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INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM
JOURNALISM STUDIES: KEY TEXTS
BY KEVIN WILLIAMS
INTRODUCTION: THE CHANGING NATURE OF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE
The international journalism is the process by which men and women gather, handle and deliver news and information from around the world. At the heart of this activity is foreign correspondence. Foreign correspondence has a long history. News of what was happening abroad was a feature in Europe’s earliest newspapers (17th^ century). Foreign correspondence is the node of a system of international news gathering which provides media outlets around the world with a regular, reliable and rapid flow of information. However, this system is undergoing radical transformation. New technologies are among the main factors of the crisis in foreign correspondence and international journalism. The transformations happening are usually associated with “globalisation”. Global change can be seen, in all aspects, as a human activity and there is a growing acceptance that globalisation is the best way to understand and unravel what is happening around in contemporary society. It is believed that globalisation has demolished the role of the foreign correspondent. And broken down the “us” vs “them” distinction among nations. Also, many believe that the traditional tenets of journalism (ex. Objectivity) are no longer fit to the purpose. What is required is a new form of international journalism, with more interventionists and “more committed” journalism. The global journalism is seen as qualitatively different from foreign news reporting: it is deterritorialised and represents a system of newsgathering, editing and distribution not based on national or regional boundaries. However, this notion is controversial and centre of debate. Subtitle: the paradox of global change Global change threatens to break down the geographical, national and cultural barriers that have traditionally hemmed in international thought and communicative interaction. We are on the verge of a great leap forward in human consciousness and awareness. The signs can be seen in air travel (turism, people moving from place to place, discovering the world) but also in the number of refugees, asylum seekers, displaced people and economic migrants (as a result of famines, wars, poor life conditions, ex. Cold War). Every day, a huge number of people crosses the boarders in order to make connections. The easiness and density of such connections have made ours a “network society”. The mass media play a crucial role in furthering people’s sense of interconnectedness. 24h news channels (Al-Jazeera, CNN etc) offer international news instantly, opening a huge window on the world. Social media such as twitter enable men and women all over the world to communicate directly with one-another. Televisions affords access to information and images from other countries. Music, movies, CDs, sports events and many more, bring people together to share a common experience. Foreign correspondents are the providers of much of the international news, information and analysis, technology in transforming their work: satellite technology enables correspondents to keep in touch with their home office, the mobile phone allows to communicate breaking events and stories on the spot and lightweight cameras have made even the most remote parts of the world available for television. Electronic News Gathering (ENG) equipment and satellites mean that stories can be edited on the spot and sent back to be broadcast in a matter of hours. However, there is a paradox. As more people go to more places and the new media enables far off events to be part of people everyday consciousness, men and women in charge of reporting are disappearing; while people have the opportunity to know, learn and understand more, foreign news is declining. This trend has been apparent since the end of the Second World War, but by the 1990s the decline in foreign news has reached a crisis point. Parties were coming to the conclusion that international news coverage was inadequate (ex. The Council of human rights policy in the UK complained about the inadequacy and superficiality of international coverage of human rights., concluding that people that rely on the medias are not always in a position to understand or judge properly the actions and policies of governments and other authorities). Also, the internet represented a huge threat as it challenged the traditional means of journalism. In addition, thanks to technology “everyone is a journalist” as ordinary members of the public can become actively involved in gathering, reporting, interpreting and disseminating news. (ex. Bloggers) users have control over content, access to a wider range of opinion and, in many cases, contribute themselves. People want a voice and now have it. Many believe there is no future for international news gatherers as, nowadays, everyone sending information from one country to another is a foreign correspondent. Subtitle: an increasingly complex world The world has undergone many changes since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The end of the Cold War, which had dominated the development of the international system, brought uncertainty and confusion. Between the end of the Second World War and the 1980s, the struggle between East and West (capitalism vs Communism, USA vs Soviet Union) was the frame through which every event was interpreted by media. “Anti-communism” was one of the main filters in reporting news in America. The end of the Cold War brought a crisis in perception and understanding for foreign press. Ethnic and civil wars (Yugoslavia, genocide in Rwanda and Darfur) became more difficult to understand as they couldn’t be accounted by the Cold War, the Red menace and the “global communist conspiracy”. Events had to be seen, understood, reported and interpreted in their own terms. Local knowledge became more important than ever. Using national policy and national policy makers to understand events was also problematic as the “national interest” became more important. The practices and priorities of international journalism changed with the passing of USA-USSR rivalry. News organisations reorganised their priorities and countries that had been centre of struggle, slipped off the agenda. Globalisation brought broader issues including pandemics such as AIDS and SARS, climate change, migrations and human rights which required journalism to adopt a global perspective.
These matters became secondary when 9/11 occurred. The destruction of the twin towers by Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorists provided a new enemy and ideological struggle with Islam. Suddenly people, especially in North America were clamouring for more foreign news. However, the desire to be informed was short lived. Costly and unpopular wars against Iraq and Afghanistan instilled a sense of withdrawal from the rest of the world. The “war on terror” instigated by George Bush Junior failed to solve the “crisis of meaning” created by the end of cold war. Passing the mantle of evil to Al-Qaeda, Saddam Hussein and international terrorism didn’t succeed and the “war on terror” was nothing but an expression of generalised and diffused fearfulness. Climate change, “casino Capitalism” (unregulated excess), civil conflict are attributed to the new globalised world. However, at the heart of every change in international society are threats to our sense of collective identity. Everyone needs a sense of belonging which was given to us by the nation-state (state in which the great majority shares the same culture and is conscious of it. A territorially bounded sovereign, polity or state that is ruled in the name of a community of citizens who identify themselves as nation). Since the end of the 18th^ century the eminence of the nation-state has remained unchallenged. It has offered a stronger sense of security, belonging or affiliation and even personal identity. Nation states have exerted considerable effort to propagandise their sovereignty. National identity is a constructed, imagined condition held by threat and imposition. Enacting global change by promising to erode the imaginary boundaries which distinguish one group of people from another is a threat to the nation-state. Supranational organisations such as EU have established markets and industries, laws, regulations that have taken power away from the nations. Minority cultures have used television and other medias to promote a new sense of common purpose and shared rituals. Subtitle: contesting foreign news Many nations and peoples complain about the way they have been represented by international news. People in the third World (Africa, Asia and Latin America) have protested about their portrayal and called for fundamental change. Matters culminated in the publication of the MacBride report in 1980 by United Nations Educational. Scientific Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), which supported calls for the establishment of a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). The report was very critical of western news agencies and of the imbalance in international news flow in favour of the West. The western news agencies and media responded defensively. UNESCO was accused of seeking control and censor news, restricting the free flow of information. The MacBride complaints rested on two basic criticisms: (1) Little coverage was devoted to what had happened in Africa, Asia and Latin America, even though 2/3 of the world population, land and natural resources were located in these parts of the world. The limited and routine coverage was explained by the belief that not much happens in the third World. The scarcity of news on the Third world was added to the negative ways in which what did appear was covered. What happened there was reported through the prism of the “coups, famines, earthquakes” syndrome. News tended to be only bad and without routine coverage the picture that appeared was one of instability, violence and irrationality: stereotypical images of developing societies, misrepresentation. Attempts to bring about a new international order were unsuccessful. Alternative arrangements were made as international news agencies in the Third World were brought together in regional grouping such as PANA, CANA, NANAPOL. In the West, independent alternative news agencies were created: IPS and Gemini and the Guardian created a “third world section” in 1978. More positive stories were reported, and third world received more coverage. However, the contribution of these arrangement was limited as financial constraints and government indifference occurred. In the late 1980s the rise of technology had more impact. CNN and other 24h channels began to provide alternative perspectives. The channel that epitomised new international journalism is Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar. It provides a service in English and Arabic, delivering a picture of the world that challenges many preconceptions. The internet also made a significant impact. It was seen for the first time as a news medium during the 2003 Iraq war. During this time, online traffic to websites grew when Bush announced the beginning of the conflict. Many Americans turned to other international news sites as a result of their disillusionment of the war coverage provided by US mainstream media. However, mush of this news was provided by British newspapers and Al-Jazeera. In addition, there were bloggers who had no connections with established media, such as Salam Pax, who provided accounts on suffering and fighting. Subtitle: new forms of international journalism International journalism in a multidimensional change. Western journalism in under attack. Western foreign correspondents are held responsible for the misreporting and misrepresentation of the world events and the values of western journalism are discordant to the needs of the third world societies. The incorporation of western journalism values is seen as a means to reinforce the dependency of third world countries to the West and their news/media. Anglo-american journalism and its values are becoming a universal standard for the remaining of the world, therefore, new forms and practices on journalism have been articulated. “development journalism” rejects many of the basic tenets of western journalism, in particular the commitment to detachment and objectivity. The role of the neutral observer was regarded as problematic in newly independent societies seeking to build their nation and grow economically. Development journalists think their role shaped by the experience and the struggle for decolonisation and national liberation. Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana, used the press as an integral part of the political fight for independence. He saw the duty of the journalist as being to “help establish a progressive political and economic system”, to work for the “betterment of his fellows and the society of which he is a worthy member” and to “educate and inspire them to work for equality ant universality of rights everywhere”. Development journalists were soldiers of development whose job was not only to give and interpret facts but to promote them to readers. They main characteristic of development journalists was the active role in pressing for change. The shifting nature of world events led many western journalists to question their practices, and some began to equate “doing journalism” with “doing good” arguing that journalism should be seen as a moral enterprise. BBC foreign correspondent Martin Bell called for journalism to be more involved in the issues and found that regular journalism was insufficient to address what he was confronted with. He criticises the detachment and distance.
