Introduction This essay will discuss the style and power of newsagencies. It will start by defining what a newsagency is, and the role it plays for the media outlets it has as customers. The essay will also define who the major players are, and discuss their style and power. It will argue that the major western agencies are agenda setters and therefor have a great deal of power as they supply people with information they will perceive as reality. It will point out how the news mainly flows from north to south. The essay will also argue that the national origination of the agencies colour, to an extent, the agencies style and presentation of news. A small case study of three articles from three major agencies has been used to illustrate this. The essay will point out that the power of the agencies vary according to how many they are able to influence and the means they have to influence them. The essay will show overall that newsagencies do not have the same style and power. Newsagencies exist and operate in many forms. The main distinction is the organisations� geographical range and coverage. The two main categories of news agencies are global and national. Global agencies are organisations who gather and sell news to retail media like newspapers, broadcasters and other outlets like business institutions and governments on a global scale. National agencies do the same, but on a smaller basis on a national level. (Barrett, 1998: 19) Global agencies and national agencies work both together and side by side in the business of news, as they interchange information to supplement their own coverage and correspondents. Most media rely heavily on the news services they purchase from the global agencies. �Today, no news organisation that aims to inform its consumers about world events can afford to be without the service of at least one major news agency� (Merrill, 1995: 36-37) Most media also use the services of their own national agency as well as the global ones. News agencies are agenda setters, because they are the first to make the decision whether an event is newsworthy or not, and how much emphasis the issues get. �This is done through the choice of where to allocate their resources, the selection of stories they distribute to clients and the amount of accompanying audio and textual information� (Barrett, 1998: 82) The largest global news agencies are Reuters, Deutsche Press Agentur (DPA), Agence France Presse (AFP), United Press International (UPI) and Associated Press (AP). These agencies have been the major world agencies, although UPI is increasingly in doubt (Merrill, 1995: 37) and DPA, which has been a significant regional agency, seems to be getting stronger in certain areas. (Barrett, 1998: 20) CNN and BBC are also major players in the news arena. They deliver mainly video footage to their customers and subscribers from places all over the world. CNN was the first news provider to broadcast live TV from areas in conflict. Other suppliers of video and audio news are Visnews and World Television News (WTN). (Merrill, 1995: 45) News agencies are the main source of news in large parts of the world and therefore have a substantial say in what the public perceives as reality. They influence on different levels and their power varies with size, geographical range, and number of correspondents, national background and the number of outlets, span of customers, the nature of their customers and what kind of service they provide. As shown below this varies from agency to agency. Reuters� services are available in 154 countries and translate its coverage into 24 languages. AP covers 65% of American newspaper space and its services are available in 112 countries in 5 languages. AFP is available in 165 countries and 6 languages. (Barrett, 1998: 29). Tv footage distributors like CNN, BBC and Visnews are strong in their influence as they supply items for TV, one of the strongest mediums there are. �The live tv camera appeared to be a global mirror�. (Alleyne, 1997: 9) BBC and CNN broadcast to 130 million and 206 million people respectively. Reuters has substantial power as they supply a large amount of financial news that influences the stock markets and Associated Press specialises in photographs, which is a very powerful medium as well. (Merrill, 1995: 42-43) The most dominant news agencies are those who operate in and for the western and developed countries. (Merrill, 1995: 47) News from southern and poorer countries seldom reaches the northern hemisphere and its agenda setting news agencies, unless it is some sort of catastrophe or events that cause disruption in the western business world. This is called the �coup and earthquake � syndrome (Alleyne, 1997: 3) and has been widely criticised by Unesco and others. (Merrill, 1995: 109) It is argued that a limited number of large G-7 media companies control most of the transcontinental flow of media material, and set the news agenda. These nations have less than 10% of the world�s population and dominate as much as 90% of the news flow. (Bauers, 2002) This illustrates that small, poor �third world� agencies do not have the same power as its western big brothers. Even though global agencies operate in and cover news from all over the world, they do have significant associations with certain nations; DPA has strong German associations, Reuters and BBC have strong links to the UK, Agence France Presse has a platform in France, and Associated Press, UPI and CNN have their bases in the United States. (Barrett, 1998: 19) When it comes to style and power these national associations of each agency are important to bear in mind. The most important markets tends to be the agencies� home markets (Barrett, 1998: 30) and although news agencies are supposedly objective and sell facts, the style within they present the news, footage and articles do vary amongst the organisations. The style, background and policies of a news agency and its journalists can colour the finished product to an extent. This can be seen in headlines, angles and the order and context the information is presented in. The information passed on from their sources to the public should be as objective as possible, but �total impartiality is an ideal which is in practice very difficult if not impossible to attain.�(MacDowall, 1992: Preface) A case study, of three articles on the same subject based on the same source, shows that AP and CNN are a lot more aggressive and direct with accusations than AFP tends to be. One article from AP used the headline �Rice Links al-Qaida With Iraq�, while AFP used the headline �US administration highlights Iraq-Qaeda links� and CNN�s headline read �Rice: Iraq sheltered, trained al Qaeda� on articles from the same source. AP and CNN assume that their readers know who Condoleezza Rice is, while AFP uses the term �US administration� to make it clear who is making the statement. AFP goes on to describe the circumstances around the information given in the headline by stating that the Bush administration, under fire from Democrats for allegedly politicising the war on terror, is trying to substantiate its claim that the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has links with Osama bin Laden�s Al-Qaeda network. (AFP, 2002 - Lugo, 2002) in the first paragraph, while AP uses much stronger language and highlights accusations as the main point in the story. President Bush�s national security adviser said al-Qaida operatives has been living and training in Baghdad, and accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein�s regime of helping Osama bin Laden�s followers develop chemical weapons. (AP, 2002 � Lugo, 2002) The American AP does not mention the conflict with the Democrats before the next paragraph. CNN boldly quotes their source in their first paragraph where accusations concerning training of terrorists and chemical weapons are spelt out. � Hussein has sheltered al Qaeda terrorists in Baghdad and helped train some in chemical weapon development.� CNN inserts the fact that there are arguments between the two American political parties, but this is not mentioned until paragraph three. (CNN, 2002 � Lugo, 2002) The angles of the stories are perfectly aligned with its originating nations main attitude towards a war against Iraq. America is for war, and France is against. This shows there are different styles as well as different presumptions and interests according to which area of the world the newsagency originated. Conclusion This essay has discussed the power and style of various news agencies. It has stated that western newsagencies are agenda setters and most media rely heavily on them as a source for their news. The essay has also claimed that the power and influence of the newsagencies varies accordingly to size, location, geographical range, number of correspondents, national background, the number of outlets, span of customers and the nature of their customers. The essay has shown the styles of the newsagencies to be different, and they influence their audience on different levels because of this. Reuters has strong influences in the financial world, CNN and BBC has substantial power as they provide live and moving footage to a vast amount of people and AP specialises in photographs, which is also a strong medium. There are also differences in geographical range and numbers of languages the news are translated into. As shown news agencies situated in the northerner hemisphere controls the news flow from north to south, and this shows that location and cultural attitude is important when it comes to power and influence. The essay has shown that news agencies operates and influences on different levels. They are in the business of gathering and selling news, but they do not necessarily apply the same style and does not exercise the same power overall. |
| Do all newsagencies have the same style and power? |