International Media

Outline and discuss how the Associated Press is both affected by, and contributes to globalization.

What is globalization? Globalization refers to ‘both the compression of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole’ (Robertson, 1992; 9). It is the lifting of boundaries of different countries and the merging, sharing and influencing of different cultures and structures though many factors such as economy and politics as well as advances in technology.

Walters (1995; 3) states that globalization is a ‘social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede’. He suggests that the evidence of globalization is identifiable in increasingly global dimensions of three inter-related areas of social life that is characterized by a form of exchange. The first being the economy which is characterized by the international exchange of material goods and wealth. The second is polity, characterized by political exchange and the third being the culture, characterized by the symbolic exchange of information, ideas, entertainment, propaganda and advertising. The news media utilize all three of these globalized exchanges, being involved in the transference of information and entertainment, political influence and money. One of these news media is the Associated Press.

The Associated Press (AP) is a non-profit cooperative American news agency, directed by a board of directors (who are elected) that contributes to thousands of newspapers, radio, television and online sites though the various forms of media. It has more than 4000 employees working in over 240 bureaus worldwide and is owned by 1,500 daily newspaper members in the United States. As part of their cooperative agreement with the Associated Press, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their local news reports. Though not members, many international newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States subscribe to AP by paying a fee to use their material. (Internet, The Associated Press, 2008).

Being one of the three biggest and oldest agencies, the others being British based Reuters and France based Agence France-Press (AFP) (Campbell, 2004; 232), the AP “supplies a steady stream of news around the clock to its domestic members, international subscribers and commercial customers. It has the industry's most sophisticated digital photo network, a 24-hour continuously updated online news service, a state-of-the-art television news service and one of the largest radio networks in the United States. It also has a commercial digital photo archive, a photo library housing more than 10 million images… On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from AP.” (Internet, The Associated Press, 2008). Its reports are broadcast in four different languages and many more independently by subscribers.

The case study of the Associated Press and the affect it has on globalization is a unique one. Because it does not have its own satellite channel and is not affiliated with any particular news corporations (being a single organization by itself) it does not posses the standard conventions we see in other news agencies such as CNN or BBC world news. Being one of the oldest news organizations around it has proclaimed itself as the ‘backbone of the world’s information system’ (Internet, The Associated Press, 2008). One of these ways is the AP style of journalism.

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, AP Stylebook for short, is employed by many democratic countries in journalism and newspaper writing classes. Often referred to as the Journalist’s Bible, the primary rule of the book is to report news factually without any bias while using the inverted pyramid formula to structure its text. It also teaches grammar, spelling, punctuation, choice of words and how to use current colloquies such as “BlackBerry” when making news reports. Though some countries might not use certain chapters of the book such as American Media Law, they utilize the majority of resources found in the book. It was first written and edited by Norm Goldstein (1974) with additional segments being added throughout the years. Its latest edition was just released in 2008 (Internet, Associated Press Books, 2008). In addition to the Stylebook the Associated Press has published a variety of books that many news and media institutions and schools use today.

Besides acquiring the skills to report and write news, international newspapers and media rely on the Associated Press to provide news from other parts of the globe. Because of the numerous bureaus that they have all across the world and the way their organization is dispersed, smaller news networks can rely on them to provide news from a region without having to send their correspondents to that area. All they need is to pay a fee in order to use their report. For example Singaporean newspaper; The Straits Times uses the AP to provide news reports from the west, especially from the United States and the United Kingdom.

Another unique aspect of the AP is that they do not have to deal with regulation context when it comes to news distribution. The state regulation and legal frameworks of the different countries do not apply to the AP as they are not obliged to censor content from their reporting. Basing their principals on the factual style of reporting articles are written then stored in a central database and made available to members and subscribers of the AP. A country’s news media is then free to pick and choose the articles they wish to publish.

