Essay on developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America and the international news coverage
International news coverage of the developing world has seen a steady decline over recent years which has recently been reversed due to intervention in developing countries by western governments. The primary example of this has been the Iraq conflict. The media’s focus tends to cover traditional realist issues such as the relations between states. Many of the important political and social issues in developing countries do not concern these inter-state relationships and are therefore overlooked. Diplomacy and intervention by western governments in developing countries fits this realist agenda and accounts for the upsurge in interest in developing countries, particularly in Iraq. In contrast, many of the most important issues to developing countries such as poverty, hunger and civil war are marginalised in international news coverage. They exist outside of the traditional realist conception of inter-state relations and do not concern western governments, companies, readers and audiences directly. They also reflect the inequality of a global capitalist system which keeps the developing world in its unequal position to ensure the prosperity of the developed world. The media is naturally wary about pointing out the horrendous ramifications of this inequality to its readers and viewers.
Research conducted by VSO, an organisation which works with many international development charities does not believe that developing countries get the international news coverage they deserve. Its website claims that factual coverage of the developing world is at the lowest level ever recorded It claims that in 2004 BBC1 and ITV1 showed less than twenty hours of factual programming which was filmed in developing countries. It went on to note that international news coverage of all media types was failing to comply with the Communications Act, passed by Parliament in 2003, which required that adequate space be given to international news coverage.
Another study by ibt.org suggests that the…
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Tags: Africa, Asia, capitalist system, developing world, Latin America, press, press coverage
