Global journalism and foreign news-making are generally extremely limited in agenda and scope. Except for at times of crisis and a general North—South gap that privileges the western industrial states over the rest of world, the reality of politics, society and culture, especially in faraway countries, remains fragmented and often highly distorted in most media systems around the world. After a brief reassessment of some empirical basics of existing content analyses, the following paper focuses on the much neglected question of effects and consequences of the current situation. Are the mass media around the world ready to meet the needs of cosmopolitan globalism, of modern ‘Knowledge Society’ or of ‘Global Governance’, theoretical concepts and paradigms that we often use to describe present realities and trends? Coming to a slightly pessimistic conclusion, the contribution discusses some of the major causes responsible for the situation and points to various types of possible reforms.
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