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• Summary
• Bibliography

INTRODUCTION 

In the next section, we will uncover the history of news media, discuss the Big Four news agencies, and examine several international newspapers and the New York Times to determine the influence of Western wire agencies on the coverage of global news. 

 In order to understand how media has become so widespread and influential, we must first look how media has develop throughout the centuries?  From the time the first newspaper was printed in Germany in 1609 ‘til today media has changed dramatically. Changes in media technology have been instrumental to the growth of newspapers and broadcasting networks around the world. The printing press made it possible to mass-produce newspapers, but that was just the beginning.  The telegraph invented in 1844 by Morse made communication across cities possible. Then in 1865, an Atlantic cable from the U.S. to Europe made instant communication possible. In the span of twenty-one years, newspapers went from reporting and transmitting news locally to overseas instantly. The invention of the telephone in 1876 facilitated the transmission of news to other parts of the U.S. and world.  In 1885, newspapers start using trains to deliver their paper daily.  News expands from just newspaper to radio with the first broadcast talk in 1909.  Advancements in radio make it possible to connect the U.S. and Japan via a wireless radio service.  The birth of network news begins in 1926 when NBC comes on line followed by CBS in 1927.  The first television sets are placed in three homes in 1928 followed by the first scheduled broadcasts in 1928.  CBS ushers in the modern news casting era when it debut’s “World News Roundup” in 1938.  The following year 1939, regular television broadcasting begins and the expansion of mass media is underway. 

Not to be outdone by its competitor CBS, NBC presents the first network newscast in 1944.  Five years later, network television begins in the U.S.  Transmitting television signals overseas became a reality in 1962, when a satellite called Telestar transmitted an image across the Atlantic. The following year in 1963, a communications satellite is placed in geo-synchronous orbit and global communication is born.  Four years later in 1966, fiber optic cables multiply the number of communication channels around the world.  Ted Turner’s CNN comes on-line in 1980 with the first 24-hours news channel. 
By 1991, CNN dominates news coverage worldwide with live coverage of the Gulf War.  The spread of Western media throughout the world prompts several nations to ban or restrict satellite reception in order to reduce Western influence. By 1995, the Internet has become the next big communication frontier.  This belief leads several major dailies in the U.S. to create a national on-line newspaper network (Source – The Media History Project web site). 

Although technology has been critical to the growth of global news flow, the Big Four news wire agencies have been responsible for delivering the information to news agencies who in turn use modern technology to report the news worldwide. How influential are the Big Four news wire agencies?  They are responsible for half of the world’s news. Two out of the four major wire service agencies, AP and UPI are American owned. Another one, Reuters is traded publicly on the NASDAQ exchange. It is safe to assume that a portion of it is American owned.  Last but not least, AFP is the only non-Anglo-American member of the global wire agencies. 
 “In May 1848, 10 men representing six competitive New York newspapers met to discuss pooling resources to collect the latest news from Europe”, the Associated Press AP was born. From its inception AP has reported news and even covered some historic events such as the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.  Today, AP is considered the world’s oldest and largest news organization .The AP has 144 U.S. bureaus, 93 international bureaus in 71 countries and 237 total bureaus worldwide.  It serves 1,700 U.S. newspapers, 6,000 radio/TV outlets, 750 AP Network News (largest single network in the U.S.), 55 All News Radio stations, AP’s 24-hour news radio network, 210 International broadcasters, and distributes 8,500 AP news and photos to International subscribers in six languages in 112 countries (Source – AP web site). 

UPI or United Press International is the world’s largest privately owned news service .  It was the first American news service to supply news to radio stations. UPI offers several different services: UPI U.S. and International News, UPI Arabic News Service, UPI Spanish Language Services, UPI Business/Financial, UPI Broadcast and UPI Feature (Source – UPI web site).  UPI serves about 6,000 customers in 100 countries, maintains 105 correspondents in 81 countries outside the U.S. and issues approximately 14 million words a day (Stevenson, 1994: 289). 