Subtitle: foreign correspondence Foreign correspondence usually describes news media coverage of what is happening outside the home state and the process by which it is obtained. What constitutes foreign news is delineated from domestic news with the presumption that there are clear differences between the peoples of different nations. it is what happens to them and that has nothing to do with us. The word foreign implies alien, strange and unfamiliar. This delineation is the product of the development of nation States and national media systems. Nation state newspapers radios and televisions have always been organised based on the informational need of the state. Broadcasting has been committed to serving the nation. Most countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries established national news agencies to communicate national news to the world. These agencies played a crucial role in the consolidation of modern nation state. National news agencies were closely associated with the government, usually funded and financed by it and highly dependent on official sources of information. National news agencies closely identified with the nation-state perspective of events and issues. International news comes in different packages: foreign news abroad, home news abroad and foreign news at home. We identify as “foreign news” stories about countries and people abroad that have no impact, effect or relevance to home audiences. International reporting is produced for domestic audiences. Adapting the stories to domestic concerns is a means of ensuring that foreign news relates to the public. Home news abroad concentrates on the events which are directly linked or of direct interest to domestic audiences. (what happens to fellow citizens abroad). Foreign news at home is the opposite. Such stories include visits by foreign head of state, international conferences or domestic reactions to major international issues. One standard way of defining foreign correspondents is “journalist who work in a state different from the one in which their information medium is located”. Traditionally, the largest employers of foreign correspondents are national news agencies (a select number of news. Their allegiance to the nation has been a matter of conjecture as a result of their commercial objective of providing news for outlets in a variety of countries. “Long stay correspondents”, people assigned to cover a region or beat, are seen as typifying the foreign news reporter. They are sent to “hot spots” or major news stories in remote parts of the world. “Parachute journalism” is prominent in international news. Before the advent of air transportation, reporters used to jump off trains, boats, horses etc to cover stories. The distinction between long stay reporter and the parachute journalist has been a feature of foreign correspondence since its earliest days. The struggles between the two types of reporters and their different modi vivendi have always had a bearing on the nature of international news. Much foreign news is not gathered in the field but by other kinds of correspondents based in their home countries. Tensions between the home office and the field figure prominently. This is a product of the way in which those in the home office edit copy, crop pictures and splice film to fit their understanding of the story but also the result of the flow of information from diplomatic, political and other home based correspondents. Another important distinction is between full time and freelance reporters. Reporters usually have an A team and a B team. The first is usually composed of staff correspondents who work for major news outlets , have regular access to official sources of information, a regular salary, reside in the best hotels and usually appear when the story enters its crisis phase. The B team are part-timers who are hired for their local knowledge. They can be local nationals or foreign nationals who are resident in the country. Stringers and fixers are local journalists who supplement their income by working for lager and usually foreign news organisations. The staff and stringers distinctions is a feature of the reporting of many major foreign news stories. The staff reporter is perceived as trapped within “disciplinary apparatuses” that favour particular forms of knowledge and privilege certain discourses. He or she is subject to the “editorial discipline”. Stringers are not under the editor’s constant eye they are subject to the commercial pressure to sell their expertise and stories to different media outlets. They are perceived as less detached from local conditions: they sell their familiarity and this can lead to strong emotions. Freelancers vs stringers. Freelancers struggle to maintain their independence from editorial control. Stringers have a bit longer relationship with media organisations. the team aspect must be emphasised. Most foreign news gatherers work relatively anonymously and as part of a team. Many print reporters are accompanied on their travels by photographers. The relationship between reporter and support staff has often been characterised as difficult. Getting the pictures is as important as the words and the outcome is a difficult relationship. In addition, home editors determine what foreign news is. News organisations are hierarchical and editors exercise considerable control over the news agenda. Economic and organisational factors are crucial in determining what is reported. Surveys have also shown that home editors perceive their audiences are relatively uninterested in foreign news. This perception shapes their coverage of events overseas. The limited attention paid to what people want produces a range of contradictory data: more people appear to be interested in foreign news than editors believe and they appear to want different kinds of stories than they often receive. Also, audiences in certain parts of the world have historically been more open to news from abroad. There are two final points:
- Variety of forms of knowledge by which correspondents and their organisations serve up accounts of what is happening in the world. Scholarly literature tends to focus on the “news”: the primary way by which what foreign reporters see, hear and are told reaches the majority of the public. Backgrounders, features and more analytic pieces, columns and documentaries are some of the means by which foreign reporters escape the straight jacket imposed by news on what they can communicate.
- foreign correspondents have to male the unfamiliar familiar to their audiences. Crossing cultural barriers and interpreting cultural difference is central to activity of foreign correspondence. A critical aspect of this is the process of translation. Translations are
more than an inter-lingual activity: it is a process by which information is reshaped, edited, synthesized and transformed for the consumption of a new set of readers. Linguistic and cultural knowledge combine to produce information that conforms to the journalistic norms of the regions and satisfies the demands of their audiences. The dominance of languages such as English means many stories are translated into English before being re-translated into other languages. The translations have implications on the understanding. Subtitle: what is globalisation The world is undergoing considerable change. Globalisation is a concept used to explain the effects of the growing interaction of the international economy, the rise of supernational entities that limit the actions of nation states, the increasing intermingling of cultures across the world and the rising awareness peoples all around the world have of what is happening elsewhere. Globalisation is increasing the interconnectedness among people and there can be no globalisation without media and communications. The growth of the global media and cultural industries is the most significant of all the transformations. These industries have increased the speed and volume of information, images and entertainment. They are making people more aware of the problems the world is facing. New media technologies are singled out as central to interconnectivity between people, countries and cultures. Sceptics believe globalisation in neither inevitable nor widespread. Increased cross border exchange is note necessarily leading to greater connectivity or changing the political, social and cultural system. Globalisation is developing at a far slower pace than is generally assumed. They see globalisation as a “flawed conceptual tool” which has significant limitations in helping us to understand contemporary international relationships. There are different kinds of proponents in globalisations: Positive: focuses on the capacity of globalisation to improve the quality of life, raise living standards and bring people together, which promotes the sharing of cultures and understanding among nations. The transfer of values, resources, goods, aid, technology, ideas, media and communication across the world is beneficial as it helps nations grow economically, develop politically and socially and contributes to the elimination of poverty and backwardness. Positive globalisers embrace the notion that people are coming together to create a world cosmopolitan citizenship. They have a sense of global belonging and international outlook, they are citizens of the world. Different cultures coming together can create a new culture that respects and embraces difference. Pessimistic: believe the world is becoming less diverse and more homogeneous and that the world dominant powers impose their own agenda on the world, diminishing national identities and sovereignty. The think interaction is harmful, imposing values which undermine cultural identities and autonomy. The greater interconnectivity is breaking down national boundaries and promote the development of global structures. They stress the inequality of global interaction, focusing on the extension of capitalism, corporate power and western influence. Interconnectedness is determine by the few rather than the many. Subtitle: the global village Positive globalisation is often associated with Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan who coined the notion of “global village” in the 1960s. McLuhan emphasised the role of the new media in shaping international relationships. He believed in equality and exchange: the increased international interaction resulted in better understanding between people, countries and cultures. The expansion of television and satellite technology would bring about a new world in which we could all live alongside one another in a global village. McLuhan was positive about the impact of technology on social relationships. The global village was characterised by greater understanding, better cooperation and sense of community. Peace and harmony were keywords. The universalising of values such as democracy and greater access to ideas, values and material goods were foundations for life. The explosion of communication, information, interconnectivity was a liberating force. The discourse of globalisation has its roots in the 18th^ century. Every technological innovation has always been accompanied by grand narratives, social reconciliation and general concord. Victor Hugo, in his opening address at the International Congress of Peace in 1849, reminds us that the connection between shrinkage of time-space by the extension of international communication networks and the expansion of peace and understanding between nations and peoples is a recurrent theme in the history of new media forms. The concept of the global village was problematic because not all villages has access to the benefits of the new technologies. Disparities among nations, peoples and individuals generated critiques. The world is not a place where everyone talks to anyone else, where people know a lot about each other and everyone has social and cultural experiences in common. It is a community in which only a few voices are heard, opinions expressed and images viewed. Distinction in made between information rich and information poor. Many are deprived of access to the benefits of the global information and communication revolution, considerable disparities exist between developed and developing countries. Today’s new digital technology ins bridging the information imbalance. The internet, mobile phones and other forms of digital technology offer new opportunities, enabling those previously lacking access to information. The rate of acceptance of the internet in Africa is considered the most remarkable in the world ( every 190 p); however it is still very low compared to the average 1 every 15. Complaints are also made on the fact that English is the primary language of the internet: this reinforces the notion that western ways of doing are more valued and local identities throughout the world are almost extinct. The global village is also imbalanced in terms of values, ideas and lifestyles overwhelmingly influenced by western values. Television programmes and lifestyle (Dallas, Hawaii 5-9, Levi’s, Nike, Ford etc) are example of the disproportionate attention to the west.
