National News Agencies Research Articles

Pacnews

An inordinately large proportion of news carried in the world’s mass media originate from European and American news agencies. Many governments have tried to correct this imbalance by sponsoring national news agencies to generate stories for domestic and international consumption. A number of news exchanges have also begun operation. This study examines one of them–the Pacific News Service, or Pacnews–by spotlighting its history, objectives and operations before giving a performance appraisal.

Islam and Information

I. INDEPENDENT NEWS AGENCIESFour major international news agencies-Associated Press, Reuters, UnitedPress and Agence France Presse-gather and distribute much if not most ofthe international news (be it “hard,” breaking news or “soft” news features)published and broadcast in the world?They transmit in English and French as well as a number of commerciallysignificant and logistically easy regional languages. (A.P. transmits a dailyservice in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Swedish and offers anArabic features service by mail. Reuters and AFP offer a daily news file inArabic.) Most of this news is now transmitted point-to-point either by landline,microwave link, satellite or some combination of these methods which havelargely replaced radio wireless transmission over the past ten years. The newtechnology is much more effective; much less subject to failure and climaticinterference but much more expensive. Point-to-point telex is also sometimesused as a fall back position where radio wireless transmission is still in use.The Associated Press, as an example, has 8,500 subscribers in 150 countriesoutside of the United States for its World Service. But the extent thatBig Four news dominates international news is much greater than the numberof subscribers would indicate, since many national news agencies subscribeto one or more of the Big Four services and then edit and re-transmit thematerial as part of their own news service to hundreds or even thousands oflocal news outlets; e. g. Tass-which subscribes to the Associated Pressservice-has approximately 6,000 subscribers in the Soviet Union.As the number of full-time foreign correspondents for newspapers continuesto decline due to increasing costs and as mass media has proliferatedthroughout the Third World over the past few decades, the Big Four and othernews agencies have expanded in size ...

Yonhap News Agency: Gatekeeper of International News in Korea

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

Bernama in the Asean News Exchange — 1982

abstractThe Malaysian national news agency is not only an active partner in the Asean News Exchange. Since 1981, it has become the nerve-centre of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OA...

A new world information order: cooperation is the key word

In the last issue. Media Asia covered the proceedings of the International Conference, “Toward a New World Information Order: Consequences for Development Policy”, held in Bonn, December 1978. In this sequel, the reports of the working groups are presented. The first section discusses international cooperation in the field of print media and national news agencies. Subsequent sections deal with international cooperation in television, radio and film production and training; regional and international news exchange and research. The conference was sponsored by the Institute for International Relations and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

National news agencies with special reference to plurilingual countries

The national press agencies have an integrative function in modern society. In fact, for the most they were founded to defend the national interests against the external influence of the international press agencies. In plurilingual countries where great cultural diversities create problems in the selection of news, in the linguistic capacities of the news personnel and in the quality of news translation, the national news agencies serve as an important link between the various cultural communities. The authors selected five plurilingual countries : Canada, Belgium, Finland, South Africa and Switzerland. They describe how these countries' national press agencies are organized, their linguistic practices, their clients and the problems they face. Finally, the question is raised as to the impact of the technological innovations on the relationship between national and international news agencies. The more the process of news distribution is automated the less the national agencies are able to rewrite, to interpret, to set the news in their own particular national scope or context.

The Route of International News To the Press of Afghanistan Through Bakhtar, the Afghan National News Agency: a Flow Study

The Route of International News To the Press of Afghanistan Through Bakhtar, the Afghan National News Agency: a Flow Study