NEWS FROM WEST

WESTERN DOMINANCE IN NEWS DISSEMINATION:

A virtual revolution has seen in the world of news with globalization and innovation in technology. The information explosion has created a highly competitive environment leading to severe changes. Wire services have played a critical role in gathering and dissemination of news to newspapers, periodicals, radio and television broadcasters, government agencies, and other subscribers. Previously, the only source of news can be pointed as the international news agencies (BIG FOUR). A significant but not so successful effort was done in setting up of national news agencies to wash away the dominance of the BIG FOUR. Reuters, AP, AFP and UPI are able to generate large quantum of news from here through their correspondents as well as through ‘news exchange mechanism’ with other agencies.  The two premier Indian news agencies, Press Trust of India (PTI) and United News of India (UNI) have gone through various stages of evolution, since 1946 from being the flag  bearers of free India to  being harbingers of the changing  socioeconomic scenario  and  gradually  becoming  important players in  globalization  and commoditization of news. The initial idea of setting up of news agencies was to create a centralized pool of news which also took necessary efforts to safe guard the interest of the nation. But all efforts were in vain.  During  1970’s the global flow of news content between  agencies and  the misrepresentation  of views and development in  the Third  World  by  western agencies was the subject of intense debate. It was often alleged that news content from foreign agencies was usually laden with their own biases and perceptions. Today use of mobile and internet technologies and access to information through multiple sources have such distortion in handling news.

NEWS AGENCIES ROUND THE CLOCK SERVICES:

Now we can say that such news agencies multiplied, with foreign partners and independent news organizations. To talk about the speed with which news is transmitted is matched with assortment of stories and issues finding space in the media. Subjects, like business, market trends, art and cinema making are may be the possible answers in defining “what is news” finds a noteworthy place in to the front pages. In this changing set-up, news agencies have a more promising role to play since the demand for variety in news would provide an impetus to enlarge the scope of their activities within and outside the country. In recent times there has been an increased interest in India’s efforts to streamline economic activities and counter terror threats at the same time. News agencies provide an update on these issues which frame India’s image, which is either advantageous or can act as detrimental to its efforts. To understand if news agencies are providing the right context and bringing in perspectives which provide for a more balanced assessment, a study  was undertaken  to  analyze how Indian issues are placed before the readers here and abroad. The working of the news agencies is seen at two broad levels: the news exchange mechanism with the foreign new agencies and utilization of such news by  the foreign as well as domestic subscribers.