Thursday, August 17, 2006

Insight into Global News Coverage

With my admittedly uneducated musings about solving the problem of sectarian violence in Iraq derailed by the realization that Iran is influencing events there on a far greater scale than I though:

Weapons from Iran discovered in Iraq's port city

In the weapons cache were hundreds of Katyusha rockets and mortar shells as well as several thousand light arms, the report said, adding that the weapons had all been manufactured in neighbouring Iran.


I've decided to turn my attention to slightly lower hanging fruit. News media :) I found this article particularly interesting: LGF Exclusive: How Much Does It Cost to Buy Global TV News?

This article details the single source from which major news outlets (CNN, FOX, BBC, Sky, etc) glean their news. Interestingly, the entity, a for profit spin-off of the AP has an entire arm (equal in staffing the remainder of the organization) dedicated to the production of news coverage for the Arab world.

The questions that follow are, perhaps, obvious:

  • Why does the Arab world need different news coverage from the rest of the world?

  • How do the narratives within these two streams of coverage differ?

  • Is it any wonder there is such a gap between our cultures??

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