 Reuters originally a British organization is now publicly traded. It supplies the global business and news media with the widest range of information and news products including real-time financial data, transaction and risk management systems, numerical, textual, historical and graphical databases, news, news video and news pictures.  Reuters also designs and installs trading room systems.  Current users of Reuters worldwide are 457,000 in 57,200 organizations. Reuters claims to be the world’s largest news and television agency with 2,035 journalists, photographers and cameramen in 169 bureaus serving 163 countries.  News is gathered and edited in 25 languages and approximately 1.5 to 2 million words are transmitted daily.  Reuters Television news coverage is used by 290 subscribers plus their networks and affiliates in 93 countries.  On June 30, 1998, the Group employed 16,699 staff in 215 cities in 91 countries (Source – Reuters web site). 

Charles Havas, the father of global journalism, founded AFP or Agence France Presse in 1835.  It currently has regional headquarters in Paris, Washington, Hong Kong and Nicosia. There the news is produced 365 days a years, 24 hours a day in six languages and then transmitted via satellite to clients around the world.  AFP client base consists of: 650 newspapers and magazines worldwide, 400 radio and TV stations, 1,500 companies and public agencies, around 100 national news agencies which themselves distribute AFP news to 7,600 other newspapers, 2,500 radio stations and 400 TV station AFP has reporters and photographers working in over 165 countries and has an estimated world audience of two billion people (Source – AFP web site). 

The global dominance of the Big Four can be seen in newspapers throughout the world.  The fact that they deliver the news to over half the world means that whether you buy a newspaper in the U.S., Costa Rica, India, Australia, Middle East, Hong Kong or Malaysia, chances are you’ll find the story attributed to one of the Big Four agencies. 
 This global dominance of news flow has been criticized by many around the world.   As I mentioned earlier in the history of news media, some countries have banned or restricted satellite reception in order to reduce Western influence in their culture. 
 
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berkowitz, Dan. (1990).  "Refining the Gatekeeping Metaphor for Local  Television News" in Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, vol. 34. pp. 55-68. 

Breed, Warren. (1955).  "Social Control in the Newsroom: A Functional 
Analysis" in Social Forces. Eds. G. Blackwell and K. Jocher.  The 
Williams and Wilkins Co. Vol.  33; Nos. 1-4. pp. 329-332. 

“Latin America: Neighbor information scapes.”  Information Today  Jan. 1994: 39-41. 

“Latin TV sees jump in business.”  Electronic Media  24 Jan. 1994: 146. 

McCombs, Maxwell. (1992).  "News Influence on Our Pictures of the 
World" in Bryant Jennings and Dolf Zillman eds. 

“Needs Put at $50 - $80 Billion.”  Communications Daily 13 Nov. 1992: 6. 

“New Industry Born.”  Communication Daily  6 Sept. 1995: 3. 

Severin, Werner J. and James W. Tankard, Jr.  (1997).  Communication Theories:  Origins, Methods, and Uses in the Mass Media, Fourth Edition. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. 

Shoemaker, Pamela J.  (1996).  "Media Gatekeeping" in An Integrated 
Approach to Communication Theory and Research. Eds. Michael B. Salwen and Don W. Stacks.  Mahweh, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 

Sreberny-Mohammadi, Annabelle. (1995).  "Global News Media Cover the World" in Questioning the Media: A Critical Introduction, Second  Edition. Eds. John Downing, Ali Mohammadi, and Annabelle  Sreberny-Mohammadi. London: Sage Publications. 

Stevenson, Robert L.  (1994).  Global Communication in the Twenty-First Century.  New York: Longman Publishing Group. 

WEB SITES: 

http://www.ap.org 
http://www.cnn.com 
http://www.escapeartist.com/media/media.htm 
http://hyperion.advanced.org/10455 
http://www.itar-tass.com 
http://mediahistory.com/ 
http://www.reuters.com 
http://www.upi.com