of national and international news and the dominance of global corporations over international communication and media structures were made. The failure of the MacBride report to criticise the government involvement in the media and the restrictions placed by some third world countries to the flow of information was the basis of the rejection by many western organisations. MacBride was charged with seeking to impose state control over the media. Western editors found support from colleague in the third world who saw UNESCO as strengthening the power of governments at the expense of an “independent press”. Journalist all over the third world struggled to establish independent centres of opinion against the increasingly authoritarian governments. UNESCO’s efforts to implement NWICO were ultimately stymied by Britain and America’s withdrawal from the organisation in the 80s. Subtitle: westernisation or what? the west has different dimensions and patterns of inclusion and exclusion that are complex, deeply contested and changing. The concept “west” was constructed to classify societies in different categories to serve ideological and political purposes. It wasn’t just people in the third world that expressed concerns over “americanisation” but also Europeans have a long tradition of complaint about the influence of their ways of life. About the matter of cultural imperialism… differences within the countries of the third world are rarely acknowledged. Equating cultural identity with national cultures reflected the pressing concern of many third world nations to ensure the political stability of the highly fragmented and fragile entities inherited from decolonisation. The disposition of national governments and political elites towards traditional cultures inside their own countries was never that favourable. Minority languages and cultures were inimical to national development. The growth of the media strength in the non-western world has led to charges of “little cultural/media imperialism”. Within southern Asia, for example, concerns have been expressed among the impact of India’s satellite television on the close countries. Gross inequalities in access to information and communication also exist within nations. Global change can’t simply be seen in terms of the transfer of western values to other nations. Leslie Sklairs tries to understand global society using Marx’s theory of dominant- subordinate classes. He distinguishes the emergence of a class of people throughout the nations of the world who benefit from the economic, cultural, technological and political changes associated with globalisation. These elite people are found in Asia, Africa and Latin America as well as the nations of the west. This transnational capitalist class is based on the expansion of the global reach of multinational corporations. Global citizens tend to work for these corporations or for the business and service industries. They reproduce a culture of capitalism throughout the world, promoting consumerism, advocating liberalisation of trade and emphasising the profit move. They are responsible for the widening gap between rich and poor/elites and masses and ecological crisis. This analysis was criticised for representing a negative view of global interactions. A more positive analysis can be found in the notion of “cosmopolitanism”: the emergence of a group of citizens of the world who have a broad internationalist perspective and outlook of the world. This perspective extends “global citizenship” beyond the confines of business and economic alites and perceives it as something which emerges from below rather than driven by the need of capitalism. Global citizens have a sense of boundarylessness , awareness and ambivalence, openness to people, cultures and experiences. Foreign correspondents can be identified as world making cultural apparatus by the role they play but they are not necessarily cosmopolitans. Studies show that international journalists are heavy consumers of Anglo-American media, BBC, CNN, The economist, the wall street journal etc. most international news gatherers are employed by international news agencies, primarily from UK and US. Subtitle: globalisation and international journalism Globalisation has changed the way in which foreign correspondents work and the nature of international news. The exact nature of the change is a matter of debate. There are adherents of modernisation and cultural imperialism who believe that journalism is becoming increasingly standardised in its practise and values. That standardisation in based on the expansion of the Anglo- American model of journalism. British and American news agencies and newspapers dominate the news around the world. The INAs are conceived as playing a crucial role in having successfully spread the narrative forms and values of western journalism. The liberalisation and deregulation of media systems around the world in the 1990s is seen by some scholars as increasingly leading to the global media system becoming consolidated as a single commercial entity dominated by the western TNCs. This development is resulting in a further homogenisation of the news. Several studies since the 1970s have indicated that there is a considerable similarity in what is reported as foreign news in media systems around the world. Communication cartels such as Murdoch’s have reinforced the hold of the west. The commercialisation of national media systems and the deployment of “soft power” by US administrations are crucial factors. “murdochisation” is the term used to describe the shift in news, from public service to entertainment and commercial. The US government and pentagon have become more skilful in using the international media and information system to persuade the world of American views of events. US military powers have dominated the foreign reports with sources provided directly from the US. Global change requires that much new information must be mastered, which involves learning the substance of news issues and acquiring news sources. Global reporting seeks to understand and explain how economic, political, social end economical practices, problems in different parts of the world affect each other. Going online or producing a global news service in seen as changing the relationship between the news media and their audiences. The “death of distance” means that national media can become global in their reach. The instant interconnectedness of the online world is changing the national orientation of news.
The emergence of a new form of journalism that is “global” is underpinned by a positive approach. It associates global journalism with democracy and the potential of the internet to advance a more engaged and active citizenship. However, many tend to see it as an extension or evolution of journalism: the net and other technological advances, the expansion of global agencies and organisations and the growth of an audience are identified as factors that transform the role of foreign correspondence. For others, the new environment in undermining the need for specialist news gatherers. Global news can be produced from anyone, anywhere. The internet means that a foreign correspondent does not need to travel. Such transformations are also weakening the role of the INAs as primary provider of foreign news. By prescribing the Anglo-American model as the only valid one, other journalism traditions have been neglected. Some of the basic tenets of Anglo-American journalism are not workable in different countries. Ex objectivity is almost impossible in an intricate and fragmented panorama, CHAPTER II: THE COLONIAL LEGACY: THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM The roots of contemporary international reporting are embedded in the expansion of communication system in the 19th^ century. Many of the international news gathering organisations were born in the 1850s. The practices of foreign correspondence developed with the “great foreign reporters” of the late Victorian period. However, foreign news appeared in the early 17th^ century. Europe’s first newspapers were full of stories of hearsay about events across the continent. This was a response to the demand for news of the cataclysmic occurrences associated with the war of religion. It also reflected the first tentative into the unknown world of Asia, Africa and the Americas. Reporting foreign news was less risky than covering domestic affairs. Monarchs and the dynastic orders prevented news and information about their affairs reaching the public. Printers had their ears and nose cut off for breaking the law and some were put to death. Foreign news became easier to gather with the expansion of postal services and transport systems. Subtitle: the early foreign news gatherers Anthony Smiths locates the antecedents of foreign correspondence in the world of exploration. Each unit of information filled the uncertainty about the nature of the world that existed outside Europe. The acquisition of information could lead to power and wealth, and information gathering was an element in economic and industrial exploitation. Information is the basic product of journalism and the journalist is a trader. News is a commodity bought and sold around the world, and the emergence of international journalism and reporting should be seen as part of international trade. The link between trade, adventure and news was apparent in Europe’s first newspapers. The “corantos” that emerged in the 1620s were almost exclusively devoted to foreign news. The first coranto was published in England, it was entitled “corante, or weekly news from Italy, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, France and the Low Countries”. Domestic news was absent. The dependence on foreign news is usually attributed to the rigorous system of licensing and censorship which prevented any publications of domestic news. Ealy English and French corantos were published in Amsterdam, a cosmopolitan city, one of the main trading and shipping ports of Europe, and its coranto publishers acquired their news from merchants, traders and seafarers who brought stories from Europe, America, Africa and Asia. They were responding to strong public demand for information about events in Europe, which was engulfed in the Thirty Years War. The most required news was about wars, commotions and troubles or the composing of them. The pressure of filling pages regularly was assisted by the availability of material that could be translated from foreign journals and publications and the world of news at this time was dominated by plagiarism of stories, as printed reprinted material from rival publications. The gradual weakening of licensing and censorship led to the growth of domestic news but foreign news remained the main feature of the newspapers in most parts of western Europe well into the 18th^ century. Much of this news was phantasmagoria. Fear of the unknown, of unexplored lands and peoples led to tales of monsters, make believe and mystery. Sensational, hyperbolic language was used to describe the creatures, peoples and places found in the unexplored world. Terms such as “frightful, horrible, marvellous” were prefix to the monsters mentioned while the men who sallied forth into the unknown were gallant and mightie. Because much of this material was gathered by seafarers, who regaled the customers of taverns and alehouses, it was unreliable. Those involved in business required reliable news from afar and sought to establish their own collection system of written news. They set up private postal networks whereby local agents acted as correspondents, sending news in handwritten letter form to their employers. The most advanced networks were established by financiers, the Fuggers of Augsburg and the Rothchilds of London, in the second half of the 16th^ century. News was essential to financial dealings and early intelligence was required. These newletters contained news of battles, disasters, plots, miracles, royal births, deaths, marriages, executions etc. This system of news gathering was private. Private networks of correspondents has existed since the late middle age sending military, diplomatic and ecclesiastical information across Europe. Church and monarchs obtained the information they wanted to pursue their affairs. Diplomacy was an essential part of international relations. Rules and regulations were developed in order that governments could talk to each other (embassies and ambassadors became sources of information). Much of the news concerned political, religious and financial matters and events. Kings, prelates, bankers were the only actors in the medieval and early modern period that had resources, money and manpower to gather and transport news on a regular basis across dangerous and difficult roads and routes of those times. Newssheets and newspapers of Restoration Britain relied heavily on overseas newspapers for their foreign news. They concealed their sources by using phrases such as “they reported from Vienna”, “we have advice from Turin”. It was with the emergence of daily newspapers that the resources of foreign news began to be made transparent to readers ex. The daily courant, 1702. Foreign stories taken from continental newspapers originated from official sources , diplomatic communiqués, war news from officers and commanders or the official government newspaper, ex. The London gazette. These accounts were always either dubious or bland. They were published long after events occurred.
