coming up, what's the bbc�*s response to complaints we had recently about its upgrade to the news app? we'll hearfrom its digital director about that and about the corporation's strategy for online, mobile and social. in may of last year, the bbc announced plans to deliver what they called a digital first media organisation. as a result, there's been a number of changes to how it distributes its journalism with new outlets and services and changes to some of its existing products. amongst the latter is the refresh of the mobile phone news app, which took place this summer and resulted in a large volume of complaints, including this from long—time user john gott on our programme two weeks ago.

well, i was familiar with it and i suppose with new changes there's always going to be a problem. but i don't like the way that the new app delivers the news. for me, it doesn't work and as a result, it's no longer my first news source. james cox was watching that and got straight in touch with us writing... susan way—vauthier added... well, we promised you a fortnight ago that we would try and get someone from the bbc to respond to the feedback you've given. so let's discuss that news app upgrade and other matters with naja nielsen, who's the digital directorfor bbc news. thank you so much for

coming on newswatch. you'll know there have been lots of complaints about the new news app and many people are saying it's actually harder to navigate around the app. you used to be able to select what you wanted from tabs along the top. now you have to kind of scroll up and down a lot. why have you made it harder to find the stories people want? so that's an interesting point because you can still navigate very easily. so if you read a story that is about business, there is a little business tag on it and if you click on that, then you'll get all your business stories. and that is how most modern mobile apps work. and i hope that the people that are now learning that new navigation, that they will very quickly learn it maybe after a couple of weeks. it takes time to get used to a slightly new navigation. the way we did it in the past was well working for a little bit of our audiences, but most of our audiences were never using that navigation. so again, this is one of the biggest news apps.

it is the biggest media app in the uk. only apple news is as big as ours. we have got 13 million users every month. it is such an important audience for us and it's very important for us that it works the best it possibly can for all 13 million of them. and also for even more than that, because we are ambitious, we want this app to grow to more audiences. can we talk specifically about customisation? so people used to find it very easy to select a palette of topics for their feed, and lots of them are saying they can't do that any more. are you committed to offering that personalisation? it's again, we are going we're moving from what you can call kind of in the past, a lot of digital services. they had these library style where you had to look at long lists and choose from the long lists, whereas more modern products they use the search function. and the truth is, i can admit that is that our search was not optimal in the old app.

over time, we need to tailor and personalise the offer more so that everyone will get the most important stories and then underneath of the most important stories that everyone will get from the bbc, then we want to tailor the offer a bit more so that people that are more interested in local news would get more of that, whereas people that are more into politics would get more of that. and there could also be some audiences that actually prefer news in video, and maybe they should have the videos surfaced a bit more towards the top. so, that is how we see it, that that public service means that we give people that everyone gets the most important, but also that we are better at pointing people to the content that is most relevant to them. more generally, we know that the bbc�*s made a big thing about going digital. we've seen a lot of concern about the impact this is having on things like local radio, the world service in particular, and a fear that its cost driven, really. do you have any concerns with all the resources being diverted towards digital services that you're going to lose

a lot of your current audience who just don't want it? we are determined to keep providing a world—class service for television and radio audiences. let there be no doubt about that. we love those audiences and we know it's a very important part of our public service remit again, to serve them well. where we have been not good enough, i would say, if i'm honest, is, to serve people when they're using digital platforms as well as we could. and this is why we need to to expand this area. to put it very simply, we want our digital offer to be as good, to have as high qualityjournalism. journalism that is led by our best expertjournalists. we're clearly seeing a lot of bbc news content going out through social media platforms now, things like instagram or tiktok or youtube. and those platforms clearly benefit from having the bbc brand and its content on them. but can i ask what evidence you have

that they are really working for winning bbc audiences and keeping bbc audiences? there is a dilemma here, right? if we just put all of our content on social media, we help them grow their platforms. they are not lead by informing everybody or our editorial principles, they are first and foremost commercial businesses that want to give people what they want and sell as many advertising as possible. so and also they want to keep people on their platforms, right. so sometimes we could waste a lot of moneyjust putting content out there. where it really works for us is when we get in contact with people under—25 that are not naturally coming to our television, radio programmes and websites. and also when we help those people under—25 discover our best content for them and then bring them back to our own platforms, and that is why we're there now.

