Topic:

Assessing the Roles of Global News Agencies in Shaping Public Opinion

By Ogunsola Surajudeen Dayo

Matric No: PHD23MCM0009

Department of Mass Communication,

Faculty of Social Science,
Nasarawa State University, Keffi.

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Abstract

International news agencies are surely the shapers and determinants of global public opinion;
they are the points of reference from where major information gets across to the world. This
discourse noted that despite the various attempts to balance the flow of information across the
world, the flow still remains lopsided. Therefore, attempt was made to look at the roles of these
agencies as compass, from where public opinion, even on any local issue is formed. Situated with
thin the basic assumptions of framing theory, the discourse examined the various roles being
played by the news agencies, it also acknowledged modifications being made by international
news agencies to their services, which at any rate continue to give undue advantage to them. The
study also observed the penchant of these news platforms to concentrate on negativity while
reporting the underdeveloped world. It however concluded that more efforts need to be put in
place aimed at encouraging the regional and national news agencies to play active role in the
flow of information, ultimately, to counterbalance and checkmate the domineering status of the
foreign news agencies.

Key words: News, Public Opinion, Global Media, Information, News Agencies.

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Introduction

News is the major commodity coming from every news organization. In the preparation of this

important item that makes world livable, a lot of considerations go into it, this is because, media

oraganisations are set up for certain purposes, announced or not. Seth, (2022) is of the view that

news is the mover of the world, right from decisions based on coverage of financial markets and

political developments to those based on local news or weather reports. Rivers, (2012) defined

news as timely report of an event of significant importance that interests a large number of

people. Unacademy (n.d) believes News has always played a crucial role in transforming the

world by making people aware of global events, it becomes so important because of the

interconnectedness of the world, as championed by technological development Apart from

innovation in telegraph.

Ran, (2018) posits that the increasing demand of fast and reliable news from all over the world

by European leaders influenced the growth of international news agencies. Other important

factors influencing the expansion of news agencies as captured by Ran were western colonial

empires’ political, economic, and military expansion coupled with increasingly intensified

international trade, investment, and migration

More than six decades ago, the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan in his books ‘The

Gutenberg Galaxy”: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) had predicted the idea of global

village, which describes the phenomenon of the entire world becoming more interconnected as

the result of the propagation of media technologies throughout the world.

According to Livinginternet.com (n.d), the insights of Marshall McLuhan were revolutionary, at

the time, and it has fundamentally altered how everyone has thought about media, technology,

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and communication ever since. Rantanen, (1997) as cited in Ran, (2018) argued that because of

growing demand for fast international news, delivery from the major national news agencies

served by the news cartel, the cartel expanded news coverage to a global level and opened

offices around the world by use of undersea cables linking Europe to the United States, Africa,

India in the 1860s, China, South America, and Japan in the 1870s.

Iwokwagh and Akogwu (n.d) believe the dominant world’s news agencies are five, they

overwhelmed other agencies and in fact, the world of mass communication. These five dominant

news agencies accordingly are: the Associated Press (AP) Reuters, United Press International

(UPI), Agence France-Press (AFP) and TASS. The AP and the UPI are based in the United

States of America. Reuters is in Britain. Agence France-Press belongs to France, and TASS has

its headquarters in Moscow, the Russian capital. All the agencies except the AFP are owned by

private entrepreneurs.

Totality of information coming from these giants has continued to dictate the direction of public

opinion across the world. Dong and Lian (2021) attributed the conceptual growth of public

opinion to Lippmann, being one of the founders of communication science, Lippmann according

Dong and Lian, (2021) published a book entitled public opinion, in which public opinion was

defined as an organic product formed in the process of community discussion. To Lippmann,

media of communication play significant role in such opinion formation.

Today, despite the dominant stature of these big players, others have joined the business. Some

of the prominent news agencies around the world according to Unacademy (n.d) are: Associated

Press: United States of America, Reuters: United Kingdom, Inter Press Service: Italy, Agence

France Press (AFP): France, Press Trust of India: India, Australian United Press: Australia,

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United Press International: United States of America, TASS: Russia, BBC: United Kingdom,

Malaysian National News Agency: Malaysia, Associated Israel Press: Israel, Samachar Bharti:

India, Antara: Indonesia, WAFA: Palestine ,Middle East News Agency: Egypt

Other notable household names in the global news business include the CNN, Al Jazeera. They

are the dominant voices shaping the global opinion on virtually every issue. It is important to

stress that majority of these dominant voices in the global news affairs belong to the western

world, who controls the hardware and software around the globe with attendant domineering

impact on the third world countries, despite the previous agitation of unequal information

dissemination.

