- News values

There are a number of values which will determine whether a story makes the news, and the headlines in particular, including size, surprise, human interest, humour, tragedy, personality, importance, discovery, impact on people, geopolitical importance - such as the presidential election in America - relevance to our listeners, which means things which tell us about ourselves or the world we live in.

The essential element of a story is of course, that it is new! And, no: journalists and their editors are not all cynics looking for bad news. But the news is about the unexpected. We all hope for good news; it's when things take a surprise turn - for good or for the worse, that they become news.

- BBC World Service: giving more than one side of the story

Several factors drive the BBC World Service news agenda. At the heart of our broadcasting, is an awareness that we are providing an important service: information, to our audiences around the world. It's why I've chosen to work for the BBC.

As individual journalists and as an organisation, we believe we have a commitment to bring audiences news and information which is accurate and balanced: giving people more than one side of the story. I have to confess to a passion for radio too. It's honest, it's fast, and it can be great fun!

How do we decide which stories to choose? I've talked about news values. We're also driven by other factors. Of course, we watch other broadcasters. We have a detailed system of diaries which tell our producers what is happening around the world, from sports events to elections. We are a client of a range of newsagencies and we have our own Monitoring unit where specialists watch the world's media.

Our senior editors compile a regular list of what we call the BIG STORIES - main themes which are an important focus for journalistic exploration and dissemination. At the moment, the themes of the Big Stories range from the US presidential election to China, migration, and transnational crime.

One of the fantastic things about being a BBC journalist is the access we have to information. Our Newsgathering involves a huge network of correspondents. At our London Headquarters we have our Language Section experts, access to analysts, archives and, through the internet and our own intranet, a host of research resources.

We use the latest digital technologies which give us fast access to information and sound. That's essential as accuracy and speed are part of what we call our core business: bringing you the news!