As a corollary, global media culture may erode the uniqueness and cohesion of national cultures. Overall, the position of the public relations industry has grown stronger, while the position of news producers has grown weaker. Public relations agents mediate the production of news about all sectors of society. 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. Online news has also changed the geographic reach of individual news stories, diffusing readership from city-by-city markets to a potentially global audience.
The propagation of internet-capable mobile devices has also given rise to the citizen journalist, who provide an additional perspective on unfolding events. The Soviet Union began a major international broadcasting operation in 1929, with stations in German, English and French. The Nazi Party made use of the radio in its rise to power in Germany, with much of its propaganda focused on attacking the Soviet Bolsheviks. The British and Italian foreign radio services competed for influence in North Africa.
Straubhaar and LaRose, Communications Media in the Information Society , p. 366. “… newspapers were defining what news was, categorizing and expanding their domain on the fly. Indeed, Somerville argues that ‘news’ is not an objective ‘historical’ concept but one that is defined by the news industry as it creates a commodity sold by publishers to the public.” Images connected with news can also become iconic and gain a fixed role in the culture.
About one-third of newspaper revenue comes from sales; the majority comes from advertising. Newspapers have struggled to maintain revenue given declining circulation and the free flow of information over the internet; some have implemented paywalls for their websites. The new format, which mashed together numerous unrelated and perhaps dubious reports from far-flung locations, created a radically new and jarring experience for its readers.
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The agenda-setting model has been well-supported by research, which indicate that the public’s self-reported concerns respond to changes in news coverage rather than changes in the underlying issue itself. The less an issue obviously affects people’s lives, the bigger an influence media agenda-setting can have on their opinion of it. The agenda-setting power becomes even stronger in practice because of the correspondence in news topics promulgated by different media channels. South Africans overwhelmingly describe the end of Apartheid as a source of the country’s most important news. In Jordan, people cited numerous memorable news events involving death and war, including the death of King Hussein, Princess Diana, and Yitzhak Rabin.
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Positive news stories found memorable by Jordanians featured political events affecting their lives and families—such as the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon, and the Israel–Jordan peace treaty. The perception that an ongoing crisis is taking place further increases the significance of live news. People rely on the news and constantly seek more of it, to learn new information and to seek reassurance amidst feelings of fear and uncertainty. Crises can also increase the effect of the news on social cohesion, and lead the population of a country to “rally” behind its current leadership. The rise of a global news system goes hand in hand with the advent of terrorism and other sensational acts, which have power in proportion to the audience they capture. In 1979, the capture of American hostages in Iran dominated months of news coverage in the western media, gained the status of a “crisis”, and influenced a presidential election.
In other parts of the world, such as Kenya—especially rural areas without much electricity—televisions are rare. In 1996, the Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera emerged as a powerful alternative to the Western media, capitalizing in part on anger in the Arab & Muslim world regarding biased coverage of the Gulf War. Al Jazeera hired many news workers conveniently laid off by BBC Arabic Television, which closed in April 1996.
One issue is “click-thinking”, the editorial selection of news stories—and of journalists—who can generate the most website hits and thus advertising revenue. Unlike a newspaper, a news website has detailed data collection about which stories are popular and who is reading them. The drive for speedy online postings, some journalists have acknowledged, has altered norms of fact-checking so that verification takes place after publication. Reuters office in Bonn, Germany, 1988News agencies are services which compile news and disseminate it in bulk. Because they disseminate information to a wide variety of clients, who repackage the material as news for public consumption, news agencies tend to use less controversial language in their reports. Despite their importance, news agencies are not well known by the general public. They keep low profiles and their reporters usually do not get bylines.
Even as printing presses came into use in Europe, news for the general public often travelled orally via monks, travelers, town criers, etc. People seem to be interested in news to the extent which it has a big impact, describes conflicts, happens nearby, involves well-known people, and deviates from the norms of everyday happenings. War is a common news topic, partly because it involves unknown events that could pose personal danger. With older children, if they will be viewing news coverage, consider recording it ahead of time. That allows you to preview it and evaluate its contents before you sit down with them to watch it. Then, as you watch it with them, you can stop, pause and have a discussion when you need to. Mitra Nourbakhsh is a sophomore studying Journalism and International Studies with a minor in Data Science at Northwestern University.
As distinct from advertising, which deals with marketing distinct from news, public relations involves the techniques of influencing news in order to give a certain impression to the public. A standard public relations tactic, the “third-party technique”, is the creation of seemingly independent organizations, which can deliver objective-sounding statements to news organizations without revealing their corporate connections.