Problem Statement

News agencies are usually the predominant news sources; they package news stories and sell

them to news media organizations, forming part of the frameworks that set agenda for the agenda

setters (Okocha, et al., 2022). Ordinarily, experts have established the strong nexus between what

media place emphasis on and the idea in the minds of the members of the public as contained in

the agenda setting theory (Anaeto, et al., 2008). But in the ever connected world, fused together

by globalization, some experts however believe that justification for continued debate on the

domination of the rest of world by international news agencies may have been given way going

by the fact that monopoly of news creation and dissemination has been broken by the ubiquitous

internet that propels digital media (see Igyuve, et al., 2022). Of course many other scholars have

conducted studies on the roles of International news agencies, Okocha, et al., (2022) specifically

looked at the roles in the context of neo-colonisation and globalization.

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Santos, et al., (2022) dedicated attention to media’s role in shaping the public opinion on

education, while Ifeanyichukwu, (2020) placed emphasis on global news agencies: the economic,

political and socio-cultural implications of their negative reportage of developing nations like

Nigeria. But this study tries to expand the discourse on the roles of international news agencies

in shaping opinion, even on every local issue, as they become more penetrative than ever before.

The objectives are

1. To know if international news agencies are still holding sway as the major sources of

news/agenda

2. To find out what they are doing differently to shape opinion, even on some local events

or happenings

Literature Review

Concept of News Agency

News agencies are the oldest forms of media to transmit information electronically. At the

beginning, three European news agencies-Havas in France, Wolf in Germany and Reuters in the

UK, were the first agencies to have claimed global reach. A news agency is an organisation of

journalists established to supplies news to its subscribers around a nation or from different nation

of the world to various other organisations such as newspapers, periodicals, radio and television

broadcasters, govt. agencies (JMC Study Team, 2019).

Senjo, (2019), categorized International news agencies as organizations that gather vital

information and distribute them in the form of news from around the nation, or the world scene,

to a large group of people. They are referred to as press agencies, press associations, wire

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services, or in most cases, news services. They act as a way to keep people informed about issues

related to their home nation, and issues related to parts of the world that cannot be accessed. By

implication, international news agencies have their radar across major parts of the world to

monitor, cover and report about happenings.

People’s University (n.d.) described News Agency as an organisation that gathers news items,

photos and news video footages and market and other information of interest to the people and

distributes them to newspapers, magazines, Radio and Television broadcasters, mobile phones,

government agencies and other subscribers. These are also referred to as a wire service,

newswire or news service.

According to People’s University, Charles Havas was credited with starting the world’s first

news agency- Bureau Havas - in France in 1832. He was running a lithographic news service to

collect and translate news stories of foreign press

In the opinion of Okocha, et al., (2022), news agencies are organizations of journalists

established to supply news reports to organizations in the business of news trade: such as

newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. These agencies are also known as

wire services. A news agency can also mean an organization of journalists established to

function as the source of news supply to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio

and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a newswire.

Senjo, (2019) further added that one of the striking things about news agencies is that they rarely

publish news, but rather they supply their followers and subscribers with information that

otherwise news channels cannot afford or reach. The role of news agencies is to supply the mass

media with the important news happening locally, and abroad. This includes many mass agencies

that specialize in extensive news-gathering.

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Accordingly, Senjo, believes the international news agencies are specialized in delivering

content that revolves around dealings from around the world. The content can be anything from

news interpretation, news photographs, special columns related to a set subject, audio recording

for radio broadcast, and video for television broadcast.

The point of these news agencies is to be cooperative with most mass media, and this form of

news gathering has worked ever since the Second World War. This makes the organization very

easy since every member contributes to a large shared pool of information, which everyone can

swim in.

