Bachelor Thesis the Battle to Control the Flow
Bachelor Thesis“The battle to control the flow”
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“THE BATTLE TO CONTROL THE FLOW”:
The Movement From Powerful Hegemony Toward Diversity
Doruk Akin
5616204
MEDIA IN OORLOG, VREDE EN VERZOENING
Julia Hoffmann & Johannes von Engelhardt
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Faculteit Maatschappij- enGedragswetenschappen
Abstract
Technological developments within the media sphere, especially the availability of digital broadcasting, have increased the mobility of international news flows emanating from different parts of the world live 24 hours a day. There are opposing viewpoints among many scholars; some argue that the consequences of media globalization, in terms of the homogenization of global news, and others claim that globalization leads to differentiation. This study outlines the contradictory claims about the dynamics of news content as a consequence of globalization, concerning both globalization and localization theories. Previous empirical studies of the international news networks CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera and their news coverage about of the Afghanistan war, the Iraq war and the Israel/Palestinian conflict are analyzed to support the theoretical approaches and concepts. The findings show differences between the three news networks, in that they localize the coverage of the conflict differently.
Key words
International news networks ■ globalization ■ localization ■ domestication ■ Al-Jazeera ■ CNN ■ BBC ■ framing ■ news flow ■ conflict ■ media ■ news coverage
Content
Introduction 4
Theoretical background 6
Global news networks: CNN and BBC
New voice; the rise of Al-Jazeera 7
Contradicting the global force: Homogenization or diversification
News frames 12
Method 14
Selection of theoretical literature
Literature selection of empirical studies 15
Results 16
Comparing international news coverage
Conclusion 18
Limitations and Future research 20
References 21
Introduction
The rise of the new technological age at the beginning of the 21st century, initiated a drastic shift in global communications, transforming the world into a global network society, where the development of the transnational distribution infrastructure enables global access to various international news information flows. The technological development within the global media industry has initiated new challenges in the global news production and distribution, as the number of media outlets of new developing countries has increased (Thussu, 2007; el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008). The availability of digitalized broadcasting has increased the mobility of international news flows emanating from different parts of the world live 24 hours a day (Thussu, 2003).
These technological changes have expanded the role of the media in international affairs, especially during conflict situations (el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008). While media coverage of conflict and their conduct in war situations has always been a subject of discussion and critical scrutiny (Zayani & Ayish, 2006), “today’s network society has [even] increased the ways in which media technologies are utilized in conflicts” (el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008, p. 11). Not only do the media function in conflicts as an essential source in providing people with information about the conflict, they also tend to become part of the conflict (Zayani & Ayish, 2006). Media organizations are often treated as ‘actors’ within international conflicts, because they have the power to shape public opinion and even governments’ policy (el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008). This phenomenon was labeled as the ‘CNN-effect’ in the 1990s, in which international television news was perceived as a “direct and perhaps even dominant actor in the formulation of policies in defense and foreign affairs” (Gilboa, 2002, p. 733). This concept derived from CNN’s prominent dominant role in shaping public opinion and government policy by its coverage of the first Gulf War in 1991 (Gilboa, 2002). CNN was the first international satellite channel in history, that brought the conflict live into the living rooms across the world (Thussu, 2003), controlling the world’s understanding of the war (el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008). CNN was the only news network at the time that had the technological ability to dominate the international news flow. “While counter-narratives existed, they were obscured, and did not carry with them the weight of live and sensationally dramatic images of [the war]” (el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008, p. 12). CNN’s success as an important actor in international affairs was quickly followed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (Gilboa, 2005).
Until recently, audiences around the globe turned to the Western news networks to gain information about international affairs (Nisbet et al., 2004). Today, with the proliferation of satellite channels many other international satellite broadcasters have emerged, providing the global audiences with many different information source alternatives (Amin, 2004; Thussu, 2007; el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008). One of these new players is the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera, which obtained a prominent position among Western competitors such as CNN and BBC, and is now considered one of the most important information source (Seib, 2004). Although Al-Jazeera’s international news coverage is considered to be an alternative information flow or contra-flow that challenges the West, there are still concerns about the ‘Westernization’ of our society (Thussu, 2007).
There are opposing viewpoints among many scholars; some argue that the consequences of media globalization, in terms of the homogenization of global news are the outcome of the hegemonic force of Western-led international information flows. However, this idea is contested by many (Long, 1996; Clausen, 2003, 2004; Gurevitch et al. 1991) as they support the idea that globalization leads to differentiation of global news and that media organizations localize or domesticate the foreign news in order to serve their national interest and local audiences (Clausen, 2003, 2004).
This study will outline the contradictory claims about the dynamics of news content as a consequence of globalization, concerning both globalization and localization theories and investigate the existence of empirical evidence to support these theories.Furthermore, it will provide some background information about the two Western satellites, considered to be the most important information sources of international conflict news, including a brief description of the history of the so called ‘new player’ in the global media arena, the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite network from the Middle East. This is followed by an analyse the literature background of theoretical concepts and approaches concerning media flow studies, exploring the global changes of international news flows as a consequence of globalization. Finally, previous empirical studies of the news networks CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera and their international news coverage will be analyzed, in order to collect existent evidence to support the theoretical approaches and concepts.
