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INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS BULLETINVOLUME 33, No. 1-2 (Spring 1998)
Asian News in Time and India Today The role of news media in the dissemination of world news has been questioned repeatedly by media analysts and researchers. Authors Jim Richstad and Michael H. Anderson, in the article "Policy Context for News and a New Order," observe that in the 1970s the nature of communication gave way to an almost entirely new, highly politicized communication environment that caused changes in priorities and possibilities).1 In 1978, the Twentieth Century Fund established an independent, international task force to go behind the scenes and seek out "practical means" of resolving the conflicts between the developing world and the industrialized world.2 Toward this end, journalists, commentators, and editors from both the developed and the developing world came together agreeing on basic principles and practical proposals for balanced global communication. A background paper on the report of the task force by Colin Legum and John Cornwell looked at the tendency to equate "free flow" with "balanced flow," and found that these are incompatible. According to them, quality can be ensured only by combining "positive" and "negative" reporting. Legum and Cornwell believe that reporting becomes unfair when the emphasis on information about countries of the developing world is adverse while the information about other countries is favorable.3 The authors agree that the flow of news between Western nations and the developing world is heavily tilted in favor of the West. But they also believe that political leaders and media observers from developing nations should not presume that non-Western societies are at a serious disadvantage because of the imbalance. They say that Western news media do not have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the cultures of developing nations, and news distortions occur because of this. 4 In contrast, some studies of foreign news content in Western publications have not supported the developing world's arguments that the Western media single out the developing world for negative coverage or emphasize only crisis events. In other words, there was no evidence pointing to more coverage of negative news—disasters, internal conflicts, etc.—of the latter than of other nations. 5 On the issue of quantity or volume of news flow, the developing world has not lacked spokespersons for its views. Mustapha Masmoudi, the former Secretary of State for Information in Tunisia, in his paper, "The New World Information Order" (prepared for UNESCO at the Third session of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems in July 1978), found much of the news about the developing world to be negative and distorted with a quantitative imbalance between the North and the South. Masmoudi listed the following problems: inequality of information resources, de facto "hegemony," a will to dominate by the Western media, lack of information on developing countries, survival of a colonial mentality, and an alienating influence in economic, social, and cultural spheres with messages ill suited to the geographical region in which they are disseminated.6 Some critics believe that Americans are ignorant about the world because their news media carry very little international news. William A. Hachten says that American interest in foreign news has its ups and downs—the interest is at an all-ime high when the United States is potentially affected by international events. Along with this self-centered, isolationist view of the world, Hachten says, Americans are slow to understand their dependence on other nations.7 The knowledge about other countries depends on what a reader is fed through the news media, and his or her attitude toward that country is molded by the nature of a news story. This was the topic of a study by David K. Perry that was based on the theory that the amount of world news visible to a person enhances or constrains his or her appetite for more.8 The compelling issue of the Western domination of international news flow set the stage in the 1980s for a strong, global movement to restructure foreign news and communication. There were some serious charges from the developing world that Western media tended to filter out news not of immediate interest to the West. They also indicated that the information system enshrines a form of political, economic, and cultural colonialism. For example, in their recent study of coverage of the United States' invasion of Panama in 1989, researchers Sonia Gutierre-illalobos, James K. Hertog and Ramona R. Rush found that Time and Newsweek were mostly "supportive of the administration" and that strategic opposition questioning the underlying assumptions and world view of U.S. foreign policy ... was essentially absent from coverage."9 Another such example is the U.S. news coverage of the shooting of a Korean Airlines (KAL) jetliner by the Soviet Union in 1983, and the shooting of IranAir Flight 655 by the U.S. Navy in 1988. Diana Peh and Srinivas R. Melkote found that the coverage of the shooting of the KAL jetliner by the Soviet Union was full of inferences, judgments and negativity, whereas the IranAir incident was depicted positively. Peh and Melkote say that