The National Interest on
Internet News Sites
Bella Mody
University of Colorado Boulder
Linda Hofschire
Independent Researcher
Presented at ICA May 09 Chicago
Updated June 29 2009
High expectations of the internet
-to provide a global public sphere,
-to emphasize our common
humanity rather than parochial
national interests
-to promote cosmopolitanism
• Hypothesis:
news designed for extra-national
audiences will cover civil war and
humanitarian crises more
comprehensively in terms of causes and
remedies
Comprehensive coverage index
operationally defined to include
• Time of coverage
• Article type: coverage through features,
backgrounders, opinion columns in addition to
hard news
• Quotes from non-traditional sources like rebels,
non-governmental orgs, human rights monitors
and refugees in addition to government officials
• Data from a 10-news org comparison of
scores on an 11-item Comprehensive
Coverage Index of the Darfur Sudan civil
war over 26 months (Jan 03-Feb 05)
• Coverage on each of 11 dimensions was
ranked from 10=high to 1=low
• Rank values across the 11 indicators were
summed and divided by 110
• Comprehensive coverage scores: national print
dailies
Wash Post 73/110
NY Times 70/110
Guardian UK 65/110
Le Monde 64/110
Al Ahram 49/110
People’s Daily 44/110
Weighted mean score for national print dailies: 64.80
Comprehensive coverage scores for extra-national
online news media
• Mail and Guardian Online S Africa 68/110
BBC.CO.UK 66/110
English.Al Jazeera.Net 59/110
China Daily 53/110
Weighted mean score for extra-nationally focused online news: 63.65
• A priori expectations of influences on
comprehensiveness of foreign coverage:
-Current national interest in country being covered
-Historical geopolitical location based on shared
experience of Western colonization in the 19th20th century
-Ownership of media organization (any state role?)
-Extra national versus national geopolitical
readership
• Comprehensive Coverage scores for all 10
news organizations based on National
Interest in Sudan:
Low National Interest in Sudan: UK, France,
US, South Africa: 68.11
Medium-High National Interest in Sudan:
Qatar, Egypt, China: 52.42
t(958)=57.02, p<.001
• Comprehensive Coverage scores for all 10 news
organizations based on shared historical
experience of 19-20th century colonization by
West:
No shared experience of 19th-20th century
colonization by West: UK, France coverage :
68.13
Shared historical experience of shared
colonization by West coverage: 58.61
t(958)=23.76, p<.001
• Comprehensive Coverage scores for all 10
news organizations based on state
ownership of news org:
No state ownership: NYT, WP, Le Monde,
M+Guardian South Africa : 68.78
State ownership: al Ahram, BBC.CO.UK,
China Daily, Al Jazeera : 58.19
t(958)=28.79, p<.001
• Extra-national press weighted mean score
on compreh coverage of humanitarian
conflict: 63.65
• National press weighted mean score on
compreh coverage of humanitarian
conflict: 64.80
t(958)=2.32, p<.05
• Relative impact of predictors on the
comprehensiveness of coverage of this one civil
war and humanitarian conflict:
Betas sig at p<.001
• Private ownership
0.44
• No Western colonization
0.37
• Low national interest in Sudan 0.28
• Extra-national geo-political
market
0.20
• Findings
- Coverage of humanitarian news varies
due to longstanding political and eco
reasons mentioned frequently in the
literature
- The state in which the news org is located
continues to be a major influence
- The media platform (viz. the Internet) is
one of many influences
• How should “global” media be defined?
-Based on audience? medium? Universal
access?
-Based on political economy questions
related to the news org owner and owner
interests, e.g. the BBC vs. Al-Jazeera?
• Should predictions about coverage by
“global” news orgs vary based on the
nature of their claim to globalness?