The New Foreign Correspondence

John Maxwell Hamilton & Eric Jenner

From Foreign Affairs, September/October 2003

Article preview: first 500 of 2,702 words total.

Summary:  From news services to "blogs," the Internet has revolutionized the international news market--opening it up to a broader and more active audience. Such technological innovations are rapidly changing the way people produce and consume news, making the traditional model of foreign correspondence obsolete.

John Maxwell Hamilton, a former foreign correspondent, is Dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University (LSU). Eric Jenner is an LSU doctoral student and a former international producer of The New York Times' Web page.

WHAT ELSE IS NEWS?

Until quite recently, only a few news organizations had the capacity to gather and disseminate reports on international events and issues. Those interested in international affairs gleaned what they could from whatever these newspapers, newsmagazines, or network news programs offered. The audience-generalized and passive-routinely received small amounts of overseas coverage.

Laments about the inadequate amount of international news coverage span back to the end of World War II. "That the overseas press ranks should be thinned at the end of the war was only natural," wrote one foreign correspondent at the time, "but that the dilution should be so complete as to eliminate eight out of every nine foreign correspondents is another matter." The post-Cold War era has seen renewed hand-wringing as a result of greater declines in the number of traditional correspondents based overseas and in the print space and broadcast time devoted to international news (except during crises). Explanations for this trend-the high costs of maintaining correspondents overseas and the aggressive bottom-line goals of publicly held media companies-suggest that it is not likely to be reversed any time soon.

The persistent emphasis on traditional foreign correspondents is understandable considering that foreign policy elites are accustomed to relying on-and celebrating-these reporters. Unfortunately, these old habits distract students of foreign affairs from the emergence of new forms of foreign correspondence.

Although not yet well understood, technology-driven changes are reshaping international news flows by lowering the economic barriers of entry to publishing and broadcasting and encouraging the proliferation of nontraditional international news sources. The audience-now fragmented and active-is far better able to choose and even shape the news. Consequently, a broader definition of foreign correspondence and of foreign correspondents is required to assess what consumers of news now know about the world.

IT'S A WIRED WORLD

To start, the Internet has made it possible for media companies to create special foreign news "wires." An obvious example is Bloomberg News, which unlike traditional wire services sells news directly to the public. Bloomberg has about 255 print and 100 radio and television journalists inside the United States and far more-1,000 print and 200 broadcast-outside. Its audience pays substantially for this high-quality, specialized news delivered in real time over its Bloomberg terminals: $1,650 per month for a single terminal or $1,285 per month for each terminal if the client has more than one. New media technology does not preclude Bloomberg from using traditional media as well. It syndicates news to 450 newspapers and 720 radio stations, owns 10 television networks broadcasting in 7 languages around the world, and operates a 24-hour radio station.

Because half of Bloomberg's subscribers are outside the United States, its staff cautions against describing its non-U.S.-based reporters as "foreign correspondents." A trader in New York could have as much interest in soybeans in China as does a trader in Shanghai, and a global marketplace means the reverse is also true: farm news from Chicago interests Chinese as well as Americans. As a result, all of ...

End of preview: first 500 of 2,702 words total.