between the agencies and provided each with a virtual monopoly of news in their territories. Other agencies had to fit into this cartel and much resentment was caused, particularly among the American agencies, which were not treated as equals. Associated press (AP) and United Press (UP) were marginalised. From the 1870s forward the cartel members proceeded to wire the world by becoming involved in the companies that developed much of the world’s cable system. The cartel exercised hegemony over international news between the 1870s and 1917. The internationalisation of news and journalism accompanied the expansion of commerce and the development of empire in the late nineteenth century. International communication was an integral component of sustaining imperialism and capitalism. The communication networks developed between 1870 and the First World War served the political, military and commercial interests of colonial powers. The transport infrastructure inside the colonies connected the economically profitable parts of the country to the coastal ports. All routes led to the sea and facilitated trading. The international information order was monopolised by the interests of European traders, businessmen and colonial administrators and the nature of foreign news reflected this bias. The cartel extended its influence ad the telegraph and the undersea cable stretched further around the world. The spread of the INAs was accomplished by a series of arrangements made with national agencies. The expansion of the telegraph from the 1850s was designated a matter of national security and multilateral agreements were made to facilitate telegraphic connections. The international telegraph union (ITU) was founded in 1865 with the aim of regulating the network in order to prevent the transmission of private telegrams. The cable system was developed primarily under private finance although the colonial governments were involved in providing subsides and facilitating mapping and navigation. Companies had to gain license from government to bring cables ashore. The potentially ruinous cost of laying cables and the political difficulties that could arise led these companies to cooperate with one another, across national borders (a complex series of monopolies and carte, arrangements). British companies came to dominate the manufacture and by 1900 they owned 2/3 of the world’s cables (so control over the transmission of information). The telegraph and cable enable governments to communicate directly with their colonies. This facilitated a rapid execution of colonial policy and ensured that local administrators were placed more fully under the direct control of the imperial power. INAs became assiduous users of the cable network. Britain’s major colony, India, became a central component of the Reuters international news network. The agency dominated the news going in and out of India as well as supplying commercial information and private telegrams. Much of this news focused on keeping settler communities aware of events in their home countries as well as ensuring that the home countries were in touch with the men and women who left their shores to serve in the colonies. Subtitle: settler press The migration of Europeans had major implications for the societies in which they developed. The social and cultural institutions of the home country were replicated inside the colonies. The settlers established their own newspapers, which served the interests of the European community as well as the native elites. They were clients of the INAs and provided many of the correspondents employed by the European press and news agencies to gather information from their part of the world. Most of the early newspapers were started by missionaries or colonial authorities. They were produced in the language of the colonial power and indigenous language newspapers were discouraged or subjected to tight control. The French colonies in Africa up to 1930s forbade anyone but a French citizen from starting a newspaper and the British used the law to prevent the publication of material that would flame an excitable and ignorant populace. The uneven development of the colonial press left a discontinuity in communication between the elite and the masses in many parts of the world. The indigenous elites and the European settlers shared an international news system that provided them with more information of what was going on in Europe than in their own countries. Much of the news of India, Africa and other colonial outputs was gathered in the European capitals from which they were governed. Special correspondents would travel to imperial outposts to familiarise themselves with the situation to cover breaking news events. Long stay bureaux were located in the more important colonies. The maintenance of contact between the settler communities and the “mother country” was a major determinant of international news. The strategic importance of the press was recognised with the establishment of the empire press union (EPU) in 1909. One of its major aims was the expansion of the news service to settler communities and the reduction of costs for telegrams. The EPU became more and more critical of the imperial venture. The dominant theme was a better news service for expatriates. The extent that the hold had on Fleet street is manifest through the launch of a Sunday newspaper: the Empire News and the vast number of the leading lights of the industry who were outspoken and enthusiastic supporters of empire. The mass circulation popular newspapers that emerged in the 1890s extended the news of the British empire to a wider readership. The daily mail was the embodiment of the imperial idea. Its owner attempted to infuse “living patriotism” into his newspapers and expanded the number of correspondents to the extent that the daily mail became the largest international news operation in Britain. More human interest stories were produced and colonial warfare was a particular interest. Subtitle: development of agency journalism The first employees of the INAs were not trained journalists. They were agents whose job it was to collect and convey official pronouncements and stock market prices and information. The number of paid, full time correspondents remained small until the 1930s. considerable debate over the adequacy of Reuter’s news service in the 1920s (concerns about the lack of Reuters correspondents to fully cover the world led to accusation of the agency recycling propaganda). As the demand from newspapers for more general news increased, the agency men and women became more professional. The focus on hard news and the essential facts emphasised the importance for speed, immediacy and succinct prose, which required a more professional approach. The compressed style reflected the increase in costs from extra words. Reuters defined a telegram code system that helped to put more information in fewer words. However, the agency’s news service maintained an uneasy relationship with the commercial operation conducted by the company. Money making activities such as Reuters bank and its advertising operations were seen as potentially damaging the quality, reliability and objectivity of the agency’s news operation. Reuters’ reputation for objectivity was
crucial to the success of his business and the 190/1930s represented a nadir in his fortune. Reuters’ journalism was accused of appointing employees with the right background rather than the appropriate professional skills. Criticism centred on the agency often being late with the news. Reuters was accused of infusing his news with propaganda as it was a British news agency, presenting British news and closely associated with the British government. The setting of the sun in Britain’s colonial enterprise has enabled the agency to gradually distance itself from the British state. Subtitle: demise of the cartel The operation of the cartel was never smooth or financially successful. On several occasions, they tried to take over their rivals. It was a series of changes in international politics that led to the break up of the cartel. Phil Harris identifies three factors that propelled the collapse. First, there was the frustration felt by many national news agencies about the power of the INAs. The dissatisfaction of the national news agency was led by the American agencies, AP and UPA. Kent Cooper, AP’s boss, articulated their dissatisfaction saying that Reuters was the leader of a monopoly of government influenced agencies, deliberately obstructing the free flow of international news and misrepresenting America to the world. Similar criticisms were levelled at Havas agencies and newspapers in Latin America, which condemned the French agency for reporting the region as “conquered lands”. Second, the wartime blockade of news from Europe in 1914 provided the American agencies with the opportunity of supplying news to Latin America. The outcome of the war also led to the demise of Wolff as an international agency, leading to its withdrawal from the cartel. The third factor was the rise of America as a world power and the growth of its political and economic interests in the Far East, which provided the foundation for the expansion of the US into that part of the world. The growing damage to the reputation of Reuters cannot be discounted as undermining the cartel. The independence of the company was gradually compromised by its close ties with the British government. This was manifest in Reuters managing director: Roderick Jones, who started working for Reuters in South Africa. He was a close confident of the leading politicians, his main source of information. Jones defined impartiality within the context of serving the British empire. The limit to Reuters’ objectivity was seen in its reporting of Britain’s colonial wars. Defeats were reported as victories and the British cause was always assumed to be right and the troops “ours”. The copy also reflected the attitude of settlers to native populations: the guidelines issued in 1906 to correspondents in the Far East, stressed that the murder of Europeans should be reported while the murder of one of the Chinamon by another under the most atrocious circumstances is invested with little or no interest I European eyes and can therefore be ignored, unless the outrage is of a political nature. The pro British bias of the agency confirmed its critics by Jones’s appointment in 1918 to the post Director of Propaganda for the British ministry of information. The cartel was also undermined by the arrival of the wireless. Cable and telegraph were supplemented and then superseded by radio. The evolution of wireless communication was more rapid and spread more widely. Initially the cable companies sought to cast doubts on Marconi’s transmissions, refusing to retransmit his messages. Wireless provided greater competition for the cable companies and the initial impact of regular wireless services was to reduce the cost of transmitting messages. Price differences soon disappeared as the control of the new media passed into the hands of a small number of companies. These companies sought to manage relationships between cable and wireless interests, establishing an international wireless cartel that indicated its preference for cooperation and collusion rather than competition. This was to lead to the merger of cable ad wireless interest, notably in the Company Cable & Wireless, which formed in 1927. Technological, political and financial challenges led to the demise of the cartel in 1934. The