TV NEWS FLOW STUDIES
What is surprising here is that the bulk of research that has been carried out
within the news flow tradition fails to examine, in any real detail, the actual flow or
exchange of TV news between news organizations (news agencies, broadcasters,
etc.) and across countries. In fact, news flow research does not take the ‘flow’
metaphor very seriously. Most studies consist only of comparative analyses of the
output of national broadcast news. As a consequence, the actual process of news
flow is left unexplained. This may be likened to trying to understand the ecological
system of the sea by counting the number of fish one can catch from the shore.
A few studies have tried to analyze the content and volume of television
news items that are actually exchanged between actors at the wholesale level,
and between wholesale and retail levels. In the case of Europe, there is a handful
of studies (Golding and Elliot 1979; Gurevitch 1992; Hjarvard 1995, 1999; Melnik
1981; Ruby 1965; Varis and Jokelin 1976). In the case of the so-called Third World
continents, there are only one or two studies per continent (see, e.g., Turkistani
(1988), which covers news flow in the Arab region). Taken together, these few
studies also reveal that few – if any – general conclusions may be drawn about the
character (volume, direction, content, etc.) of TV news flow at the global level. The
studies seem to indicate that stable or uniform patterns of news flow may instead
be identified at a lower level, namely as a function of the region, the historical
period, and the specific actors involved (kind of wholesale agencies, kind of
broadcasters, etc.). For instance, the idea that international TV news flow could
be characterized as ‘one-way traffic,’ as suggested by Nordenstreng and Varis
(1974) and by UNESCO (1989: 145), receives support in only some of these
studies, and is actually contradicted by more recent findings.
There are at least two major problems with how news flow data have been
interpreted in earlier research. First, key concepts are frequently changed when
analyses move from the stage of empirical analysis to that of interpretation and
theoretical explanation – a shift commonly occurs from a selection to a
construction perspective. News flow patterns are often explained using concepts
from theories of media and cultural imperialism or from dependency theory. But
little work has been done to mediate between the construction perspective of
these theoretical explanations and the selection perspective implied by the
empirical flow studies. There are very few attempts to explain how macro-social
structures actually determine or influence news flow patterns. For instance, how
does media imperialism work at the level of social actors (e.g., in TV news agency
newsrooms) – actors whose combined actions at the micro level result in the
observable news flow patterns? What is missing is a theoretical framework that
could create a common ground accommodating both the general social structure
and the social actors involved in micro-social actions.
Second, data interpretation has been guided by a theoretical and/or political
position where international news flow is considered to be structured by a rather
limited set of factors. Both the realm of foreign news and the social world have
often been assumed to be much simpler and more homogeneous than is actually
the case. In particular, the connection between the operations of the news media
and broader social forces (such as cultural imperialism, economic dependency,
etc.) has been portrayed as a rather simple one. Studies of news flow patterns
have seldom dealt with the more specific, and relatively autonomous, features of
media institutions: editorial practices, journalistic education, technology,
conventions of expression, and so on. Foreign news is both a discursivesymbolic
and a social-economic practice, and both dimensions must be taken into account
in research. Thus, it is necessary to bridge the gap between social-scientific and
humanistic traditions in order to provide a comprehensive analysis also of
international news.