reporting can be affected by denial, guilt, rationalization or patriotism when it comes to controversial issues in which the U.S. government is involved.10 The biases of overseas correspondents have come under severe attack from Frank Tremaine, who lists five reasons for the inaccuracy and incompleteness of foreign news reporting: the inhospitality of the complaining nations, economics, technical structures of producing newspapers, quality, and problems of communication.11 Mort Rosenblum agrees with Tremaine as he points out the relentless efforts of developing countries to inject their ideas and opinions into the Western press. According to Rosenblum, foreign news reporters are jailed, tortured or even shot, while dispatches are censored and news sources muzzled in part because these reporters have a greater leeway to interpret news than do news agencies. Furthermore, correspondents are under great pressure to cover major political upheavals and disaster stories, while stories on development trends and social changes are more likely to be delayed.12 Case in point is the communal riots in India in December 1992. Edward A. Gargan wrote in the New York Times that the Hindu militants attacked and beat him and other correspondents from the Los Angeles Times and Voice of America. Even the BBC was denounced by Hindu political leaders for its coverage of this communal carnage. Hachten says, "In a real sense, the world's ability to know the news about itself depends on what gets into the news flow in the 15 or 20 open societies with highly developed media systems." For reasons of political interference, poverty, and illiteracy, many regions in the world are deprived of even a skeletal outline of major current events because of the non-Western governments acting as gatekeepers, screening news in and out of the country. 13 "On the whole, news organizations in developing countries seem to produce more development news than those in developed countries," say Hemant Shah and Gati Gayatri in a recent study of development news in Indonesian newspapers. "News organizations under some degree of governmental control produce more development news than those that are relatively free from government control."14 The literature reviewed so far has revealed several drawbacks in the Western media, mostly American, when covering foreign stories. At the same time, several studies have highlighted findings that invalidated charges by critics. Arguments about the declining nature of foreign news are gradually receding. Until a decade ago these voices were stronger and heard more often, whether at UNESCO, media circles, or even among readers. But national boundaries are crumbling as communication increases among countries, and positive economic changes in many parts of Asia have caught the attention of many around the world who predict that the conducive political economy in South, Southeast and Far East Asia, in particular, will augur foreign investment. People now read and hear foreign news, but is the coverage enough? And does the coverage accurately portray the meaning behind changes on the political and economic fronts? Is the media allowing the public to make informed decisions? What about media in the developing world? Do they give adequate coverage to different regions in Asia? A need to better cover regions such as the Far East and the Middle East, including India's neighbors, was also indicated in the IPI survey. In analyzing the Indian media's coverage of Western news, however, the survey determined that the Indian media had carried stories with a distorted view of the West. For example, an excerpt from a report by Robert Trumbull, formerly of the New York Times, says that the United States was described as a utopian land by the Indian press. Trumbull says that "the news is given, but not the story behind the news. The result is judgment based on interpretation and inadequate information."15 The IPI studied U.S. media along similar lines. It observed that the U.S. media expressed interest in the events happening in Asia and that the nature of foreign news coverage would improve if there was more human interest coverage of Asia. U.S. newspapers sometimes carried Indian news that was "bizarre and outlandish." No space was given to economic and developmental efforts taking place in India. This study used two of the most popular Western and Indian publications to determine the amount and nature of Asian news coverage. India Today was used as a sample of the Indian media and Time was used as a sample of the American press. India Today is published in English and a number of Indian languages and is similar to Time, except that Time carries more global news. The study addressed the following questions: (a) Would an Asian publication cover more news about countries in Asia than a U.S. publication? (b) Which of the two publications carries more negative stories about Asia? (c) What are the international news categories that the publications concentrate on? (c) Is there a difference in the quantity and the nature of Asian news coverage on Asia by Time, a leading U.S. newsmagazine and lndia Today, a leading magazine in India? It was expected that (a) there would be more coverage of Asian news in India Today than in Time; (b) there would be a difference in the nature of Asian news coverage by Time and India Today—in other