This paper will evolve around the following research question:
Research Question
Is international news of conflict being domesticatedby CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera,
thus leading to the diversification of global news?
Theoretical background
Global news networks: CNN and BBC
The technological developments within the media sphere, especially the availability of digital broadcasting (Thussu, 2003), have increased the mobility of media and initiated new challenges in the global news production. This has lead to changes in the former near-monopolistic power positions of global television news networks (Amin, 2004), such as the 24/7 live satellite channels, of both the US-led Atlanta based Cable News Network (CNN) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). These networks are perceived as the key broadcasters that profoundly influence and shape international political communications (Thussu, 2002, 2007).
Prior to the entry of the new players in the global news industry, CNN and BBC were considered as the most formative information sources of international news, serving audiences all over the world. It has been argued that these Western global news networks, CNN in particular, cover foreign news with a strong bias towards the US (Thussu, 2002). The transnational information flows were continuouslybroadcast from Western societies to the rest of the world. This uni-directional flow from the West was also examined in UNESCO’s 1990 World Culture Report, where it was reported that the Western cultural influence had grown as a result of media globalization (Thussu, 2007, p. 11).
Thussu (2002) supports this tendency, mentioning in a study of international television news that international news flows dominantly come from the Northern countries (Western countries). Thussu (2002, 2007) goes further in saying that ‘counter-flows’ from the South are limited, and exchange of news information between the North and the South are low. Boyd-Barrett (1977)cited by Archetti (2008) in a comparative study of international news flows, noted too, that ‘while there is a heavy flow of exported media products from the US to, say, Asian countries, there is only a very slight trickle of Asian media products to the US’ (p.3). The continuation of unbalanced information flows within the global media landscape, emanating ‘uni-directionally’ from the “West” (Northern countries, with at its core the US), is a predominant discussion in media globalization studies (Thussu, 2007; Archetti, 2008). This ‘uni-directional’ process of information flows has raised many concerns regarding worldwide cultural homogenisation (Giddens, 1991; Robertson, 1992; Lash and Urry, 1994, in Archetti, 2008; Thussu, 2007). Iwabuchi (2007), for example, describes this as ‘de-Americanized’ or ‘de-Westernized’ cultural flows, leading to global cultural hegemony (p. 67).
Thus, it is clear that the digitalisation of global communication has changed the media landscape in terms of the increase of interconnectivity in our global network society (Thussu, 2002; Clausen, 2003). Until recently, “this process [had] primarily benefitted the major corporations […], which [dominated] media content and delivery mechanisms by their ownership of multiple networks and production facilities” (Thussu, 2007, p. 3). Now, as we are in the twenty-first century, we can not help noticing the developments in the transnational information flows, in terms of emerging ‘contra-flows’ from non-Western regions (Thussu, 2007).
New voice; the rise of Al-Jazeera
The Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera (‘the island’) was launched in November 1996 by Qatar’s progressive Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. The Al Thani family is known as the largest ruling families in the Middle East. Emir Sheikh Hamad’s openness to political and social ideas towards the West (Miles, 2005), and his determination to democratize his state in the Persian Gulf motivated him to launch an “independent and nonpartisan TV satellite network channel that is free from government scrutiny, control, and manipulation” (el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008,p. 27).
Al-Jazeera’s success was mainly the result of a failed venture between the Arabic TV division of the BBC News service and a Saudi-owned Orbit situated in Rome. The partnership between the two networks ended in April 1996, as a result of a documentaryaired on the BBC’s Arabic TV service, concerning executions in Saudi Arabia, . This was followed by the withdrawal of Saudi government and investors’ financial support. Al-Jazeera successfully benefitted from this collapse and inherited the editorial staff members previously employed by the BBC’s Arabic TV service. They were well trained journalists with Western spirit and were familiar with the Arab political environment. Eventually, they became the core staff of Al-Jazeera, which began broadcasting six hours a day in 1996 (Seib, 2004; Miles, 2005; el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008). This development ensured Al-Jazeera’s success and Emir Sheikh Hamad’s initial dream to establish a Qatari TV network channel that is free and independent and is worthy to carry the motto, “the opinion, and the other opinion” (Bahry, 2001; Miles, 2005).
The Qatari emir’s initiative to reform Arabic television in the Middle East region was not without setbacks. Middle Eastern governments, angered by its independent editorial style and its controversial coverage, tried to shut down the satellite channel (Seib, 2004; el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008). The news coverage style of Al-Jazeera starteda shock wave among Middle Eastern governments and the Arabic viewers. The audiences’ hunger for “credible news and political analysis” was finally being appeased (Zayani, 2005, in el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008).
