Coverage of International News in TV News Broadcasts: The Case of the Greek Public Television

Abstract

The "World Press Freedom Index" is published annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and aims to compare 180 countries and territories according to the level of freedom enjoyed by journalists and the media. For 2023, Greece is in position 107 on the list, occupying the last position among the countries of the European Union. As a result of the financial and political crisis, Greek journalists and media faced a deepening lack of trust in the country (Gioltzidou, 2018). In this context, the present study attempts an in-depth study of the potentially problematic aspects of the practice of journalism in Greece, starting from the level of coverage of international news on public television. The theoretical study is based on the research of Lent (1977), who concluded that national interests, censorship (internal or external), and an increasingly shrinking body of correspondents limit international news coverage in the media. In the empirical part, the research results obtained from the study of 66 news bulletins and 1447 separate news topics on the public television ERT3 during September 2021 were presented. The central research question of the study is "What is the role and the position of international news in news bulletins in Greece in cases of global crisis?".