Globalization or alienation?: A comparative study
of
news coverage between AP and IPS
Paper to be presented to Association for Education in Journalism and
Mass
Communication, International Communication Division, Markham
Competition,
Kansas City, MO, 2003
Globalization or alienation?: A comparative study of news
coverage
between AP and IPS
Introduction
Since the 1990s, both the end of the Cold War and the development of
communication technologies have had a great impact on the emergence of the
globalization. Scholars have argued that globalization is the process of
intensifying the multifaceted social linkages and interconnections among
the states and societies of the world in such a way that events, issues and
problems in one part of the world have significant ramifications for
individuals and communities in far distant parts of the world (Giddens,
1990; Harvey, 1989; McGrew, 1992).
However, the main argument of this paradigm has brought into question the
exploration of the directions and implications of globalization
processes. Previous research indicates that globalization imbalances
between information-rich countries and information-poor countries are due
to political and economic relations among countries. Today, questions
regarding the concepts of globalization remain important, however,
globalization studies must also account for the reflections on the forces
of globalization in the study of international communication in a more
substantial way.
Here, communication is an integral part of these globalization processes
(Monge, 1998). Communication can be defined as the process by which
information is exchanged among two or more countries. From this point of
view, globalization is a communication variable that increases transborder
communication and has led to a diffusion of values, ideas, opinions, and
technologies (Barnett, 1999). By examining international news coverage,
the communication variables can indicate whether globalization facilitates
information-rich countries in becoming richer, and information-poor
countries in becoming poorer, or if not, what factors make this phenomenon
possible. This question can be explained within the World System theory.
Wallerstein (1974, 1979, 1996) views the world as a global system in which
countries are interdependently linked within the capitalist system. The
process of globalization may be understood in the context of the World
System theory (e.g. Chase-Dunn, 1989; Chase-Dunn & Grimes, 1995; Chirot &
Hall, 1982; Wallerstein, 1974), which argues that the global economy may be
characterized by an unequal exchange between powerful information-rich and
information-poor countries (Barnett, Jacobson, Choi & Sun-Miller,
1996). From this point of view, the consequence of an analysis of the news
content shows the positions of nations in the world.
Most previous studies examined international events reporting during short
period of time, content analysis of news coverage in certain countries or
determinants of coverage of international events. However, this paper
provides expansive view by doing longitudinal analysis. The purpose of
this is to explore the directions and implications of globalization with
the applications of a world-systems theory. Specifically, it also provides
how concepts of globalization has developed during the last five years by
analyzing the news articles reported, who has occupied a central position
in the globalization process, what issues have emerged, and how the global
issues have changed over time. The Associated Press and Inter Press
Service news coverage have been analyzed in order to have a big picture of
the structure of globalization.
Analysis of International News
Hur (1984) distinguished international news flow analysis from
international news coverage analysis. International news flow analysis is
transactional analysis dealing primarily with the volume and direction of
news flow between and among countries. Whereas the latter is basically
content analysis that deals with the nature, type, and amount of
international news disseminated across national boundaries. Past research
of international news has confirmed a network structure of international
news flow in which more news flows from developed countries to developing
countries. Previous international news coverage studies have not analyzed
the general coverage pattern of international news on a global basis (Kang
& Choi, 1999). Most studies have analyzed the news coverage patterns among
several countries or within certain regions (e.g., Hester, 1973; Hicks &
Gordon, 1974; Nnaemeka & Richstad, 1981; Robinson & Sparkes, 1976), news
coverage for specific regions in specific countries, determinants of
coverage of international events in specific countries (e.g., Chang,
Shoemaker, & Brendlinger, 1987; Shoemaker, Chang, & Brendlinger, 1986), or
international news coverage patterns of specific world events (e.g., Chang,
1998).