Experts identified the following organisations-Herald Tribune, World Street Journal, Financial

Times, Reader’s Digest, Time magazine, and The Economist among others as print family of

international news organisations. Global broadcasting includes shortwave radio services such as

the World Service of the British Broadcasting Service (BBC); Voice of America (VOA); Radio

France International (RFI); Deutshe Welle (DW) while international television broadcasting

include satellite television stations such as the Cable News Network (CNN), BBC World, Al

Jazeera, China Central Television (CCTV) France 24 B sky B (Sky News) among others

Structure of Global News

Debate about the amount, the focus, and the adequacy of international news coverage is not new

but rather one of the longest-standing political and academic debates with international

communications. In the mid1970s, the nations of the Third World voiced a number of concerns

about the imbalance in international news flows. This led to the calls for a New World

Information and Communication Order (NWICO) and a redefinition of news as part of a broader

redistribution of information resources (Sreberny &Peterson, 2008).

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Ran, (2018) traced the issues against the dominant of the big news agencies to the beginning of

the mid-20th century, and in the context of the Cold War amidst the struggles for national

independence among peoples colonized by European powers, it was at this time in question that

historical position of the Big Four was questioned and challenged by a set of national and

international actors calling for a new international information order from the forum of the

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

From the outset, Sreberny and Peterson, (2008) contended that the arguments about international

news centered on a few key concerns, part of the concerns was about concentration in the global

structure of news- gathering and dissemination, which more or less followed the global flow of

economic and political power. Accordingly, the main point of attraction in the agitations as

captured by Ran, (2018) was that the production of news and entertainment that circulated across

the globe was shaped primarily by the interests of developed countries. According to

Ifeanyichukwu, (2020) many experts in communication and other relevant stakeholders from

Africa and other developing countries have raised concerns about and negative coverage of their

regions by the news media of the developed countries including some of the global broadcast

stations.

Ran, (2018) added that NWICO debate was fought along the various ideological differences that

shaped the world between the parties in conflict on several areas, among the issues of concerns

as captured by Ran include the hegemonic power of western governments and media, how to

define “free” flow of information, the character of information as commodity or as a social good,

and the role of international news agencies.

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In the ensuing arguments, the leading western world like the United States and other Western

European powers agreed that the flow of information may after all not balance, they also

identified the access gap in the area of technology, especially, with the third world countries, but

they were ready to continue the dominance Ran, (2018) added that on the other hand, critical

stakeholders from socialist countries and formerly colonized territories stressed their intentions

to reform the international system to take charge of the flow of information across borders as a

way to balance the power of Western capitalist nations.

Methodology

Library research method was adopted in carrying out this study. This implies that secondary data

were collected and used, as they were thematically discussed. Given this situation, existing

literatures were considered to understand roles of international news agencies in shaping opinion

across the length and breadth of the world, particularly in the Third World countries. These

literatures were drawn from books, journals and online articles form a bulk of data instruments

for this discourse.

Theoretical Framework

In this part of the discourse, attempt was made to situate the roles of global news agencies in

shaping public opinion within the assumptions of framing theory, otherwise known as second

level agenda setting theory.

Framing Theory

The first communication research article that used the term framing was published in 1980.

Framing focus on how media draws the public’s eye to specific topics – setting agenda, and then it takes a

step further to create a frame, through which the audience will comprehend such information Arowolo,

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(2017). Arowolo further said framing describes the practice of thinking about news items and story

content within familiar context. Framing is related to the agenda-setting tradition but expands the research

by focusing on the essence of the issues at hand rather than on a particular topic.

According to Mass Communication Theory (n.d), the concept of framing is related to the agenda-

setting tradition but expands the research by focusing on the essence of the issues at hand rather than

on a particular topic. The basis of framing theory is that the media focuses attention on certain events

and then places them within a field of meaning. Framing is an important topic since it can have a big

influence and therefore the concept of framing expanded to organizations as well. In essence,

framing theory suggests that how something is presented to the audience (called “the frame”)

influences the choices people make about how to process that information.

Frames are abstractions that work to organize or structure message meaning. The most common use

of frames is in terms of the frame the news or media place on the information they convey. They are

thoughts to influence the perception of the news by the audience, in this way it could be construed as

a form of second level agenda-setting – they not only tell the audience what to think about (agenda-

setting theory), but also how to think about that issue (second level agenda setting, framing theory)

(Mass Communication Theory, n.d).