Before the rise of Al-Jazeera many Arabs turned to the Western media, as it was perceived as more objective and credible than the media in their own countries. The widespread dissatisfactionamong Arabs to a government-directed and biased media, led Arab viewers with limited alternatives to rely mostly on news information from the West. Even though the Western media was perceived as more credible which inevitably led to it becoming very successful (such as BBC and CNN in Arabic), it still did not satisfy the Arab citizens (Bahry, 2001). “These […] stations were considered foreign sources of information, whose ultimate goal was to serve their own countries”(Bahry 2001 p. 90). It is therefore not surprising to learn that with the launch of Al-Jazeera, the majority turned their heads to this Arab-based alternative information source (Bahry, 2001). Al-Jazeera’s approach differed from all other broadcast stations in the Middle East, as it offered the possibility for debates about the most sensitive political, social, economic and religious issues (Bahry, 2001; el-Nawawy & Powers, 2008).
Al-Jazeera went unnoticed in the international media arena, until just after the September 11th attacks when the station aired messages from Osama bin Laden, which followed with loathing criticism surrounding the station’s ‘unusual’ broadcasting style (Williams, 2007; Seib, 2004). The Arab satellite channel gained even more international attention during the US-led war against Afghanistan, following the war against Iraq. Barkho (2006) claims that: “the two wars have propelled Al-Jazeera to international fame through its ground-breaking coverage and scoops that have made it the envy of international broadcasters like the BBC and CNN” (p. 2). Al-Jazeera’s popularity was growing, as it gradually obtained a prominent position as a recognizable international news outlet among its Western competitors (Williams, 2007).
It is clear that the Arabic satellite channel, Al-Jazeera, stirred up the global media landscape and is now considered among the most important information sources, alongside CNN and BBC. The Qatar-based station challenges the dominant Western ideology, as it broadcasts an Arab perspective of ‘foreign’ events, which is mostly in opposition to that of the West (Seib, 2004). Al-Jazeera’s alternative information flow, emanating from the Middle East (or the South), is conceptualized as a global information contra-flow, which challenges the dominant Western information flows. These developments and dynamics of news flow are consequences of the globalization of our world.
The following section will review the existing literature about effects of globalization on the worldwide media industry and investigate the theoretical approaches concerning international news flows.
Contradictorary claims about the global force: Homogenization or diversification?
The rise of the new age of technology at the beginning of the 21st century, initiated a drastic shift in global communications. This has transformed the world into a global network society, where the development of the transnational distribution infrastructure enables global access to various international news information flows (Thussu, 2007).Digital technology and developments in communication satellites, made it possible for media systems to interconnect and operate in a transnational manner (Amin, 2004; Thussu, 2007).
As a result of these global changes, media has become more and more concentrated. This has led a small number of large Western media conglomerates to dominate the global media industry (McQuail, 2005). At the present time, three main Western international news agencies dominantly control the collection and distribution of international news: AP, AFP and Reuters (Rampal, 1995). Boyd-Barrett and Rantanen (1998) suggest “news agencies themselves have been major players in processes of globalization” (p. 3). Because of the lack of capability of news networks to transport news from around the globe themselves, news networks rely mostly on news agencies for collecting international news (Rampal, 1995).
These developments of globalization, led to many debates about the consequences or effects of globalization (Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, 1998), and many contradictory assumptions of its force.
In previous literature, it is more overly assumed that globalization leads to a homogenized world, in which citizens all are exposed to the same media information around the world (Volkmer, 2003; Thussu, 2002, 2007; Ruighok & van Artevelde, 2007). Globalization is seen as a “large-scale phenomena” (Robertson, 1995, p. 25), where international news and culture flows around the globe, constructs our world into, as McLuhan (1964) has described it, a ‘global village’. Ferguson (1992) criticizes this idea and describes it as one of the ‘myths of globalization’ (p. 29), in which the impact of globalization is far overestimated, in terms of engendering media homogeneity and cultural hegemony (Ferguson, 1992; Robertson, 1995; Seib, 2004). Voisey and O’Riordanm (2001) describe the ideas associated with the concept of globalization more clearly: it is “the promotion and domination of Western culture and capitalism to the exclusion of all other cultures and economic systems, a loss of social diversity and the disappearance of local distinctiveness and community in favour of global culture and society” (p. 26). Robertson (1992, 1995) adds, that scholars supporting the concept of ‘global news’, neglect to acknowledge the nationality or locality of media systems.Additionally, other researchers believe that the global interconnectedness of the world, in fact, enhances the exchange of international news and culture flows between countries therefore, contradicting the notion of a ‘homogenized world’ as the consequence of globalization (Long, 1996; Clausen, 2003, 2004; Gurevitch et al. 1991). Long (1996), for example, claims that globalization, in fact, generates “a whole new diversified pattern of responses at national, regional and local level” (p. 39). Long (1996) makes a case against the unclear interpretations of globalization, and the defective ‘hegemonic modes of analyses’ (based on ‘old’ paradigm of globalization) of researcher in the field. He points out the lack of empirical evidence concerning the consequences of globalization and that it is mostly assumed that it is a great force generating uniformity in our world. He challenges this assumption by saying: