International TV networks news are doomed to be biased

Content Analysis and Discussion
 

As the internet advances, there are, nowadays, numbers of global television news networks. Cultural divergence makes them show significant differences in the news content while reporting the same world news. Here is a critique of two culturally divergent global TV networks- CNN and AL Jazeera-one western and one eastern famous news organization-by analyzing and discussing their news content comparatively focusing on the news agenda, sources and predominant news values. To achieve the aim, a period of two weeks between August 23 and September 3 are spent to collect data from CNN and AL Jazeera websites where looked at the top five news covered by subject and by geographical interest. In addition, some related books are read in order to effectively complete the assignment. At last, the methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison and contrast have been adopted.
 

News agenda is arena of struggle of dominant news

News agenda is a list of news items which is related to news gathering and news setting. News agenda is arranged in order of priority and importance. Based on the observation of headline stories on the same webpage at the same time every day, the table below is made to show the Percentage of top five stories reported by region:

 

AL Jazeera 25 20 15 30 10

“The news media may not be successful in telling people what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling people what to think about（Bernard Cohen, 1963）.” Media decide the focus of attention and the topics of discussion of the target audience in daily life by means of agenda-setting, using the large size of headlines, the great length of articles and the page numbers. CNN has devoted a large part of all coverage to the events that happened between US and Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan in foreign-related news while trying to intend to draw the audience’s attention to the United States of America and the events between America and Iraq. Al Jazeera centers on the news coverage of Middle East especially Iraq so as to attract the desired audience’s attention to the countries in Middle East and let people know the essence of the actions of the United States in Iraq. These days, news agenda of Al Jazeera is dominated by the events that occurred in Iraq. The intense exposure of Iraq and Anti-America reporting has aroused the America’s hatred for Al Jazeera. In foreign-related news, the events that take place in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have the dominant positions. CNN and Al Jazeera confine the much attention and topic of the desired audience to America and Middle East. And by reporting much on America, CNN helps improve the international influence and position of the United States of America.#p#分页标题#e#
 

Authoritative news sources are more reliable

In news coverage, sources are people interviewed for the story. James Gordon Bennett once remarked “We shall give a correct picture of the world”. (James Gordon Bennett, 2004) Although “news media influence the pictures in our minds” ( Walter Lippmann, 1922), the journalists should try to make their reporting sound true and reliable. To achieve this goal, they turn to government officials, experts, authorities for information related to the reporting because information and facts offered by them are believed to be trustworthy, reliable, and true.

Table 2: Percentage of stories by elite and non elite sources

Sources  Elite nation perspectives(spokespeople) Non elite nation perspectives(spokespeople)

 

CNN interviewed authorities in Middle East peace talks news and Al Jazeera quoted "risk is extremely great for Abbas" by Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of the Palestinian Center（http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/09/20109123247579469.html）. Their sources are mainly from experts and authorities in order to enable their reporting to seem more convincing, objective, accurate, and trustworthy and their audience to see the events in a similar way these authorities do.

According to my observation, the stories reported by CNN are updated faster than those by Al Jazeera. This shows that CNN has more journalists scattered over the world than Al Jazeera in order to cover the events that occur across the globe as soon as possible. Therefore, the news coverage of CNN better embodies the concept of timeliness.

Effective news values make news receive more viewers

News values refer to factors that make an event newsworthy and determine how much attention a news story is given by the media staff and the target audience. News values are not universal. Even so, A. Boyd states that: "News journalism has a broadly agreed set of values, often referred to as 'newsworthiness'（Boyd, A. 1994）". They include conflict, frequency and so on. Table 3 below shows the percentage of stories by news values.

