observed in the newscasts were
examined, in the following we will try to outline those factors that are not so exact and
can not be accurately measured. No one doubts that every time we say something, we
accompany the words with gestures which, together with bodily communication, can be
as effective - or even more effective - than the ordinary speech. Gestures work as a
signaling device indicating the speaker's opinion, feelings, and way of thinking, all of
which give the listener or viewer additional information, and consequently can serve as a
way of contrasting the two news channels. To measure the additional information
conveyed through means of gestures I have separated 13 kinds of gestures which may
overlap with each other, still they convey distinct messages. The examination was carried
out by looking through the entire recorded material of the three day interval, while every
significant gesture was noted down and given a number, than put into the column
`gestures'. Of course, the way presenters use gestures greatly depends on their personality
and cultural background; still, it is part of the job and it is necessary for a good presenter
to use his or her body and face adequately.

The first gesture we examined is smiling, which is probably the most sincere and
obvious sign out of all the gestures. The data reveals that while CNN's presenter Sonia
Ruseler smiled 25 times during the three day interval, Philip Hayton and Anita
Macnaught altogether smiled 9 times. It seems logical to think that news programs are
not among the funniest, still this difference significantly shows the two ways CNNI and
BBC World try to manage their newscast. CNNI's almost informal style probably results
from the intention of the editors to create a `light' newscast which is easier to digest and
people do not feel unwell after watching it.

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Figure 3.: 1-smile; 2-eyebrow motion expressing curiosity; 3-nodding of the head; 4-
hand movement expressing emphasis; 5-eyebrow motion expressing sympathy; 6-
eyebrow motion expressing gentleness; 7-resetting the hair; 8- eyebrow motion
expressing seriousness; 9-opening of the arms; 10-folding the arms; 11-headshaking
motion; 12-downward glance; 13-sticking out of the tongue)

On the other hand we have BBC World's more conservative rarely smiling
newscasters which suggest that the aim here is different: to establish a reliable and neutral
newscast (see figure 3.). CNN's presenter however tended to smile whenever the topic
allowed her to do so (see figure 4.).

Figure 4.: 1-smile; 2-eyebrow motion expressing curiosity; 3-nodding of the head; 4-
hand movement expressing emphasis; 5-eyebrow motion expressing sympathy; 6-
eyebrow motion expressing gentleness; 7-resetting the hair; 8- eyebrow motion
expressing seriousness; 9-opening of the arms; 10-folding the arms; 11-headshaking
motion; 12-downward glance; 13-sticking out of the tongue

She regularly smiled at the beginning and at the end of the show, and a
significantly enthusiastic smile appeared on her face every time she introduced the sports
segment. BBC Worlds presenters, in fact, only smiled once at the beginning and once at
the end of the newscast. At one point during the newscast a slightly ironical smile could
unambiguously be seen on Anita Macnaught's face when a story about Prince Charles'
private life was on the programme.

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 Another frequently used gesture is the nodding of the head, which is generally
accepted to be originated in the early childhood stimulating the movement that the baby
makes when sucking milk from the mother's breast. Similarly the shaking of the head
when the baby draws his or her head away from the mother's breast expressing that he or
she had enough is considered to be the origin of the adult head shaking motion. The
nodding is almost always present when the presenter reads out the news - both on BBC
World or CNNI - and the function is just like in everyday speech to reassure or persuade
the audience about the authenticity of the statements. This way, the viewer has the
impression of having talked to an expert who gave a detailed explanation, and
consequently the more gestures that can be seen on television, the more the audience will
remember the specific information. The shaking of the head motion is however less
frequent; it was used only four times and was only seen on CNNI, and it was probably the
result of confusion in the programme itself.

One of the most interesting gestures was the sticking out of the tongue carried out
by BBC World's correspondent Arya Gunawan (who is not a native speaker which was
felt on his use of English). He is one of the correspondents working at BBC Indonesian
Service and in the newscast of November 13 he had a live conversation with Philip
Hayton from another studio of BBC. Mr. Gunawan, while waiting for questions,
continuously stuck his tongue out several times. According to Axtell, this motion can
either mean the ridiculing of someone, can serve as a sexual lure, can be a form of
greeting (in some parts of Tibet) or can be the signal of hard concentration. The first three
do not seem likely, and probably Mr. Gunawan was doing the fourth motion,
spontaneously revealing his feelings.

According to Axtell, eyebrows can express various kinds of emotions. These two
lines which form the hair of the face can express anger, confusion, openness, curiosity
and even coquetry. During the examined period, presenters of BBC World and CNNI
have produced 4 types of knitting of their brows. The usage of these gestures accordingly
are closely connected to the subject of the news item. When CNNI's coverage concerned
the standoff between Iraq and the United States, the serious kind of brow motion (gesture
type 8) was seen, but when the topic was lighter, or there was no tragic or threatening
element in the news unit, the motion expressing curiosity was used. Presenters of BBC
World did not convey as much additional information through their brow movement only
the generally used gesture type 2 is significant. At one point however, both channels'
presenters used spontaneously identical brow motions. This was the case when the news
unit concerned the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, and the presenters introducing the topic
both had the brow motion expressing sympathy (gesture type 5) on their faces.