Valkenburg, Semetko and De Vreese (cited in Ardèvol-Abreu (2015) said communication

professionals in general and journalists in particular have to tell a story within certain time and

space constraints, and make it accessible to a broad and often heterogeneous public. The only

way to do this is by structuring the information, creating an interpretive framework that allows

the comprehension of the message. In the making of texts, journalists use frames to give meaning

to and simplify reality, in some way, and to maintain the interest of the public.

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Ugondo, (2015) observed that framing is the creation and presentation of strategic frames that

influence the choices people make, the decisions they take and how they perceived others and

issues. Ugondo, (2015) stressed that the theoretical foundation of framing theory asserts that the

media tell people both what is important in the world around them and how to think about the

events and people who inhabit the world. Frames help the audience to interpret events and

represent them to others. The frames the media creates helps people to organise complex

phenomena into coherent, understandable categories through simplification, filtering people’s

perceptions and providing an angle or vision for a problem.

Vreese (2005: 52) also submitted that the consequences of framing can be considered on the

individual and societal level. An individual level consequence may be altered attitudes about an

issue based on exposure to certain frames. On the societal level, frames may contribute to

shaping social level processes such as political, socialisation, decision making and collective

actions that give rise to opinion.

The nexus between this theory and the role of global news agencies in shaping public opinion

relates to the way some of these international frame news items and the impression they want it

to make on the global audience, especially news from the less developed nations.

International news organizations build description of an issue around Africa, such as poverty,

corruption, violent extremism and gross social inequality, the description of such aspect of

reality with words and images, they select a frame. But they could have selected another frame,

by selecting another aspect that is different from the topic that is being reported, by using other

sources, other syntactic constructions, another vocabulary, by using other photographs, etc. The

strategies used to give prominence to one piece of information to the detriment of others can be

very varied. Therefore, in as much it is established that the way an issue is framed by the media,

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in this case, global media goes a long way in determining the opinion or perception of news

consumers, about the issue, the way they frame third world countries and happenings around it,

determines both local and international opinion about such, whether such opinion is right or

wrong is another issue entirely.

Discussion

Traditionally, there are certain basic functions or roles played by media, or news agencies, such

as information dissemination, education and entertainment but beyond these roles, the

international news agencies have much more; and by extension, such roles come with their

dysfunctional implications. Online editor, (2018) holds that media play bigger role than it has

ever been. Obvious to everyone among the roles play by media is the central role of informing

the public about what happens in the world. People rely on media such as television, the press

and online to get news and updates. More importantly, online editor even acknowledged how

intoxicating the media are today, it does tend to have the power to shape public opinion,

especially over major topics.

Setting Agenda on Global Issues: At various times, the news agencies have aided in initiating

global dialogues. The news agencies are the "media of the mass - a news agency is to a mass

medium, what an apex bank is to commercial banks within a nation's financial system. If the

media are agenda-setters, then news agencies are super agenda setters. Thus, whatever caught

their attention automatically becomes the basis of opinion across the globe. Continued

dependence on the International news agencies for information by other parts of the world is a

key step through which they shaped opinion. Okocha, et al., (2022) revealed that international

news agencies due to their global expansive network, fast circulation, easier circulation,

versatility, and often limitless by way of geographical boundaries, highly economical as well as

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wider reach are used by developed nations of the world to expand communication links between

different regions as in the case of political and economic relations.

Furthermore, in shaping public opinion, Santos et al. (2022) argued that the main vehicle towards

this end is media production; this is because it is the main source of information where citizens

inform themselves about all sorts of themes and events. Santos et al. (2022) citing Luhmann,

(1996) avers that whatever people know about their society, or indeed about the world in which

they live, they are all known through the mass media’. The media therefore plays a significant

role in shaping public opinion

While expanding further on the process of opinion formation, Santos et al. (2022) equally

identified the role of framing, which is a major complement to the process of thematisation. In

framing the selected themes in specific ways, the media, especially, the international news

agencies lead the public to understand these themes from specific interpretative angles. In a

highly complex modern society, the mass media affects public opinion not only by injecting

specific themes into the public discussion, but also by how it frames them.

