International News Coverage in Domestic Media

International TV news, foreign affairs interest and public knowledge

"This article investigates the volume of foreign news provided by public service and commercial TV channels in countries with different media systems, and how this corresponds to the public's interest in and knowledge of foreign affairs. We use content analyses of television newscasts and public opinion surveys in 11 countries across five continents to provide new insight into the supply and demand for international television news. We find that (1) more market-oriented media systems and broadcasters are less devoted to international news, and (2) the international news offered by these commercial broadcasters more often focuses on soft rather than hard news. Furthermore, our results suggest that the foreign news offered by the main TV channels is quite limited in scope, and mainly driven by a combination of national interest and geographic proximity. In sum, our study demonstrates some limitations of foreign news coverage, but results also point to its importance: there is a positive relationship between the amount of hard international news coverage and citizens' level of foreign affairs knowledge...

Hamilton (2010) argues that it is predominantly market influence that has pushed the US media system towards this reduction in international news coverage. Because international public affairs stories are more costly to create and yet receive low interest from the audience, this type of news tends to lose out in editorial meetings. Scholars have thus expressed concern about the future of this important area of news coverage; indeed, some have even predicted that international news is an ‘‘endangered species’’ (Emery 1989; Kalb 1990)...

Media outlets in many countries are becoming increasingly market-oriented and entertainment-centred (Hallin and Mancini 2004)*essentially, more similar to the US media...

Market-oriented media systems marginalize foreign affairs coverage more than media systems dominated by regulation and public service broadcasting...

As a response to corporate demands for larger profits and an increasingly fragmented audience, the coverage of international news by US media has declined significantly over the years. According to one estimate, US television news executives have reduced the space and time devoted to foreign coverage by 70 percent since the end of the Cold War (Shaw 2001). Moisy (1996) suggests that while national networks devoted 45 percent of the time to foreign news in 1970, this share was down to 13.5 percent in 1995. Similarly, Norris (1995) shows how the end of the Cold War seemed to be a turning point in Americans’ interest in the outside world. She demonstrates how the end of the Cold War brought a sharp increase in the number of foreign news items on American television (CBS and ABC) for a brief transition period (1990 1991), followed by a ‘‘dramatic fall’’ starting in 1992. From an all-time high of 41 percent of all news stories on network television in 1991, it went down to 29 percent in 1992 and 24 percent in 1993.

Evidence of a similar decline in foreign news coverage has also been found in Europe. National TV networks throughout Europe seem to have gradually given less priority to international news. This happens regardless of the fact that the number of news programs has increased over the same period (Papathanassopoulos 2002). In a British study by the Media Standards Trust, researchers found that while 20 percent of each paper was reserved for foreign news coverage in 1979, this figure had fallen to just 11 percent by 2009 (Moore 2010)...

It is certainly a global trend that television is becoming more market-driven and entertainment-centered, in that there has been a large increase in the number of privately owned television channels, facilitated by the growth of cable and satellite TV, and that positive program requirements on commercial channels have tended to be reduced... television systems in many parts of the world are becoming more like the US model (Hallin and Mancini 2004).

There are nevertheless still important differences in the ways in which different countries have arranged their television systems. At one end is the market-based television system of the United States, where public television accounts for less than 2 percent of audience time, and where a more entertainment-oriented commercial television system is no longer under any legal obligation to inform the public (Hamilton 2004). At the other end of the spectrum is Norway, where public channels in 2006 accounted for 44 percent of viewing time, and where the principal commercial television channels still are extensively regulated (Aalberg, van Aelst, and Curran 2010)...

Research comparing audience interest in news topics and editorial judgments of the same matter has shown wide mismatching (see e.g. Hargrove and Stempel 2002). A comparison between editors’ and readers’ ‘‘top stories’’, as polled in the United States for 1995 1999, showed 48 percent agreement and no correlation between audience interest in news and actual coverage (Tai and Chang 2002). This study suggests that news editors do not necessarily give audiences what they want, and that other forces may have a stronger influence on the news agenda.

What are the likely consequences of foreign affairs being marginalized in mainstream news coverage? It certainly represents a major challenge to the ideal of the informed citizen, as citizens need relevant and up-to date information about current affairs, domestic as well as international, in order to have (and act on) informed political preferences...

Dimock and Popkin... show that Europeans were very much better informed about world events than Americans, and suggest that this is due to ‘‘substantial differences between countries in the communication of knowledge by TV’’ (1997, 223)... studies suggest that there is a negative relationship between the level of commercial media and general news knowledge...

As expected, foreign news represents a minority of the news profile among national broadcasters in all 11 countries, but there is significant variation. Canada, Norway, and the United Kingdom devote a relatively large share of their newscast to foreign affairs. In the first two countries broadcasters devote about one-third of the newscast to international news while two-thirds of the newscast focuses on domestic matters. At the other end of the scale we find Australia, India, and the United States, which clearly prioritize domestic news much more highly than international news. The US broadcasters devote 14 percent of their evening news bulletins to international events while 86 percent focus on domestic stories. Measured as the proportion of total news, the Australian broadcasters were even less concerned with foreign affairs, with only 12 percent of the newscast devoted to international news...

