An Asian Voice? A Comparative Study of Channel News Asia and CNN

Transcription

1 An Asian Voice? A Comparative Study of Channel News Asia and CNN By Kalai Natarajan and Hao Xiaoming This study examined the claim that Asian journalism is essentially different from Western journalism through a comparative study of Channel News Asia (CNA), an international news channel operated by a Singapore company, and CNN. It analyzed the news bulletins aired by the 2 stations in their special news programs on Asia during 4 constructed weeks over a 6-month period in The results show that despite its objective of presenting an Asian perspective in its newscasts, CNA is not significantly different from CNN. Both stations tend to focus on crises and conflicts in their news coverage of Asia. The findings indicate that being Asian does not automatically enable Asian journalists and media to present news about Asia in a way significantly different from their Western counterparts. The notion that Asian journalism is essentially different from Western journalism has its roots in the debate on the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), which started at a UNESCO conference in The proposition of NWICO was based on the premise that there was an imbalance in the flow of news and information between the developed and developing worlds as a result of the dominance by the Western media, which tended to portray the developing countries in a negative way (Altschull, 1984). To balance the news flow, Asian nations encouraged the development of national news agencies such as Xinhua in China and Bernama in Malaysia, as well as regional news collaborations such as Asian News Network, AsiaVision News (AVN), and the ASEAN News Exchange. Channel News Asia (CNA), an all-news television channel set up by Singapore s MediaCorp, represents the latest development in these attempts to provide an alternative viewpoint from Asia to an international audience. Claiming to be an authoritative voice from within Asia, CNA promises to give an Asian perspective of Asia through its news reports (CNA, 2000a). Thus, this study sought to explore how CNA has defined an Asian perspective, as opposed to Western perspective, in its selection and presentation of news and whether Asian news as presented by CNA is any different from that shown on Western-based international news channels. Kalai Natarajan is communication manager of the Asia-Pacific Division of Levi Strauss & Co. Hao Xiaoming is an associate professor in the School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Copyright 2003 International Communication Association 300

2 An Asian Voice? The MacBride Commission report (MacBride, 1981) identified the lack of technology and training in the field of journalism as one of the reasons for the imbalance in news flow. With the fast economic development in Asia, however, Asian news media are increasingly gaining greater access to technology and becoming financially capable of engaging correspondents or stringers in neighboring countries. Once the technical problems are solved, the question then is whether an Asian media organization is capable of distinguishing itself from a Western media organization by presenting news with a different perspective. If not, does it mean that journalists, Western or Asian, if given a choice, will basically conform to the so-called universal principles of journalism that focus on aberration and out of the ordinary events (Sheehan, 1971)? Western-based international news channels such as the Cable News Network (CNN), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and CNBC have long held the monopoly of shaping the image of Asia through their news. Now, with an Asian competitor in the market, it is critical to study which outlets are doing greater justice to Asia. Because CNA models itself after CNN and CNBC Asia as an allnews channel, at least in format, it is fair to compare it to those outlets to see if CNA is indeed painting a more truthful picture of Asia and its developments. CNA was launched on March 1, 1999, as a business and general news station. Its regional feed is carried by cable operators and can be watched in hotel rooms in major Asian cities. The channel s first overseas studio in Hong Kong became operational in March 2000 (CNA, 2000b). In an interview on March 1, 2000, the channel s chief operating officer, Shaun Seow, promised streamlined program presentation and timing, improved timeliness of news through more live telecasts, and stronger regional bureaus, all of which, he said, would be achieved while maintaining that unique Asian perspective, although he admitted it is difficult to put a finger on what the Asian perspective is (CNA, 2000c). Cheng Wai Keung, chairman of MediaCorp, the corporation that controls CNA, shared Seow s ambivalence at the channel s first anniversary media conference. He said that the Asian perspective is difficult to define but an Asian perspective of news comes from knowing Asia intimately. CNA tells the story of Asia in all its complexity and explains why things happen the way they do (CNA, 2000c). In short, as Latif (1998) pointed out, it is about authenticity and the ability to place one s work in a context that is local and cultural. As one of the means to give authenticity to its Asian news, CNA has set up 10 overseas bureaus and employed presenters and backroom staff from the Philippines, Hong Kong, and India (CNA, 2000c). Although this may seem like an acceptable plan to present viewers with an authentic Asian perspective of news, closer scrutiny raises questions. First, CNA, in total, has fewer than 20 non-singaporean presenters and reporters out of a total of more than 300 staff, raising questions as to how well represented other Asian nations are. Second, if stationing or sometimes parachuting journalists into other Asian countries gives news coverage an Asian perspective, one would wonder why Asian news presented by BBC or CNN is not seen as news with an Asian perspective, considering the fact that these stations also have bureaus in various parts of Asia and employ local journalists as well. 301

