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Abstract

This article provides an ethnographic account of newspaper coverage of a trade summit which took place in Geneva in the last days of July 2004. One problematic aspect of covering news events at international economic institutions such as the World Trade Organization is the phenomenon of mediated mediation: whereas the role of journalists is to mediate between news events and the public, access to these events is restricted. As a result, the media are dependent on mediation by key actors, press officers, spokespersons, NGOs and other parties with an interest in the way events are represented. Given the highly technical nature of these events, and the limited expertise of journalists, interested parties have many opportunities to ‘spin’ the coverage

Keywords

media anthropology globalization World Trade Organization sociology of journalism

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References

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Inside a world of spin

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