European hegemony of the international news market was effectively over; national news agencies were free to make arrangements with whoever they wanted and the increased competition placed Havas and Reuters in an increasingly precarious financial position. They turned to their government for support, and with the outbreak of the Second World War were incorporated into the state. Colonialism played a considerable role. The roots of the colonial interaction are to be found with the explorers who first left Europe in the late fifteenth century. Their adventures were the beginning of a process of economic, cultural and political subjugation. The colonial experience was not found uniform or homogeneous and it is difficult to generalise as some parts of the world were better able to resist the efforts of the colonial powers to impose control over the lands they penetrated. For most people in the Third World, their first interaction with Europeans was steeped in an experience that devaluated their societies and culture. This was institutionalised in the nineteenth century with the laying down of administrative structures by the European colonial powers. The system of foreign news gathering that developed, especially in the INAs, reflected the values, attitudes and priorities of colonialism. Subtitle: colonial imagery Colonialism shaped the structures and processes that underpin international news gathering. It also shaped how audiences in the West came to perceive and understand the events, peoples and places that existed outside their borders. Early European expansion into Asia, Africa and Latin America was motivated by the stifling conformity of European society in which the church dominated not only what men and women believed but also how they thought, what they thought about and how they behaved. Papal control over the institutions of mental production was nearly complete. The papacy was able to transmit not merely its claims of church leadership but an ideological perspective of the world that legitimated its domination of Christendom, to escape the social claustrophobia, many set sail for the new world. They were never able to totally escape the church. Priests accompanied the early expeditions and the church saw exploration as a means to higher end of the saving the soul of the unbaptised from perdition. The spiritual mission initially fell on barren ground. It was only when the force of arms accompanied the propagation of the gospel that converts were made. Conversion was brought by conquest not conversation. It was under colonialism that the systematic restructuring of non-western world took place, but propaganda was part of the efforts of the European invaders to subjugate people in other parts of the world. The urgency to civilise people can only be partly explained
financially when the British press took the 50% in the company. It remained financially unstable during the 50s and 60s and only in the 1974 it returned to profitability. The greatest beneficiaries of the upheavals of the war were the American news agency (AP, and UPI -formerly UPA, formed in 1907 with the intention of challenging AP’s dominance.) both agencies benefited from the growing demand for news from American subscribers in the 1930s. American audiences were interested in the event unfolding in Europe. AP and UPI developed their international news gathering operation in the years prior to the war, developing a fast-breaking style of news coverage, well suited to then report the Second World War. AP built its photographic service which produced vivid pictures of the fighting. UPI’s focus on human interest stories enabled the agency to convey what was happening to audiences in the US and around the world. The French and British focus more on commercial and diplomatic affairs. The extension of the American power facilitated the expansion of their national agencies in Europe and the US occupation of Germany and Japan helped AP and UPI attain an advantage over their rivals in these countries. The extension of American influence was seen by some as a continuation of the imperial agenda of the European nations. It is described by many in the Third world as a neo-colonialism. The history of the INAs up until the 1980s was characterised by the diversification of the output. The “big four” (Reuters, AP, AFP and UPI) experienced financial difficulties in the immediate post-war years. The agencies began to incorporate other kinds of information provision (photographs, radio and television pictures). Television services became an important part of their activities. In the 1970s the international television market, controlled by visnews, which was owned by Reuters, the BBC, the NBC (US network) and the UPITN (partnership between UPI and UK’s ITN) they exercised a duopoly estimated 90% of the trade it was the diversification into the provision of business information and financial data that proved the most significant. The rapid expansion of international trade, business and finance initiated by the post war reconstruction of Europe increased the involvement of the agencies in the supply of information and data. Reuters was at the forefront of the shift into economic services. In the 1960s such services provided between 30 and 50% of the agency’s revenues. By the 1980s this had increased to 80% and 95% in 1997. However, it was a period of turbulence within the organisation. For the first 120 years the agency had become synonymous with general news abroad. This is a slight misnomer as economic and financial information has always been part of the news agency business. Reuters trade services were heavily invested in at the end of the 1960s. the changes in the 1980s represented a shift in the balance of power within Reuters from the general news towards the economic services. Two divisions within the agency, general news and economic services were merged with an impact on news priorities and writing styles. The INAs are the largest employers of foreign correspondents. Retrenchment has seen a decline in their capacity to gather their own news abroad; the outcome would produce bizarre situations, for example, it was revealed in 1978 that BBC correspondent Ian Mills covered the Zimbabwe under a variety of names for several international outlets. The western base INAs were joined during the cold war by the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) created in 1926. TASS was not considered an INA. There was no clear dividing line between what it did as a news agency and as a department of government, and it did not operate commercially, providing news free of charges. TASS served as a mouthpiece of the soviet government and the communist party, controlling the supply of foreign news and out of the countries of the Eastern bloc, mostly providing a positive picture of the events. The role of the TASS and Xinhua (China’s agency) during the cold war was important. They were the only source of information in the societies of the communist bloc and their services were subscribed to by many of the Third World countries as an antidote to what they regarded the partiality of western news. TASS’s influence was tied to the power of the USSR and its collapse brought to the end of the TASS. Xinhua continues to play an important role with the growth of China ad a major player in the international economy. Set up in 1931 , the agency acted as a voice for the communist party. Its employees still enjoy diplomatic immunity and the agency receives subsides from the government. Since the decision of China in 1978 to develop a free market economy Xinhua has increased its output and provided more credible and reliable news. Subtitle: INAs in the satellite age The 190ss marked another stage in the evolution of international news gathering with de-regulation, technological change, political revolution and the influence of the NWICO debate. Two factors were particularly important: the increasingly competitive market for international news and the growth of satellite broadcasting. Satellite links have enabled television to embrace the globe today. From the early 1960s, communication satellites such as Telstar and Earlybird beamed pictures and sound around the world irrespective of land, sea and terrain. With the liberalisation of the global satellite infrastructure in the 1900s many countries launched communication satellites. The growth of satellite broadcasting brought a new dimension to international news and was epitomised by CNN. Global TV pictures and sound first became important in the late 1980s. CNN started as a cable TV station in Atlanta and grew into the world’s major news providers in the 1990s. the advent of new technology and the de-regulation of the broadcasting industry propelled it to prominence. It took advantage of the satellite technology to “blank the world” through a mixture of satellite networks. The Gulf War in 1991 affirmed its position as a major supplier of international news. CNN pioneered the use of the new media technology such as portable satellite newsgathering equipment, cellular phones and miniature cameras to bring instant and immediate coverage of breaking news events such as the Tiananmen Square and the collapse of the Berlin Wall. CNN placed considerable pressure on established broadcasters to adapt their coverage as well as encouraging the entry of other players into the global news game. BBC world service television appeared in 1994. These two have been joined by several other television broadcasters during the years. The growth of these stations was triggered by increasing dissatisfaction with CNN American perspective, particularly from the Middle East. The most significant station to emerge was Al Jazeera. It was set up to provide an Arab perspective on world events. Based in Qatar, Al Jazeera employed reporters who had worked on the BBC Arab Service before its closure. Broadcasting in English and Arab, it was able to challenge the western news agencies and international broadcasters as a source of news and information following 9/11. During the wars in Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2001, Al Jazeera attracted a global audience but raised strong