Boyd-Barrett (1980) divided the research on news agencies into
three major approach; analysis of content, studies of structure and
function and historical accounts of agency development. Analyzing news
content was mainly focused on proving the overwhelming majority of world
news flow from the west to the east and the north to the south. This news
was produced by four big global agencies; Reuters, AP, UPI and AFP. Wire
services account for about 80% of global news flow content (Alleyne &
Wagner, 1993). News media of the developed West (including wire services)
have a tendency to report conflict and crisis news from lesser-developed
countries (Riffe & Shaw, 1982; Weaver & Wilhoit, 1983). Additionally, the
developing countries, such as the African continent and Latin America,
remain invisible unless they are the focus on some spectacular event or
trend (Richstadt & Anderson, 1981; Giffard & Rivenburgh, 2000).
Inter Press Service (IPS) covers Latin America and Western Europe
mostly. The issues that the wire service reports concern lesser-developed
countries and the service provide alternative voice to the mainstream wires
(Bardhan, 2001). While AP is one of global news agencies focusing on Core
nations, IPS is global alternative news agencies specializing in semi and
peripheral nations (an alternative global news agency as NGOs is based on
the perspectives of the developing world (alternative view). However, a
main weak point of IPS is that the wire service does not cover Asia as much
as Latin America or Western Europe (Giffard, 1985).
Thus, this study analyzes content of news coverage that contains
global issues from a major news agency and an alternative news agency
during the last five years.
The World-Systems theory, Globalization and International News
Globalization has been studied from various
perspectives. According to Sklair (1999), there are four main research
clusters: the world-systems approach, the global culture approach, the
global society approach, and the global capitalism approach.
Basically, the origin of the world-system theory can be traced to
such theories as modernization, imperialism, and dependency (Shannon,
1996). The World System theory describes the global structure in terms of
three structural equivalent notions: the core, the periphery, and the
semi-periphery. This classification of countries as core, semiperipheral,
or peripheral depends on a larger network of material and capital flowing
at a global capitalistic economic system level (e.g., Kim & Barnett, 1996;
Shannon, 1996; Smith & White, 1992; Snyder & Kick, 1979). The core
countries include the United States, the European Union, the Western
European countries (e.g., the United Kingdom, Germany, and France), Japan,
and Canada. A country can be considered semiperipheral in that its relative
position in the information flow network places it between the core
countries and the peripheral nations on the edge of the network (Kim &
Barnett, 1996). The semiperipheral countries consist of other Western
European countries (e.g. Sweden and Switzerland) and relatively advanced
economies such as Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia in Asia,
and Argentina and Mexico in Latin America. China and Russia are also
considered semiperipheral. The peripheral countries refer to the less
developed countries (e.g. Chang, 1998). However, according to a
longitudinal study of the international telecommunication network (Barnett
& Salisbury, 1996), the former socialist countries in Eastern Europe,
beginning in the late 1980s, have slowly moved from the periphery toward
the semiperiphery. From this point of view, the consequence of an analysis
of the news content shows the positions of nations in the world.
Robertson (1992) proposes that the world is, as a consequence of
globalization, becoming a more unified or systematic place. Globalization
means that information, as well as material goods, are freely and
frequently exchanged between different groups across national and cultural
boundaries. In most cases, news, by nature, is culturally dependent
(Larson, 1984; McPhail, 1987; Nimmo & Combs, 1990; Sussman & Lent,
1991). Essentially, news reflects sociocultural conditions, as well as
political and professional conditions, in the topics it addresses and in
the amount of coverage it devotes to each topic (e.g., Altheide & Snow,
1979; Nimmo & Combs, 1985).
Despite the interdependence of news and sociocultural factors,
there is much disagreement about which culture global news reflects (Kang &
Choi, 1999). Kang and Choi summarize that some news receivers tend to be
vulnerable to news of culturally and socially proximate foreign countries.
Rosengren (1974, 1977) suggested that physical or cultural distance might
be a factor related to news value in the flow and structure of
international news events (other factors include the importance and the
predictability of foreign events). Barnett and Choi (1995), in their
analysis of the international telecommunications network, investigate
physical distance and language as determinants of the network. This
implies that information sharing among countries in international
telecommunications is based, in part, on regionalism, in which geopolitical
and cultural similarities may be crucial factors (Kang & Choi, 1999).
