The Caribbean story on CNN report: Just what is development news?

Abstract

One of the criticisms made in the 1970s of the media in the English-speaking Caribbean was that, even when given the opportunity to do so, they did not report on the region's advances, or development. This criticism is significant in light of the position taken by Caribbean and other developing countries on the New World Information Orderdebate of the 1970s. This study content analyzed news stories submitted to CNN World Report by broadcast stations of the Caribbean to determine whether the criticism made of the Caribbean media in the 1970s still have relevance. Further, the study suggests new ways to define "development news", and challenges previous definitions as being too narrow. The authors found that a large proportion of the Caribbean story, as told on World Report, comprised development news.