hostility by western governments when they started broadcasting images and opinions that challenged western interpretations and understanding of the situation in the Arab and Muslim world. Hostility turned to outright hatred when they published the tapes from Osama Bin Laden. However, it’s growing importance in international news was emphasised by the increasing number of western leaders, politicians, officials and spokespersons who appeared on the channel. Al Jazeera capacity to envision the emerging world order differently, challenging dominant western interpretations of world affairs and the hegemony of the western media, has been a significant development in the international news environment. Changes in broadcasting technology had an impact on the international television agencies. Visnews and UPITN went trough considerable changes. Ruters acquired visnews completely and it became Reuters TV in 1992 while UPITN turned into WTN which came under the control of Disney in 1994 and then APTV. Reuters and APTN supply most of the international news footage to broadcasters around the world, including BBC and CNN. The European broadcasting Union (EBU) and CNN provide international news. The EBU operates a satellite news exchange distributing material from Europe’s public service broadcasters but allows commercial broadcasters associate membership and CNN sells its output to national broadcasters. Changes in the news footage market were accompanied by the increasing burden of technology. Upgrading computing systems, introducing digital services and developing online news provision is a costly business which eventually had a profound impact on the operation of one of the INAs- UPI. The world’s largest privately owned news service faced mounting losses. Declared bankrupt in 1992 it was bought by Saudi Arabian interests. The ownership passed into the hands of News World communications, whose most significant media outlet is the conservative Washington Times. These changes of ownership and continuing financial problems undermined the agency’s credibility. Today the “big three” of Reuters, AP and AFP dominate international news. They operate in a world in which the provision of news and information has become less stable and more competitive. Business news and financial information have witnessed ta proliferation of global players, including financial news TV channels such as CNBC, operated by NBC and the European business Network, AP_DJ economic news service and Bloomberg, a worldwide financial information network set up in 1981 that has expanded into a news service for newspapers, radio and TV stations around the world. Changes are also taking place at national level; national news are experiencing considerable problems. The post war years witnessed a huge growth in national news agencies. These agencies struggled to survive. Many national agencies closed. Cutbacks have taken place int eh agencies of the newly free countries of Eastern and central Europe. National agencies are encountering considerable difficulties in the highly competitive environment which has emerged in media markets across the world in the last decade or so. Some agencies such as Germany’s Deutsche Press-Agentur (DPA), Spain’s EFE and Japan’s Kyodo are establishing a significant international presence. However, most are in decline. The growing weakness of national news agencies, the increasing concentration of international news and the more competition within the news and information business created a very unstable environment for international journalism as it entered the 21st^ century. Subtitle: market for international news International agencies are increasingly commercial entities. They exist to make a profit. Government subsides have dwindled and competition has intensified. This has led to the “Bottom-line” playing an ever important part in their operation. The failure to take account of the market can have dire consequences. Uncertainty is a consequence of the changing market for international news and, in particular, in the primary characteristics that shape how the major newsgathering organisations operate: concentration of ownership, rising costs, increased competition and the commodification of international news. Traditionally the INAs have dominated the wholesale market. Between them the “Big Three” are calculated to have a virtual monopoly over the flow of international news reports and photographs. They also exercise a similar hold over television news. Reuters TV and APTN dominate the market. The increased competition for political news from television operators such as CNN; Sky, MSNBC and the challenge from Bloomberg in the supply of financial news have undermined the hold of these companies. The world news media depends less today on the international agencies but they are still major players in the international news market. News is increasingly a business and the fact that the international market for news has traditionally been dominated by western media organisations has a number of important consequences. Primarily, international news agencies seek to make money. Reliance on government subsides has always been part of their history. There are differences between the “Big Three” in the way they are constituted which places different pressures on them. Reuters became a public limited company in 1984 when it was floated on New York and London Stock Exchanges. This tied the organisation closely to the market, integrating it more firmly into the world of business and commerce. The economic downturn in 1987 saw the company lose 50% of its share value but the growing demand for information helped it recover. AP remained a “news co-operative” owned by more than 1500 newspapers. The growing crisis within the US newspaper industry is putting pressure on the arrangement. AFP has introduced news services and new media provision, specialising in a sports service with the objective of developing it as the equivalent to Reuters economic service and establishing a renewed international photographic service. The agencies have always striven to be the first with the news. “the difference between success and failure in measured in minutes”. Being first and being fast determine the coverage and with the wire services the clients judgment of the product is based on the ability to react swiftly and to cover the story immediately. In time of sensitive business, the TV networks prefer part of the story by their main deadline than the whole story 5 minutes after it. Deadlines dominate the work of news agencies and wire services and provide the basic organisational context within which foreign correspondents operate. “News is a tradable commodity”. It is bought and sold in the marketplace and what is reported is determined by the demands of those who are the main purchasers of international news. Giving customers what they want is crucial. The customers who dominate the market for international news are western media organisations and western conglomerates and companies. They spend the most on
critical stories. Internet portals such as google, yahoo and MSN are becoming the most favoured sources of news. Their speed and instantaneous quality attract younger consumers. Large news providers have been joined by smaller, independent news sites such as Indymedia and OhMyNews Large news providers have been joined by smaller, independent news sites such as Indymedia and OhMyNews. They are seen as pioneers of “citizen journalism”. Indymedia has its roots in the anti-globalisation protests and demonstrations in the late 1990s, culminating in the siege of Seattle in 1999. A number of activists organisations joined together to provide their own news of these demonstrations, criticising mainstream coverage for its focus on violence and confrontation. With the slogan “don’t hate the media, by the media” hundreds of volunteers armed with the latest recording technology provided their own view from the streets. There were around 1.5 million hits in the first week. A network of 150 independent media centres in 45 countries grew up, operated by volunteers focusing on honesty, accuracy and thoroughness determine the broad parameters within which news stories are posted. The authorities in several countries including the UK have commandeered several servers and Google threatened to remove IMCs from their search engines. Ohmynews emerged from a similar set of circumstances, as an antidote to conservative mainstream journalism but in South Korea, the most wired society in the world. Launched in 2000 it encourages ordinary citizens to participate in the production of news. Ohmynews international came on-stream in 2004. Funded by donations and advertising the site is financially profitable and has gained an international reputation for investigating the reporting. Its hybrid operation combining commercial practices and progressive politics has led to some questioning of the venture. The most significant change is often seen as the rise of individual websites and blogs and other forms of user-generated content (UGC). So called citizen journalists- often simply ordinary men and women who are caught up in events-have been the source of images and video on many major stories such as the 2004 tsunami, the 2005 London Underground terrorist attack and the 2007 execution of Saddam Hussein. In some parts of the world bloggers and mobile phones play a vital role in informing the world of what is happening compensating for the restrictions placed on the mainstream news media. The recent ban placed on the western media from entering Zimbabwe by president Mugabe meant that bloggers and mobile phoners became a crucial source of information for the world’s news organisations. They also meant that Tv crews were able to enter the country clandestinely. Blogging and mobile telephony provide personal insights into political events and crises but also satisfy the need for breaking news and event oriented news. The news agencies no longer have a choke-hold on the flow of information. Reuters, AP, AFP are changing the relationship with the public. The business is no longer only about clients: individuals matter as they act as sources of breaking news. Using the internet as a source of information is a challenge. Care has to be taken over the credibility and reliability of what is posted. In 2006 pictures used by Reuters during its coverage of the Israeli incursion into Lebanon were found to have been digitally manipulated. The episode threatened to compromise the trust clients place in the agency, a vital component. The photographer involved was dismissed. The agency also distanced itself from external sources. Reuters opened a bureau in Second Life in 2007 while Youtube has a allowed a variety of individuals and organisations to post video clips. Wikinews is an offshoot of Wikipedia, the highly successful online communal encyclopaedia launched in 2001. Wikinews allows individual access to the net to post and edit news content on its site without prior authorisation or registration. Launched in 2004 it produces news which is of local, national and global interest by a process of collaboration. Users are able to edit, change and amend articles up to a certain time and within guidelines set down by wikinews. The commitment to open content produced a fresh approach to journalism. Wikinews believes everyone can make a useful contribution to painting the big picture of what is happening in the world around us. The promise of a non-hierarchical collaborative news production cycle is seen as an improvement to the traditional sense of journalistic objectivity instead of a single unbiased objective point of view. The site claims that its contributors collectively produce a fair representation of all view points. Critics point out that not in everyone can contribute to painting the big picture. A large number of people in the developing worlds cannot access the internet and therefore cannot contribute to the editorial process on wikinews. The internet allows the capacity to personalise the type of international news by religion. Internet users can be much more precise about the international news that they want to consume. MSNBC’s site allows consumers to personalise the type of international news by region while the New York Times news tracker lets people create a subject or keyboard-based filter alerting them when an article is published with those words. Yahoo added local news for logged-in users and Google news features articles on its site selected by a robotic editorial program that troll the web, picking out the most frequently repeated stories and angles- the concerns are that already a monopolise our attention. Subtitle: impact on the internet The impact of technology is still a matter of conjecture-rapid technology change makes it difficult to access clearly what is happening. Many scholars and commentators hold high hopes that the new technology is having a beneficial impact on international news gathering. At one level, they may offer one of the best solutions to the dwindling foreign reporting by traditional media. The arrival of news kinds of foreign correspondents- the man or the woman who reports local news for local media but who can be accessed over the internet users in many countries, the reporter who covers foreign affairs without leaving, the blogger cruising information super highway- promises to offset the decline in the professional foreign correspondent. The new technology means an infinite news hole, allowing the possibility of more international news and coverage of those parts of the world traditionally neglected. New content producers can eschew the negative news values that pervade the coverage of international news and provide different forms of representation. Michael Palmer draws attention to the way in which the changing practices of international news agencies have had an impact on the notion of what news is. Attempts to make news formats compatible in the age of the internet and hypertext mark-up languages has led to a significant reclassification of news. Classifying material to ensure that the news purveyors and end users can readily exchange material has been a feature of international news since the 1880s. ensuring that computer-to-computer data transfer can be exchanged has led to systems such as the News Industry Text Format (NIFT) which divides up news, information leads customising or tailoring news to individual consumers. Demand for shorter news packages. Traders hedge fund managers and other members of the financial community require basic information. Preferring