If the core nations often have an impact on the action or reaction
of countries in the semiperiphery and periphery, as suggested by the
world-system, then events and issues from the core have repercussions for
other countries and are noted elsewhere accordingly (Chang, 1998). Thus,
Chang argued that news coverage could be considered a ripple effect
expanding outward from the center of the world system. The hierarchical
positions among nations in the world landscape have resulted in a
disproportional quantity and quality of news flow and coverage of
developing and underdeveloped countries (e.g. Gerbner & Marvanyi, 1977;
Gonzenbach, Arant, & Stevenson, 1992; Weaver & Wilhoit, 1981; Wilhoit &
Weaver, 1983). If an event or issue originates from a country in the core,
it is likely to flow to other countries, particularly to those in the
semiperiphery and periphery, and be picked up as news (Chang,
1998). Furthermore, analysis of the content of news articles is another
variable that indicates the structure of countries, factors of
globalization, and the degree of globalization of each country over
time. Some other factors that might influence globalization are the
political, economic, trade, regional relationships among countries, and
cultural convergence.
According to Kim and Barnett (1996), a core country in the world
system is more likely to occupy the central position in the international
communication network, both as a sender and as a receiver. Snyder and Kick
(1979) found that the nations of the world could be structurally
differentiated into core, semiperiphery and periphery based on trade,
military interventions, diplomatic relations and treaty memberships.
Any event or issue from and about countries in semiperiphery and
periphery has to navigate through more screening before it becomes news
(Chang, 1998). The threshold of news value must be relatively high for the
event or issue to move from one country to another and to be covered in any
way (Adams, 1982; Galtung & Ruge, 1965; Ostgaard, 1965; Rosengren, 1970,
1974, 1977; Stevenson & Shaw, 1984). Chang (1998) examined Reuters'
coverage of a major world event to find out the structure and process of
foreign and international news flow and coverage in the global setting from
the world system perspective. Chang argued that for those countries in the
core zone of the world system, their chances of being in the news are
higher than those in the semiperipheral and peripheral strata. Nations in
the other two zones will have to go through several filters before they
make it to the news. To investigate the crossposting network of
international news articles among newsgroups, Clarinet, Kang and Choi
(1999) used an overview of the world-system theory. The result indicates
that the newsgroups of China, developing countries in Southeast Asia, and
some Middle Eastern countries like Israel and Iraq occupy central positions
in the structure of the crossposting network, along with those of the
United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. It also shows that the
newsgroups of several Western countries like Germany and Italy have
peripheral positions in the network. Additionally, newsgroups of the
international organizations, which are significant actors in globalized
international relations, have high centralities in the crossposting network.
This paper examines the process of globalization by analyzing news
content, which is one of major mass media. This paper is designed to
explore similarities and differences between a main stream news agency and
an alternative news agency with the system of world-system theory. Further,
this study provides a long-term view of how the process of globalization
had developed broadly. Therefore, his paper will examine four research
questions.
RQ 1: What are the dominant themes of globalization that emerge from AP
and IPS over
time?
RQ 2: Do the themes differ between AP and IPS?
RQ 3: Who has occupied a central position in the globalization process?
RQ 4: How differently did AP and IPS cover the globalization news articles?
Methods
In international communication, news and entertainment dominate
research attention in the areas of symbolic representation and creation of
social reality (Dennis, Gerbner, & Zassoursky, 1991; Wang & Chang,
1996). The news agencies were selected to represent two different
perspectives: mainstream and alternative agencies. They are the Associated
Press (AP) and Inter Press Services (IPS). This study used computer-based
content analysis to identify major globalization themes and representation
of various world regions in the manifest news content of AP and IPS.
Globalization news stories disseminated by the two wire services between
1995 and 2000 were obtained.
There are particular words that appear during a certain time period
or begin to appear often after a certain period. These words can be
interpreted as important elements in globalization. Additionally, using
two different news agencies and comparing them provide more general ideas,
and prevents biases that could arise when using one news agency or main
stream news agencies.
