News

==Global news system==
In the 20th century, global news coverage was dominated by a combination of the "Big Four" news agencies—Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France Press, and United Press International—representing the [[Western bloc]], and the Communist agencies: [[Russian News Agency "TASS"|TASS]] from the Soviet Union, and [[Xinhua]] from China.<ref>Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), p. 9.</ref> Studies of major world events, and analyses of all international news coverage in various newspapers, consistently found that a large majority of news items originated from the four biggest wire services.<ref name=Watanabe2013>{{cite journal | last1 = Watanabe | first1 = Kohei | title = The western perspective in Yahoo! News and Google News: Quantitative analysis of geographic coverage of online news | journal = International Communication Gazette | volume = 75 | issue = 2| year = 2013 | doi = 10.1177/1748048512465546 | pages = 141–156 | s2cid = 143123659 }}</ref>

Television news agencies include [[Associated Press Television News]], which bought and incorporated World Television News; and Reuters Television.<ref name=Hachten39 /><ref>Oliver Boyd-Barrett, "'Global' News Agencies", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), p. 19.</ref> Bloomberg News created in the 1990s, expanded rapidly to become a player in the realm of international news.<ref name=OBB21>Oliver Boyd-Barrett, "'Global' News Agencies", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), p. 21. "Bloomberg's influence is greater than the number of its terminals may suggest, as it feeds financial data and economic news through the AP network to AP members and clients in the United States, and to many national networks through national news agencies. Indeed, it boasts having the second largest 'wholesale' news distribution in the United States, after AP. It has print, radio and television distribution in many countries: Bloomberg television is distributed via Astra satellite service in Europe."</ref> The Associated Press also maintains a radio network with thousands of subscribers worldwide; it is the sole provider of international news to many small stations.<ref name=Hachten39 />

By some accounts, dating back to the 1940s, the increasing interconnectedness of the news system has accelerated the pace of [[human history]] itself.<ref>Hachten, ''World News Prism'' (1996), p. 7. "Since World War II, an intricate and worldwide network of international news media has evolved, providing an expanded capability for information flows. This relationship between the capacity and the need to communicate rapidly has resulted from the interaction of two long-term historical processes: the evolution toward a single global society and the movement of civilization beyond four great benchmarks of human communication—speech, writing, printing, electronic communications (telephone and radio)—into a fifth era of long-distance instant communication based on telecommunications (mainly satellites) and computer technology. Harold Lasswell believed that the mass media revolution has accelerated the tempo and direction of world history. What would have happened later has happened sooner, and changes in timing may have modified substantive developments."</ref>

===New World Information and Communication Order===
The global news system is dominated by agencies from Europe and the United States, and reflects their interests and priorities in its coverage.<ref>Oliver Boyd-Barrett, "'Global' News Agencies", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), p. 22.</ref> Euro-American control of the global news system has led to criticism; that events around the world are constantly compared to events like the [[Holocaust]] and World War II, which are considered foundational in the West.<ref name=Zeiler31>Barbie Zeiler, "Cannibalizing Memory in the Global Flow of News"; in ''On Media Memory'' (2011), ed. Neiger, Myers, & Zandberg; pp. 31–34.</ref> Since the 1960s, a significant amount of news reporting from the Third World has been characterized by some form "development journalism", a paradigm which focuses on long-term development projects, social change, and nation-building.<ref>Fosu, "The Press and Political Participation" (2014), pp. 67–73.</ref> When in 1987 the U.S. media reported on a riot in the Dominican Republic—the first major news item regarding that country in years—the resulting decline in tourism lasted for years and had a noticeable effect on the economy.<ref>Straubhaar and LaRose, ''Communications Media in the Information Society'' (1997), pp. 124–125.</ref> The English language predominates in global news exchanges.<ref>Hachten, ''World News Prism'' (1996), pp. 100–102.</ref> Critics have accused the global news system of perpetuating [[cultural imperialism]].<ref name=Tomlinson>John Tomlinson, "Cultural Globalization and Cultural Imperialism", in Mohammadi (ed.), ''International Communication and Globalization'' (1997).</ref><ref name=SilverblattZlobin28 /><ref>McNair, ''Cultural Chaos'' (2006), pp. 105–108.</ref> Critics further charge that the Western media conglomerates maintain a bias towards the status quo economic order, especially a pro-corporate bias.<ref name=SilverblattZlobin28 />