In five of nine countries included, the public service channel (PBS) devotes a larger proportion of its newscast to international news, with the greatest gap found in three of the European countries: Norway, the United Kingdom, and Greece. The public service broadcasters in Australia and India also seem to prioritize international news more highly than the private broadcaster. In a minority of the countries we find a reversed gap, indicating that it is the private broadcasters who are most dedicated in their supply of international news. The private broadcasters in Italy, South Korea, and Japan provided a much higher share of international news than the public service channel in these countries. There was also a small gap in favour of the private broadcaster in Canada...

One potential explanation may be that we have not yet controlled for the type of international news the two types of broadcasters focus on. Perhaps a more distinct pattern emerges if we separate between hard and soft news categories. Not all international news can be classified as hard news, providing insight into political affairs and policy debates in other countries. On the contrary, there is reason to believe that a substantial share of the international news also consists of soft news and crime (as would be the case for the domestic news category)...

It is clear that most of the international and foreign news presented to the public in our 11 countries can be classified as hard news. It is also interesting to note that, as expected, the public service broadcasters devote more of their international coverage to hard news topics. On average, 56 percent of the international public service news can be classified as hard news, while the private broadcasters on average only devote 41 percent of their international coverage to hard news. The reverse pattern holds if we look at the soft news category...

The greatest media focus is on neighboring countries. Moreover, when non-Asian countries do focus on Asia, there is a large degree of national self-interest involved. On US television news, 13 percent of the international news related to the war in Afghanistan, while 9 percent of British television news focused on Afghanistan. The share was considerably lower for other countries that also had troops in Afghanistan, including Canada (4 percent), Australia (4 percent), Norway (2 percent), Italy and South Korea (1 percent). The more ‘‘peripheral’’ regions received less attention among our sample countries. South America, for instance, seemed to be a blind spot for Asian and Australian news editors. Eastern Europe also received relatively little coverage across all our 11 countries, as did Africa, although the latter did receive some attention typically related to the conflict in Somalia (United States and United Kingdom) or to the world championship in South Africa.

Hamilton (2010) suggested that low levels of foreign affairs coverage are due to lack of audience interest. The survey data gathered for this project do confirm that citizens in all countries find domestic news more interesting than international news...

The US public, compared to citizens in other countries, do not appear to be particularly disinterested in international news. On the contrary, the United States now ranks as one of the countries where people are most interested in international affairs... Respondents in Norway, Canada, and Italy, countries who all ranked at the upper end on the news supply scale, are somewhat less interested than the US respondents, suggesting a rather weak correlation between news interest and news supply. In fact it seems as if there is a quite striking mismatch between the supply and demand of international news in the Australian and the US case, but also for the Greek case, the latter probably caused by the international financial crises...

The Norwegians were most knowledgeable about the Copenhagen Summit, but a considerable share of other Europeans as well as Americans and Australians were able to identify the purpose of this world conference. Respondents in the three Asian countries were less aware of this event. A similar expected and geographical structure appears when we focus on respondents’ ability to identify Angela Merkel. Most Europeans are well aware of the German Chancellor, while respondents in other parts of the world were not able to identify the German leader. The Russian politician Vladimir Putin was also identified by most Europeans, and although respondents in other countries were somewhat less aware of Mr. Putin, a clear majority in all countries were able to answer this question correctly.

Turning to the questions with an Asian origin, the patterns are more mixed. Not surprisingly, almost all the Korean respondents were able to identify Ban Ki-Moon as the current UN Secretary General. A majority in Colombia and Norway were also aware of which position Ban Ki-Moon has, while approximately a third of the respondents in the other countries did. In the United States only a quarter of the respondents knew who the UN Secretary General was. Perhaps more alarming is that only 17 percent of the US respondents knew who the Taliban was, the Islamist militia group that for a long time ruled large parts of Afghanistan, and which was a central actor and reason behind the USled ‘‘Operation Enduring Freedom’’ in 2001*and the ongoing war in Afghanistan. We also recall that a relatively large share of the international news in the US focused on Afghanistan (13 percent), although this only includes four news stories as the overall level of international news was so low. By comparison, it is interesting to note that more than twice as many Australian and Canadian respondents were aware of the Taliban (42 and 43 percent), while a majority in most European and Asian countries were...

The relatively high interest in foreign affairs reported by US and Australian respondents indicates that news editors do not always give audiences what they want"


Libertarians would probably say that if the public is not interested in international news (as expressed by market demand, which is all that counts), that means that it is not important

I did an average of the scores for the 6 questions (where data was available). The most informed of the 11 countries was Greece (average of 79% right across 4 questions). The most ignorant was the US: 37%.

Full results:
Canada: 42%
US: 37%
Colombia: 57%
Norway: 71%
UK: 58%
Italy: 59%
Greece: 79%
Japan: 44%
South Korea: 50%
India: 41%
Australia: 50%