Data
To describe the structure of globalization over time, the time period from
May. 1, 1991 to Apr. 30, 2000 is examined. A number of communication
technologies have been created, and diffused, and many scholars have been
doing research in this field during the period. All related news articles
are downloaded from the online full-texts databases the DowJones
Interactive and Factiva. The articles that contain the single word
"globalization" or "globalize" or "global" in headlines during this period
are the unit of analysis. Headlines are the most important feature of news
stories (Tannenbaum, 1953). Headlines not only summarize the most important
information in a news story but also define situation and condition the
readers with a preferred reading and interpretation plan (Van Dijk, 1988).
All body parts of news articles are downloaded in full-text. The time
period from May 1, 1995 to April 30, 1996 is united as one unit for
analysis. After the period 1, unit of analysis is each year. It is
assumable that The Associated Press is U.S. centered perspective, and IPS
provides a perspective of developing countries.
As shown in table 1, AP produced 66 news articles related to globalization
during period 1 followed by 53, 151, 138 and 99 respectively. IPS created
50 news articles during period 1 followed by 63, 116, 79 and 104
respectively. Thus, the total number of articles on globalization is as
follows: AP 507 and IPS 412. This longitudinal analysis also provides
useful interpretation from a historical perspective. This study is focused
on economic, political, organizational, social, and cultural elements that
are constituent units in globalization.
_________________________
TABLE 1 ABOUT HERE
_________________________
Semantic network analysis
Semantic network analysis focuses on the structure of a system
based on shared meaning. The 'meaning-centered network approach' (Doerfel
& Barnett, 1999) enhances traditional network analysis by focusing on the
structure of shared meaning. While traditional network analysis focuses on
the presence of strength of interaction, semantic network analysis
incorporates contents into its analysis (Danowski, 1982, 1993; Doerfel &
Barnett, 1999; Monge & Eisenberg, 1987; Jang, 1995; Jang & Barnett, 1995;
Rice & Danowski, 1993). Many communication scholars have applied semantic
network analysis to various content analyses. Semantic network analysis is
applicable for this research because news frames usually emphasize
particular semantic associations (Entman, 1991; Pan & Kosicki, 1993;
Tuchman, 1978). In other words, treating keywords as nodes in a network
analysis can be a way of finding frames in a set of news texts. The
relationships among keywords (symbols) in news texts are regarded as
representative of meaning (Barnett & Woelfel, 1988; Doerfel & Barnett,
1999). In addition, the semantic analysis can reveal the particular
relationships between communicators.
Computer-Based Content Analysis: CATPAC
To analyze the contents of the stories on globalization, CATPAC was
used. CATPAC is an artificial neural network program for analyzing text and
was produced by Terra Research and Computing (1994). Instead of depending
on coders' subjective judgements or crude categories (Danowski, 1993), the
Catpac computer program allows the categories to emerge from the data.
Catpac is able to identify the most frequently occurring words in a text
and determine the patterns of similarity based on the way they are used in
the text. Thus, there is no need for pre-conceived categories and tests of
inter-coder reliability. CATPAC has been used in the past to analyze the
newsletters, promotional materials and human response statements of various
companies and to describe the culture of those organizations (Freeman &
Barnett, 1994). Due to its applicability, communication scholars have used
the CATPAC program for analyzing various forms of text, such as debate
transcripts, news stories, research paper titles, and marketing materials
to find out what the main ideas might be (e.g.., Doerfel & Barnett, 1999;
Freeman & Barnett, 1994; Jang & Barnett, 1995; Woelfel, 1993).
First, Catpac operates by reading a text in ASCII format. The
program then excludes a list of articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and
transitive verbs that do not contribute to the meaning of the text (e.g.,
the, at, and, is). Moreover, any words, which the analyst feels distorts
the description of the text or have proven to be problematic, can be
removed by using an 'exclude' file. Some adjustments of data were
necessary to enhance the efficiency of Catpac analysis. That is,
derivatives of words were replaced into a word. For example, 'United
States', 'U.S.', and 'US' were grouped into a word 'US'. Catpac assigns a
neuron to each major word in the text. It then runs a scanning window
through the text. The neuron representing a word becomes active as long as
the word remains in the window. Up to n words can be in the window at
once, where n is a parameter set by the user (Woelfel, 1998). Catpac then
creates a words by words 'paired comparison similarities matrix' with each
cell, sij containing the likelihood that the occurrence of one word will
trigger the occurrence of another words. This matrix is then cluster
analyzed and provides perceptual maps in multi-dimensions (Woelfel,
1998). The results of CATPAC include a list of the frequencies of the most
prevalent words and a description of how these words are clustered (Doerfel
& Barnett, 1999).