The [[United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization]] (UNESCO) has promoted a [[New World Information and Communication Order]], which envisions an international news exchange system involving national news agencies in every country. UNESCO encouraged the new states formed from colonial territories in the 1960s to establish news agencies, to generate domestic news stories, exchange news items with international partners, and disseminate both types of news internally.<ref>Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), p. 8-10. "The UN, through UNESCO, consistently endeavored to encourage the spread and development of national news agencies, and of news-exchange arrangements between them, especially during the great wave of independence in Africa during the 1960s. Setting up a national news agency became one of the essential things, part of the 'script', of what it meant to be a 'nation'. Through a national news agency, a state could lay down information links domestically and internationally which would facilitate the generation and exchange of news."</ref> Along these lines, the 1980 [[MacBride report]], "Many Voices, One World", called for an interdependent global news system with more participation from different governments. To this end, also, UNESCO formed the [[Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool]].<ref>Chakravartty and Sarikakis, ''Media Policy and Globalization'' (2006), p. 31.</ref>

The [[Inter Press Service]], founded in 1964, has served as an intermediary for Third World press agencies.<ref>C. Anthony Giffard, "Alternative News Agencies", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), p. 191.</ref> Inter Press Service's editorial policy favors coverage of events, institutions, and issues which relate to inequality, [[economic development]], [[economic integration]], natural resources, population, health, education, and [[sustainable development]].<ref name=Giffard194>C. Anthony Giffard, "Alternative News Agencies", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), pp. 192–194.</ref> It gives less coverage than other agencies to crime, disasters, and violence. Geographically, 70% of its news reporting concerns Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.<ref>C. Anthony Giffard, "Alternative News Agencies", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), pp. 195–196.</ref> IPS has the most subscribers in Latin America and southern Africa.<ref name=Giffard194 /> IPS receives grants from organizations such as the [[United Nations Development Program]] and other United Nations agencies and private foundations to report news on chosen topics, including the environment, sustainable development, and women's issues.<ref>C. Anthony Giffard, "Alternative News Agencies", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), pp. 196–197.</ref>

Beginning in the 1960s, the [[United States Agency for International Development]], the [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]], and UNESCO developed the use of satellite television for international broadcasting. In India, 1975–1976, these agencies implemented an experimental satellite television system, called the [[Satellite Instructional Television Experiment]], with assistance from the [[Indian Space Research Organisation]], and [[All India Radio]].<ref>Chakravartty and Sarikakis, ''Media Policy and Globalization'' (2006), p. 29.</ref>

===Further transformation in global news flow===
By the 1980s, much of the Third World had succumbed to a [[Latin American debt crisis|debt crisis]] resulting from unpayable large loans accumulated since the 1960s. At this point, the [[World Bank]] took an active role in the governance of many countries, and its authority extended to communications policy. The policy of developing Third World media gave way to a global regime of [[free trade]] institutions like the [[World Trade Organization]], which also protected the free flow of information across borders.<ref>Chakravartty and Sarikakis, ''Media Policy and Globalization'' (2006), pp. 33–38.</ref> The World Bank also promoted privatization of national telecommunications, which afforded large multinational corporations the opportunity to purchase networks and expand operations in the Third World.<ref>Chakravartty and Sarikakis, ''Media Policy and Globalization'' (2006), pp. 58–72, 133–136. "In almost all cases, a combination of privatization schemes and higher rates of public investment led to double-digit growth in teledensity figures throughout the 1990s and continuing today (see Table 3.3). Private telecommunications operators were drawn to emerging markets like Brazil, China, and India, among others, because technological innovation coupled with policy reforms promised access to lucrative high-density business and urban middle-class consumers. […] The few comparative studies of telecommunications reform in the South show that the political environment—whether the state is responsive to democratic public interest—\and its relative power vis-à-vis foreign capital and G8 nations have shaped the terms of reform."</ref><ref>Ali Mohammadi, "Communication and the Globalizing Process in the Developing World", in Mohammadi (ed.), ''International Communication and Globalization'' (1997).</ref>

In countries with less telecommunications infrastructure, people, especially youth, tend today to get their news predominantly from mobile phones and, less so, from the internet. Older folks listen more to the radio. The government of China is a major investor in Third World telecommunications, especially in Africa.<ref>Geniets, ''Global News Challenge'' (2013), pp. 22–27.</ref> Some issues relating to global information flow were revisited in light of the internet at the 2003/2005 [[World Summit on the Information Society]], a conference which emphasized the role of civil society and the private sector in [[information society]] governance.<ref>Chakravartty and Sarikakis, ''Media Policy and Globalization'' (2006), pp. 136–143.</ref>