Can Print Journalism be Truly Global:
A Case Study of Five Newspapers from the Middle East Region
by Deniz Tunaoglu

Deniz Tunaoglu is a Turkish MA student in the Media Studies program with interests in popular culture, advertising and globalization.

". . . the world consists of individual and national actors, and since it is axiomatic that action is cased on the actor's image of reality, international action will be based on the image of international reality. This image is not shaped by the news media. . . alone; personal relations abroad, diplomatic dispatches, etc., count too -whether less, equally much or more, we do not know. But the regularity, ubiquity and perseverance of news media will in any case make them first-rate competitors for the number one position as international image-former . . ."(Galtung and Ruge, 1965, pp64-90).

 

THE STUDY

This study aims to determine the effect of globalization on five international newspapers from around the Middle East region by analyzing the international news content and presentation format of the papers. The Middle East has become a frequently-mentioned region in the international news section of papers throughout the world, mainly due to the war in Iraq. Therefore what appears as international news in many papers from other regions constitutes the regional news of the papers of this region. A study of their international news content, then, can reveal what gets mentioned, and in what manner, as international news, other than the main global agenda. All papers are published in English-- or at least have an English version-- as international papers, leading one to the assumption that they will have wider international news coverage
than local papers. The specific five papers are chosen according to the availability of their print version in New York. Al-Ahram from Egypt, Tehran Times from Iran, Jordan Times from Jordan, Kuwait Times from Kuwait and Turkish Daily News from Turkey are studied for a period of one week for their format, and two days for their content (September 15th-16th, 2004). Although the main focus was on the international news section of these papers, the front page and the general format of the papers also contributed to the findings. The five countries are geographically close to each other, have some degree of freedom of press and are "non-Western." The existence of a common agenda on global and regional platforms, the diversity, source and presentation format of international news, regional and national differences among papers, common traits in foreign reporting in the five papers, common differences from the Western press both in content and format: all these will be studied to investigate the hypothesis that print media in general still have a national and regional focus, despite globalization. The papers from Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, and Egypt are expected to have a stronger commonality among them, as they are from the Arab world, whereas the Turkish paper, although geographically close to these countries, recently focuses more on Turkey’s economic and political relations with Europe and the United States, due to Turkey’s current foreign policy, and therefore is expected to have a different approach to international news. Egypt’s geographical location on the African continent is expected to cause Al-Ahram to have a different approach than the other four papers, despite strong ties to the Middle East region. Although they are from the same region, all papers are expected to vary from each other as their presses have different histories and contexts in which they operate.

THE METHODOLOGY

Format analysis of the papers is concerned with the categorization of news and especially international news. The number of pages allocated for the section, the labeling of the section, categorization within the international news, if applicable, are investigated as they indicate, to some degree, what that paper defines as international news. A regional trend is expected among papers, as found by earlier, broader studies. The content analysis assumes a difference between a general global agenda, a regional agenda, a national agenda and international news. For instance, news on the war in Iraq is part of a global agenda that is common to almost all papers and therefore is not considered international news. Similarly regional news, for instance about the Arab world, are not considered as international news. News on other countries involving a local twist, like a speech made by the president of country A about country B, or an agreement between countries A and B are not considered international news either. International news is defined to be news of another country that does not directly result from any sort of relationship between the home country and the reported one. In many cases, international news involves a local actor in the story; however this study is interested in news about another country that gets published without a local interest in mind.

THE RESULTS

1.There is a common global agenda in the five papers which is in accordance with the rest of the world. The war in Iraq appears as the front page news in all papers in almost every issue during the period surveyed. One major difference from the rest of the world-- while a strong commonality between the five papers-- is the emphasis on innocent deaths of Iraqis: collateral damage, civilian deaths. The papers do not take a fundamentalist / Islamist approach in covering this issue; the humanitarian concern seems genuine. General criticism of US failure in establishing peace is also common to almost all issues of all papers. Therefore even the global agenda is reported with a common regional view point, that is evident in the angle from which Iraq war news are reported, and the selection of what to report regarding this issue. Although more than half of the news on this issue comes from the four main news agencies, what is reported and the format it is reported in carry strong regional signatures. Almost all countries are directly affected by the war, and their concerns are reported from local reporters as much as possible.

