Reporting the World

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Reporting the World

• Who gets to tell the story?

2
A report by Unesco, the United Nations
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation
found that

• Three major news agencies AP, Reuters and AFP
  process and disseminate more than 80 percent of
  the international information that is broadcast
  around the world.

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Associated Press

• Founded in 1848 as a non profit co-operative
  owned by newspapers and news organizations in the
  US.
• Describes itself as the backbone of the world's
  information system. Used by 5,000 radio and
  television stations and 1,700 newspapers in the
  US and 8,500 newspaper, radio and television
  subscribers in 121 other countries.
• 242 total bureaus worldwide, 3,700 editorial,
  communications and administrative employees, puts
  out 20 million words and 1,000 photos a day.
• Stated mission is to provide factual coverage to
  all parts of the globe for use by the media
  around the world.

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Reuters

• Founded in London in 1851 by Jules Reuters to
  distribute financial information.
• Describes itself as the world's largest
  international news and television agency ,with
  2,498 editorial staff, journalists, photographers
  and camera operators in 198 bureaux in 150
  countries.
• Over 8 million words published daily in 26
  languages.
• Reuters is a publicly listed company.Its revenue
  in 2001 was US 5.6 billion.
• Editorial policies based on independence,
  integrity and freedom from bias.

5
Agence Francaise Presse

• Founded in 1835 in France by Charles- Louis Havas
  as Agence Havas, described as the first
  worldwide news agency.
• After the German occupation of France in World
  War 2, Agence Havas shuts down, and is
  re-launched outside occupied France as the Agence
  Francaise de Presse. The French government is a
  major shareholder, and to this day retains a
  stake of slightly under 50 percent.
• Provides services in six languages French,
  English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic.
• More than 2,000 staff, including 900 outside
  France, producing 400,000 to 600,000 words a day,
  700 photographs and 50 news graphics.
• Guarantees its clients total objectivity,
  editorial quality and reliability.

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Does it really make a difference where we get our
news from as long as it is accurate, fair and
balanced ?
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Who we are determines what we see

• Like the maps we have just explored, news too is
  a cultural production
• What we see before our eyes is determined by
  what we carry between our eyes

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Galtung and Ruges findings on what constitutes
news

• Time scale events with a relatively short time
  span are more likely to be seen as news than
  events that take weeks or months to unfold.
• Scale and intensity the larger the scale of an
  event, the more likely it will be considered
  news.
• Culturally meaningful

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Galtung and Ruge continued

• Continuity once something has hit the headlines,
  it will continue to do so, though perhaps with
  lesser frequency.
• Elite nations/persons These are regarded as more
  newsworthy than non-elite nations and people.

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Attempts to change the flow..

• In the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO, the United
  Nations Educational, Social and Cultural
  Organization, was the scene of a bitter debate
  between developing countries and the west.

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The developing countries felt

• International news organizations had a
  responsibility to report not merely disasters,
  but also other developments in their countries.
• They also felt that international news flows were
  one sided, with more news from the rich countries
  to the poor countries, and less the other way
  around.
• They wanted to develop their own international
  news agencies.

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The US and western media organizations saw these
demands as

• A threat to press freedom, and an attempt by
  developing country governments to dictate what
  the major news organizations should and should
  not report.
• A threat to the commercial interests of western
  news organizations.

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History repeats itself..

• Reuters decided what news was to be sent from
  America. It told the world about Indians on the
  war path in the West, lynchings in the South,
  bizarre crimes in the North. The charge for
  decades was that nothing credible to America was
  ever sent. (Kent Cooper, a former AP General
  Manager)

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Attempts to develop new channels of information
failed in the 1970s and 80sbecause

• Alternate sources tended to be government
  controlled and lacked credibility
• Developing country media companies did not have
  the resources to go global.

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The big media organizations tried to address the
problem by

• Becoming more local, developing local and
  regional content, hiring more local staff.

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But the problem persists