 

The news values differ between different news organizations. The predominent news values of CNN are negativity and conflict while that of Al Jazeera conflict and continuity. The news that cause negative effects are more newsworthy than those that do not. CNN devoted a large part of the coverage to the events that bring about the large loss both in property and life. For example, Russian held in Spain for nightclub fire that killed 156. The audiences pay more attention to bad news so CNN is more audience-oriented. #p#分页标题#e#

Continuity is the predominant news value that gives the media staff the rules. The intense and continuous reporting of the same story makes the story more accessible to the audience and enables the public to have a good knowledge of the news. CNN and Al Jazeera continuously reports on Iraq and the events between Iraq and US from the story Biden’s surprise visit to Iraq to US launches Middle East peace talks. Stories about global powers get more attention than those concerned with less influential nations. CNN, one of the world’s largest news TV network, reports much on US, the only superpower in the world, therefore, CNN has a larger viewer reach than Al Jazeera.
 

International TV networks news are doomed to be biased

Cultural frames are ‘the way in which news content is typically shaped and contextualised by journalists within some familiar frame of reference and according to some latent structure of meaning（ Denis McQuail，1994）.’ The desired audience is expected to adopt the frames of reference offered by the journalists and perceive the world in a similar way. In the reporting of the top news “Biden pays a visit to Iraq”, for example, Al Jazeera broadcasted “Several of Biden's previous visits to Iraq have prompted angry reactions from politicians, many of whom accused him of meddling in Iraqi politics. The Sadrist movement, the Shia party headed by cleric Moqtada al-Sadri, has already condemned Biden's latest trip. Moshriq Naji, a senior member of the party, accused the US vice president of trying to "impose foreign agendas” (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast). CNN reported that Joe Biden, the US vice president, made a trip to Iraq for the safety and security reason and that Biden helped newly-elected Iraqi leaders to forge a new ruling coalition and take over the jobs that they have to.

It is obvious that the CNN reporting is pro-America while Al Jazeera's news coverage kind of anti-American and pro-Middle East. Every medium has its own political system. The united states of America have for a long time in its expansions and invasions claimed the same excuse that all the government does is aimed to bring peace and stability, democracy, freedom and safety to the people in those countries and regions. As one of the world's largest news organizations in America, CNN is of course dominated by dominant western discourses: Capitalist democracy, Social and economic stability and functions as a propaganda tool for the government’s diplomatic policies and helps the government justify its expansion action. However, Al Jazeera, the largest international news TV network in Middle East, conducts international news coverage from the the perspectives of the region though it is thought to be the only independent news organization. As far as I am concerned, that its coverage of Biden’s visit to Iraq contains the reporting of some Iraqi politicians’ condemnation of his journey intended to make the Iraqi aware of the ultimate aim of the united states and prevent the political intervenence and control of America. CNN International news network broadcasts news from a pro-American perspective in spite of domestic criticisms that CNN has "anti-American" bias. “When faced with multiple considerations on political issues, individuals have the tendency to oversample those cognitions that have been brought into conscious thought or activated by external sources（ Zaller and Feldman, 1992）.” All this proves that the two International news TV networks are bound to take bias.#p#分页标题#e#

Global TV News organizations have different understanding, interpretations and reportings of the same events because of their divergent cultural and knowledge structures, political systems and interests and so on. News chooses the focus of attention for the public and the interests influence the agenda setting in media news. International news plays an important role in shaping the viewers’ ideas about people and events around the world. The view of the world through TV news networks, however,is distorted. This can lead to political, cultural and social misunderstanding. All the findings help me have a better understanding of international news. International news gives us a window to look at the world but the window is so small and narrow that we can’t see the whole world and that what we get is also biased.

 

Bibliography

1. The press and foreign policy, Bernard Cohen，1963

2. Design fundamentals for news media, James Gordon Bennett, 2004

3. public opinion, Walter Lippmann, 1922

4. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/09/20109123247579469.html

5. Broadcast Journalism, Techniques of Radio and TV News. Oxford: Focal. Boyd, A. (1994)

6. Global glasnost: toward a new world information and communication order? Galtung and Vincent, Global Glasnost, 1992: 50

7. Mass communication theory: an introduction, Denis McQuail，1994

8. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast

9. The handbook of social psychology,Zaller and Feldman, 1992