2. In almost all papers, except for the Turkish one, there is a strong regional agenda that gets reported on every issue with extensive detail: the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. Papers concentrate on the innocent deaths of Palestinians, either slightly or strongly favoring the Palestinian side. The Turkish papers also mention the conflict very frequently, although not devoting as much detail and space to it as the other papers do. Moreover the four papers have a section devoted to regional issues while the Turkish paper does not have a separate regional section. The other four papers report on the Arab world as extensively as they report on national issues.

5. Entertainment news and ‘back page’ news -soft news- tend to be about content originating from the West, mainly from Hollywood. Popular culture in this regard has a very Western, -if not solely American- nature; and the reliance on the West for this type of news can be an indication of relying on the West for popular culture.

6. Natural disasters, terror attacks, and climate news about other parts of world are very common and, depending on the intensity and extremity of the event, may get reported on the front page. Political scandals, elections, economic and political meetings and agreements also have space on the front page and constitute the main content for foreign reporting. The "bad news is good news" motto is certainly true when it comes to foreign reporting.

7. The two papers Tehran Times and Kuwait Times have surprisingly extensive international content. Tehran Times regionally divided the world with emphasis also on non-Western countries. Kuwait Times has five pages of international news. Also, news on Africa is included by the two papers. The formats of these papers are similar to the format of the web pages of the main news agencies, where most of their foreign news originates.

9. One other thing to note is that, while media systems researched in this study have a regional focus, the region defined by the media system may not always be in accordance with geographical and political regions defined by West. Though Turkey is geographically and politically associated with the Middle East as much, if not more, than it is associated with Europe, the media's focus, or the defined region for Turkish media, is Europe, for the paper studied. Therefore, region, in this case, may not strictly be a factor of geography, but rather a factor of political relations.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

PRINT JOURNALISM IS LARGELY CONCERNED WITH LOCAL AND REGIONAL ISSUES, CONCERNS.

The front pages of the papers concentrate on updates of the war in Iraq and main major national issues. The reason for this regionalism can be found in the nature of print and efficiency of distribution of print material. Newspapers, especially if they are daily, give current, very up to date information. The value of this information diminishes greatly if distribution of the paper is delayed due to physical constraints. Print can not travel long distances immediately. Internet and satellite TV do a far better job in distributing immediate information. So the concept of global newspaper is a little hard to carry out. Print is not the right medium for the job. As it is locally distributed, it still concentrates on local issues. The presence of an oil\petrol page in addition to an economics section reveals the local nature of the Arab papers for instance. This finding is in accordance with the previous studies done on print media and globalization.

"...the other universal finding is the prime importance of regionalism. In all the national media systems studied much attention and emphasis was given to events occurring within, and actors belonging to, the geographical region in which the country was situated." (Sreberny-Mohammadi and Nordensberg, 1985, p50).

THERE IS A CLEAR GLOBAL AGENDA.

Local reporting or at least reporting with a local viewpoint in the selection of news- newsworthiness- and wording of the global agenda, seem to be a common trend in these papers. Therefore what is global is also presented in a local context, for a local audience. The editorial for Tehran Times is very revealing about the point of view of this paper on international issues:

"From the start, Al-Ahram Weekly set out to provide the English-language reader with objective, in-depth coverage of the Egyptian and Arab scenes: politics, economy, culture and society. The challenge we set ourselves was to do this from "an Egyptian perspective". As we hope our readers will have realized over the past years, this has never meant whitewashing or propaganda, but rather providing as honest and objective a look at contemporary Egyptian and Arab reality as possible -- as seen through Egyptian and Arab eyes" (Guindy, 1998).

The global agenda carries great importance as expected, always published on the front page with extensive detail and frequent updates. Opinion pieces very frequently mention the global agenda. Therefore although print is said to have a regional nature, events that have severe global consequences for the whole world are regarded as important as- if not more important than- the national agenda. [[??] However, this global agenda is also ‘construction’.[?]] For instance, the US election campaigns were part of the global agenda for most of the papers. The outcome of the election will have global consequences, as it determines the policy makers of a global agent; however the campaign itself may not have direct global implications; yet it is reported globally. Usually US and Western Europe are the actors of the global agenda, just as the Western news agencies are the creators of this agenda; and therefore Western regions are mentioned more frequently and extensively than the rest of the world. This can be due to both their established global role in international relations, and the Western-oriented agenda created by media institutions.