Since globalization is two-way street we will now look at how it has affected the way the AP does its business. One of its major factors is the advance in technology and the advent of the Internet.
Consoles such as the Xbox 360 are marketed as all-round entertainment machines as they not only allow the playing of videogames but also allow users to watch movies and chat online. This convergence of media is not lost to the AP. When the Nintendo Wii was released one of the interfaces they highlighted was the implementation of a dedicated news “channel” consisting solely of articles from the Associated Press (Internet, msnbc, 2007). The news is presented as an interactive map of a globe with news reports shown in stacks to display the amount of news available in that particular region.

Another all-round device that uses the AP is the Apple iphone and ipod touch. Since its implementation of the application store with the firmware 2.0 update, Apple has allowed semi-open source programming which allows people to create applications for their Apple devices. The Associated Press thus created the Mobile News application which is a multimedia service that offers access to local and national news from trusted sources of the Digital Cooperative. It not only provides textual reports but pictures and videos as well (Internet, Associated Press Mobile News, 2008).

Videos have become part of our everyday lives since the inception of Youtube. To date thousands of people log on and visit the site to watch the wide assortment of videos available uploaded by its many users. The Associated Press then used the trend of video watching and collaborated with Youtube in September 2006 to create a site where videos of news by the AP could be watched (Internet, Youtube, 2006).

Because it covers a wide variety of topics like entertainment, sports, technology and local and overseas news, web portals such as Yahoo have news sections that need to be updated constantly and on a 24-hour basis as the Internet never sleeps. In lieu of a high demand for fresh news web portals rely on international news services such as the AP to provide breaking news articles. Google announced in 2007 that it was subscribing to the Associated Press and that content displayed on their Google News site were taken from the AP (Internet, cnet news, 2006). Yahoo is also a subscriber to the AP but it is not exclusive as it displays news from the AFP as well. With the web portals displaying the time stamp on reports of the news the AP’s image is sustained as one of the quickest and most up to date news sources.

The points made so far have covered the positive aspects of globalization and the influences to and by the news media. We will now consider the negative aspects of this phenomenon. Although subscribers to the AP can choose what news reports to use in their countries the reports themselves sometimes come from countries that practice heavy censorship, making it hard for the AP reporter. Herbert (2001; 39) points out that often the most difficult official sources for the foreign correspondent to reach are those who can best explain the story of their countries to the world. He also stated that action against these foreign reporters (whose news values do not agree with the governments) is an extreme and dangerous obstacle to free news coverage. These actions often range from expulsion from the country to kidnapping as in the case of Terry Anderson who was held hostage for six years in Lebanon.

Another negative aspect is that being one of the oldest and biggest news media providers in the west, they are accused of agenda setting. Though the AP has a wide network, they cannot be everywhere every time. Herbert (2001; 41) states that news providers determine the kind of stories to cover and share with its subscribers and that these decisions could be based on the interest shown by other global journalists. Though they might be factual about the stories they report on one could criticize them on what constitutes as a story.

In summation, we have seen the different ways globalization affects news providers. With the constant advancement in technology breaking the national and local boundaries it is evident that the way the news is consumed has changed significantly and will continue to change as information becomes readily available to us.

References:
Associated Press Books (2008) http://www.ap.org/pages/product/order.html (viewed 1st Aug 2008)

Associated Press Mobile News (2008) http://www.ap.org/mobilenews/ (viewed 1st Aug 2008)

Associated Press, The (2008) http://www.ap.org/pages/about/about.html (viewed 1st Aug 2008)

Campbell, V (2004) Information Age Journalism: Journalism in an international context. Oxford University Press.

Cnet news (2006) http://news.cnet.com/Google-reveals-payment-deal-with-AP/2100-1030_3-6102109.html (viewed 1st Aug 2008)

Herbert, J (2001) Practicing Global Journalism: Exploring reporting issues worldwide. Focal Press.

Msnbc (2007) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16805501/ (viewed 1st Aug 2008)

Robertson, R (1992) Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. Sage.

Walters, M (1995) Globalization. Routledge.

Youtube (2006) http://www.youtube.com/user/AssociatedPress (viewed 1st Aug 2008)