Digitisation and international
news: into the unknown
Digital News, Social Change & Globalization
Conference
Hong Kong Baptist University
11 December 2003
Judith Clarke
Department of Journalism
Hong Kong Baptist University
International news: early days
• International news took off
in the early 19th C
• Fuelled by technology –
steam, cable
• Earlier information
networks had been run
commercially
• And now private companies
set up networks to supply
foreign news to newspapers Paul Julius Reuter
The dominant news agencies
emerge
• Expanding international trade, colonisation,
wars aroused interest in news
• Four major private news agencies or “wire
services” emerged by 1851
• Some competition between them
• But they kept the status quo by cooperating,
esp 1870 cartel, which lasted until 1934,
dividing up the world between them
The entrenched situation of
international news
• The agencies carved themselves a position as
news “wholesalers”
• The “prestige” newspapers had their own
correspondents but also used the wires, while
smaller papers relied on them completely
• Radio similarly from 1930s
• When television appeared, some wires set up or
acquired TV news agencies that supplied the
domestic TV stations, again dominating
international news distribution
How they stayed there…
• They maintained their position through:
• government connections, for AP
domestic customer base
• professional efficiency – their output was
comprehensive, credible, accurate, quick
• clever business practices, including
supply of financial information
• and constantly keeping abreast of new
technology
…despite complaints
• 1970s: “New World Information Order”
• Despite the obvious merit of the complaints,
the alternative offered was government-
sponsored news
• Small concerns (Gemini, Inter Press) had
too few resources to challenge
• Even the newly wealthy ‘tigers’ of Asia
weren’t interested – Galtung and Vincent,
1992, called these the ‘4th world’
The digital era
• Computerisation and satellite transmission
became possible in the 80s
• Both were expensive, so the wires, which
were well off and secure, were well placed
to take advantage of the new technology
• International news now in the hands of a
few providers – WTN, Visnews, AFP, AP,
Reuters, UPI – linked into alliances between
themselves and with major US/UK news
media
Challenge 1: new entrants
• CNN went international in 1985, also
regional efforts, e.g. Indonesia’s Palapa,
STAR TV with BBC, plus syndication of
US TV news, regional and local tv
• These stations could beam direct into
people’s homes or arrive via expanding
cable systems
• And Bloomberg was emerging to challenge
in the financial information field, though as
yet a minor player in bizfin news
The wires scramble
• The early 1990s was marked by a shakeup in
ownership and alliances
• Reuters bought out Visnews, renamed it Reuters
TV in 1992
• AP opened APTV in 1994 and bought WTN in
1998, renaming it APTN
• Mid-1990s digital satellite transmission allowed
encoded signals to be sent to broadcasters
The effects
• Much down-sizing during the 1990s, including
paring of expensive correspondents
• AP badly affected because of its reliance on the
declining print industry
• Its newspaper business dropped from 45% in
1990 to 32% in 1999, but also broadcast business
dropped from 20% to 15% in same period
• UPI faded away
• But by the end of the 1990s the situation
stabilised, though with fewer players
Challenge 2: The internet
• By this point the internet was getting faster,
cheaper, more extensive, easier to search – and
much more widely available
• Dot.com boom –major news media set up their
own sites
• But this provided new demand because many,
e.g. BBC, CNN, Yahoo!, had to subscribe to the
wires to fill their space
News on the internet
• Yet many other kinds of sites appeared that didn’t
need the wires
• Governments and other major organisations put
up their own information
• Also many news subjects, e.g. resistance groups
• And small organisations, individuals, e.g. blogs
• Consumers have new access to raw information
and much more choice, though credibility and
bias pose problems
Challenge 3: Bloomberg blooms
• Bloomberg started in 1981 and it covered
only business and financial news
• Bloomberg was very innovative in design
technology and approach, very aggressive,
also cheaper
• But this directly challenged Reuters’
financial information services, the
company’s cash cow
Reuters pares down