THERE IS ALSO A CLEAR REGIONAL AGENDA.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict constituted the main regional agenda. All papers addressed the issue daily, and opinion pieces discussed it frequently. A whole section named as ‘regional news’, devoted to the Arab world proves the ‘regionality’ of print journalism. The Turkish paper was an exception in the sense that it had a more nationally focused agenda than the other four papers. Yet the Israeli-Palestinian issue was also mentioned frequently in its international news section. Local reporting was used in regional matters and the papers had a clear local viewpoint. The national agenda, which sometimes appeared within the regional agenda, is almost always reported by local reporters, given the most detail and space, and therefore constitutes the most important aspect of reporting for the papers. Therefore one can conclude that print media seems most interested in the national issues.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS COMES FROM MAINLY FOUR NEWS AGENCIES OF WESTERN SOURCE

Even on important international news, there was almost never local reporting. The four main news agencies are used by all papers. Selection from a pool of news offered by these four agencies results in misrepresentation of the world. The agencies are of western origin and although claiming to be objective, due to the nature of journalism, do carry a viewpoint. "It is often said (given the variety of constraints that impinge upon the production of international news) that the problem in news reporting is not so much what to include, but what to omit. Perhaps more important than the question of whether the West is over-represented in international news is the problem of the severe under-representation of certain other parts of the world. There is even a marked shortage of news about other developing regions in the media of any given developing nation, so that it is still true to say that the peripheral nations do not write or read much about each other, especially not across bloc borders." (Sreberny-Mohammadi and Nordensberg, 1985, p. 50).The papers themselves, in choosing from what the news agencies offer, engage in this omitting; however, and more importantly, the agencies, in creating the pool of world news, have to omit certain kinds of information with regards to their definition of news value and their stance.

"It could also be argued, however, that the selection is restricted, as it is taken from an already limited agenda -an agenda which is influenced, if not entirely provided, by the major news agencies. Moreover, these well-nigh universal agencies, because of their dominance and the support of other forces, have contributed to the socialization of news professionals by reinforcing certain understandings and beliefs as to what news really is, thereby helping to set the agenda in yet another way." (Sreberny-Mohammadi and Nordensberg, 1985, p50).Therefore there is standardization in the international news due to globalization; however this globalization is not on a media content level (we do not receive more diverse information), it is rather the standardized reporting relying on a few multinational agencies for international content.

"...but what does appear to have become almost universal is the selection of the same foci in international news reporting." (Sreberny-Mohammadi and Nordensberg, 1985, p50).Therefore throughout the world the same news circulates, with no alternative source to cite from. When considering the role of the press in creating meanings, this poses a problem in creating the meanings associated with globalization, and world and international relations
between countries.

"In the current situation of international news, the dominant producers determine the nature of the product, its marketing and distribution, and even its presentation. There is not a great deal of room for alternative producers, or for different conceptions and approaches to international news. The quite remarkable similarity between the patterns of attention identified in so many media systems, and what is actually produced by the major wire services........suggests strongly that these services not only continue to set the agenda for what counts as news, but also (despite the aforementioned 'secondary gate-keeping' function) continue to provide much of the language in news presentation" (Sreberny-Mohammadi and Nordensberg, 1985, p51).

FORMAT SUITS REGIONAL APPROACH

The most interesting finding about the format is how the four Arab papers have structured their format to fit their approach to journalism. They have regional news sections, which are not so common in Western papers, separate from an international or world news section. Some of the papers have separate sections for religion or oil, again, proving that these papers are designed with local and regional concerns in mind.

Some papers have adapted a more internationally suitable format, dividing the international news section into regions and reporting in that manner with relatively extensive content. This resembles a web page format of a news agency. The international news presented by these papers, in its content, source and format, also resembles what would be presented on a news portal. The local reporters and editorials are unique to national and regional news. Most papers however, have kept the traditional one or two page international news format, with very limited international content.

