News agencies problems and

challenges
Problems related to the work of
Western agencies
 It is one of the foreign policy tools of the
countries and therefore support it and
promote it on the international arena and
publish it on the world arena to attract
acceptance and support.
 It is also considered one of the propaganda
tools, and then it was the most important
cause of the outbreak of wars/psychological
effect, as confirmed by a number of historians,
before losing them on the battlefield.
 It is a tool for capitalism service due to the
increase in the movement of concentration
and monopoly in the capitalist countries, and
therefore it disseminates consumer values
that contradict the national policies of a
number of the developing world countries
that desperately need to rationalize
consumption and maximize the philosophy of
saving.
 It also uses exclusion mechanisms(filtering)
for many important news due to the
reporter's role as a gatekeeper, who selects
the news according to mainly Western criteria
and values, and then dedicates that focus on
the positives of the North with the negative
contents presented from the South.
 It sets the international agenda for news
around the world, which is a relative matter
given the difference in the interests of the
North from the South in crucial issues.
 Sometimes it places the empowerment of women
(and it seems as if it is a struggle between men
and women) and other human rights (with its
Broad concepts that accept Multiple
interpretations and the West itself differs in their
application ,execution for example) and the third
is pollution of the environment (although the West
is the main cause of this global crisis) ... etc.,

 while the southern world is filled with many

manifestations of poverty, disease and
corruption ... and its media needs to pay attention
to them and shed light on her.
 Another very important and serious problem
is represented in the dependence of the
southern media agencies to these agencies.
 Many of them take what they write, and all

the editor does in this regard is to put a title

that fits the policy of the newspaper, which
leads to another problem related to the
South's knowledge of each other through
what these agencies transmit. in a more
precise sense, through the image/lens that
you want to present about this or that
country.
There are some problems associated
with regional or national agencies:

 The weakness of its financial capabilities,

which hinders it from performing a
distinguished service, as the agency needs a
lot of advanced technological devices,
satellite communication, and provision of
imaging devices and advanced equipment to
ensure the speedy performance of the
correspondent’s tasks...etc.
 Lack of human competencies necessary to
perform its mission at the highest level of
efficiency and in a competitive manner, with
the need to develop his skills through
continuous training to achieve this.
 Its subordination to the political authority in
the founding countries makes it closer to the
offices of the media, and the mouthpiece of
the authority that speaks in its name, which is
a restriction on the freedom of work of these
agencies because they are forced to select
according to political criteria and other non-
professional news elements, including the
exclusion of everything that would prejudice
the symbols and other things nomenclature.
 Finally comes the problem of its dependence
on Western agencies due to the
aforementioned reasons, which is what
makes it reproduce what these agencies
offer.
News agency pools

 In view of the previous problems, which are

difficult for a single country to solve, an
agreement was reached between several
countries to establish these groupings, which
are projects for joint cooperation, the most
important of which are:

 The Asian News Agencies, which was

established in 1961 and is headquartered in
Jakarta.
 Pan-African News Agency:1963 and its
acronym PANA
 Latin American News Agency in Buenos Aires

1969 (Argentina)
 Caribbean News Agency: 1975 CANA
 Non-aligned news agency pool : NANAP
Quantitative and qualitative imbalance
in the global media flow of news
 One of the biggest problems that resulted
due to the practices and work of news
agencies, given that this imbalance
perpetuates the sovereignty and supremacy
of the major countries
 Affirming the status of developing countries

as dependents, which hinders their efforts to

prove their presence, role and influence on
the international arena, which leads to
countless problems and conflict.
 This was confirmed by the International
Commission for the Study of Communication
Problems (McBride) in 1979.

 There are many manifestations of imbalance

in both quantitative and qualitative terms.

 On the quantitative level, news agencies

control about 80 to 85 percent of the news
flowing around the world daily,
 News chosen according to mainly Western
determinants and values.