words, Time would carry more negative stories, whereas India Today carries a mixture of positive, negative and neutral stories; and (c) the allotment of space to political and internal conflicts in Asia would be greater in Time than it would be in India Today. The countries included Afghanistan, Turkey, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Syria and Yemen, in the Middle East and the Near East; India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in South Asia; China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Philippines and Vietnam in South East and Far East Asia. Most of Russia's population lies west of the Urals in Europe and thus it was not considered for this study. The following 18 news categories were identified: war, politics, economics, military/defense, healthcare, education, science and technology, art, profiles, internal conflicts, domestic issues, natural disasters, accidents, sports, law, and religion. China evoked much of interest in both publications, because of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and China’s weapons trade with Pakistan. Both magazines reported that Beijing had sold nuclear weapons and equipment to Pakistan, and had cooperated on nuclear technology with Iran and Algeria despite American protests. India Today went one step further and reported that China's sale of nuclear weapons to Pakistan could be used against India. Political turmoil and acts of terrorism in India’s neighbors like Sri Lanka and Pakistan evidently caused concern in the country and India Today’s coverage was extensive. Tables 1 and 2 show the amount foreign news and the amount of Asian news in the two magazines. The 60 issues of Time carried 241, 240 of which were related to Asia. The 60 issues of India Today carried 103 foreign news stories, 89 of which were on Asia. Even though Time carried more stories on Asia, the number of stories decreased from 1987 to 1990 in Time, while the coverage fluctuated in India Today. Both publication’ extensive news coverage of the Near and Middle East, took place between 1990 and 1991. Some of the events witnessed during this period were the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, political turmoil in Israel, Iraq's military growth, and the Iraqi war. Time had more stories on the devastation of the war and rehabilitation efforts in Kuwait and Iraq, while India Today carried a series of articles on the plight of thousands of Indians who were fleeing Kuwait and many others who were stranded and living in fear. It also reported on the devastation in post-war Iraq and reconstruction work in Kuwait. The number of stories on South Asia was relatively high in both publications in 1987, but the numbers dropped on this region sharply in Timelater on. Yet, Time’s coverage of the Near East/Middle East and South East/Far East far exceeded that of India Today. The Near and Middle East had the most stories in Time, followed by South East and Far East. India Today's coverage was highest in South Asia, followed by Near and Middle East. Its coverage of the South East and Far East was minimal. The concentration on politics and internal conflicts in both publications was rather high. In comparison, education, science and technology, law, sports, arts and profiles received only skeletal coverage. The findings do, however, show a downward trend in the coverage of internal conflicts and politics from 1987 to 1991. Of 240 stories on Asia, 82.1% were on politics and internal conflicts in Time. In India Today, 17.9% of the stories were on this category. Little significance was given to education, sports or the arts. Sports and the arts accounted for only 0.6% and 0.9% of the total news covered by both publications. Science and technology accounted for only 1.8 %. In 1988, out of 76 stories carried by both magazines, only two dealt with advancements in science and technology. There was one story on art, a profile on the late Emperor Hirohito of Japan, and one on sports. An article in Time's January 16, 1989, issue on Japan's competitive edge over U.S. production included a series of sidebars on economic growth in Japan. The story describes the fear in the United States that Japan is winning the 21st century technological race. In the same issue there is a profile of the late Emperor Hirohito and his son Akihito. "With Hirohito's Death, an Economic Giant Begins a New Era," reads the headline. The November 25, 1991, issue of Time carried a story on China's growing economy and Beijing's desire for Western trade and investment. The report quoted then President George Bush saying in a speech in New York that the United States should remain involved to effect positive changes in the development of the world's most populous nation. Yet 54.2% of Time's stories on Asia were negative, and 36.0 % of India Today's stories were negative (see Table 3). One example of negative reporting can be seen in Time's March 1988 story on the horrible slum areas of Manila in the Philippines. Other stories focused on corruption charges against President Corazon Aquino and the coup attempt against her. Even though the negative stories were fewer in India Today, the intensive coverage of the politics in Asia was predominantly negative. Time carried 208 color pictures and one black and white picture. There were 30 stories that were not accompanied