Listening Journal

BBC Hourly Newscast
The newscast runs up to 5:00, which was a good length.
The newscast covered a variety of international news such as the recently uncovered evidence that millions of dollars donated to the relief effort for the Ethiopian famine in the mid 1980’s went to buy weapons; the earthquake in Chile and how aid how damaged infrastructure hampers the relief efforts; and nuclear waste in Australia and where to put it, local aborigines worry about health implications.
Natural sound was not included in this newscast and only one or two sound bites were used. But it was easy for me to keep listening in because the newscast covered a variety of topics. In addition the voice of the newscaster was very engaging and conversational. It was not monotonous but rather varied, he changed his pace at different intervals.