Published: December 21, 1999
Last Updated: January 10, 2000
Printer-friendly version

 

A review of international news coverage in 10 randomly selected small-to-medium newspapers found that the newspapers ran just over seven stories a day, with the larger papers in the sampling averaging nearly 10 stories a day. For all the papers, at least half of all international stories were “briefs.”  The 10 papers’ A-sections showed an average ratio of 82 percent domestic news and 18 percent international. For the large papers in the sampling, an average of nearly 24 percent of the A section was composed of international news, 18 percent in the mid-size papers, and 15 percent in the general news sections of the smaller papers.  In a four-week period the AP ran 1,230 international news items from 119 countries, but 70 percent of the file came from 20 countries. Approximately 85 percent of the AP international file was “episodic” (spot or event) coverage, while the remaining 15 percent was “thematic” (features, analysis, etc.).  The developed world got more attention than the developing countries from all the news organizations studied, but newspapers gave slightly more coverage to Africa than the AP did (7.8 percent compared to 6.7 percent). England seemed particularly newsworthy during the month studied, although there was little hard news, with heavy interest in the royal family.  How the survey was done   In the summer of 1998, President Clinton made headlines with his nine-day trip to China, political violence occurred in Nigeria and Northern Ireland, a tsunami devastated Papua New Guinea, Russia buried its last czar, and the troubled economies of Russia and Japan were always in the news.  ASNE commissioned Beverly Horvit, a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia, to review international news coverage in a random sampling of 10 daily newspapers. The study was funded by Knight Ridder.  Horvit analyzed The Associated Press file (during the a.m. cycle) and coverage in the 10 newspapers from June 29 to July 26, 1998.  The participating newspapers were:  25,000 to 50,000 circulation: The Dothan (Ala.) Eagle; Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis.; The News-Gazette, Champaign, Ill.; and The Sun, Bremerton, Wash. 50,001 to 100,000 circulation: The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.; Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal; and Quad-City Times, Davenport, Iowa. 100,001 to 250,000 circulation: The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.; The Providence (R.I.) Journal; and the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch.  Other survey highlights:   Nearly 60 percent of the international stories appeared in the A section, and nearly a quarter of the stories ran in the sports section — an unusually high proportion due to World Cup activity in France. Less than 8 percent of the international news ran in the business section. The 10 newspapers published a total of 2,025 international stories — an average of 203 per paper during the month. Newspapers showed a strong interest in wars and disasters, running proportionately more stories of this nature than those filed by the AP (nearly 20 percent for the papers, compared to 16 percent for the AP). Newspapers showed less interest in Latin America than the AP (10 percent compared to 14 percent of the AP’s international file). Both the newspapers and the AP showed approximately the same interest in international government and diplomatic news. Larger papers reflected a significantly higher attention to trend, feature and analysis stories than the smaller papers did (18 percent vs. 12 percent), and slightly higher than the AP (15 percent).  The larger papers did more staff-generated coverage, averaging about two internationally related stories a day, while smaller papers did fewer. Examples of stories covered by the newspapers themselves:  The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C., wrote about the director of a local arts festival trying to get permission from Chinese authorities to produce a Chinese opera, and how the community showed hospitality to an international ship crew stranded at the local port. The Providence (R.I.) Journal reported on a study that found immigrants to the United States are worth the investment, once a week offered a full page catering to its Spanish-speaking readers, and reported that 3,000 Liberians in Rhode Island could be deported as a result of new immigration legislation. The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch sent a reporter to Brazil to examine how that country’s tobacco industry was competing with Virginia’s and reported that a local university planned to open a branch in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. Among the smaller papers: the Quad-City Times ran a profile of a Kenyan runner and a story about local families taking in Russian orphans, and the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal wrote about how local businesses were affected by the U.S. trade deficit and the impact of Asia’s financial crisis on international students in the community.    In addition, The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind., spotlighted an Indiana U.S. senator’s work on international relations and foreign policy. The Sun of Bremerton, Wash., did a feature story about the role fathers play when wives go abroad — to Bosnia, for example — on a military tour.  The News-Gazette, Champaign, Ill., reported on a former local basketball star being recruited for international competition and police officers from Russia who came to the local university for training.