headlines that let them make decisions about whether to buy or sell. Moving market news should be headlined in more that 40 or 50 characters. The change has to be kept in perspective. The internet has not led to the reduction f the inequalities in the international news system identified by the McBride report. Much of the internet is primarily English and US based. In 2004 50% of the global internet usage was accounted for by the US with Europe taking up a further 25%. Despite the increase in the presence of technology in many parts of the world, China, South Korea and Brazil are among the top 10 countries with the highest internet use, a notable digital divide exists. In many of Africa, Asia and Latin America millions of people do not have access to the old media, let alone the new media. The new media have been commandeered by the forces of global inequality which have carved the communications architecture of the past century. Consumption of the internet is confined to elites. The point of access to the internet are still very much local, subject to the influences of a host of external factors that are rooted in the interplay between the state, the market and the media. Where users can be able to go into cyberspace. What they are allowed to see is subject to national political constraints. Commercial and financial factors determine the links that new websites offer; media organisations are driven by the logic of market to keep users of their news sites in the same domain. Encouraging users to go to foreign websites, to jump from country to country is a potential threat to their business. Most websites are disinclined to make overseas websites available and accessible in their reporting of foreign news stories and unless users actively search out related online stories they are denied the opportunity to learn more about the countries involved or read different perspectives of the same stories. Research shows that UK and US dominate the links made to foreign countries. INAs became major players in the internet news market, supplying ideally suited digital content to portal aggregators, star-up news websites and traditional news vendors looking to strengthen their online presence. The structural dependency of the web on the established newsgathering system means that the potential offered by the internet is not necessarily easily realisable in practice. Subtitle: global media ownership International news organisations have become part of large media conglomerates which are extending their reach, power and influence over media markets across the world. CNN was incorporated into the Time -Warner conglomerate in 1995. Time Warner is typical of the large global firms that dominate international communication. In 2000 it merged with America Online (AOL) to become the world’s largest media firm. This lasted until 2009 when the entity broke up. Other large global media conglomerates include Sony, Viacom, Disney, NBC Universal, Bertelsmann and the News Corporation, and recently Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Most of the world’s leading sources of the news and information are part of corporate fiefdoms. General Electric owns NBC, Disney owns Fox and time Warner owns CNN. Journalists are increasingly employed by a smaller and smaller number of ever larger organisations. Most of the world’s multimedia corporations are American owned. In 2006 News Corporations purchased MySpace, indicating the ever increasingly importance these companies have. The need to expand is essential to remain competitive, which means that the growth of these companies Is often at the expense of local or indigenous media. Their relentless search for new markets and new consumers to attain an acceptable rate of return on their increasingly large investments in new media is the impetus that drives there on. These corporations present themselves as supranatural entities. However, of the nine, five are US firms and the others have core operations in the US. Many see them as promoting commercial at the expense of public service values, emphasising profit over service and encouraging US ways of business and media practice, including a US style of journalism. At a regional level a similar trend can be observed as a smaller number companies emerge as market leaders. Brazil’s TV Gobo and Mexico’s Televisa are example of second tier companies grown in collaboration with the major players, often adopting values and approach. Fewer players means decline in diversity. News organisations have undergone a transformation in their operating practices ad well as the product they deliver. The growth of these conglomerates has been at the expense of the public service media whose decline has major implications for the production of foreign news. Commercial broadcasters do not reflect the social commitments that characterise the public service media, and with foreign news perceived as low down in the interests of audiences they have cut back on their provision of international news. There has been a drop in political, government and policy related news at the expense of life style, celebrity and sport and human interest stories. Between 1977 and 1997 celebrity scandal, gossip and similar stories increased from 15 to 43% of total coverage. To make profits the boundaries between news and entertainment are becoming more blurred. By 2007 Reuters Television provided sports and showbiz news in addition to their general news and financial information services. “murdochisation” od these media has increased the pressure on correspondents to produce different kinds of news stories and more entertainment oriented stories. It is in this context that the growth of alternative news agencies seeking to educate citizens about international affairs would be understood. subtitle: alternative news agencies since the NWICO debates of 1970s and early 1980s a number of alterative news agencies have been established with a commitment to serving those parts of the world under-reported by the INAs. These agencies have not received the scholarly attention they deserve. They have sought to provide audiences with a different way of understanding global events. The most successful ha been the Inter Press Service (IPS), which started in 1964 as an information bridge between Christian democratic political parties in Europe and Latin America. It was formed as a cooperative of primarily Latin America journalists and, with the growth of the Non-Aligned movement, the focus of the agency was on developing news and information exchange between Third World countries in order to assist the development process. The focus on cooperation between the countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa inevitably linked the agency with calls for NWICO ad as the debate between the East and the Third World intensified it expanded into the largest international agency specialising in Third world news. IPS was committed to providing in depth stories about the fundamental issues of the day. It rejected the focus on breaking news and the entertainment of the INAs, whose coverage careers from crisis to crisis, disaster to disaster, scandal to scandal. It focuses on human rights and democracy,
The long term decline is attributed to a variety of economic factors. Subjecting broadcasting to market forces is seen as a decisive moment. Prior to deregulation in the late 1980s and early 1990s stations were required to do a certain amount of public broadcasting and international news was classified under that banner. International news benefited from such obligations and with the scrapping of these regulation it was no longer seen as profitable to cover foreign events in as much detail. Growing competition brought about by the expansion of channels and outlets led to cost cutting and news bureaus across the world were closed. The disappearance of foreign correspondence is also attributed to a decline interest in international news. Given the central role attributed to the reader, viewer or listener there is limited research into audience knowledge of and interest in international affairs. Much of the research done relates to US listeners, viewers and readers. Americans are notorious for their ignorance of geography so it is possible to argue that American consumers as an international audience are atypical. Studies on public knowledge of foreign affairs shows that Americans had the least knowledge. Some of this research draws attention to a gap between journalists’ expectations of their audience and the actual interest and engagement of ordinary people with international news. US journalists used to believe that only 5% of the audience was interested in foreign news but the actual percentage was 41%. Contrary to what it is generally believed, there isn’t a greater demand of international news on the internet compared to television. Research shows that the level of interest in news on the internet is generally lower than in the traditional media. Even in a world we describe as “global” that are hundreds of millions of people, primarily in Asia, Africa and Latin America, who have little or no contact with the media. Not every commentator sees foreign correspondents as a vanishing species, preferring to describe what is happening in terms of a transformation in the nature of foreign correspondence. New technology is seen as compensating for declining numbers by producing new kinds of international news gatherers. The types of journalists who gather international news are changing. The ability to download foreign news is seen as representing a fundamental shift in the balance of power. Subtitle: the background of foreign correspondents Boyd Barrett identified three types of foreign correspondent:
- Staff correspondent: based abroad, works exclusively for a single news organisation
- General reporters: sometimes flown out to cover major news stories abroad
