Global news, national news

1
Global news, national news

• Sigurd Allern

2
Globalisation, an old phenomena

• Global capitalism, colonialism and imperialism
  1850-1945
• The invention of the telegraph
• The international news agencies
• The rise of Hollywood influence
• Shortwave radio

3
The old debate media imperialism

• The free flow of information assist the
  American media industry to achieve international
  dominion
• Today the United States exercises mastery of
  global communication and culture (Herbert
  Schiller 1998)
• A small number of transnational media
  corporations, mostly owned or based in the US,
  have emerged as dominant in the expanded media
  export market (McChesney 1998)

4
Counterarguments

• Global flows of information are multidirectional
  (Sreberny-Mohammed 1996).
• Reverse colonialsation (Giddens 1999)
• Many regional centres.
• Cultural resistance

5
Definitions of globalisation (1)

• The concept of globalization implies, first and
  foremost, a stretching of social, political and
  economic activities across frontiers such that
  events, decisions and activities in one region of
  the world can come to have significance for
  individuals and communities in distant regions of
  the globe. In this sense, it embodies
  transregional interconnectedness, the widening
  reach of networks of social activity and power,
  and the possibility of action at a distance.
• David Held et al. Global Transformations.
  Politics, Economics and Culture.

6
Definitions of globalisation (2)

• Globalisation today is only partly
  westernisation. Globalisation is becoming
  increasingly decentred not under the control of
  any group of nations, still less of the large
  corporations. Its effects are felt as much in
  Western countries as elsewhere (Anthony Giddens,
  Observer, April 11 1999)
• A social process in which the constraints of
  geography on social and cultural arrangements
  recede and i which people come increasingly aware
  that they are receding.
• Malcolm Water Globalization, 2001.

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Global communication

• ..the transnational communication systemoffers
  opportunities of news forms of bonding and
  solidarity, new ways of forging international
  communities (Ien Ang,1990)
• Globalization is promoting ethnic, cultural,
  religious, and linguistic diversity within
  nations states
• The local can be global from periphery to
  centre

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Media roles in globalisation

• Channels which make information and communication
  across space and time possible
• Arenas for transnational dialogs, reflections and
  debates
• Actors which can influence political, cultural
  and economic decisions

9
News as an international business

• Merging of print and electronic news providers.
  Online news with text, sound, visuals/video
• Multilanguage editions and regionalisation (Al
  Jazzera, BBC, Financial Times)
• Output specialisation business news, political
  news, soft news for special interest groups
• Alliances between global and national news
  providers

10
The Internet challenge

• The possibility of transnational/global markets
• Integration of news services in the same medium
• The possibility of dialog with users
• Blogs New type of journalism or sources for
  journalism?
• Cell phone photographers

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However, nations are still important

• Communication systems are still in significant
  respect national
• National states are still influential in shaping
  media systems
• The importance of national languages in all
  communication
• National cultures and traditions have not
  withered away

12
National media counts

• Newspapers Mostly national and local concerning
  market base and news culture
• Television radio Mostly national and local.
  The popular notion that most people watch
  American television programs is unsupported by
  evidence (Sinclair al. 1996)
• Online papers Mostly national in reach. However,
  we can read our local online paper when we visit
  another part of the globe.

13
Ownership and content

• Though part of the national press is owned by
  two transnational corporations based in Australia
  and Canada, they publish in fact the most
  nationalistic tabloid and broadsheet titles (Sun
  and Daily Telegraph) in Britain. Global media
  ownership should not be equated with
  internationalism (Curran Leys 2000)

14
Market orientation and news values

• Less international news in national news outlets?
  International affairs accounts for a small and
  declining proportion of its content (Curran/Leys
  2000)
• The framing of the news National angle.
  Domestication of content and sources
• Example national conflicts and interests
  dominate the coverage of the EU in national
  European media
• Transnational publics limited to small elites?

15
The declining independence of the foreign news
desk (Hjarvard)

• Foreign dimension of issues spread to other topic
  areas
• Cooperation between business news and foreign
  news, environmental news and foreign news
• Foreign news is placed in many parts of the
  newspaper
• EU reporting has become both domestic and foreign

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Transnational integration of news (Hjarvard)

• Time
• Syncronization between broadcasters
• Live
• Newsrooms take decisions in sync with other
  newsrooms
• Increased speed of decision making and production
  cycles up-dates, on-line availability
• Space
• Both newsrooms and audiences have access to
  different socio-geographic levels local,
  national, transnational - increased transparency
• Communicative space not congruent with social or
  public political space

17
Contradictory tendencies?

• The Middle East The new television broadcasting
  is binding populations into national audiences
  in a way that no medium has truly done
  before.Television is constructing a public space
  that addresses men and women, old and young,
  educated and poorly educated, urban and rural
• At the same timeaudiences are increasingly able
  to compare lifestyles across the region, which
  do differ markedly, as well as images from the
  US, The UK, and elsewhere (Sreberny 2000)

18
Characteristics of theglobal news system
(Hjarvard)

• Not a unified system, but a multilayered,
  differentiated and only partly interconnected
  system
• Global or transnational news services have
  extensive reach, a certain reputation (brand
  name) and occasional political influence
• National media continue to play the most
  important role in public political discourse
• Both business and technical developments tend to
  integrate actors and services across borders

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Questions/exercise for the seminar

• Go to Al Jazeeras English website
  (english.aljazeera.net) and look at their section
  on global news. To what extent is their global
  news different from other international news
  providers (for instance news.bbc.co or
  www.CNN.com) if at all?
• How is your impression of globalisation of news
  in you own countries national media?