Media coverage of foreign affairs — Part I

BY Aman Malik| IN Books | 16/02/2005

Aman Malik

"I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. Mine is not a religion of the prison-house."

- M. K. Gandhi1

Unbalanced news flow: A global phenomenon.

The internationalization of news really began with the rise of global news agencies in the 19th century. This process was further accelerated in the 20th century by technology (telegraph and radiotelephone) and stimulated by war, trade, imperialism and industrial expansion.2 "News," notes Denis McQuail, " was the first media product to be effectively commodified for international trade."3 Delve slightly deeper into history and you would find that the service of current information has always been of paramount importance to humanity.

Over time however, news has become more or less standardized and ubiquitous genre. A news story may be important either as a piece of useful information or as a tool to satisfy curiosity and human interest. Talking from a socio-economic standpoint, the aforementioned attributes are nothing but ¿need gaps¿ (in generic terms) which are universally applicable. Additionally, factors such as consequence, proximity, timeliness and novelty have traditionally been recognized by editors and reporters as characteristics of news. Today, thanks to the development of digital media for gathering and disseminating information, news travels at a speed that would have been unimaginable till just a few decades ago. Further, globalization has led to social and economic interdependence more than ever before.

This means that a typical news story concerning conflict, disaster and even progress, say in South America, might elicit interest even as far as Central Asia. The advent of television has further increased the cross-cultural appeal of news. Television tells the news in pictures, to which words, in any language or with any ¿angle¿, may then be added. While earlier ¿foreign¿ news dealt mainly with politics, war, diplomacy and trade, the scope of international news has now expanded and includes sport, media and entertainment, finance, fashion and tourism.

But media across much of the developing world is insular and extremely inward looking. Most often, all one gets in the name of "international news" are stories from North America, Europe and in certain cases the Middle East.

The debate about the unbalanced global flow of news has been raging for quite sometime now. One of the earliest empirical studies of news imbalance4 showed that the news media in all ¿developing¿ countries were heavy importers of news, while audiences in developed countries were supplied with home-produced news, even when it was about foreign events. It was argued then, that "lack of autonomy in news production" hampered national cultural development, especially in new nations (such as India) which were often ex-colonies, and limited their full independence and sovereignty.

Zeynab Ali, a New York based journalist, however thinks that it would be wrong to blame only the media of the developing world for its insularity. "This contention is true not only for the developing world but also for the better part of the developed world," she says and continues, "Take the example of the US, which is considered to be the ¿leading media¿ in the world today with names like CNN, NBC or Fox Network. But how informed are the Americans about international affairs?5"

Zeynab¿s viewpoint is corroborated by research and public debate on the actual structure of news flow and the underlying dynamics of the global news industry in the 70s and the 80s6. It was repeatedly confirmed that media in many developed countries did not typically give a great deal of space to foreign news, which anyway was mostly about events in countries that were large, rich or proximate (geographically and culturally). Further, such news was narrowly focused on the interests of the receiving country.

Thus, one may safely conclude that the imbalance in global news flow is a universal phenomenon and affects the developing and the developed world, albeit to varying degrees. 

The Indian media and its "World"

This conclusion however does not mitigate the fact that the extent of coverage of international news and the quality of reportage in India is, as a Delhi based foreign correspondent (who pleads anonymity) puts it, "disgraceful." News organizations like the BBC and the New York Times devote considerable time and energy in an attempt to offer a well-rounded perspective on a country like India; no Indian publication or news channel on the other hand, covers either the UK or the US in such a comprehensive manner.

The Indian media in fact tends to focus only on a few countries, ones with which India has strong relations. "It almost completely ignores Africa, the Caribbean and even Southeast Asia to some extent," says Seema Sirohi, Washington Correspondent of Outlook magazine and Ananda Bazaar Patrika7.

Saeed Naqvi, arguably the only Indian journalist who has reported from more than a hundred different countries, thinks that Indian media¿s coverage of international news is "non-existent." "Take the recent tsunami disaster," he says, "the BBC reporter was anchoring a one hour bulletin from Banda Aceh within a couple of days of the disaster. No Indian journalist managed to reach there."8 The Indian television companies however, had no presence even in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The television crews reached the islands only after the magnitude of the disaster became apparent.

Ask journalists, "What is news?" and in all likelihood they would tell you, "News is what the editor decides it is." If one looks at the editorial board dynamics (in countries like India) one would discover that the ¿Indian connection¿ is the first thing that the editors look for. Laments Sirohi: "My editors always want to get some ¿India hook¿ to justify the story."

In fact, in a typical Indian news organization, the foreign desk ranks well below the national desk. The reasons for the ¿bias¿ are not hard to find or to understand. They result from the organization of news flow by way of agencies and each news medium¿s own ¿gatekeeping¿ mechanism.

The term gatekeeping has been in vogue as a metaphor to describe the process by which decisions are made about whether or not to allow a particular news report to pass through the "gates" of a news medium into channels of dissemination (Print, Radio, TV or the Net). In a wider sense however, this idea refers to the power to give or withhold access to different voices of in society, and is often a locus of conflict.

 "The editorial board dynamics for most media companies are really simple," says Zeynab, "use whatever sells." According to a report on the Indian TV broadcasting industry prepared jointly by FICCI with management consultancy firm KPMG, 64 million Indian homes are linked by cable and satellite connections. India, with its 1 billion-plus TV viewing population splurges $1.5 billion into TV channels. Broadcasters swear by TRPs, which, quite simply, determine what goes in and what does not. Further, the TRPs offer the print media significant indicators as to what the public is interested in. It thus boils down to the sheer marketability of the product.