- Stringers: fall into 2 categories: a. Those who have a special relationship with one or two news organisations which pay them a fee to retain their services and are the most regular users of their copy b. Those paid on the number of lines issued, generally, serving their stories to those willing to pay The majority of men and women employed as foreign correspondents have roots in or close ties with western countries. Nearly three quarters of the bureau chiefs of the major agencies were westerners, primarily North American, British, Europeans, Australians or South Africans. Western news organisations rely on western correspondents to file stories because they ant the story reported through the lens of western interest. Men are disproportionately represented (although the number of women in increasing). Women tend to be stringers. Stringers are cheaper to employ. They are often young and in an environment where costs are important for decision taking. Many young and inexperienced reporters tend to travel to dangerous places independently to establish their reputation, earning a living by working piecemeal. these people are often dismissed as “flingers”, they are usually embarking on short-term adventure rather than a career in journalism. They have been criticised by full-time correspondents for endangering the credibility and lives of the professionals. The lure of the danger has figured prominently among the reasons why correspondents say they are attracted to the job. They are fascinated by violence and danger and especially photographers and camera workers have been particularly attracted to capturing the most riveting moments. One of the traditional characteristics of the long stay correspondents is the independence they are supposed to have from the home office and the organisational imperatives, the freedom to make their own decisions and follow their instinct. The relationship with the home office is often that of a “cat-mouse” (tenuous and distant): accepting their editors authority while playing limited attention to their directives. Today, new technology has further enslaved men and women to the home office. The editorial gatekeepers exert considerably more influence over determining what the story is about. The news desk often dictates the story to the correspondent, limiting the correspondent’s ability to input his or her on-the-spot knowledge. In broadcasting, the script of the reporter in the field is often vetted by the home office to ensure it conforms to the editorial line of the day. Subtitle: specialist knowledge The specialist knowledge associated with the long stay foreign correspondent appears to be valued less and less by the news organisations. Today, many foreign correspondents have little to no knowledge or skills related to the area or region to which they are assigned and they aren’t totally prepared for the assignment. An example can be the linguistic factor. For many editors and reporters, speaking the local language can be problematic. Such is the strength and commitment to the notion of objectivity that speaking local language could impair the ability to take a balanced view. The strange attuite that any learning or knowledge could weaken the objectivity was manifest among the ranks of the reporters who went to Vietnam, that knew absolutely nothing as they didn’t want to “clutter up their minds”. Such professional prejudices do not detract from the capabilities and competence of many long stay correspondents in reporting their patch of the world. Assessment of the quality of the coverage of the Middle East in general and the Iranian Revolution of the late 1980 in particular compares favourably the reporting of specialist correspondents with that of generalist reporters who dropped in to report breaking events. It is contrasted that the Iranian coverage provided by itinerant correspondents moving between countries in relatively short
periods and whose stay in Iran lasted less than a year, with the long term specialist reporters such as Eric Rouleau of Le Monde and David Hirst of Manchester Guardian who spoke the local language and had a 50 years experience of covering the country. Rapid rotation has become a feature of the way In which western news organisations deal with the foreign assignments. He or she is supposed to represent the audience they are reporting for, which usually means in foreign coverage an audience that is often unaware. Speaking to them is as important, if not more, than getting the story right. Newspapers men and women are expected to work on several stories simultaneously and often drop everything to respond to a breaking story. The generalist approach is defended by many in the profession; generalists are able to represent more effectively their audience, seeing the world through their eyes, which specialist knowledge might impede. However, such an approach coincides with the profit making objective of the media. Specialists cost money and training correspondents to become experts is a costly and time-consuming activity. Subtitle: the foreign beat Foreign correspondents are responsible for reporting vast areas that are characterised by a diversity of countries, cultures, peoples and languages, political and social systems. The geographical distance that correspondents have to cover is daunting in places like Africa. During the 1980s most American and European TV news channels covered Africa from Johannesburg, in South Africa. Not only was this geographically remote, but it was also the only African country run by whites only. Journalists were mostly upper middle class whites, isolated from South Africa’s majority due to class, cultural, economic, racial and political factors. Living in separate housing, immersed In white people society and unable to converse with black people. They were subjected to the procedures of assimilation. Those who resisted were “ostracised” and US editors seemed unwilling to post black journalists in South Africa. Restrictions on reporting are not only a matter of geography and distance. They are also a product of culture, class, colour, consciousness which are harder to detect. Most foreign correspondents are based in capital cities, mainly for practical reasons. They offer the comforts most correspondents need and supply them with what they need to keep their editors happy. London is the main hub of information for the UK, with a thriving media and communication industry, a government machine which pups out the press releases, organises regular briefings and provide sheaves of official handouts and documentation. Not all foreign correspondents are equal. Some are more important and influential than others. Some places are most important: London, New York and Washington, Rome, Paris and Brussels. Other bureaus vary in importance according to events. Johannesburg was a major centre during the years of apartheid but with the demise of the racist system interests declined. Jerusalem is still the centre of one of the world’s longest-lasting conflicts. The hierarchy also differentiates in terms of status of the news organisation. The A team is usually consisting of staff reporters for outlets such as international news agencies and tv news channels. These reporters would get additional, intimate, briefings from the embassy. They were trusted and part of an ongoing relationship based on the exchange of information. Freelancers and stringers make up the B team. They are treated with suspicion, primarily because they have to sell their stories. The power to define the newsworthiness of a story is in the hands of bureau chiefs and star reporters, a decision by these journalists about which events to attend often influences the stringers reporting schedules. Subtitle: the daily grind The daily grind revolves around deadlines. The limitations of time within Tv news bulletins have traditionally worked against the efforts of correspondents to provide a comprehensive picture of world events. Foreign correspondents have always been required to provide a regular flow of news and information to their home offices and logistical considerations have always figured prominently in their daily routines. New technology has also created its logistical headaches. Reporters rely on emails and computers. They operate In the most difficult areas but are unable to repair their computers in case they break. Computers haven’t made correspondents’ lives any easier but simply tied them down in different ways. Technology can become a handicap to witnessing the unfolding news stories. The demand of time and technology have been most heavily felt by agency reporters and television crews. Speed is of the essence in the dissemination of financial information when a few seconds can mean a loss of millions of dollars for a client. The acute pressure of deadlines have meant that these reporters tend to have less autonomy in developing their own stories and more dependence the home office for their agenda. The pressure of time is by far the greatest in television. In addition to uncovering the story, they have to organise the pictures and illustrate the story as well as overcome the technical and logistical difficulties of getting the pictures home. With 24h news channels the pressure has increased. Second World War correspondents could spend up a to a week preparing their coverage of events. At times of crisis the pressure would mount and elections or disasters could lead to a larger number of dispatches in a relatively short time. Today, immediacy is everything. Correspondence are worried about the effects of this on the quality of their reporting: “you don’t have a chance to think about what you are doing that much before they throw you on live to talk about it”. The result of this time and deadline-dominated culture is that the correspondent has less time to find thing out. The increased dependency on the internet for information will cause journalists to spend more of their time behind a computer screen instead of getting out of the office to properly report stories. Print correspondents are allowed to take a more subjective and analytical viewpoint and have greater length in which to explain opposing outlooks and to expound on what might be considered gratuitous criticism if stated briefly. Technological change has had the greatest impact and the most pressure on TV news. with news agency camera crews on the spot, pictures of unfolding disasters or crisis today are being broadcast as the reporter is on her way out to the frontline. Western camera crews are ceasing to dominate as young people in even the poorest countries acquire the skills and scraped up money for professional equipment. Today we have more non-western reporting, covering and supplying news for the western media. “going native” is less of a problem ad the natives take on the role of the reporter. They cost less and travel in buses rather than limos and will not need “fixers” or “translators”. However, the capacity of these non-western correspondents to influence the nature of the reporting is limited. The increased capacity of the home office to exercise surveillance over their men and women in the field ensures a high degree of compliance to the established routines and rules. Subtitle: competing international news gatherers Competition between gatherers of international news has always been apparent. The main competition has been over space and air time. Foreign news at home has been primarily the beat of the diplomatic correspondent although other specialist reporters