Expansion of services to local Languages: as if the overwhelming domination of the most

international news agencies in the international languages is not enough, they are expanding

beyond the already covered grounds. Igyuve et al; (2022) quoting scholars like Udoh (2021)

who laid emphasis on the outcome of studies by Pew Research Centre's Project for Excellence in

Journalism (PEJ), where it was observed that due to aggressive expansion of some major

international news organisations to many indigenous languages natives across different

communities still rely heavily on transnational media giants for global news and even news about

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their local communities. Igyuve et al; further said media giants continue to maintain their grips

with channels that suits locals.

Today, across Africa, most of the major languages are enjoying services of major foreign media

giants, examples are BBC Yoruba, BBC Hausa, BBC Swahili, BBC Igbo, and BBC Pidgin.

Others include voice of America in Hausa, as well as Radio France Internationale (RFI) Hausa,

VOA Hausa, VOA Pidgin, among many others, they also have significant presence on the social

media with huge followers ( Igyuve et al; 2022). From the foregoing, international news agencies

have continued to modify their services to remain the dominant voices from where opinions are

shaped.

Deliberate disinformation or misinforming the world: When Togo, a neighbouring West Africa

country qualified for the World Cup, for the first time in 2006, against the predictions of book

makers, other small countries of the world like Serbia, a landlocked country in South East

Europe equally qualified for the same tournament. In one of the matches, a commentator

described how major household names in football in Africa could not make it, and he went on to

list the representatives of Africa in the tournament, rounding it off by describing Togo as the

“one tiny country in the west Africa”. It was later known that Serbia which equally participated

in the competition was a landlocked. Such is the power of propaganda and deliberate framing of

the global news agencies used in shaping opinion, even local opinion.

Focusing on Negativity: the third world countries hardly feature in global news reportage, they

are unarguably being underreported, the agitation against this leads to the call for new

information order, however, whenever they want to be featured in the news, the tendency for

negativity is apparent, global news agencies are always preoccupied with negative reports, this

no doubt drives such report across the world, for instance, in April, 2010, the BBC released a

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documentary titled “Welcome to Lagos”, the documentary depicts Lagos as a jungle, a city of

abject poverty, filth and where there is no dignity in human labour. What the BBC did could be

best fit into what Goffman, (1974) noted to be frames, which are instruments of society that

allow people to maintain a shared interpretation of reality.

The totality of coverage and the type of frame given to the outer world about a country will not

only affect or shape local public opinion about issue that pertains to the locality, but it will also

shape international perception. The believability placed on such news agency has corresponding

effect on the opinion that will follow it

This fits into the basic assumption of the Media is the message theory of mass communication.

Wanta and his colleagues (2004) cited in Zhang and Meadows III, (2022) investigated whether

U.S. news coverage of foreign nations was able to influence perceptions of other nations, and

whether valence (positive or negative) in news reports had an influence on evaluations of the

countries. The result of the study according Zhang and Meadows III, (2022) suggests that that

increased negative coverage of a nation resulted in more negative attitudes toward the country.

Given the pattern of this negativity, most of the pieces of information sourced about Africa were

the by-product of the slanted and biased report. Ifeanyichukwu, (2020) added that the coverage

has created a very negative and pessimistic perception of developing countries by citizens of the

industrialized societies, most disturbing however relates to those who never visited Africa but

formed their opinion on media reportage.

Given the nature of the experience above, it is safe to conclude that some of these international

news agencies have used what they have, such as technology and economic power, (which gives

the opportunity to control the pattern and nature of information being circulated) to re-launch

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neo-colonialism, thereby, forming the fulcrum that shaped opinion about Africa and other parts

of the world (Ifeanyichukwu, 2020)

Conclusion and Recommendations

Given the opinion of experts, the nature of reportage and the domineering status of the developed

world that holds major international news agencies, which they have been deployed to not only

sustain their interests in the world’s affairs, but to also frame other parts of the world the way

they want, from where major opinion is formed. It is convenient to say that factors such as

penchant to concentrate on negativity, the willing to maintain slave to master attitude of leaders

in some of the less developed countries and the control of hardware and software by the owners

of international news agencies have continued to position international news agencies in

advantageous position to direct the wave of public opinion.

Therefore, if the tide is to be altered for some level of decency or equality, the third world

countries must brace up not only to remain the perpetual consumers but upscale to status of great

content creators, given the enormous potential of globalization through the new media, which at

any rate has offered robust channels to balance up the game.

It is also recommended that regional and national news agencies from the third world countries

should brace up and challenge the hegemony of the west.

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