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International Journalism Essay

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International Journalism

International news coverage in the United States has declined dramatically in the last two decades, leaving the American public lacking in awareness of the world's diversity and beauty. This is unacceptable. The public has access to many forms of media-radio, network and cable television, newspapers, magazines and the Internet-yet lack a basic literacy in international issues. The media no longer provides comprehensive coverage of world news. However, as a far-reaching medium, American news media has an obligation to educate as well as inform the nation's populations. Therefore, despite a post-Cold War political calm, competitive media markets, and fewer foreign correspondents, news mediums must forge a …show more content…

Likewise, network news sliced the minutes of its world coverage as people began turning the channel (See Appendix A).
The reduction of international stories in American news coincided with a general change toward consumer-driven journalism. What began as basic good business, news sources strove to give customers what they want by putting more weight in polls. However, this need to please for profits has since overshadowed all else. Media venues like Internet news, news magazines, reformed newscasts are born by the minute, all seeking to tap into profitable audiences (Dennis, Merrill, p.221). Journalistic quality and content has taken the back seat to the shrewdly delivered big boom stories of violence, tragedies, celebrities-stories that can be packaged with colorful graphics and photos-stories that catch readers' eyes and get them to buy.
Editors, faced with the facts that readers don't purchase or watch international stories, have cut back coverage to give room for more splashy stories. Editor of Media Industry Newsletter, Steven Cohen, complied the following list of some of the worst selling magazine covers in 1994: Newsweek, "Bosnia's Anne Frank," February 28; New Yorker, Yasir Arafat, May 16; U.S. News & World Report, Nelson Mandela, May 9; Business Week, "China: How Much Change?" June 9 (Hohenberg, p88). Given such statistics, and increasingly competitive media venues, news sources have sacrificed international

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