BBC alters link guidelines for online (science) articles

[hunter]

The BBC has revised its guidelines for linking to other websites in news articles. Reporters must now link to primary sources such as articles published in scientific journals, rather than simply linking to the homepage of the journal. The new guidelines also encourage reporters to "avoid news stories", in favour of linking to analysis.

BBC editorial staff have "long wrestled" with how and where to link to external websites, as the assistant editor of specialist journalism for the BBC News website, Richard Warry, said earlier this year. Ben Goldacre, doctor and Guardian columnist, has spearheaded the move to get the BBC to link directly to science journal articles, and it finally seems to have paid off.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/oct/08/bbc-link-guidelines

Wouldn't it be great if all media did this?

Science and medical journalism can be atrocious, especially when it's rewritten from stuff that was rewritten from corporate and academic press releases.