BBC World News and Al Jazeera emphasize the quality of their news to the audience. The two news agencies are reliable and focus on the truth. The events that dominated the news headline took place in the last week. BBC and Al Jazeera manifest distinctiveness in their news coverage and reporting. The two news agencies reflect the western and non-western approaches, determining their direction in covering political tensions. While both outlets are committed to providing credible, reliable, and quality news, Al Jazeera fails to ensure objectivity and a balanced approach to news stories.
BBC’s first three headlines focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The headlines are current and reflect the current news in the international community. The factual nature of reporting reflects the commitment of BBC to independent, transparent, and truthful news reporting. Similarly, Al Jazeera has dedicated its headline to Ukraine –Russia crisis. The independent and transparent reporting of the events occurring in Ukraine resonates with Al Jazeera’s commitment to reliable and quality news dissemination. The headlines in both BBC and Al-Jazeera are entirely different but focus on a single event happening in Ukraine. However, the two media houses’ perspectives are different in covering the political situation. While the BBC emphasizes the cultural and Russian identity, Al Jazeera emphasizes the war’s devastation, the international community’s failure to prevent the war, and the world’s reaction to Putin’s military operations begin in Ukraine.
How the BBC covered and reported the events differs from how Al Jazeera did. Therefore, the news agencies in Europe capture different angles and present the analysis of the stories without bias. However, Al Jazeera reflected the Arab biases when covering the Ukraine-Russia crisis. Although it was consistent in its reporting, it reflected its cultural perspectives in covering the news events. For example, the most common headline on Al Jazeera’s website is the reaction of various world leaders to the Russian attacks in Ukraine. The developing story paints President Putin’s special military operations in eastern Ukraine as an affront to international law and diplomacy (Al Jazeera, 2022). Therefore, most world leaders are condemning the move and prevailing on Russia to opt for other conflict resolution mechanisms. Although Al Jazeera quotes various media reports, there are certain undertones of Arab bias in reporting the conflict. In the case of Al Jazeera, Arabs form the primary target audience who are biased on issues relating to conflicts and war.
However, BBC coverage is factual. The reporting does not present any bias in covering the Russian and Ukraine crisis. The news agency targets an international audience and reports the incidents covering various story perspectives. For instance, the BBC quotes different authorities in Russia, Ukraine, and the West, revealing their opinions, arguments, and beliefs. The article extensively quotes the Russian presence and the responses from Ukraine (Adams, 2022). The story’s content details all facts, informing the audience and drawing their conclusion.
While BBC has an element of balance in news coverage, Al Jazeera builds on the political reality in the Middle East and the influence of culture to cover news events. The events that both BBC and Al Jazeera are covering are the same. However, the news value of Al Jazeera differs from those of BBC. While Al Jazeera has been quick to term Russia’s invasion as an affront to the sovereignty of Ukraine, BBC is providing a balanced perspective by interviewing people from both Russia and Ukraine. The personal angle that Al Jazeera uses in the story helps capture the tension that all conflict actors manifest. Unlike Al Jazeera, the BBC provides Russia and Ukraine’s historical perspective to set the agenda to help understand their conflict.
Adams Paul. (24 February 2022). Ukraine conflict: Russian forces attack after Putin TV declaration. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60503037
Al Jazeera (24 February 2022). World reaction: Putin orders military attack in Ukraine. Al Jazeera and News Agencies. Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/24/world-reaction-putin-orders-military-operation-in-ukraine