Visible and invisible countries: News flow theory revised

Abstract

In this paper the validity and limits of the news flow theory are examined, utilizing a large digital corpus of 35 popular news sites in 10 different languages over a three-year period. Three key variables were identified: GDP, foreign population and conflict intensity, collectively accounting for more than 70% of the variance of country prominence in the news. After offering a robust model, over-represented and under-represented countries are listed and divided based on their different characteristics and news trends. Findings show that conflicts tend to be visible only if they are in the Middle East. Over-represented regional centers in West Europe and Asia overshadow the under-represented regional peripheries in East Europe and the Middle East. Finally, the US and Africa serve as a global center and a periphery respectively. The implications of these findings are discussed in order to invite scholars to further expand the theory and the explanatory model accordingly.

The group-sphere model of international news flow: A cross-national comparison of news sites

“…Today, it is widely accepted that the prominence of a foreign country in the news is attributed to three groups of variables: (a) national traits (e.g., the size and power of the foreign country); (b) relatedness, namely proximity to that foreign country (e.g., in terms of geography or demography); and (c) events (e.g., natural disasters, wars, conflict, or local protests) (Golan and Wanta, 2003;Segev, 2015Shoemaker et al, 1991;Wu, 2000). While national trait variables can explain the similar focus of international news on global actors, such as the United States, relatedness variables explain their different regional focus.…”

“…Similarly, Galtung and Ruge (1965) stressed the significance of news originating in elite nations among the selection criteria. The economic power of a country was found to be a particularly important determinant of its news prominence (Ishii, 1996;Kim and Barnett, 1996;Robinson and Sparkes, 1976;Segev and Blondheim, 2013a;Segev, 2015;Wu, 2000Wu, , 2007. Military power is another important indicator for locating countries on that divide (Shenhav et al, 2012), followed by population size (Charles et al, 1979;Dupree, 1971;Rosengren, 1977).…”

“…The third group of variables measures the deviance of a country, including involvement in conflicts (Golan and Wanta, 2003;Segev, 2015), as well as political, economic, and social changes (Chang et al, 1987;Shoemaker et al, 1986Shoemaker et al, , 1991. Natural and human disasters, which have become more common, global, and newsworthy around the world (Pantti et al, 2012) are also included in this group.…”

“…Similarly, while most studies focused on the news in one or two countries (Golan, 2008;Golan and Wanta, 2003;Ishii, 1996;Robinson and Sparkes, 1976;Rosengren, 1977;Shoemaker et al, 1986Shoemaker et al, , 1991Wu, 2007), many fewer studies attempted to unveil the larger international picture (Segev, 2015;Wu, 2000). Most importantly, as noted earlier by Wu (2000), none of the studies mentioned above attempted to construct a comprehensive theoretical framework based on their empirical findings.…”

“…He found that online news was generally comparable with print and broadcast news, and could be explained by similar determinants. Segev (2015) followed this path when studying the international news flow in various news sites around the world. In line with Wu (2007), he found that newssite content could be equally explained by similar determinants.…”