Coverage Of Foreign News By The Us Media

It is impossible to gain a realistic view of events abroad and of what U.S. foreign policy should be unless reliable information is available from the American media. Yet newspapers and television are facing serious difficulties in performing this increasingly important task. The duty to inform often conflicts with criteria of profitability and pleasing the maximum number of readers. The development of more complex international issues, the rise 'Of the Third World, and policy debates at home have all added to the media's burden. Mr. Rubin's overview recounts and analyzes recent successes and problems in foreign news coverage -- Back cover.

This edited collection brings together critical and up-to-date assessments of how mainstream American and British media cover their respective foreign policies, paying special attention to ‘official enemies’. In the age of the internet and social media, the reporting and commentary on world events by mainstream Western media remains tightly bound by the way in which Western governments promote their framing. This book explores the extent to which historical and recent Western media coverage has reflected and continues to reflect the foreign policies of the United States and the United Kingdom towards ten non-Western countries: Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Palestine, Russia, Serbia, Syria, and Vietnam. Chapters analyse media coverage before, during and after war and geo-political and economic conflicts. Drawing from diverse perspectives and methods, including historical analysis, content analysis, critical discourse analysis, and critical linguistics, Journalism and Foreign Policy offers original insight into the Western media’s representation of important global events and developments, as well as the key scholarly issues of propaganda and digital media, across a wide range of recent coverage. This volume is key reading for academics and students in the areas of foreign policy and international politics, international communication, media content analysis, and journalism.

This volume examines U.S. network television coverage of international news based on experiences of the past decade. First, it describes significant patterns and trends in the international affairs content of network news during the decade from 1972-1981, including story formats, visual and audio techniques, and trends in the amount and nature of coverage given to nations and regions of the world. Second, it examines major influences that shape international news content on network television, including satellite technology, electronic newsgathering, and the global distribution of foreign correspondents.

A sobering look at the intimate relationship between political power and the news media, When the Press Fails argues the dependence of reporters on official sources disastrously thwarts coverage of dissenting voices from outside the Beltway. The result is both an indictment of official spin and an urgent call to action that questions why the mainstream press failed to challenge the Bush administration’s arguments for an invasion of Iraq or to illuminate administration policies underlying the Abu Ghraib controversy. Drawing on revealing interviews with Washington insiders and analysis of content from major news outlets, the authors illustrate the media’s unilateral surrender to White House spin whenever oppositional voices elsewhere in government fall silent. Contrasting these grave failures with the refreshingly critical reporting on Hurricane Katrina—a rare event that caught officials off guard, enabling journalists to enter a no-spin zone—When the Press Fails concludes by proposing new practices to reduce reporters’ dependence on power. “The hand-in-glove relationship of the U.S. media with the White House is mercilessly exposed in this determined and disheartening study that repeatedly reveals how the press has toed the official line at those moments when its independence was most needed.”—George Pendle, Financial Times “Bennett, Lawrence, and Livingston are indisputably right about the news media’s dereliction in covering the administration’s campaign to take the nation to war against Iraq.”—Don Wycliff, Chicago Tribune “[This] analysis of the weaknesses of Washington journalism deserves close attention.”—Russell Baker, New York Review of Books

Despite the importance of foreign news, its history, transformation and indeed its future have not been much studied. The scholarly community often calls attention to journalism’s shortcomings covering the world, yet the topic has not been systematically examined across countries or over time. The need to redress this neglect and the desire to assess the impact of new media technologies on the future of journalism – including foreign correspondence – provide the motivation for this stimulating, exciting and thought-provoking book. While the old economic models supporting news have crumbled in the wake of new media technologies, these changes have the potential to bring new and improved ways to inform people of foreign news. In an increasingly globalized era, journalism is being transformed by the effortlessly quick sharing of information across national boundaries. As such, we need to reconsider foreign correspondence and explore where such reporting is headed. This book discusses the current state and future prospects for foreign correspondence across the full range of media platforms, and assesses developments in the reporting of overseas news for audiences, governments and foreign policy in both contemporary and historical settings around the globe. As Emmy Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent Serge Schmemann reminds us in this book, "quality journalism and unbiased reporting are as valid and necessary today as they ever were [...] one of the primary tasks of journalists and scholars as they follow the changes taking place must be to ensure that the ‘new international information order’ now imposed by the Internet remains true to the ideals and traditions that define our journalism." This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Studies.

Ever since the invention of the telegraph, journalists have sought to remove the barriers of time and space. Today, we readily accept that reporters can jet quickly to a distant location and broadcast instantly from a satellite-connected, video-enabled cell phone hanging from their belts. But now that live news coverage is possible from virtually anywhere, is foreign correspondence better? And what are the implications of recent changes in journalistic technology for policy makers and their constituents? In From Pigeons to News Portals, edited by David D. Perlmutter and John Maxwell Hamilton, scholars and journalists survey, probe, and demystify the new foreign correspondence that has emerged from rapidly changing media technology. These distinguished authors challenge long-held beliefs about foreign news coverage, not the least of which is whether, in our interconnected world, such a thing as "foreign news" even exists anymore. Essays explore the ways people have used new media technology -- from satellites and cell phones to the Internet -- to affect content, delivery modes, and amount and style of coverage. They examine the ways in which speedy reporting conflicts with in-depth reporting, the pros and cons of "parachute" journalism, the declining dominance of mainstream media as a source of foreign news, and the implications of this new foreign correspondence for foreign policy. Entertainment media such as film, television, and video gaming form worldwide opinions about America, often in negative ways. Meanwhile, live reporting abroad is both a blessing and curse for foreign policy makers. Because foreign news is so vital to effective policy making and citizenship, we imperil our future by failing to understand the changes technology brings and how we can wrest the best practice out of those changes. This provocative volume offers valuable insights and analyses to help us better understand the evolving state of foreign news.

News media professionals, especially those covering political events or wars, are often accused of distorting the news or presenting biased and superficial analyses. Coverage of the recent conflicts in Central America and the Middle East has been especially controversial. In this volume, which is based on a series of seminars sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, experienced journalists and media critics assess the complaints about coverage and the defenses the media marshall against those complaints. They explore the dilemmas that democratic societies face in trying to preserve traditional freedom of expression while pursuing political goals in ways that may involve the use of force. By analyzing the political impact of television coverage of battlefield scenes and the practical limitations and difficulties under which the media must work, the authors illuminate the powerful role of the media in the shaping of American politics, including diplomatic and military policies.

This volume provides a comprehensive examination of key issues regarding global communication, focusing particularly on international news and strategic communication. It addresses those news factors that influence the newsworthiness of international events, providing a synthesis of both theoretical and practical studies that highlight the complicated nature of the international news selection process. It also deals with international news coverage, presenting research on the cross-national and cross-cultural nature of media coverage of global events, in the interdisciplinary context of research on political communication, war coverage, new technologies and online communication. The work concludes with a focus on global strategic communications: in the age of globalization, global economies and cross-national media ownership, chapters here provide readers with some of the most up-to-date research on international advertising, public relations and other key issues in international communications. With contributions from many of the leading scholars in the field of international media communication research, this collection presents a valuable resource for advancing knowledge and understanding of the complicated international communication phenomenon. It will be of value to upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in mass media and communication programs, and to scholars whose research focuses on global communication research.