3 What amounts to an Asian perspective in news coverage is difficult to determine, as there is yet to be consensus among Asian countries on what Asian values are. Asian values in journalism constitute an important area of focus in the ongoing Asian values debate, which reflects the need to reassert traditional values in the face of growing Western influence in Asia. The argument for Asian values in journalism is an extension of this need to safeguard national identity and cultural distinctiveness (Xu, 1998). The reassertion of Asian values began in the 1970s, when Singapore s then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew propounded the notion of Asian values. The concept proposed was a combination of work ethic, respect for family, and deference to government authority (Xu, 1998). Singapore s Ambassador at Large Tommy Koh (1998) expanded on this concept and listed eight values that have come to represent East Asia: respect for authority, strong families, reverence for education, hard work, frugality, teamwork, a balance between the individual s interests and those of the society, and a free press that is not an absolute right. However, the heterogeneity of Asia makes the establishment and acceptance of any such prescription of Asian values an uphill task. Similarly, there is great diversity among the media systems of the region, ranging from the authoritarian systems of China, Myanmar, and Vietnam to the Western-style journalistic systems of India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines (Tay & George, 1996). Such diversity makes it impossible for any consensus on defining Asian journalistic values. However, it is not unfair to expect a news station that claims to practice an Asian brand of journalism and give stories an Asian perspective to have an operational definition of the terms that they so often use. Despite the fact that the management of CNA cannot offer a clear definition of what they mean by Asian perspective, they claim that CNA s Asian reporters and editors will help to ensure that an Asian perspective is offered in the channel s news bulletins. According to the channel s management, CNA journalists, being Asians, understand the Asian psyche better than their Western counterparts and are able to see the various shades of gray in a particular Asian story, instead of presenting it just as black and white (Osman, 2000, p. 56). Literature Review The one-way flow of information from the industrialized world to the developing world had become the subject matter of many international debates before the issue attained formal recognition with the completion of the MacBride Commission Report (Sobhan, 1981), which highlighted the different levels at which imbalance in news flow occurred (MacBride, 1981). Masmoudi (1979) noted that the pattern of communication was challenged by the developing world because of the sparse and unrepresentative way in which the Third World was presented by the media. The amount of news coverage the developing world receives is less an issue in comparison to the focus of the news stories. Past research (Robinson, 1981; Wilhoit & Weaver, 1983) showed that the volume of news coverage on less developed 302

4 An Asian Voice? countries was about equal to that on more developed countries, but the news about the developing world tended to focus more on conflict and crisis. A similar study by Hester (1974) described Western coverage of Latin America not as crisisoriented, but rather as being presented from an ethnocentric perspective to satisfy a Western-dominated news market. A study by Larson and Storey (1983) showed that U.S. television networks habitually carried Asian news on internecine warfare, civil unrest, misunderstandings, and threats to the economic and political status quo. Other studies (Lent, 1977; Smith, 1980) also concluded that the coverage of Asia and the rest of the developing world in Western media has been characterized by negative reporting that stresses crisis and conflict. Kirat and Weaver (1985) argued that crisis news coverage by the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) had drastically decreased, compared to the level identified by Weaver and Wilhoit (1981). They suggested that criticisms by advocates of the NWICO and previous research had some impact on the news values of foreign correspondents and editors of AP and UPI. An analysis of Asian news in four of the major U.S. newspapers by Ismail (1989) concluded that the oft-heard complaint, that Western media focus on negative reporting that stresses crisis and conflict in Asia, was groundless. The study found that 73% of all stories about Asia were noncrisis news. Nnaemeka and Richstad (1979) agreed that many of the issues raised in the debate of the NWICO were less problems of Third World journalism than problems of journalism. Several studies that have examined Asian media coverage of Asia have concurred with this argument. Gupta (1995) observed that in South Asia, the press is politically charged. In India, for example, Times of India, the English daily with the largest circulation, alleged in an editorial, despite a lack of evidence, that there was a foreign hand behind the religious riot in Moradabad that left hundreds dead (Masterton, 1996, p.75). Pakistani newspapers were said to have exaggerated and sensationalized Indian army action in Kashmir, whereas Indian newspapers were accused of exaggerating accounts of Pakistani infiltrators and saboteurs (Qureshi, 1993, pp ). Szende s (1986) ethnographic research showed insufficient news coverage of the ASEAN region. Apart from the usual complaints of insufficient and inaccurate or exaggerated stories provided by the Western news agencies and the lack of resources to station correspondents in the region, ASEAN journalists who responded to the survey pointed to the lack of interest in ASEAN as a reason for the problem. Regional stories were not deemed sufficiently newsworthy, according to gatekeepers in the newsroom. Bandyopadhyay (1988) argued that the Western and Asian perspectives of news are different because of the different roles assigned to the media in the respective societies. The Western media are described as having taken on an adversarial role. Asian media, on the other hand, have been given a complementary role to that of the government and work as a catalyst for change in a predetermined direction, reflecting an orientation toward developmental journalism rather than political journalism. 303

