Australian Foreign News Coverage in the Global News Environment

Abstract

This research project will examine whether the cultural training that news editors receive in their organisations affects their international news selection, and whether this ultimately affects international news reportage in Australia. The study is based on previous research focusing on three main areas of scholarship, drawn from a wider range of international theatres. These three bodies of work focus on: (1) factors affecting the selection, construction and presentation of international news; (2) how news editors and news directors function as gatekeepers of international news within newsrooms, and how they prioritise international news; and (3) whether cultural training occurs in Australian newsrooms, and if so, how it influences the gatekeeper’s news selection process, and through it, world news coverage in the Australian news media. This study partially replicated research completed by Australian media scholar Peter Putnis in 1996 (Putnis 1996), and extended it to three Brisbane news bulletins: a commercial television bulletin, a public radio news bulletin, and a commercial online portal. The data obtained from the news bulletins were gathered during a constructed week to analyse whether the selection and framing around the presentation of international news in Australia had changed since Putnis’ seminal work. In addition to the aforementioned qualitative analysis of media content, a number of news editors and media experts across Australia were interviewed to determine their self-perception of gatekeeping responsibilities; and assess their degree of agency as gatekeepers in conjunction with institutional news priorities and directions. Within this framework, the gatekeepers were asked how important cultural training was for them and how they believed such training changed the reporting outcomes. These interviews were then used to develop a radio documentary that was broadcast on the national community radio network. Using these interviews as both data for qualitative research and source content for a media production demonstrates how such information-gathering methodologies are shared and used in both journalism studies research and journalism production. The argument proposed in this study is that international news is not prioritised in Australian journalism; and that a lack of world news coverage persists because Australian news editors believe international news is not important to their audiences —even though Australia is a multicultural country. It then argues, based on interviews with news editors and news directors, that cultural training is needed to create awareness about events happening outside Australia. These research aims are demonstrated through both the series of radio documentaries, and the exegetical component of this work.