Key symbols are the most frequently used words and their use
indicates an agenda in the text. Cluster analysis is one of the powerful
features of CATPAC. Cluster analysis identifies those grouping or clusters
of nodes that best represent their measured relations. At this point,
frequencies of words and clusters indicate various issues, elements, and
factors related to globalization in news articles.
Results
Period 1 (From May 1995 to April 1996)
Associated Press
The result of AP during period 1 shows that the word 'US (United States)'
occurred 250 times, which comprised 15.8 percent of the total words in the
text. The ten most frequent words are "U.S., dollar, company, world, and
economy" followed by "global, market, Africa, Japan, trade, and
U.N.". Economy is the most important issue based on the fact that "dollar,
company, economy, market, trade, the U.S. and Japan" were within the top
ten words. "Africa", "drug", "warming" and "environment" have emerged at
this time. Africa is frequently mentioned related to global issues because
the United Nations conference was held in Africa in 1995. Furthermore, the
drug, human rights, "against" global warming and environment were salient
issues during this period. The U.S., Africa, Japan, China, and the UN are
again the most frequently appearing nations and organization.
Inter Press Service
The ten most frequently occurring words are "world, economy, dollar, U.N.,
and global" followed by "U.S. women, development, trade, and
developing". The global economy is the most significant issue during this
period. The second theme that IPS news articles contained during this
period is Human Rights. "Women, against, labor, and violence" were
occurred frequently. IPS reported national development issue related to
South Africa, South Asia, South America, and Latin America frequently.
Unlike the AP, the U.S., Europe, Burma, Latin America are the nations
appearing most of ten, and the UN is the most frequently occurring
organization. Specifically, Burma was mentioned often at this time in
relation to economic situation.
Period 2 (From May 1996 to April 1997)
Associated Press
The ten frequently appearing words are "dollar, U.S., world,
economy, and global" followed by "company, Europe, Japan, China, and
trade". The U.S., Europe, Japan, China, Britain, India, Canada, and Asia
are the most frequent nations among the total of twenty words unique on the
list. Furthermore, the UN is the only organization on the list. China and
India are related to the global issue of nuclear test ban treaties during
this period. Children are a global theme in terms of human rights. The
U.S. government on August 27-31, 1996, participated in the World Congress
Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, the first global
meeting on that topic. The meeting was being held in Stockholm, Sweden.
More than 100 countries and more than 200 NGOs were represented at the
Congress. The aim was to combat the commercial exploitation of children,
focusing on child prostitution, the trafficking and sale of children for
sexual purposes, and child pornography. It is noteworthy that nuclear
weapons and human rights were the main issues on the global agenda during
this period.
Inter Press Service
The ten most frequently occurring words are "world, economy,
development trade, and UN" followed by "global, U.S., developing,
globalization, and Africa". The global economy was an important issue at
this time. Among the twenty words on the unique words list, the U.S.,
Africa, South (America, Asia, and Africa), and Latin America are the most
frequent nations. South countries and Latin American countries were
reported with the issues of food, health, labor, and poor.
Period 3 (From May 1997 to April 1998)
Associated Press
The ten most frequently occurring words are "U.S., global, dollar,
economy and world" followed by "warming, Japan, emissions, gas, and
climate". In this period, "warming, emissions, gas, climate, and
greenhouse" are the most significant words because of the global climate
conference, which was held to support the idea of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions, such as, carbon dioxide, was held in Kyoto in 1997. It might
also be an important theme all over the world because of the preparations
for a major climate conference in Buenos Aires in November. Therefore,
"Japan, carbon dioxide, environmental, and conference" are included among
the twenty most frequent words during this period. In addition, the global
economy is still the main issues on the agenda.
