New Trends in Global Broadcasting: "Nuestro Norte Es El Sur" (Our North Is the South)
2007; Purdue University Calumet; Volume: 6; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1835-2340
Autores Tópico(s)Social Media and Politics
ResumoAbstract Using Pierre Bourdieu's Field Theory, especially concept of interconvertability of cultural, economic, political and media capital, I examine rise of regional and global centers of broadcasting that seek to compete with CNN and BBC, namely, TeleSUR of Latin America, Arabic, and International (AI) of Qatar (launched worldwide on November 15, 2006). I also describe Latin American and Arab questioning of inevitability of following the Anglo-Saxon model of commercialization, depolitization and trivialization of I examine countermeasures U.S., British and French governments are taking to fend off this regional and global competition from Latin American and Arab media.1 I conclude that diversity and expansion of news pie is a healthy phenomenon that is bound to help serious news gathering and reporting worldwide against rising trend of infotainment that has started to taint serious news dissemination in United States. Television is a window on world. But if you are sitting in Latin America, that window is more likely to be facing Baghdad than Buenes Aires. Or show Michael Jackson instead of Mexico City. Or offer a clearer view of Ukraine's Orange Revolution than one in Ecuador last month. Those networks do not cover regional news, like CNN Espanol, based in Atlanta, or Spain's TVE, are often considered US or Eurocentric, with pundits sitting in Washington or Madrid. (Harman, 2005, p. 1). We launch Telesur with a clear goal to break this communication regime and present a vision, a voice which until now has been silenced. Telesur is an initiative against cultural imperialism. Andres Izarra, TeleSur president and Venzuela's minister of communications (Latin TV takes on US Media, 2005, p. 1). Al-Jazeera International is 'the most exciting television news and current affairs project in decades - one which will revolutionise global news industry by offering viewers across world a fresh perspective on (Nigel Parsons, managing director of International) (A correspondent, 2005, p. 1). Introduction Bourdieu (1998: 41) suggests that for a journalistic field analysis to be complete, the position of national media field within global media field would have to be taken into account. The dissatisfaction with Western news sources has a long history and dates back at least to era of primacy of Western news agencies on world news scene. NWICO discussions at UNESCO in 1970s and 1980s provided Third World countries with a forum in which they complained about unequal flow of information that moved mostly from North to South and from West to East. The impetus for creation of alternatives to Western media, then, as now, was fueled by dissatisfaction with media's content, its narrow focus, its lack of source diversity and absence of serious attention to news of rest of world. Decades later, problems became worse. In United States of mid-1990s, television networks gave much less attention to serious foreign news than during Cold War years. CBS maintained 24 foreign bureaus in its heyday; by 1995, it had reporters in only four capitals (Hess, 1996, 66). In 1970s, networks in US ran as much as 45% foreign news. By 1995, proportion was in teens (Bierbauer, 2006). American newscasts also tend to be ethnocentric in their selection of news sources. Only 14 of 401 guests who appeared in Meet Press (NBC), Face Nation (CBS) and This Week with David Brinkley (ABC) in 1994 were foreigners (Griffith, 1986, p. 72 in Hess, 1996, p. 7). During first four months of 1995, foreign stories added up to 10 percent of news segments, ranging from 3 percent on NBC's Today to 16 percent on ABC's Good Morning America (Stephen Hess, Telephone Interview with Tyndal on July 11, 1995). …
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