Yonhap News Agency: Gatekeeper of International News in Korea

Abstract

Nowadays most international news comes from the Big Four agencies: Associated Press (AP), United Press International (UPI), Reuters, and Agence France Presse (AFP). These world news agencies not only collect news from most countries and territories of the world, they also distribute the news to most of the world's countries and territories.1 They are the paramount sources of world news. However, once the news departs from the world news agencies, it is at the disposal of other gatekeepers. Even though most of these gatekeepers do not have an ability to cover the news, and so cannot add to the amount of raw news, they can exert a gatekeeping power by their selective percep tion of world news. By controlling the size of their news hole, by controlling the news selection and by many other means, these gatekeepers can control the flow of foreign news. If their gatekeeping is effective and strong, the whole picture of the world news flow can be transformed, causing at least a partial diminution in the influence of the world news agencies. Among these many foreign news gatekeepers, the national news agencies, which are the coupled systems between the world news agencies and the domestic news media, have an extremely important role in the world news flow.2