Against the backdrop of the world system perspective, the purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to propose a new conceptual approach identifying the determinants that may affect the structure and process of foreign and international news flow and coverage in the global setting, and (b) within this framework, to determine the content (what is covered) and form (how it is covered) of Reuters' coverage of a major world event for a better understanding of why countries become news the way they do. This study argues that all countries are not created equal to be news in international communication. For those countries in the core zone of the world system, their chances of being in the news are higher than those in the semiperipheral and peripheral strata. Nations in the other two zones will have to go through several filters before they make it to the news.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adams, W. C.
(Ed.). (1982). Television coverage of international affairs. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
2.
Barnett, G. A.
, & Choi, Y. (1995). Physical distance and language as determinants of the international telecommunication network. International Political Science Review, 16, 249-265.
3.
Barnett, G. A.
, Jacobson, T. L., Choi, Y., & Sun-Miller, S. L. (1996). An examination of the international telecommunication network. The Journal of International Communication, 3, 19-43.
4.
Barnett, G. A.
, & Salisbury, J.G.T. (1996). Communication and globalization: A longitudinal analysis of the international telecommunication network. Journal of World-Systems Research, 2, 1-17.
5.
Barnett, G. A.
, & Wu, R. Y. (1995). The international student exchange network: 1970 & 1989. Higher Education, 30, 353-368.
6.
Boccardi, L. D.
(1993). Redeploying a global journalistic army. Media Studies Journal, 7, 41-47.
7.
Bollen, K.
(1983). World system position, dependency, and democracy: The cross-national evidence. American Sociological Review, 48, 468-479.
8.
Boyd-Barrett, O.
(1979). Media imperialism: Toward an international framework for the analysis of media systems. In J. Curran, M. Gurevich, & J. Woolacoot (Eds.), Mass communication and society (pp. 116-141). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
9.
Chang, T. K.
, Berg, P., Fung, Y. H., Kedl, K. D., Luther, C. A., & Szuba, J. (1996). Assessing comparative mass communication research, 1970-1994: A sociology of knowledge approach. Paper presented at the Communication Theory and Methodology Division of the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Anaheim, California, August 10-13, 1996.
10.
Chang, T. K.
, Shoemaker, P., & Brendlinger, N. (1987). Determinants of international news coverage in the U.S. media. Communication Research, 14, 396-414.
11.
Chase-Dunn, C.
, & Grimes, P. (1995). World systems analysis. Annual Review of Sociology, 21, 387-417.
12.
Chase-Dunn, C.
, & Hall, T. D. (1993). Comparing world-systems: Concepts and working hypotheses. Social Forces, 71, 851-886.
13.
Dahlgren, P.
(with Chakrapani, S.). (1982). The Third World on TV news: Western ways of seeing the “other.” In W. C. Adams (Ed.), Television coverage of international affairs (pp. 45-65). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
14.
Delacroix, J.
, & Ragin, C. (1978). Modernizing institutions, mobilization, and Third World development: A cross-national study. American Journal of Sociology, 84, 123-150.
15.
Dennis, E. E.
, Gerbner, G., & Zassoursky, Y. N. (Eds.). (1991). Beyond the cold war: Soviet and American media images. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
16.
Emery, M.
(1989). An endangered species: The international newshole. Gannett Center Journal, 3, 151-164.
17.
Frederick, H. H.
(1993). Global communication & international relations. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
18.
Frederick, H. H.
, McCaw, M.-J. S., & Vasquez, R. (1994). The future of IC education in the United States. Journal of International Communication, 1, 41-56.
19.
Galtung, J.
(1971). A structural theory of imperialism. Journal of Peace Research, 8, 81-118.
20.
Galtung, J.
, & Ruge, M. H. (1965). The structure of foreign news. Journal of Peace Research, 2, 64-91.
21.
Gans, H.
(1979). Deciding what's news. New York: Random House.
22.
Gerbner, G.
, & Marvanyi, G. (1977). The many worlds of the world's press. Journal of Communication, 27, 52-66.
23.
Gonzenbach, W. J.
, Arant, M. D., & Stevenson, R. L. (1992). The world of U.S. network television news: Eighteen years of international and foreign news coverage. Gazette, 50, 53-72.
24.
Griffith, B. D.
, Drott, M. C., & Small, H. G. (1980). On the use of citations in studying scientific achievements and communication. In E. Garfield (Ed.), Essays of an information scientist (Vol. 3, pp. 234-239). Philadelphia: ISI Press.
25.
Gwertzman, B.
(1993). Memo to the Times foreign staff. Media Studies Journal, 7, 33-40.
26.
Hallin, D.
(1986). The uncensored war: The media and Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press.
27.
Hester, A.
(1971). An analysis of news from developed and developing nations. Gazette, 7, 30-40.
28.
Hester, A.
(1973). Theoretical consideration in predicting volume and direction of international information flow. Gazette, 19, 238-247.
29.
Heuvel, J. V.
(1993). For the media, a brave (and scary) new world. Media Studies Journal, 7, 11-20.
30.
Hoge, J. F., Jr.
(1993). The end of predictability. Media Studies Journal, 7, 1-9.
31.
Holsti, O. R.
(1969). Content analysis for the social sciences and humanities. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
32.
Hur, K. K.
(1982). International mass communication research: A critical review of theory and methods. In M. Burgoon & N. E. Doran (Eds.), Communication yearbook (Vol. 6, pp. 531-554). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
33.
Kim, K.
, & Barnett, G. A. (1996). The determinants of international news flow: A network analysis. Communication Research, 23, 323-352.
34.
