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.

Listening Journal - NPR Hourly News Summary

The NPR Hourly News Summary of 3 March, 2010 runs up to 4:46 minutes. The producers were not enlisted, and the newscast was aired from Washington.
The sound quality of this newscast is excellent; the newscaster has a very clear and warm voice. The newscaster and the reporters featuring in this newscast are all articulate and speak clearly, and also take their time in narrating. They are kind of slow, which I found is not something newscasters give attention to due to the time constraints. This is why I felt this newscast is too long, it might because the newscaster/reporters were taking their time in narrating their stories.
Only sound bites were used in the first report and no natural sound was used at all. In the second and third reports, the journalist didn’t use any nat. sound or sound bites.
The newscast discussed bills that add to the U.S. deficit such as the senate bill extending unemployment benefits and highway funding. In addition, the newscast discussed a lot of U.S. politics, such as layoffs in the education industry, and used a lot of financial terms.