AUDIENCE FACTOR

As seen in the results, some papers are published in a news portal format with great emphasis on international news, like the Kuwait Times, whereas some concentrate heavily on a truly national agenda, like the Turkish Daily News. Two points need to be clarified about this. Firstly, even if there is a strong international news content, this comes from the four main news agencies of Western origin, and therefore does not reflect true global content. It is up to the editors of the papers to choose how much of the stories offered by these four agencies to publish in the paper. Here, a frequently criticized aspect of globalization, dependency of the developing world on Western information technologies, and in this case, massive multinational media companies, becomes evident. Due to cost factors, almost none of the newspapers can afford to have a reporter in each region, causing them to rely on information created and provided by the main four news agencies, on countries out of reach. Even though the Kuwait Times devoted extensive space to international news, all the articles were from the four news agencies. Therefore the difference between the amounts of international news content between these papers does not reflect different approaches or reactions to globalization of media, nor does it reflect the different levels of globalization of the five particular newspapers. It is true, however, that the papers with international content as much as Kuwait Times are targeted to a more international audience. This points to another very frequently mentioned aspect of globalization: movement of people. As these papers are distributed in print form, although all have online versions, they are also targeted at foreigners living in these countries. While explaining the current events from a local point of view to the rest of the world in the common language of English, their main audience remains the foreigners in the distribution region. Even with an audience like this, the papers maintain a regional focus, further proving that print journalism is more concerned with local and regional issues. Al-Ahram and Turkish Daily News, being the more nationally focused papers, target a more national audience; serving as English versions of the local papers. What is common in these two different approaches is the presence of a strongly regional concern in international and regional news sections. The Turkish paper is mostly concerned with Europe, Cyprus, and its northern neighbors while the other four are concentrating on the Arab world. International news that is reported in many cases requires some sort of a direct implication in order to be reported. For instance trade, politics, arts, entertainment and academic meetings about a different country require a direct participation of the reporting country or an actor of the event to be a national of that country, in order to be included.

CONCLUSION

Print media functions better with regional coverage in the current structure of news making. The focus of the papers studied remains regional, because even when they devote space for international content, what gets reported is the content derived from one large, yet pre-selected, source of events, in a rather shallow, repetitive manner. The global agenda and some very important, unexpected, 'high news value' events may get special coverage, yet in many cases, international news are supplied with a limited choice and certain language by four multinational news agencies from the West. Therefore taking the West as the core, the periphery communicates information about the periphery through the West, as criticized earlier, and does so almost as a pre-requisite for being considered an international paper. The extensive news coverage of Kuwait Times did not necessarily reflect a Kuwaiti perspective on the news, even in the selection of what to publish. The big four agencies create an agenda for the world, and due to the economics and the structure of news reporting, it becomes very hard to find a cheaper alternative to their material. Print media is therefore most efficient in regional and national coverage. It still prefers to keep and focus on a regional approach, while mentioning the international arena in a standardized, shallow manner. This ‘regionality’ can be explained by multiple factors. Firstly the economics of news reporting makes it almost impossible to send reporters throughout the world. Secondly, there might be no demand for an alternative approach to international news. Political, economic, social and cultural concerns, at least on a daily basis, can have a more regional nature than one might think. Direct effect on one's life may be the main criteria for news worthiness. Print, as argued before, may not be the main source of international news for the region and papers studied. Detail is needed in regional and national events and supplied by newspaper articles, editorials etc. International news, on the other hand, is also available in print, but also on the internet and TV, not necessarily with greater detail, nor with an alternative view point, but definitely with greater immediacy. Editorials on international events can be found in specialty magazines or issues of periodicals, rather than in daily newspapers. Globalization has not taken place in the form of content exchange between local reporters. The outcome of globalization in media for the region and the papers studied seems to be the addition of an international news page (as compared to the former studies, the international content of Middle Eastern press has increased, especially for Iran), that is supplied the same news by the main four news agencies operating.

REFERENCES:

Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi with Kaarle, Nordenstreng, Robert
Stevenson and Frank Ugboajah. Foreign News in the Media: International
Reporting in 29 Countries, (1985) HYPERLINK "http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0006/000652/065257eo.pdf" \t "_blank" http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0006/000652/065257eo.pdf

Hosny Guindy, Letter from the Editor, HYPERLINK "http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/letter.htm" http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/letter.htm.

Robert Stevenson, Mapping the News of The World, (2003).
www.unc.edu/~rlstev/Text/Carter%20Festschrift.pdf

Shelton A. Gunaratne, Prospects and Limitations of World System Theory for Media Analysis, The Case of the Middle East and North Africa, (2001).
www.mnstate.edu/gunarat/prospects.pdf