Since presenters are only shown on the screen of the television from above their
stomachs and we can rarely see their hands, the bodily gestures, or, more precisely,
gestures using the hands, have a limited variety. The observed types (gesture type 4,7,9
and 10) were similar to the eyebrow motions in close connection with the message. The
most frequently used motion was the hand movement expressing emphasis which is also
a regular gesture in everyday communication together with the opening of arms which
usually accompanies questions. Only once did the folding of the arm and the resetting of
the hair gesture take place. The first took place on CNNI when the presenter announced

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the sports news, and by this spontaneous movement she produced the general defensive
or negative movement which according to Pease gives a comfortable safety against the
outside world. The resetting of the hair gesture was performed by Jane Araf, CNNI's
reporter in Baghdad when talking live to the presenter in the studio. This is a not a
gesture in the normal sense, since it does not accompany any message, and the reason for
the action was that a blast of wind made her hair tousled. This still, however, conveys
message to the audience about the weather conditions in Iraq.

When presenters do not look straight into the camera (gesture type 12) they do not
have eye contact with the viewers, which means that the audience is not totally `eye-
controlled', and also from the viewers' angle can seem to be an impolite gesture. BBC's
presenter Anita Macnaught tended to look downward when she was on the air more often
(6 times during two newscasts) than her CNNI colleague (2 times during three
newscasts), which can also suggest perplexity in the flow of the newscast. Examining the
category of gestures also revealed that during live conversations, both news presenter and
the reporter or expert use more gestures, compared to taped reports or announcements,
which also confirms the idea that through live coverage more information can be
conveyed.

Conclusion

The aim of the dissertation was to make a comparison between CNN International and
BBC World examining the data collected from a linguistic point of view, and examine the
claimed disparity, the newscasts are executed. As we could see there are differences in
some examined categories which in all, quite properly characterize the two channel's
news programs. Still, the amount of such facts does not allow me to make relevant
conclusions about the two channels, consequently this part will rather reflect upon some
experiences rooting in the examination.

The fact that CNNI includes far more live conversations in the program seems to
support the idea of the `live theory' mentioned earlier and also indicates the intention of a
more direct way of news-telling. On the other hand the research also shows that on BBC
World the most common form of announcing a news unit is done by reporters as the
recorded audio and visual materials are broadcasted without further comment. This leads
to the consequence that if BBC's officials regard these newscasts as interpreting,
analyzing ones they intend to do it indirectly, so the news item is a mixture of the facts
and the analysis. A deeper analysis is however present, when an expert is interviewed in
the studio, in London, but the same form (although via satellite) is applied by CNN
International as well and to a higher degree.

As we mentioned earlier in the dissertation, the two channels originate in different

cultures and news making traditions. Possibly the observed differences in the section
engaged with gestures are due to the difference existing between an everyday English and
American person, but since the presence of such features can be shown, it also
characterizes the news programs. Most significantly the amount of smiling compared
leads to such presumptions, as CNN International offers a more humane newscast. When

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the producer chooses the presenter for the newscast, he or she must also take in
consideration the way non-verbal communication is used by the particular person. This is
a factor that can set presenters as `favorites' and other, less able ones as neutral or even
antipathetic.

When examining the words/minute category it occurred that there are units which
are told faster and others which are announced slower. When compared to reading - a
normally monotonous activity -, television newscasts seem to be almost irritatingly
changeable in tempo. But television being a passive way of informing mass audiences
needs features like this to keep the viewers' attention, which by the quick changes in
speed, content and illustration can easily be done.

The approach we have chosen for the research mostly revealed statistical, formal
features. The complete examination would include several other angles, including the
employment of means offered by content analysis, and that added and supplemented to
my research would probably lead to a more elaborate opinion concerning the two
television news services. Whether CNN International is fast and efficient, or not, only the
audience can decide, and the same goes to BBC World' traditional and conservative way
of making news. But one thing is for certain. Until the time, when an important
international event is reported in almost the same way on CNNI and BBC World, global
journalism, and global public opinion are only about to be born.

Our Assessment and Conclusion

News could happen anywhere at anytime, and the nation might be interested in a town
such as mine when an event like this shooting happens. As if dealing with information
overload was not enough of a problem, now we have to figure out how to obtain the news
we want. Should we use the classic television method, or dare we venture onto the
internet? Many prefer the ‘tried and true’ method of sinking into the couch in front of the
tube, but we found that with an increasing volume of information, a variety of methods of
information retrieval are becoming more and more important. The internet has proven
itself a better medium than television for the task of relaying the news to people.