 This situation and domination link the

developing world with violence, problems,
negativity, poverty, extremism, disease and
terrorism..., in short, a world full of
problems, chaos and unrest.
Qualitative imbalance
 Just as there is a quantitative imbalance at the
global level, we also find an imbalance at the
level of the quality of the contents presented
by both the South and the North and it takes
several manifestations, including:
 The imbalance between negative and positive

news, everything related to the North is linked

to achievements, progress and positivity,
while everything related to the South is
negatives such as failure, rebellion, violation
of human rights, dictatorship...etc,
 which leads to stereotyping the peoples of
this miserable world and distorting its image
in Western public opinion.
 There is also an imbalance of another kind,

which is between serious/hard and soft news.

 Serious news includes news of science, politics,
economics and military affairs... while soft
news includes entertainment, sports, art...etc.
 This type of imbalance confirms that the
Western world achieves growth and prosperity
and is the one who makes civilization, while
the southern world appears as if it were a
heavy burden on civilization, a hotbed of
consumption and a focus of problems that the
West is solving.
 You may ask: Are there no negatives in the
Western world?
 The answer is yes, without a doubt, and there

are errors, but the existing media system

makes it seem as if this deviation is a
departure from the norm and an exception
that confirms the rule and does not deny it,
because the system in this matter undertakes
to modify and correct its consequences and
confront anyone who tries to deviate from
stable values/norms and punishes with an
iron hand any attempt to corruption.
There are many reasons that lead to
qualitative imbalance, including:
1- correspondents:

 There are many problems related to them,

including:
 Their number: not large, and they are forced to
concentrate in major capitals due to their big
financial cost, and their dependence on the
policy/model of the firefighter, who goes to
cover the near places that are located outside
the scope of the capital whose news he covers.
He couldn’t understand the cultural context
of these countries, which may lead to
distorting the news in one way or another.
 The reporter returns back again after that to

the central/main capital.

Language:

 Many correspondents can’t speak the

language of the country they are sent to, and
some correspondents refuse to master this
language, such as German correspondents,
which raises problems due to the fact that
learning international languages ​is limited to
certain elites, which represents a violation of
the rights of the broad base of the masses to
be presented on the coverage.
 Arabic, for example, with its lexical and
idiomatic vocabulary, not in its colloquial
slung, as it is used in the general language
(such as the word terrible), which also leads
to distortion and inaccuracy of news.
Restrictions on the circulation of information
and access to sources, which constitutes an
imbalance due to the inability of the reporter to
verify the authenticity of the news or the
information he collected from its primary
sources.
 Their high cost: given that the reporter must be
distinguished, fluent in more than one language,
dealing with technology, high skills and various
journalistic arts, as well as the need to pass intensive
training courses to develop his skills...etc. Therefore,
preparing a distinguished and successful reporter
costs a lot.

 Their concentration in the major capitals: because

there is no global media outlet that can send
correspondents to all parts of the world, and the most
it can do in this regard is to send them to the burning
regions of the world and the hotbeds of conflicts and
major capitals only.
2- government restrictions:
 Which takes many forms, starting with
refusing to grant visas to some
correspondents, placing restrictions on their
movement, wiretapping them under the
pretext of national security, or deporting
them as spies and expelling them.
 The former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
expelled all correspondents from Iraq in 1990
after his invasion of Kuwait, except for Peter
Arnett, a CNN correspondent.
 In this context, Peter wrote a book
denouncing the American allegations of the
existence of smart missiles, and stressed the
use of internationally prohibited materials
during the invasion.
 And in 2003 ? He was fired.
3- The nature of the work of news
agencies:

 Its work is linked to the principle of speed

and competition, without verifying the
authenticity of the information, which leads
to distortion, especially with the absence of
the right to reply and correct at the
international level.
 There is also a gatekeeping process, according
to which the reporter plays his role as the first
gatekeeper. He selects the news from the
millions of events that occur daily based on
predetermined criteria and norms that vary
according to the policy of each medium, then
his boss performs a second and third selection
process, and so on.
Western news values that operate in the
framework and according to which news
agencies:

 These values are also considered among the

reasons for the qualitative imbalance, since
they are Western values that were developed
based on a mainly foreign and Western media
philosophy/model and are completely
different from the southern context.
 Examples of these values are:
A- Timing
 News is a commodity that fades quickly, and
the word news is derived from a new
meaning, and therefore, the main challenge
in this world filled with events is to access
information quickly, to overcome
competitors, even if at the expense of
accuracy and completeness of information,
which led to the absence of a well-informed
citizen in the media.
 In contrast to the ill- informed citizen, which
leads to the creation of the one-dimensional
man in a one-dimensional society as well, as
Marcuse called it in his book entitled by the
same name.
 This has resulted in a blackout on vital global

issues and a policy of gradual attention that

is fading away little by little, or the so-called
(media bang), we had happened with the
Palestinian Intifada, for example.
B/ Elitism
 It has more than one level and dimension:
With regard to countries:
United States and its news, as a distinct country,
always occupies the first place at the expense of
news from other countries, according to the rule
of searching for an American angle, and even if it
has nothing to do with it, it is directed to the
American sources and departments to comment
on it, in a way that legitimizes the American in
directing and managing events in the whole world.
 Capitalist elites:
within countries, whose affairs and news come first
because they control the economy and manage its
movement in the whole world, at the expense of
the broad base of the masses.
 Fame/celebrity:

This element is one of the famous values, based

on the principle that names make news, and thus
the spotlight is shed on celebrities, regardless of
their competence or the nature/importance of the
topics covered by the media:
 Some of them may have seasickness or runny

nose/divorce/love ...
C/ Negativity
 It is based on the rule of bad news or no
news, i.e. news of chaos, corruption, poverty,
coups and lack of achievements about the
countries of the south.

 This led to several results, including:

 Legitimizing Western intervention in the
affairs of the developing world.
 Relieve the Western conscience in the face of
any negative consequences. It is natural that
there will be victims, but these are
considered, for example, the messengers of
enlightenment and democracy in some
countries, such as Iraq, when American
casualties were justified and linked to their
role in defending freedom and human rights
and confronting terrorism that invaded
America in its own backyard.
- highlighting the peoples of the developing world
in the form of savages and extremists, and then
confirm the message of the civilized Western man
(especially when the relationship of these peoples
with the United States is deteriorating, such as
Iran now, and before that Iraq, which was linked
to Al-Qaeda at times and with the presence of
weapons and destructive weapons at other times
and the massacre of the Kurds who killed them
using chemical weapons On the other hand,
although this matter was known for a long time,
the US administration kept it secret to become a
pressure card to use at the appropriate time.
D/ Personalization

 By focusing on the personal and formal

angles of famous presidents, deputies,
politicians and businessmen... even if they do
not possess the necessary competence to
manage their work.
 Two main results:
 On the internal level: decline of analytical
capabilities of citizens, especially during the
elections, due to practices related to political
make up and marketing that are used
extensively by the American media.
 On the external level: Superficial view of foreign
affairs, so it seems sometimes as if it were a
boxing match between two parties, and we wait
the result and the winner, as happened between
Bush and Saddam.
E / Conflict
 What is the difference between conflict and
competition?
 The conflict has a violent and bloody aspect,
while the competition must include an honest
and clean aspect, even if this issue is relative
between societies.(football match)
 The conflict takes many forms, including:
Generational conflict/between man and
woman/between rich and poor/and white and
colored people in some societies such as the
American society.
F/ sensation
 This value is the reason for the increase in the
distribution of popular newspapers or tabloids, which
depended mainly on huge distribution, not through
subscriptions or advertising, but through mass
distribution, considering that the media content in
general is a product that is sold twice: to the reader and
the advertiser.
 It relied on each of the topics related to sex, scandals
and sports, i.e. the 3 S is relative to the letter S at the
beginning of each word, i.e.: Sex, Scandal & Sport.
 The Australian Robert Murdoch was able, through this
variety, to increase the distribution of the News of the
World newspaper and to double its sales sharply.
G/ entertainment

 It is an extension of the previous value, since

the main goal is profit through massive
distribution, and then multinational
companies and major monopolies exploited it
to achieve very huge profits.

