Global Journalism

An idea of ―global‖
journalism
 World: More connected
 People: More mobile
 National economy: Tied to global
markets
 News moves faster
 Internet: No national borders

Global issues in the news
 Climate change & global warming
 Economy and trade
 Disease outbreaks, such as bird flu
(avian influenza)
 Nuclear disasters, such as Fukushima,
Japan (2011)
 Terrorism
 Human trafficking

A question
In the past, newspapers used to have a
separate section called ―foreign news.‖

Today, is any news really ―foreign‖?

Global issues in the news
 Entertainment: Fans of Lady Gaga are
interested in her, regardless of which
country she visits
 Politics: Educated people want to know
what happens in foreign elections,
especially when the country is large and
important (like Egypt)
 Crime and oddity: But what about
Etan Patz? (Global importance?)

Aspects of global
journalism
 A style of reporting and analyzing news
events
 People: Journalists around the world
 Reporting from other countries: Same
story, different viewpoints / The foreign
correspondent

A new style of news?
Peter Berglez says
global journalism
is ―an emerging
news style.‖

Berglez is a Swedish
researcher in
communications, and an
associate professor at Örebro
University, Sweden.

Peter Berglez

Journalism should:
 View the world
as one place
 Put events into
their proper
contexts, using
analysis and in-
depth coverage
 See the whole
picture
Peter Berglez

Until now, researchers have only
compared news coverage
and journalism practices
by comparing different countries ...

Research about global
journalism
 The culture of journalism and mass
media in different countries
 Journalism ethics: Similarities and
differences, theory and practice
 Avoiding cultural stereotypes and
Euro-centrism in news reports
 How news is reported from military
conflicts in different parts of the world

... but Peter Berglez
has offered a new perspective.

Global journalism is:
 More than just
international news
reporting
 Related to
globalization,
which involves
―ongoing relations
between regions
and peoples‖

Peter Berglez

Global journalism is:
An ongoing
journalistic practice
with an everyday
routine of
investigating how
people and their
actions, etc., in
different parts of the
world are interrelated
(Berglez, 2007, p. 151)
Peter Berglez

Berglez gives us a definition of global
journalism as a new kind of news
reporting, which is very well suited for the
increasing interconnectedness of
our world today.

Berglez gives us a definition of global
journalism as a new kind of news
reporting, which is very well suited for the
increasing interconnectedness of
our world today.

Journalism (at its best) can help us
understand the world,
and our own place in the world.

An example from Indonesia
Forest Loss in Sumatra
―Here on the island of Sumatra, about 1,200
miles from the global climate talks under way
on Bali, are some of the world’s fastest-
disappearing forests … Responding to
global demand for palm oil, which is used in
cooking and cosmetics and, lately, in an
increasingly popular biodiesel, companies
have been claiming any land they can.‖
—nytimes.com, 6 Dec. 2007
Quoted by Berglez (2008, pp. 848–849)

By showing the connections between
people and events …
by showing how the actions in one place
produce a result in another place …
global journalism
makes people smarter and
prepares them for making good decisions.

Journalism’s people
 Studies and surveys about reporters in
many different countries
 Compare their work, the tasks they do
 Attitudes toward their work
 Ethics
 Their pay and working conditions
 Their education
 Their age, and other demographic data

―The Global Journalist‖
Survey: More than
30,000 journalists
in 33 countries
 Many similarities
among journalists,
regardless of their
home country
 Differences in
ethical practices
and values
David Weaver

Two of Weaver’s 11 books
 The Global Journalist
in the 21st Century:
News People Around
the World (published
2012) *
 The American
Journalist in the 21st
Century: U.S. News
People at the Dawn of
a New Millennium
(published 2006)
David Weaver
* Weaver published a similar study in 1998

Some differences in ethics
 Is it acceptable to use personal documents
without permission?
 U.S. journalists: 40 percent say yes
 All journalists: Average of 23 percent say yes
 Is it acceptable to pay for secret info?
 U.S. journalists: Only 32 percent say yes
 Indonesian journalists: 60 percent say yes
 Is it acceptable to claim to be someone else to
get information?
 Is it acceptable to harass sources?

Why are they different?
 The country’s politics and government
 Cultural and historical differences in the
journalism profession
 Prediction about journalists is difficult:
For example, Sweden and Demark are
very similar countries, but the journalists
surveyed in each had very different
responses to Weaver’s survey

Survey findings
 Average age of a journalist: 39
 U.S. journalists average slightly older
 There are more women in journalism
now than in the past
 But women do not stay in the profession as
long as men, especially in the U.S.
 An average of 82 percent of journalists
worldwide hold university degrees
 But only about 45 percent were journalism
majors

Some points of agreement
 Reporting quickly
 Reporting objectively
 Providing entertainment (the news
should be interesting)
 Not revealing confidential sources

Most journalists agree that these are
good goals, good behaviors.

While the basic job description of a
journalist is similar everywhere,
the traditions, values, and morals
of journalists around the world
are very different.

(How does it affect the content of their
news reporting?)

Many of the differences
are related to education and training.

Well-trained journalists see journalism as:

 A mission
 A service to society
 A way to improve the nation

Summary: The global journalist
 In Weaver’s research, the ―global
journalist‖ means all journalists, all
around the world
 Weaver studies what is different (and
what is the same) about journalists and
how they work
 His research gives us a question: What
are the conditions that make the
journalists behave and work differently?

The Global Journalist: News
and Conscience in a World of
Conflict
This 2002* book has
a very different focus
from Weaver’s book:
International news
reporting.

These reporters used
to be called ―foreign
correspondents.‖
Philip Seib
* This book is somewhat outdated now

A better book (newer: 2009)
This book has a
similar focus to
Seib’s book ...