5 According to Chalkley (1968), the developmental journalist should make the readers realize how serious the development problems are, stimulate them to think about the problems, open their eyes to possible solutions, and punch a hole in the vicious cycle of poverty. In practice, developmental journalism emphasizes information, facts, issues, and events related to the improvement of the community (Moral, 1973). Masterton (1996) remarked that the Western media have yet to fully understand or appreciate the critical process of nation building, which is still underway in Asia and which colors Asian priorities and perceptions of journalistic values. Despite the criticism of Western media by the developing countries, the media in developing countries may not practice what they preach. Ogan (1987, p. 87) found that the media of the developing countries are no different from the Western media when it comes to a preoccupation with political issues. Hasim (1986) suggested that Malaysian newspapers did not rate development news of Southeast Asia highly. He found that only 2.1% of stories in eight Malaysian newspapers reported on developmental news, and that more dramatic and sensational news was preferred. Lacuna (1983) reviewed three English-language papers in the Philippines and found that none of the newspapers gave emphasis to the categories classified as developmental news, such as agriculture, public health and welfare, environmental conditions, education, and labor. Vilanilam (1975) did a similar study on the developmental news coverage in two leading Indian newspapers and found that both newspapers considered parliament and state legislature proceedings, strikes, personal news about government ministers, and interparty and intraparty political affairs more newsworthy than matters closer to the heart of the common man or woman. These studies indicate that media, without political controls, are likely to look for the same qualities in a newsworthy event it has to be personalized, dramatic, observable, novel, inoffensive, credible, packageable, and visually impressive (Jamieson & Campbell, 1992; see also Larson, 1984). Media are often pressured to tell people what they want to hear and what will entertain them in order to keep them coming back and to make advertisers happy (Harris, 1999, p. 142). Television news is often judged with a domestic bias, and international news becomes easily dispensable whenever major domestic events occur (Weaver, Porter, & Evans, 1984). An overreliance on foreign news agencies is also cited as a reason that Asian news media also end up painting a negative picture of Asia (Richstad, 1988). Schramm and Atwood (1988) found that 90% of the identifiable sources of news stories in the Asian newspapers came from the four major international news agencies, indicating a strong dominance by Western services. In an optimistic assessment, Richstad (1988) predicted that the balance of news flow would improve with the emergence of regional news sources such as the Asian News Exchange and AVN. A study by Sankaran and Servaes (1997) found that there was a trend for Asian media to station their correspondents overseas to file stories from the spot. Regional news exchanges, however, may have their own set of problems in generating balanced coverage. Goonasekara (1997) found that media specialists from Malaysian, Indian, and Chinese TV and radio stations tended 304

6 An Asian Voice? to recommend stories that supported their respective political agenda for AVN exchange broadcast. They all wanted to highlight their countries achievements and developments to the audience of AVN. The same tendency was also found by Dilawari, Stewart, and Flournoy (1991) in their study of CNN s weekly telecast of unedited, uncensored news reports submitted by broadcast news organizations from around the world. Media in both developing and developed countries tended to present more development-oriented news about their own countries to an international audience. In summary, past studies indicate that news organizations, Western or Asian, have the tendency to present negative news on Asia, with little emphasis on the region s development. One exception to this tendency is news organizations coverage of their home countries. The blame for such negative reporting cannot be solely put on the Western news agencies as news sources. Given the demand of an audience that already has a negative preconceived notion of Asia, a media organization, whether Western or Asian, would be left with fewer choices but to continue presenting Asia the way the audience has been seeing it for decades. Hypotheses The literature review shows that both Western and Asian media have a preference for crises and conflicts, and the appetite for abrasive news is more a universal journalistic preference than a Western principle. Despite such findings, the management of CNA believes that a station staffed by Asian journalists would naturally give less emphasis to negative news and more emphasis on positive and development news about Asia than its Western counterparts (Osman, 2000). To test these assumptions, we hypothesized: H1: Compared to its Western counterparts, CNA puts less emphasis on news of exception, such as news about political conflict, economic crisis, war, and disaster. H2: CNA presents a more positive picture of Asia than do its Western counterparts. H3: CNA presents more news reports about development in Asia than do its Western counterparts. Past studies suggest that even when news on Asia s positive developments is reported in the media, such stories are generally not presented as lead stories. Headline news on Asia tends to be crisis-oriented. To test if CNA would be different, we hypothesized: H4: CNA presents more positive stories about Asian countries in the leading locations of their broadcasts than do its Western counterparts. However, as mentioned earlier, studies on AVN and CNN World Report show that a news station tends to be development-oriented and positive in focus when 305