 Rather, entertainment became a stand-alone

industry that generates very huge profits in
the framework of the so-called entertainment
economics.
 This has also extended to the news field,
which has been transformed into a kind of
informational entertainment, that is, little
information in an entertaining framework and
template.
 infotainment and politainment.
 This entertainment focuses on arousing
human instincts and curiosity associated with
celebrities and public figures, with an
emphasis on scandals, gossip and rumors…
H/Enormity
 It includes two aspects:
1- The huge number of people interested in the
event, as a football match between Mahala and
Petrojet is less important than news about the
match between Al-Ahly and Zamalek./ world cup.
2- The huge number of those involved in the
event: i.e. the victims and the actors in the event,
 the death of 10 people is less important than

100, which in turn is less important than the

death of 1,000.
 At the international level, the Western person is
the most valuable,
 10,000 dead in an African country = a thousand
in a developing country = 100 in another = 10
in a capitalist country = a famous person.
 Example:
 A million dead in the Rownda massacre = in
importance a thousand in Brazil = 100 in India
= 10 in Paris or Washington = A famous person
I/ Human interests
 This element depends on igniting the various
human feelings of individuals such as love,
fear, hate...etc/

 And using the strings associated with

children and including women in the news as
the weakest side.
 Al Doraa
 Syrian immigrant/ child
J/ Weirdness

 what's the difference between weird/strange

and funny?

 Every funny thing is strange, but …???,

 The birth of 6 twins is funny news, but the

birth of twins with 4 heads/ 3 eyes… is
strange but not funny.
Consequences of qualitative
imbalance

 Imposing Western perceptions/solutions on

all issues and on all peoples of the world
(international conflict management)

 the Western vision - and the American one in

particular - determines the important
conflicts and priority, resolution and
postponement of the others according to
their agenda and interests.
 Ex: The Palestinian issue: based on American
intervention to hold the 1991 Madrid
Conference between the Arab parties, and
then a Palestinian-Israeli agreement “(Gaza -
Jericho first) in Oslo 1993.
 Imposing Western perceptions of peoples on
the whole world and thus linking peoples to
national stereotyped images derived from
direct historical experiences resulting from
colonialism or indirectly through the writings
of orientalists who viewed the Arab world
from a superficial, false and distorted view.
(Edward Said/ Orientalism)
 Stereotyping, such as linking Muslims with
terrorists, and a relief for the global
conscience in the event that decisions are
taken against some groups and countries
such as Iraq and Iran, as they are countries
that sponsor and spread terrorism, and then
they must be confronted.
 Imposing terms defined by the West for
global problems and issues, such as the term
terrorism and terrorists, with which Islam and
Muslims have been branded, as well as when
talking about martyrdom operations and
considering them as a suicidal act...etc.
 Imposing the cultural, political and
intellectual values ​of Western countries,
which are consumer values ​that encourage
the consumption of luxuries in return for the
developing countries' need for self-
sufficiency, production, economic
independence and the value of saving...etc.
 Marketing Western culture at the expense of
the diversity of cultures in a way that
threatens the cultural identity of other
peoples(globalization/ clash of civilizations…)
 Given that the defeated are very fond of the

conqueror and the superior, as Ibn Khaldun

said, and then young people in particular
emulate Western values ​regardless of their
agreement or disagreement with his values ​
and civilization.
 Emphasis on the supremacy of the West
(Western arrogance) and the legitimacy of its
control/ dominance over the world, and this
applies in particular to the United States of
America.
 American superpower and hero's/ super
man…