News Around the World (PDF)

What's news? A front-page news story in the United States might not appear in a newspaper in China. Or a minor story on German television may be all over the airwaves in India. But News Around the World shows that the underlying nature of news is much the same the world over and that people--no matter what their jobs or their status in society--tend to hold similar notions of newsworthiness.

In this richly detailed study of international news, news makers and the audience, the authors have undertaken exhaustive original research within two cities--one major and one peripheral--in each of ten countries: Australia, Chile, China, Germany, India, Israel, Jordan, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. The nations were selected for study based on a central principle of maximizing variation in geographic locations, economic and political systems, languages, sizes, and cultures. The remarkable scope of the research makes this the most comprehensive analysis of newsworthiness around the globe:

• 10 countries studied, each with a university country director


• 2 cities in each country examined, one major and one peripheral


• 60 news media studied (newspapers, television, and radio news programs), resulting in 32,000+ news items analyzed


• 80 focus groups with journalists, public relations practitioners, and audience members


• 2,400 newspaper stories ranked according to newsworthiness and compared with how prominently they were published.

News Around the World provides remarkable insight into how and why news stories are reported, testing and improving a theory of cross-cultural newsworthiness and is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand international media and journalism.