But here, each
chapter is written
by a different
international news
reporter.

International News Reporting: Frontlines and Deadlines

Two facts
 Everybody has a point of view
 Journalism is supposed to be
―objective‖

A recent example
I will show 4 screens of text taken
from a press release (May 23, 2012)
 Then I will show two newspaper
articles (from two different
newspapers) on May 24, 2012
 Both newspapers wrote about the
same news that is in the press
release

Press Release

From the Asian Human Rights Commission
May 23, 2012
Today, the Indonesia's human rights record
was reviewed by the UN Human Rights
Council in the 13th session of the
Universal Periodic Review in Geneva,
Switzerland. Key issues, such as the
protection of freedom of religion or
the human rights situation in Papua, were
raised by many UN Member States
participating in the review.

http://www.humanrights.asia/

Press Release

May 23, 2012
―The responses by the government of
Indonesia to the issues and human rights
violations discussed during the review
were deeply disappointing, as they often
contained only denials and showed a lack
of respect for victims and their rights,‖
noted Wong Kai Shing, Executive Director
of the Asian Human Rights Commission
(AHRC).


Press Release

May 23, 2012

… Many of the AHRC and ALRC’s
concerns were shared by states
conducting the review. Sweden, Germany
and Switzerland, for example, expressed
concerns regarding the persecution of
religious minority groups in Indonesia,
including Ahmadiyah, Christians, Shiites
and the Baha’i. …


Press Release

May 23, 2012
A number of states, including France, Japan
and New Zealand, raised the situation in
Papua, which includes widespread violence,
arbitrary arrests and detentions, as well as
unlawful restrictions of freedom of expression
and assembly. France called in particular for
access to Papua to be granted to foreign
journalists. The US and Germany raised
articles 106 and 110 of the Penal Code which
are used abusively against activists in Papua.

May 24, 2012
Compare:
―The United Nations Human Rights Council
(UNHRC) has praised the Indonesian
government’s efforts to promote human
rights, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa
said.‖ (first paragraph: Jakarta Post)

―Indonesia is facing fresh criticism over its
human rights record following a year of
continued unrest and the jailing of leading
political activists in Papua.‖ (first paragraph:
Sydney Morning Herald)

Aspects of international
news
 Who is the reporter? (background,
experience, language skills)
 Local reporter, native speaker
 Foreign reporter
 What is the story? (for example, Lady
Gaga? Or violence in Papua?)
 What is the interest level in the receiving
country? (near or far? Friends or
enemies?)

What kind of news about Indonesia
is seen in the foreign newspapers
and TV news?

Search on Google News for ―indonesia‖

 Lady Gaga Cancels Indonesian Concert After Threat
(The Wall Street Journal and many others)
 Child addicts at heart of Indonesia anti-smoking suit
(Chicago Tribune and others)
 Australian foreign minister denies making deal to get
high-profile Indonesia inmate clemency (The
Washington Post)
 Indonesia says to release Australian Corby in 2017 (Agence
France-Presse)
 Corby must spend five years in Indonesia (Sydney Morning
Herald)
 IOI Plans Palm Oil Refinery in Indonesia as Production
Expands (Bloomberg News)
 Landslide kills 6 gold miners in Indonesia
(Sacramento Bee and others)
From May 27, 2012

Most news about foreign countries
concerns wars, elections, and
natural disasters.

May 3, 2012
The same freelance
journalist, Sara Schonhardt,
wrote about Aceh and also
the previous story, about the
Indonesia Mengajar program
in Gobang, West Java.

May 1, 2012

The same
journalist, Sara
Schonhardt, also
wrote about a solar
power workshop,
held in Jakarta.

(Who chooses how
your country is
viewed, outside
your country?)

http://sschonhardt.com/blog/

Facts to consider
 Most of the news in any country will be
news about that country
 The news about other countries will be
very limited
 Big foreign countries (China, United
States) will get more coverage
 Neighbor countries (Singapore,
Malaysia) will get more coverage

In an interconnected world, is it enough
to get such limited information
about all the other countries?

If you see news about another country on
TV, ask yourself:

 Who made this news report?
 What country does the reporter come
from?
 Why did the TV news decide to include
this report?

Indonesia’s global issues
 Loss of rainforests
 Palm oil plantations (perkebunan kelapa
sawit)
 Orang-utan habitats
 Migrant workers (workers from
Indonesia, working in other countries)
 Human rights (especially in Papua; and
also, religious freedom in all provinces)

How would these stories be different
if the reporters interviewed
the average people who are affected?

―Press release journalism‖
 Lazy journalism
 Not original, not special, not really
valuable
 No original sources, just officials
 Lacks context
 Does not show the big picture

―Press release journalism‖
 Lazy journalism
valuable
 Lacks context
 Is NOT global journalism

―Envelope journalism‖
 Lazy journalism
valuable
 Lacks context
 Is NOT global journalism

Global journalism: Review
 A style of reporting and analyzing news
events
 People: Journalists around the world
 Reporting from other countries: Same
story, different viewpoints / The foreign
correspondent

Global journalists

Global journalism

Peter Berglez

Global journalism: Review
All three perspectives encourage us to
think about the effects of journalism:

 What kinds of journalism can help
people understand the world?
 How can journalism become better?

Today, we all have
choices
Members of the public can use the Internet
to check facts and compare stories.

Citizens can demand better reporting and
more global perspectives in the journalism
from their own country.

Global citizen journalism: in English …

… and in local languages too

Three Perspectives

CONTACT http:// mindymcadams.com

Global Journalism

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Editor's Notes