Saturday, July 23, 2011

Nowadays Newsround's web presence is rarely, if ever, updated at the weekend. The current tragic news from Norway has, so far, only been reported on the TV bulletins.

Newsround's revamped website launched at the end of June (blog 29 June 2011.) You'd expect them to have asked for feedback from viewers. However, keen Newsround watchers would have noticed that the BBC seemed to take little interest what people actually thought of the changes. On the 30th June, Ore said rather unconvincingly I think: You guys obviously loving our brand new website right now.

Why was Newsround so indifferent to kids' opinions on the site? Why didn't they ask for feedback - perhaps on this webpage?

The answer is probably quite simple. CBBC suspected kids would be unhappy with the dumbed down site, and given the chance they would make their views known. A few kids might have had a bookmark to the old chat page and some managed to find their way to the message board via the A-Z link. But now the A-Z directory has been updated with a new-style page which doesn't link to Chat or to the Message boards.

Newsround A-Z index
Part of Newsround's A-Z index web page (screenshot)


It seems that the BBC is slowly strangling the remnants of children's message boards. Is this just to save money, or is there another reason?

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