Inter Press Service
The ten most frequent words are "warming, world, global, economy,
and U.S." followed by "developing, Japan, environment, climate, and
greenhouse" among the twenty unique words during period 3. The most
frequently appearing nations are the U.S., Japan, and South Africa. The UN
is the most frequently occurring organization followed by EU. Like AP news
coverage, it is significant that "warming, climate, environment, and
greenhouse" are included on the twenty unique words list.
Period 4 (From May 1998 to April 1999)
Associated Press
The ten most frequently occurring words are "U.S., economy, world, global
and dollar" followed by "Japan, warming, climate, trade, and company". The
new noticeable words are "crisis and Russia" on the twenty unique word list
during this period. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that
developing countries, such as, Russia, Asia, and Latin America had a
financial crisis during this period. The nations that appeared on the list
are the U.S., Japan, Europe, Russia, and Asia. The UN is the most
frequently occurring organization. In brief, global economy and global
environmental issues are still prominent on the agenda, and the global
financial crisis was the new issue during this period.
Inter Press Service
The ten most frequent words are "economy, global, U.S., dollar, and
developing" followed by "against, U.S., crisis, drug, and rights". The new
words are "crisis, IMF, and drug" among the twenty unique words. IMF
(International Momentary Fund) is the most frequently appearing word
related to the global economic crisis. The issues about drug, children,
human rights, and labor were frequently reported. The U.S., U.N., South
countries, Latin America, Japan, Europe, Africa, and E.U. are the most
frequently appearing nations and organizations during this period.
Period 5 (From May 1999 to April 2000)
Associated Press
The ten most frequently occurring words are "economy, dollar, U.S., world,
and company" followed by "global, global crossing, technology, Europe, and
warming". The new words are "crossing, Internet, technology, and
communications" on the twenty unique words list. Global 'crossing' is the
'global crossing Ltd.', which is a fiber optic network provider for
telecommunications globally. This means that global telecommunications had
a big role with the global communication. Additionally, technology, such
as the Internet, was involved with the process of globalization. The global
warming, economic crisis issues were still an major agenda during this
period. The U.S., Europe, the IMF, U.N., and Asia are the most frequently
appearing nations and organizations.
Inter Press Service
The ten most frequently occurring words are "global, economy, environment,
poverty, and U.S." followed by "developing, health, U.N., dollar, and
women" on the twenty unique words list. Human rights, poverty, health,
women, and labor issues were one of the mail themes along with global
economy and warming. The new words are "poverty and WTO". The U.S., U.N.,
Africa, Europe, WTO (World Trade Organization), Japan, and South countries
are the most frequently appearing nations and organizations related to
globalization.
_________________________
TABLE 2 & 3 ABOUT HERE
_________________________
Conclusion and Discussion
This paper provided how concepts of globalization has developed
during the last five years by analyzing the news articles reported, who has
occupied a central position in the globalization process, what issues have
emerged, and how the global issues have changed over time. The Associated
Press and Inter Press Service news coverage have been analyzed in order to
have a big picture of the structure of globalization.
This study used computer-based content analysis to identify major
globalization themes and representation of various world regions in the
manifest news content of AP and IPS. This study also revealed how
differently both mainstream and alternative wire services cover the issues,
factors, and changes in the nature of concepts of globalization.
The research found that the global economy has a stable
relationship with globalization over time although there have been
differences in strength. Also, the global environmental issues, such as,
global warming are salient factors in the globalization process. While the
main themes of AP news coverage were global economy and warming, the main
themes of IPS were global economy and human rights that include poverty,
women, health, children, labor, and food issues. Overall, the concept of
globalization has moved global warming to new technologies, such as the
Internet, in AP coverage. On the other side, the main themes of IPS have
covered global economy and human rights steadily over time.
The results of the study indicate that the core countries, which are
economically rich, are in the center of the globalization process in both
AP and ISP, and global economic issues have a stable relationship with
globalization over time. In AP news coverage, economic and global warming
issues were prominent agenda during this period, and more recently,
communication technology issue, such as the Internet and telecommunication,
was the salient factor related to globalization.