As young men in the modern world, the first thing that we look for when approaching the
media is accessibility. This is basic marketing; promote your product in an easy-to-access
manner, and people will come. But what gets our attention with news? We took a half-
hour to pay careful attention to CNN on television. We were not pleased during the time
we watched, and walked away feeling only slightly enlightened on today’s events. The
first thing that struck us was the information bar dunning along the bottom fifth of the
screen. Though it looked appealing with its soft blue and red hues, the giant title words,
“Church Abuse Scandal” distracted our eyes from the main screen. If that was not
distracting enough, they were (very slowly) scrolling a grab-bag of headlines, foreign and
domestic, across the bottom of the screen, likely much slower than the average
American’s reading pace.

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It was not long before they decided to shift to commercials, promising to run a feature on
Michael Jackson “next”, a feature that did not air until after three commercial breaks
later. A handful of topics such as gas prices, pharmaceuticals, the PGA golf tour, the stock
market, and the election in Iraq were covered. They also tossed in little features, such as
prince Charles’ wedding, and the delay of the Discovery shuttle launch; features that only
took about 30 seconds each. After they finally showed the Jackson story, I walked away
from the television unsettled. We had captured a glimpse of current world affairs through
a keyhole. Filled with interruptions and information we did not need, the network took
me for a spin through select news stories we may or may not care about.

We decided to log on to the BBC online to get my news. Immediately upon hitting the
enter key, we were greeted by a clean and user-friendly page, spanning no more than the
edges of my screen, offering a wide range of news stories all in once place. Like CNN,
the Pope’s story was center-stage, but taking only a small portion at the top of the screen;
the rest of the page focused on a broad range of topics, accessible by a mouse-click.
While there was a wealth of news waiting for us, it was all placed in neat columns, under
proper categorical headings such as “business,” “health,” and “entertainment.” Color-
coded boxes placed sports articles separate from everything else, and an assortment of
appropriately sized pictures adorn each major article. The entire site was balanced;
nothing stood out, and everything was presented equally.

We appreciated the sense of control that we had; we could pass over Pope coverage if we
had already heard enough, and we could access exactly what we wanted to read within
seconds. Compared to the geo-centric tone present on CNN television as reports focused
on domestic issues, the BBC has a very world-conscious attitude. A world-map divides
continents up into major regions, and news can be obtained by geographical location as
well as by category

As with radio, television, and internet, advertisements are always a potential obstacle for
gathering information. As we viewed CNN television, the frequent commercial breaks
created a staggering sense of discontinuity, especially for us as we sat in a comfortable
lounge chair, content to stay seated, but not happy to view commercials. In the space of a
half-hour, we witnessed three commercial breaks, leaving during the fourth. Commercials
were mostly aimed at adults, as many of them featured various websites, medicine
brands, hardware stores, and of course, CNN itself. The frequency of the commercials
gave the channel a jagged stop-and-go feel that made me feel exasperated. A network
television station certainly has a need to fund its programs, but commercials are quite a
deterrent to CNN television while internet is so ubiquitous today.

A complete lack of advertisements on the BBC keeps our focus on the news. The absence
of commercials lets us keep our experience seamless and smooth, a stark contrast to
CNN’s commercials that chop the news up into unsavory segments that we may not even
wish to view. The very nature of browsing the web makes for quick information sorting
on the BBC, and older news stays on the page in the archives, whereas television has to
deal with the pressure of keeping up to the minute. Commercials during a newscast
impose a considerable time issue; on the BBC, we can access any news story in virtually
seconds.

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The significance of these two mediums is a clear illustration of how important
information management is in this age of information. Facing an increasingly
complicated world, we have to seek smarter ways in sorting through information, as well
as acquiring needed information. While television has been around for over half a
century, methods of information sharing and news-casting have improved, leaving news
networks such as CNN hurriedly reporting only the largest world stories. Television news
networks can only broadcast general headlines for people on the move and unable to sit
down for a few minutes. What it features in brevity it lacks in breadth; a repository for
advertisements with only talk-shows (Larry King Live) and on-location features as its
redeeming feature. While network television is available to most, some may still find the
costs for internet service to be out of their reach. For the elderly, or those living without
internet access, television is still the better choice. But for a society increasingly based on
computer and internet technology, the internet offers a much more accessible and
efficient way for accessing the daily news.

Our cross-examination of two mediums of news sources left us with a clear choice.
Certainly, the TV set may be on from time to time as background noise while we prepare
to go out for the day, and news radio will surely be on in our car as we drive. But when
we seek to become informed and discover the issues we care about, we will log on to
BBC’s informative and friendly atmosphere. With a clean interface, no advertisements to
waste time, and easy navigation, the BBC offers users a controlled look into important
world events. Perfect for the college student needing a guided perspective on the news, or
adults seeking to learn more, the BBC service is an excellent alternative to network news.
Sorting through information more rapidly has improved my world-view, and hopefully,
more will discover the benefits of logging on in the future.

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