Market issues

The coming of television to India has coincided with the rampaging market economics. Back in the early fifties, when the American and British audiences were being "sterilized" (by organizations such as the BBC) to the presence of television, the market was always there, but it did not rule the roost and TRPs were not the only determinants of editorial policy. In fact, till date the BBC enjoys unparalleled autonomy among public broadcasters across the world, which is what makes its voice credible. "The Hutton inquiry offers enough proof of the BBC¿s independent style of functioning," reckons Naqvi. This, despite the fact that it is largely funded by public money.

Notes McQuail:

"Government involvement (in the early 20th century) was quite common. For this reason the main press agencies in the post-war era were North American (UPI and Associated Press), or British (Reuters), French (AFP) or Russian (Tass). Since then the US predominance has declined with the virtual demise of the UPI while other agencies have grown. "

"The three television news agencies that generate much of the international news used by world¿s broadcasters are Reuters, World Television News (WTN) and the Associated Press Television News (APTN). "

"It is clear that predominance is shaped by the domestic strength of the media organizations concerned in terms of market size, degree of concentration and economic resources. The English language confers an extra advantage."

Selling ¿firangi¿ news 

News companies often do not cover international news and events under the pretext that there is a lack of appreciative audience for international content in India. Sirohi vehemently disagrees as she says, "It is one of those convenient myths perpetuated by decision makers so that they can avoid applying their minds to make international stories relevant for their audiences."

While the English language was a major factor which fuelled the growth of international news agencies (as mentioned above), the same acts as a deterrent in the case of the Indian media and is one of the reasons that prevents it from going global. Most interviews of world leaders and other international figures are conducted either in English or in a foreign language (which are then translated into English). For this reason, editors are led to believe that international content is "high brow stuff" and they do not want to turn the "pan chewing audience" away from their programs

Their belief isn¿t entirely unfounded. Surveys have time and again indicated that the viewership of Indian news channels in English (NDTV 24x7, Headlines Today etc) is only a fraction of what their Hindi and vernacular counterparts enjoy. Foreign channels like the BBC and CNN have virtually no audience across much of the Indian heartland. Their reach is limited to the metros and here too only among the English speaking elite.

In this age of globalization however, India cannot remain insular by refusing to learn about the developments of the rest of the world. In fact most editors and publishers (naively) fail to recognize that audiences would find in-depth coverage, which is well presented, interesting, and would lap it up. Little attempt is made to make whatever international news is presented, relevant to the average Indian.

An effective selling mechanism would be to showcase the Indian diaspora across the world. After China, the largest "diaspora community" is of Indian origin. From sugarcane cultivators in Fiji to diamond merchants in Antwerp, Indians make a great economic success story. Bouts of global recession and boom, rising oil prices and fluctuating interest rates have a bearing on investment inflows into India, a substantial portion of which comes in the form of cash remittances from Indians abroad. "First inform Indians about how Indians in countries like Venezuela and Ukraine are being affected by upheavals there," says Naqvi, "and then present the larger perspective on such countries."

The fact that India seeks to open newer trade routes and strengthen the existing ones, makes it imperative for Indians, businessmen and others alike, to have a sound knowledge of the politico-economic and societal norms that prevail in various parts of the world.

Looking at our neighbours.

Even if one considers the way the Indian media covers its neighborhood, one finds that there is little or no coverage that seeks to analyze the social dynamics of the South Asian countries. The Indian media has a fixation on Pakistan and other surrounding countries - but even they are usually covered peripherally when the story affects India or when it is sensational. Says a senior Indian journalist, "We have an illusion that we cover Pakistan comprehensively. Most of the times our journalists only manage to get inputs from the MEA or the Pakistan High Commission."

There is hardly any objective coverage by Indian (and Pakistani) papers when it comes to the other country. A public paper on a study conducted by a researcher at Stanford University9 notes thus:

"When the mainstream media in India and Pakistan cover events that pertain to international issues, the newspapers in each country tend to favor the views that are in line with the government¿s policies; the articles are usually deeply rooted in the context of cross-border issues at the time of publication. In particular, on October 13, 2002, with regard to the general elections in Pakistan, Dawn reports, "Election results credible, says US," while the Times of India counters, "Pakistan polls flawed, says India." The fact that the two articles address the same issue (i.e. the elections in Pakistan) while presenting different viewpoints demonstrates that the reporting mirrors the political and diplomatic atmosphere at the time. When reporting on events of regional significance in South Asia, the Times of India and Dawn present their own country in a positive manner while reproaching the other country."

The paper further notes:

"The most interesting aspect of both articles is that the Indian newspaper does not mention the US opinion while the Pakistani newspaper ignores the Indian opinion. The respective newspapers have different concepts of what is newsworthy and the newspapers consider the context of what they present when deciding what to publish."

1 A quotation in the central foyer of Broadcasting House on New Delhi¿s Parliament Street.

2 Boyd-Barret 1980; Boyd-Barret and Ranatanen 1998)

3 McQuail¿s Mass Communication Theory : By Denis McQuail

4 Schramm, 1964

5 E-mail interview with Zeynab Ali, New York

6 UNESCO Mass Media Declaration of 1978: New Media Information and Communication Order (NWICO)

7 Interview with Seema Sirohi, published by TheHoot.org.

8 Personal interview with Saeed Naqvi, New Delhi

9 Research Paper titled: "Differences in News Coverage in Indian and Pakistani Newspapers within their Social Contexts" By S. Zain HODA: