Analysis of BBC News website top stories
Which international news stories get the most prominence on the BBC News website?
The top position will go presumably to what the website editors have decided is the most important story of the hour. By collecting information on the stories occupying this space it is possible for media analysts to identify key trends in editorial decision-making.
On 90 random days between 1 December 2008 and 30 April 2009, we recorded which stories occupied the top position on the World and Middle East news pages.
Middle East section
The table illustrates the findings of our sizeable sample and indicates a massive preponderance of Israel-Palestine top stories in the Middle East section.
- Well over half of the top stories in the sample (59%) were occupied by stories relating to Israel and the Palestinians
- During January, which saw most of the conflict in Gaza and southern Israel, the figure was 93%. However, in April - months after the hostilities ended - Israel and the Palestinians still featured in the top spot 53% of the time
- Our sample indicated that the second most popular top story was Iraq, occupying the top spot 26% of the time. Iran featured at eight per cent
- Other countries which appeared in the top story position in this sample included Syria, Lebanon and Yemen – all at two per cent
World section
This section is an amalgamation of the website’s six regional pages – including the Middle East.
- Our sample indicated that a very wide variety of countries featured in the section’s top position, but that Israel and the Palestinians still featured very prominently - at 18%.
- Only the United States featured more frequently, at 24%. News from Sri Lanka occupied eight per cent of the top story spots, less than half as often as Israel. This is particularly noteworthy in view of the devastating conflict which intensified during the monitored period.
- China, Iran and Afghanistan - all countries which concern important British foreign policy objectives - occupied only two per cent of the international page’s top stories.
These findings indicate that not only does Israel dominate the Middle East subsection but is also the second most popular international story overall. This raises important questions about why this is the case and what implications this has for how the important elements of the story are being conveyed to the public.