|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Increase in International News Space Unlikely, Says Pollster
 |
|
|
Dwight Morris discusses his research findings with IRP Fellows. |
|
|
Click here for audio excerpt |
Washington, September 18, 2002 - Despite the ongoing international war on terror and a looming conflict with Iraq, the amount of foreign news in the US media may still decline, predicted Dwight Morris, president of the research survey firm Dwight L. Morris & Associates. He says internationally focused stories may fall by the wayside - in part because many foreign editors have already assumed that will happen.
Morris delivered his remarks to a seminar of IRP Fellows and visiting international journalists from the Minnesota-based World Press Institute. He reported on a survey he conducted for the International Reporting Project earlier this year. The findings, published in a report titled "America and the World: the Impact of September 11 on U.S. Coverage of International News," showed that foreign editors saw an "astonishing jump in interest in international news" after September 11. But they also predicted readers would soon lose interest; something Morris warned could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. "If you go into the process deciding your news hole's going to shrink at some appropriate time for the coverage of international news, you've made the decision already for the readers. It doesn't matter what they're interested in."
Nearly two-thirds of the foreign editors or "gatekeepers," as they are often called in the news industry, believed they did only a "fair to poor" job providing quality international news stories. They also believed the public's appetite for international news would wane. He summed up foreign editors' attitudes as, "Our readers really want it, we've been giving it to them for a while, but we think we're going to take it away."
"As we get further and further away from [September 11]�they think [international news interest] is going to wane because they really don't give the American public very much credit in being interested in it to begin with," Morris maintained.
With the Bush administration threatening war in Iraq, however, he predicted reader interest in international affairs would remain fairly high. Reader interest is not the sole factor editors use to determine the space they allot for international news, however. According to Morris' survey, cost also plays a significant role in limiting greater foreign news coverage. Cutting costs is much more of a priority now that corporations, rather than families, control most newspapers, according to Morris.
Seminar participants noted that many news organizations in the US and other countries were closing international bureaus in an apparent attempt to cut costs. They also noted the survey found foreign editors have little international experience: only 28 percent had lived abroad at any point in their lives, and just 31 percent spoke another language. "This survey really pained me a great deal," Morris said. "It was a sad commentary on our business."
Copyright © 2005 International Reporting Project. All Rights Reserved.