Cultural Resources

News Sources | Oxford and its Surrounding Area | London Region

The BBC

Best of them all - so good that other media owners and their tame politicians are trying to close it down - is the BBC website: www.bbc.co.uk. This has far too many excellent resources to make description possible, but useful features include webcasts of regular BBC radio and television programs and the incomparable BBC World Service news programs. Listen here to get a glimpse of what the American media aren't telling you. All the content on this site is accessible without payment, unlike those of some of the newspapers and magazines sites below.

Newspapers

Britain is different from the USA in that it has a genuine national newspaper sector (as well as some fine regional papers). The market is highly competitive, both among what are called the "quality papers" and the more popular productions. Each of the "qualities" has a distinct character, often taking a political stance (and this is sometimes determined by the owner). Here are links to the main qualities:

The Times - no longer outstanding as a voice of authority because of its highly polemical political stance (owned NewsCorp, which also owns the Fox media empire in the USA, dominated by Rupert Murdoch), The Times is still essential reading. Its polemical nature is nothing new, however - "The Thurderer" is a regular object of satire in the 19th century (both Dickens and Trollope parody it).

The Guardian - this has always been on the left-of-center in British politics. The Guardian offers some very thoughtful and thought-provoking. The Guardian's independence is secured by its being owned by a trust. Recently, it took over the Sunday newspaper The Observer, which is also now secured from hostile take-over.

The Independent - as its name suggests, this was set up by a group of journalists and others alarmed by the partisan nature of the major British papers, particularly after the emergence of Rupert Murdoch as a major player. It's been through difficult financial times but now seems established in its position as an intelligent, centrist voice.

The Telegraph - once very much the paper of older, more conservative, and frankly rather philistine readers, The Telegraph realized some years ago that that demographic was ... well, it was dying. So it has sought to reposition itself and is now a lively right-of-centre voice. Even when it was more old-fogey-ish it had the best sports pages of the qualities, and it continues to do so.

London has an evening paper - the Evening Standard - which is worth reading for a more tabloid style of journalism that still has pretensions to real news reporting. It also has good coverage of London events and activities (clubs, concerts, theatre, restaurants, etc).

Magazines

The Economist is very much a global (or at least transatlantic) news magazine, with political sections on all the major regions of the world, on business, on economics, on science, and the arts, books, and culture. It's also the best, towering over its rivals in many ways. There is still excellent - if not very extensive - coverage of Britain. One of the excellences of The Economist is the quality of the writing: if you want to know how to write intelligent, forceful, sophisticated, yet clear and striking prose, read The Economist and see what qualities characterize the writing. All the articles are anonymous and have to clear the formidable bar of the house style.

Travel to Britain

Oxford

St. Johns

Cultural Resources

News Sources

Oxford Region

London Region

Maps