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Essay on Review of the BBC History Website

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The BBC History website is very eclectic, covering an immense range of history and as a resource, it could be suggested that it is a victim of trying to appeal all levels of historical interest from the academic to the mildly interested. It has been variously described as relevant and fascinating , a useful research tool , catering to the non-specialist whilst including valuable material for the historical researcher . As a site there is an obvious preference given to any historical programming by the BBC be it television or radio and such programming is also available through the iPlayer facility. The home page of the website is attractive and designed to appeal to as many readers as possible. It is sub-divided into boxes each giving …show more content…

The final box gives access to the interactive part of the website. From this overview of the home page of the site it is possible to see that the BBC is attempting to appeal to a wide audience but it is also keeping its emphasis on its home market; the majority of the topics covered are related to British history and those that are more global still have a British reference within them. To critically evaluate the site, it is essential to bear in mind that the BBC will try, as far as possible, to take a unbiased view; if a programme is a general history of a period, such as Andrew Marr’s “The Making of Modern Britain”, then the BBC always attributes ownership of the opinion and interpretation to the presenter or writer. The statement “The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites” would suggest that they are responsible for their internal sites but who decides on the site content is not so clear. The home page of BBC History leads to a vast network of topics and other sites. To critically evaluate the whole site would, perhaps, diminish some of what it is trying to achieve, accessibility of history to all.

The sub-section “British History in-depth” covers a large tract of British History from the 1066 to

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