by pictures. By comparison, India Today carried 40 color pictures and 47 black and white pictures. Two stories were not accompanied by pictures. In Time, 97.1% percent of the stories had less than 500 lines. These stories were skeletal, with minimal background information. Only 2.5 % of the magazine's stories had more than 500 lines and these were largely about the Middle East. Only 0.4% of the stories had more than 1000 lines. It was a similar situation in India Today. For instance, 93.3% of India Today’s stories with less than 500 lines were about South East Asia and the Far East. Only 5.6% had more than 500 lines and 1.1 % had more than 1000 lines. Both publications focused largely on politics and internal conflicts, and so the conclusions of this research do not concur with developing-country arguments that the Western media single out the developing world for negative and inaccurate coverage. The purpose of the study was not to examine whether Western powers have vested interests and therefore keep an eye on Asia. Similarly, a study of the foreign policy of the United States or any other country is beyond the range of this study. However, such research could further assist future researchers in understanding to what extent an increase in the media's coverage of developmental news might contribute to putting to rest accusations of Western biases in coverage of the developed and developing countries. The findings of this study could lead to an assumption that the vast majority of the world's readers are primarily interested in political turmoils. Unfortunately, the media fail to portray the strengths of developing countries, their industrial and military potential, widespread entrepreneurship, and ongoing efforts to break the shackles of their pasts in winning international confidence. True to their name, some developing countries are indeed developing and forging ahead economically and militarily. Paradoxically, the economic competence of any country in the global market is determined by the political stability of its government and any unpropitious change calls for media attention. One should not infer from these findings that there were no developmental news in the developing world during the period studied. On the contrary, major political changes and developments (in China, Iran, Iraq, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, etc.) often tended to steer these countries toward economic prosperity. However, both magazines studied here ignored most of the positive changes that occurred in the wake of these political changes. For example, the economic rehabilitation of China has attracted much foreign investment. Its national economy shows a recovering trend, and overseas investment greatly increased in l991(just two years after the Tiananmen massacre that shocked the world). Taiwan's trade surplus with Hong Kong was greater than its trade surplus with the United States ($10.5 billion vs. $8.2 billion). The top three contenders for investment in China are Hong Kong, Japan and the United States. India, the future economic superpower in Asia according to predictions by some economics pundits, is similarly forging ahead. Investments by giant corporations in India and the country's foreign exchange reserves are at an all-time high. But very seldom do developments like this makes it to the press. Instead, media attention has been on such issues as border disputes between India and Pakistan. Even though this issue has receded, it is still not resolved, and any hostility or peace effort in the future will likely again invite a lot of mostly negative media attention. One question that future researchers may want to ask is: Are the media interested in covering cooperation among Asian countries in trade, technology, environment, and welfare programs aimed at reducing poverty. Media magnate Rupert Murdoch, whose acquisition of media and co-ownership of media in different parts of the world make him a voice to be reckoned with, said at a news conference in New Delhi that the world has an "inadequate" view of India and that the media should tell the world more about the economic changes here. He said these changes are more rapid than seen in the developed world.16 More research is also needed into the background of foreign correspondents, the adequacy of their knowledge of the country from which they report news and the social and psychological factors affecting their work. Recently we have witnessed a growing number of correspondents in the Western broadcast media who are natives of the developing countries from where they are reporting. It would be interesting to study the differences in Western correspondents reporting news from foreign countries and native correspondents reporting news for the Western media. Media scholars Jim Richstad and Michael H. Anderson quote India's Indira Gandhi on this issue: We want to hear Africans on events in Africa. You should similarly be able to get an Indian explanation of events in India. It is astonishing that we know so little about leading poets, novelists, historians, and editors of various Asian, African and Latin American countries, while we are familiar with minor authors and
Last updated August 1, 2001. All information found in this site is ©2001, the International Communication Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. |