• Reuters had £493 million losses 2002
• 2,300 employees had been sacked over the
previous two years, 3,000 more to go
• Bloomberg users 1% Jan-Mar 2003,
Reuters users 5% in same period
• Reuters’ complacency blamed, also too
many products that were too complex
• But also economic downturn: 18% of
contracts for its terminals cancelled in 2002
Challenge 4: the ‘4th world’
• The assumption that newly wealthy
territories would not wish to challenge the
international news providers was premature
• To be sure, Japan has not done so, nor
India, another country suggested as a
possibility
• The challenge is in fact coming from China
and Singapore
China
• China has kept firm control over terrestrial,
cable and satellite TV, setting strict controls on
the few outsiders allowed in
• It has also gone into international TV news
• English-language CCTV-9, launched in 2000,
and Chinese-language channels broadcast to
overseas Chinese communities
• CCTV often airs through reciprocal deals
• Also Xinhua’s website, Xinhuanet.com, and
CCTV’s website both offer international news
• China’s news agenda reflects a different world
view from the wires
• Politics is not open for discussion, though
business, sensational and entertainment news
has expanded considerably
• CCTV even provided its own coverage of the
Iraq war on both Chinese and English channels
Singapore
• Singapore has taken the same tack, opening
Channel NewsAsia internationally in 2000
• It is run by one of the two Singapore media
companies, MediaCorp
• It is in English, covers Asian and global news, is
available at home on terrestrial TV and to cable
broadcasters overseas, as well as on the web
Other players with a different
world view
• Al-Jazeera of Qatar (est. 1996) has taken a
very high profile since 11 September 2001
and the ‘war on terror’, has English website
• Al-Arabiyah of Saudi Arabia also recently
popular
• Western governments don’t know whether
to trust them or not, but some western
media cooperate with A-J for exclusive
coverage
Comparisons
• Reuters: 197 bureaus around the world,
2,500 editorial staff
• AP: 242 bureaus worldwide serving 121
countries, but 146 in US, 2,700 edit staff
• AFP: 110 bureaus in 165 countries,
2,000 staff, 900 working outside France
Comparisons
• CNN: 28 full-time bureaux worldwide
• BBC: 41 overseas bureaus, 3,700 news
employees
• Bloomberg: 1,100 reporters and editors
in 89 bureaus in 50 countries (2001)
• Al-Jazeera: 30 bureaus and “dozens of
correspondents covering the four corners
of the world”
Comparisons
• Channel NewsAsia: “dedicated
correspondents in various bureaus in key
cities in Asia, but we also commission other
correspondents in the US, Europe and other
parts of the world to provide exclusive reports
for the channel”
An assessment
• 9/11, the ‘war on terror’ and Iraq war have
increased interest in international news
• There is now a much greater choice of sources for
consumers on the ‘right’ side of the digital divide
• But there is also information overload and people
have too little time to seek information from
everywhere
• They are still attracted to providers who process the
news
…continued
• There have been some changes, but the wires
still offer greater credibility and are speedier
than ever
• They have the resources and experience to stay
ahead of the game against challenges
• They still find their way to consumers via
newspapers, terrestrial and cable TV, which
remain the main news providers, websites
…continued
• The audience is presented with their
information rather than having to search for it
• The traditional news media have been cutting
down on foreign coverage, making the wires
more necessary to ensure comprehensive
coverage
• So the established international news media that
have survived continue to do well
…continued again
• The new ‘fourth world’ challengers in Asia
only represent once again the government-
sponsored news as offered by NWIO
• While they offer an alternative voice, they
are not widely preferred
• The Middle Eastern channels are popular,
and provide a challenge to western news
• And there are some real alternative news
sources available on the internet, e.g.
Malaysiakini
…and a final continued again
• The picture is still changing
• The rapid development of the internet is
clearly being anticipated by the wires,
which are using it a lot more
• It offers an open field for new providers,
but the better off are in a better position to
take advantage of it even in the ‘post
dot.com world’