Monday November 15, 2004
Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

The BBC, well known for its quality of TV journalism, has proven it is also the best at reporting news online over the Internet. Yesterday it won the prestigious General Excellence in Online Journalism prize at the Online News Association (ONA) awards in Hollywood. Earlier this year the news agency picked up three ‘Webbys’ – the journalistic equivalent of a movie Oscar. BBC News beat CNN, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal websites, to receive the award it also won in 2001.

The ONA website reports the judges highly praised the BBC site for the highest technical and journalistic standards. The ONA states the BBC received the award for the following reasons:

• providing breaking news worldwide and around the clock in multiple languages
• providing options for narrow and broadband users, and for Web and mobile devices
• making extensive use of video and audio
• exploiting the depth of BBC News resources around the world
• having “actively managed bulletin boards and live chat windows during live interviews and ongoing events”

• creating a well-designed site that is easy to navigate.

The ONA concluded the BBC “set the standard for online news.”

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about online news, BBC website, favourite news website, the BBC…

2. ABBREVIATIONS:  Write on the board the following abbreviations and brinstorm their meanings ‘BBC’, ‘CNN’, ‘MTV’, ‘ABC’, ‘NBC’, ‘AP’, ‘WWW’, ‘NASA’, ‘UN’, ‘WHO’, ‘WTO’, etc etc etc .

3. 1-MINUTE ARGUMENTS: Write the following list of arguments on the board: BBC vs. CNN; British news and TV vs. American news and TV; news via the web vs. news via newspapers; news via the web vs. news via TV; news via TV vs. news via newspapers; news is bad vs. news is good; watching the news is best vs. watching sport or movies is best etc etc etc. Arrange students in two lines. Students A argue for the first argument, Students B the second. Change pairs every two or three arguments.

4. OSCAR?: Students decide who should get the award for best newspaper, English school, mp3 player, computer, sports shoes, jeans, airline etc etc etc. Rather than ‘Oscar’ students have to think of an original name for each award.

 
 

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. SPECULATION: From the headline speculate what the article is about.

2. WORD FAMILIES: In the dictionary, find the word families (3 per word?) for these words in the article
net, journalism, prestigious, prize, praise, standard, multiple, mobile, chat, site

3. COLLOCATION:  Students talk about the collocates of ‘journalism’ and ‘news’ after noting whether each collocate is used with the word ‘journalism’ (write a ‘J’ next to the word); ‘news’ (write an ‘N’); or either (write ‘E’).
online, radio, sports, TV, breaking, quality, bad, good, old, latest, international, biased…

4. HOW IMPORTANT?:  Students discuss / rank how important each of the following are for an online news website:
• providing breaking news
• ne ws around the clock
• news in multiple languages
• options for narrow and broadband users
• news for Web and mobile devices
• use of video and audio on the web page
• good navigation / links
• having bulletin boards and chat windows
• colour
• easy English version

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the words on the right in the correct spaces:

	The BBC, well known for its ________ of TV journalism, has proven it is also the ________ at reporting news online over the Internet. Yesterday it won the prestigious General Excellence in Online Journalism prize at the Online News Association (ONA) awards in Hollywood. Earlier this year the news agency picked ________ three ‘Webbys’ – the journalistic equivalent of a movie Oscar. BBC News ________ CNN, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal websites, to receive the award it ________ won in 2001.		up beat quality also best
	The ONA website ________ the judges highly praised the BBC site for the highest technical and journalistic standards. The ONA states the BBC received the award for the ________ reasons: • providing breaking news worldwide and around the ________ in multiple languages. • providing options for narrow and broadband users, and for Web and mobile ________. • making extensive use of video and ________. • exploiting the depth of BBC News resources around the world. • having “actively managed bulletin boards and ________ chat. windows during live interviews and ongoing events” • creating a well-designed site that is easy to ________. The ONA concluded the BBC “set the standard for online news.”		following live reports audio clock devices navigate

2. WHO SHOULD WIN?:  Students circle any words they think fits at the end of the following question – ‘Who do you think should win an award for the best _______? The more words the better.

3. QUESTIONS:  Students circle anything they read in the article they want to ask the class about later.

4. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. WHO SHOULD WIN?:  Students ask each other and discuss the questions from the exercise above.

3. WEB SITES: Students compare / discuss the different websites they visit, especially those in English and those in their own languages.

4. BEST WEB:  Students look at the different reasons why the BBC won the award. In pairs they make notes for a presentation on their news website and all of its features.

5. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

6. SURVEY: In pairs students write, conduct and report back to their group / the class on a survey on news websites.

7. READY-MADE WEBSITES: Colour copy and give pairs / groups of students examples from the front pages of various news websites. Students discuss how good/bad each site is, using the BBC points. Vote for the best and give reasons why.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on the BBC. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. SPEECH: You are the director of the BBC. Make a thank you speech to be given when you receive the award.

4. WEB DESIGNER: Create your own web news site (any news – food, my town, me …).

ANSWERS

ABBREVIATIONS:
British Broadcasting Corporation
Cable News Network
Music Television
American Broadcasting Company
National Broadcasting Company
Associated Press
World Wide Web
North Atlantic Space Agency
United Nations
World Health Organization
World Trade Organization

GAP-FILL:

BBC nets best Net news award

The BBC, well known for its quality of TV journalism, has proven it is also the best at reporting news online over the Internet. Yesterday it won the prestigious General Excellence in Online Journalism prize at the Online News Association (ONA) awards in Hollywood. Earlier this year the news agency picked up three ‘Webbys’ – the journalistic equivalent of a movie Oscar. BBC News beat CNN, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal websites, to receive the award it also won in 2001.

The ONA website reports the judges highly praised the BBC site for the highest technical and journalistic standards. The ONA states the BBC received the award for the following reasons:

• providing breaking news worldwide and around the clock in multiple languages.
• providing options for narrow and broadband users, and for Web and mobile devices.
• making extensive use of video and audio.
• exploiting the depth of BBC News resources around the world.
• having “actively managed bulletin boards and live chat windows during live interviews and ongoing events”.

• creating a well-designed site that is easy to navigate.

The ONA concluded the BBC “set the standard for online news.”