Global News Access

Fascination with satellite television and Internet technology has become an obsession. People throughout the world watch television and believe what they see and hear—without realizing that pictures are selected and stories are sometimes distorted. Concurrently, the world's elite are drawn to the increasing availability of news on the Internet, effectively widening the gap between those who have and do not have access to the new technologies. This analysis of the worldwide impact of new communications technologies shows how ordinary citizens can protect themselves from media brainwashing. Interviews from across the globe shed light on this dynamic and on the roles of viewers as victims or victors in different situations. This is a book for the media professional; students and scholars in the fields of journalism, communications, political science, international relations, and business; as well as for government officials and concerned citizens who do not want to be controlled by the media.

Using the enormous number of available examples and a range of theoretical perspectives, the author demonstrates the ways in which the news media are able to manipulate an individual's perception of the world.

The Global News Challenge tackles one of the timeliest topics in mass communication today—the challenges facing international broadcasters with universal branding strategies in developing countries. In these heavily government-controlled media environments with a scarcity of reliable information, international news providers traditionally had an influential position. With the ongoing media liberalization, however, commercial domestic providers have gained in strength to become strong competitors. Additionally, in a number of countries, pan-Arab broadcasting enterprises have widened their reach, contributing to the growing competition for traditional international providers such as the BBC or France 24. This book employs a global perspective to explore the subject across the whole population and different media platforms in select developing markets of Africa and South Asia. It is unique in providing a theoretical framework by which to analyze demand and usage of and trust in news from international broadcasters across the whole population, not just opinion leaders. It outlines the strategic options for international broadcasters in these evolving market contexts.

”I Am Nobody is an honest, tragic account of child sexual abuse and a powerful resource for individuals struggling with recovery. Gilhooly clearly highlights the shortcomings of the Canadian justice system’s approach; hopefully, one day, the punishment will fit the crime." —Sheldon Kennedy, former NHL player and author of Why I Didn't Say Anything In this raw, unflinching look at how his dream of playing hockey was stolen from him by charismatic hockey coach and sexual predator Graham James, Greg Gilhooly describes in anguishing detail the mental torment he suffered both during and long after the abuse and the terrible reality behind the sanitized term “sexual assault.” Although James has been convicted of sexually assaulting some of his victims, including Sheldon Kennedy and Theo Fleury, he neither confessed in court nor was convicted of sexually assaulting many of his other victims, including Gilhooly, depriving him of the judicial closure he craved. Gilhooly also provides a valuable legal perspective—as both a victim and a lawyer—missing from other such memoirs, and he delivers a powerful indictment of a legal system that, he argues, does not adequately deal with serial sexual child abuse or allocate enough resources to the rehabilitation of the victim. Most important, Gilhooly offers hope, affirmation, and inspiration for those who have suffered abuse and for their loved ones.

Events around the world are broadcast by giant media players such as CNN, BBC and NHK amongst others. This book explores how powerful political and economic agendas in the national media environment influence the production processes.

A lively and critical introduction to the news media, this book has been written specifically for media students and trainee journalists. Understanding Global News invites the reader to explore contemporary journalistic practice, and questions the assumption that the media provide a mere window on the world. Challenging the often unquestioned notions of media objectivity, the author turns the classic questions: Who? What? When? and Why? onto the news media. By employing a range of theoretical perspectives and a large variety of examples, the author demonstrates the way in which our perceptions of the world are constructed by the news media.

Although Al Jazeera English has yet to receive to receive the attention accorded to its Arabic-language elder sibling, it is in many ways the more interesting of the two. It seeks to redefine global news coverage by focusing on areas that are traditionally neglected by most news organizations, and its potential audience is many times larger than that of the Arabic channel. This will be the first book to thoroughly examine this channel's coverage methods, effects on its audience, and its place in the world of mediated geopolitics.Al Jazeera recognized that if it was to expand its worldwide influence, it could not do so wholly in Arabic. And so, in 2006, it launched Al Jazeera English, the first English-language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East. With its principal broadcast centers in Doha, Washington, London, and Kuala Lumpur, the channel faced the task of proving itself to be more than a curiosity and just a junior version of the all-news English-language channels such as the BBC or CNN. After several years of operation, Al Jazeera English seems well on its way to defining its place in the market. The breadth of its coverage, particularly its emphasis on reporting from the global South, has distinguished it from many of its competitors. Thorough coverage from the Middle East and from Africa provides a perspective that other major satellite channels have rarely offered their audiences. Initially, Al Jazeera English was available to 80 million cable and satellite households. It was, however, accessible by only a small number of viewers in the United States (mainly those accessing it through several online providers) primarily because of political reasons. Whatever the political back-story may be, gaining access to a larger global market will depend on audience demand. If Al Jazeera English does a better job of covering major stories, particularly in the Middle East and the global South, than other channels do, and if its competitors find themselves saying, "As Al Jazeera English reported today . . .," news consumers will eventually demand access. This book will examine these political issues and will also analyze the channel's audience base, particularly in Africa and South Asia. The book will also offer evaluations of Al Jazeera English's defining moments to date - its reporting during the 2008-2009 war in Gaza (written by Palestinian and Israeli scholars), and its coverage of the "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy in 2010. The volume will also consider Al Jazeera English in the context of public diplomacy and the growing significance of diasporic populations.