naja nielsen, thank you. thank you for having me. following hard on the heels this week of the earthquake in morocco. with the death toll in the thousands came news of an even bigger international disaster. the floods in libya in which at least 11,000 people have died. news of the latter emerged on tuesday, but by wednesday evening, it was no longer the lead story on bbc one news bulletins. newscaster: tonight at ten - sara sharif's father, _ stepmother and uncle are arrested on suspicion of her murder as they land at gatwick airport. thatjudgment on news priorities caught the attention of grace dalton, who left us this telephone message. you began with a story about sara sharif. now i can't begin to put into words how tragic her story is. however, her story relates to just one individual, whereas many, many thousands of individuals are currently suffering or have died in libya.

so why was that considered a second importance? i want to thank you, though, also for giving considerable coverage to this particular crisis, as well as to that in morocco. please, please do continue to provide plenty of coverage of crises going on around the world. it's really important that we look outwards and not only at things that happen to british people. we put that point to bbc news and a spokesperson told us both

that earthquake in morocco also raised another objection from a number of viewers. see if you can spot the problem they found with this introduction from fiona bruce on monday's news at six. the 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck about 45 miles south—west of the tourist hub of marrakesh in the atlas mountains. it's thought it's been particularly devastating as the epicentre was relatively shallow, just 11 miles below the surface. amateur and professional seismologists were quick to contact the bbc. amongst them, albert hickson. an arrow showed a point below the surface labelled epicentre.

finally, as we touched on earlier, the shift towards digital content together with financial pressures has led to cuts to bbc local radio. they're resulting in the departure of a number of presenters and the end of some long running shows. last sunday saw the final edition after 15 years of radio norfolk�*s treasure quest. and it began with this statement from presenter sophie little. local radio, as i think we all well know, is a vital public service. and it's my opinion that these drastic sweeping cuts taking place to bbc local radio all across the country are not only detrimental to everyone that enjoys switching on their local station and hearing their favourite shows and detrimental to the local communities who value it and use it, but actually, these cuts are unbelievably unfair to those who need local public service broadcasting the most. a bbc spokesperson had this to say...

thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news, on tv, radio, online and social media, email newswatch at bbc.co.uk or you can find us on x, formerly known as twitter at newswatch bbc. you can call us on 03700106676. and do you have a look at previous interviews on our website, bbc.co.uk/newswatch. that's all from us for now. thank you forjoining us. and do think about getting in touch and perhaps even coming on the programme. we'll be back to hear more of your thoughts about how the bbc covers the news next week. goodbye.

the royal institution of great britain. for the past two centuries, this independent charity has sought to connect as many people as possible with the wonders of science. famed for its christmas lectures, which are aired by the bbc, the royal institution's iconic theatre is a place where leading scientists regularly share their work with live audiences. one area of scientific research which affects us all is in the diagnosis

and treatment of serious illnesses. now, the great thing is science has helped us live longer, but the flip side of that is that we are now discovering illnesses which mainly only occur in old age. yeah. many of us have watched the decline of loved ones with dementia, and whilst there's no cure, there are treatments to help manage the symptoms. it's really important to diagnose it early, though, and technology is helping to play its part in that. since the 1940s, gps have been testing memory with pen and paper. and the results of that test are confirmed by a lumbar puncture. not only is that highly invasive, but it can also only be performed by a neurologist. now, researchers at university college london are using virtual reality to help detect early signs of alzheimer's disease, before it reaches the more severe stages of dementia. we know that in individuals with dementia diseases, there's two components.

there's the biological component, which might be detected by a blood test, but there's also the cognitive — the thinking and the memory and the navigation — component. and that's the problem that we're trying to solve is how do we complement new biological tests with really good cognitive tests that can detect it many years before dementia starts? if you look at the neuroscience of how the disease starts in the brain, it starts in the region that we think is responsible for our ability to navigate. there's also an incredible experience where you get completely immersed in a new environment, and the way we've designed it is a really beautiful open field where you can see mountains, pine trees. so, we're trying to make it as much of a relaxing process as possible. it's time to go into the virtual world and then i'm going to be navigating my way around. yes, exactly. from a starting point, the user has to follow the cones, and then information from the virtual landscape is removed and they need to find their way back to where they started from. and this is the controller. and you will only have . to use the trigger button, which is the one... that one?

yeah. basically, you are immersed in this virtual environment. _ there's the one. i'm just going to walk towards the cliff. and as soon as you reach, you stop. i need to remember this spot to come back to later. now go to two. three. oh, i'm somewhere else. what's happening now? so basically this time i we kept all the ground information, as you can notice. yeah. but we removed completely all the distant landmarks. . ok, so this is easierfor distance, but harder for direction. exactly. that's great. yeah, you got it. i think it was over here. the tricky bit, trying to get back to cone one. oh, i'm quite close. yeah, well... well, relatively close. maybe i'm not that close at all. i'm in the right field, i think might be as close as i am.