The United States is the most frequently appearing countries in both AP and
IPS. It reflects that core countries, rich countries among them,
specifically, are more likely to be covered in the news than were non-core.
The other nations appearing frequently are Japan and Europe. This
phenomenon confirms the previous studies that found core countries occupy
the central position in the world system (Kim & Barnett, 1996). Also, it
supports that issues from and about countries in semi or peripheral
countries have less chances of being in the news than those from core
countries (Chang, 1998). In sum, a hierarchical world system was the
salient phenomenon in globalization process in terms of the content of news
coverage during this period. This study supports a manifestation of
international communication in a view of world system. More broadly, these
findings appear to support the existing news agencies research, in which
core nation based news agencies favored to cover the core nations. The
U.N., EU, IMF and WTO have been the most frequently covered organizations
during this period.
The similar element of two wire services was that global economy
and economic factors had a strong relationship with the globalization over
time. The differences between the two news agencies were predictable in
terms of perspectives. In IPS, news stories covered Africa, South
countries (South Africa, South America, or South Asia), and Latin America
whereas AP covered more likely the U.S., Japan, and Europe. In other words,
although the U.S. is the most frequently appearing nation over time in both
wire services, AP focused mainly on the developed countries in comparison
to IPS that focused on mainly the lesser-developed countries. Thus,
coverage by AP is distinguished by its more core nations oriented, but IPS
focused on the most culturally diverse and critical coverage of globalization.
In brief, the Associated Press displayed an U.S. centered view,
economically rich countries, or the developed countries whereas the IPS
news agency provided an alternative view (the developing world
view). Therefore, AP portrayed the globalization process positively based
on core nations while IPS portrayed the globalization process negatively
based on semi or peripheral countries.
Limitations and Further study
The research illustrates the current status of globalization
through time. However, there are some limitations regarding validity. It
is still questionable that news articles represent all factors related to
the globalization process: the relationship between the content of the news
articles and globalization.
In addition, it cannot be said that analyzing AP and IPS news
coverage covers the view of globalization of the world. Because the AP
news agency is based on an U.S.- perspective, and the IPS provides an
alternative view of the developing countries. However, studying the AP, as
mainstream news coverage, and the IPS, as alternative news coverage, over
time does provide a general idea of global issues and the process of
globalization all over the world.
Finally, because this research is a longitudinal study, more explanations
of the historical background are needed to accurately analyze each year.
More research, which uses a large number of data and various events or
issues, is needed to see whether the same patterns recur.
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Table1. Number of news articles
Associated Press Inter
Press Service
05/01/1995-04/30/1996
(Period
1) 66 50
05/01/1996-04/30/1997
(Period
2) 53 63
05/01/1997-04/30/1998
(Period
3) 151 116
05/01/1998-04/30/1999
(Period
4) 138 79
05/01/1999-04/30/2000
(Period
5) 99 104
Total 507
412
Table 2. Top five words in AP and IPS
Period
AP
IPS
1
U.S. dollar company world economy
World economy dollar U.N. global
2
Dollar U.S. world economy global
World economy development trade U.N.
3
U.S. global dollar economy world
Warming world global economy U.S.
4
U.S. economy world global dollar
Economy global U.S. dollar developing
5
Economy dollar U.S. world company
Global economy environment poverty U.S.
Table3. Main themes and their clustered words in AP and IPS
Period
AP
IPS
1
Economy: dollar market trade industry
Warming: environment water forests
Economy: dollar trade
Human Rights: against women labor violence
2
Economy: dollar trade
Children
Economy: trade dollar
Human Rights: against food labor poor health South Latin
3
Economy: dollar
Warming: emissions gas climate greenhouse energy environment carbon dioxide
Warming: climate greenhouse gas
Economy: dollar trade
4
Economy: dollar trade crisis
Warming: climate greenhouse environment emissions gases
Economy: dollar crisis IMF
Human Rights: against drug South Latin children labor Africa
5
Economy: dollar trade IMF crisis
Technology: Global Crossing Internet Communications
Warming: climate emissions greenhouse
Economy: dollar
Human Rights: against environment poverty health WTO women Africa labor South
Excluded Words
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