Lazarsfeld, P. F.
(1976). The prognosis for international communications research. In H. D. Fischer & J. C. Merrill (Eds.), International and intercultural communication (pp. 485-492). New York: Hastings House.
35.
Lee, C. C.
(1980). Media imperialism reconsidered: The homogenizing of television culture. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
36.
Madec, A.
(1981). The political economy of information flows. Intermedia, 9, 29-32.
37.
Masmoudi, M.
(1979). The new world information order. Journal of Communication, 29, 172-179.
38.
Meyer, W. H.
(1989). Global news flows: Dependency and neoimperialism. Comparative Political Studies, 22, 243-264.
39.
Meyer, W. H.
(1991). Structures of North-South informational flows: An empirical test of Galtung's theory. Journalism Quarterly, 68, 230-237.
40.
Mowlana, H.
(1994). Shapes of the future: International communication in the 21st century. Journal of International Communication, 1, 14-32.
41.
Nnaemeka, T.
, & Richstad, J. (1979). Approaches to international news flow studies (Occasional Papers 10). Singapore: Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Center.
42.
Nordenstreng, K.
, & Schiller, H. I. (Eds.). (1993). Beyond national sovereignty: International communication in the 1990s. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
43.
Ostgaard, E.
(1965). Factors influencing the flow of news. Journal of Peace Research, 2, 39-64.
44.
Ragin, C. C.
(1996). The distinctiveness of comparative social science. In A. Inkeles & M. Sasaki (Eds.), Comparing nations and cultures: Readings in a cross-disciplinary perspective (pp. 75-89). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
45.
Richstad, J.
, & Anderson, M. (Eds.). (1981). Crisis in international news. New York: Columbia University Press.
46.
Roach, C.
(1990). Movement for a new world information and communication order: A wave?Media, Culture & Society, 12, 283-307.
47.
Rosengren, K. E.
(1970). International news: Intra and extra media data. Acta Sociologica, 13, 96-109.
48.
Rosengren, K. E.
(1974). International news: Methods, data and theory. Journal of Peace Research, 11, 145-156.
49.
Rosengren, K. E.
(1977). Four types of tables. Journal of Communication, 27, 67-75.
50.
Rossem, R. V.
(1996). The world system paradigm as general theory of development: A cross-national test. American Sociological Review, 61, 508-527.
51.
Santos, T. D.
(1996). The structure of dependence. In A. Inkeles & M. Sasaki (Eds.), Comparing nations and cultures: Readings in a cross-disciplinary perspective (pp. 498-504). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
52.
Schiller, H. I
. (1969). Mass communication and American empire. New York: Killy.
53.
Schramm, W.
(1964). Mass media and national development. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
54.
Shannon, T. R.
(1996). An introduction to the world-system perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview.
55.
Shoemaker, P.
, Chang, T. K., & Brendlinger, N. (1986). Deviance as a predictor of newsworthiness: Coverage of international events in the U.S. media. In M. L. McLaughlin (Ed.), Communication yearbook (Vol. 10, pp. 348-365). Beverly Hills, CA; Sage.
56.
Singhal, A.
, & Sthapitanonda, P. (1996). The role of communication in development: Lessons learned from a critique of the dominant, dependency, and alternative paradigms. Journal of Development Communication, 5, 10-25.
57.
Smith, D. A.
, & White, D. R. (1992). Structure and dynamic of the global economy: Network analysis of international trade 1965-1980. Social Forces, 70, 857-893.
58.
Snyder, D.
, & Kick, E. (1979). Structural position in the world system and economic growth, 1955-1970: A multiple network of transnational interactions. American Journal of Sociology, 84, 1096-1126.
59.
So, A.
(1990). Social change and development: Modernization, dependency, and world-system theories. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
60.
Steiber, S.
(1979). The world system and world trade: An empirical explanation of conceptual conflicts. The Sociological Quarterly, 20, 23-36.
61.
Stevenson, R. L.
(1992). Defining international communication as a field. Journalism Quarterly, 69, 543-553.
62.
Stevenson, R. L.
, & Shaw, D. L. (Eds.). (1984). Foreign news and the new world information order. Ames: Iowa State University.
63.
Sun, S.
, & Barnett, G. A. (1994). An analysis of the international telephone network and democratization. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 45, 411-421.
64.
Tomlinson, J.
(1991). Cultural imperialism: A critical introduction. London: Pinter.
65.
Tomlinson, J.
(1994). Mass communications and the idea of a global public sphere: The political agenda of globalisation. Journal of International Communication, 1, 57-70.
66.
Tunstall, J.
(1992). Europe as world news leader. Journal of Communication, 42, 84-99.
67.
Wallerstein, I.
(1974). The modern world system. New York: Academic Press.
68.
Wallerstein, I.
(1979). The capitalist world-economy. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
69.
Wallerstein, I.
(1996). National development and the world system at the end of the Cold War. In A. Inkeles & M. Sasaki (Eds.), Comparing nations and cultures: Readings in a cross-disciplinary perspective (pp. 484-497). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
70.
Wang, J.
, & Chang, T. K. (1996). From class ideologue to state manager: TV programming and foreign imports in China, 1970-1990. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 40, 196-207.
71.
Weaver, D. H.
, & Wilhoit, G. C. (1981). Foreign news coverage in two U.S. wire services. Journal of Communication, 31, 55-63.
72.
Wilhoit, G. C.
, & Weaver, D. H. (1983). Foreign news coverage in two U.S. wire services: Update. Journal of Communication, 33, 132-148.
73.
Yin, R. K.
(1994). Case study research: Design and methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