7 it comes to reporting on its own country to an international audience (Goonasekara, 1997; Dilawari et al., 1991). Although CNN s Asian headquarters is based in Hong Kong, its home base is in the United States. Therefore, its stories on Asia may not be affected by this home factor. CNA, on the other hand, may be easily affected by the fact that it is a Singapore channel. Therefore, we hypothesized: H5: CNA tends to be more positive on stories about Singapore than stories about other countries. CNA claims that it has its fingers on the pulse of Asia and that it covers how Asia is developing as a region (CNA, 2000d). It is only natural then to expect the channel s news coverage to respond to the aspirations arising from underdevelopment all over Asia. Therefore, we hypothesized: H6: Compared to its Western counterparts, CNA tends to focus less on a particular part of Asia in its news bulletins. CNA claims that its journalists make special efforts to ensure that the channel presents an authentic voice from within by reporting from the spot and using sound bites from indigenous sources (Osman, 2002, pp ). It is thus logical to expect a large number of local sound bites in CNA s news bulletins. Therefore, we hypothesized: H7: CNA reports more stories from the spot in Asia than do its Western counterparts. H8: CNA offers more Sound On Tape (SOTs) of indigenous Asian sources as compared to its Western counterparts. Methodology Because CNA is modeled after CNN and CNBC Asia, but supposed to represent an Asian perspective, it is most logical to compare its treatment of Asian news to that of CNN or CNBC Asia. Considering the fact that we want to test CNA s claims about its coverage of Asia rather than other parts of the world, we focused on analyzing the content of Asian news bulletins. CNA has an Asia-specific bulletin, telecast every evening, whereas CNN s Asia bulletin is telecast every weekday evening. CNBC Asia, which is essentially a business news station, does not run daily bulletins on general Asian news. As a result, CNA s Asia Tonight and CNN s Asia Tonight were selected for comparison. Four constructed weeks were drawn over a 6-month period from June to November Beginning from Thursday, June 16, Asia Tonight bulletins of CNA and CNN International were recorded on every fourth day. Recording was suspended in October after the crash of a Singapore Airlines plane at Taiwan s Chiang Kai Shek Airport because the program schedule of CNA was affected by the coverage of the accident. As CNN did not run Asia-specific bulletins on the weekends, we analyzed only weekday bulletins of CNA. 306

8 An Asian Voice? Table 1: Coverage of News Topics CNA CNN (n = 127) (n = 176) War & terrorism (%) Politics (%) Finance/business (%) Accidents/disasters (%) Crime/justice (%) Others (%) χ 2 = df = 5. p =.06 The basic unit for analysis was the news item. A total of 431 stories were selected, including 176 from CNA and 255 from CNN. These stories were classified into Asian and non-asian stories. CNA had 127 stories focusing on Asia whereas CNN had 176. A coding sheet was adapted from previous studies (Weaver et al, 1984; Yu, 1996), measuring 15 variables. 1 Four graduate students from Nanyang Technological University of Singapore did the coding. A pilot study was conducted to analyze a subsample of the news items. Intercoder reliability based on Scott s (1955) pi reached 1.00 for those variables whose coding did not involve much subjective judgment, and ranged from.83 to.97 for variables whose coding involved more subjective judgment, 2 well above the minimum reliability coefficient of.75 reported by most published content analyses (Wimmer & Dominick, 1997, p. 130). Findings and Analysis Our findings did not show significant differences between CNA and CNN in terms of their news focus on conflicts in Asia. Of all the stories, 55.9% of CNA s and 51.4% of CNN s contained elements of conflict, χ 2 =.60, df = 1, p =.439). Further analysis of the news topics covered by the two channels showed that both CNA and CNN reported heavily on politics, wars, business, disasters, and crimes, with the majority of their stories concentrating on these topics. War and terrorism emerged 1 The variables measured include the channel, story topic (divided into 15 categories, including accidents/natural disasters, agriculture, business/economics, politics, etc.), focus on development, tone of story (supportive/critical/neutral), element of conflict, placement, report filed by own correspondent, on-spot reporting, country of origin, the region (Central, West, Northeast, Southeast and South Asia, etc.), international news by nature, focus on Asia, number of SOTs, number of SOTs by Asians, and use of Asian language in SOTs. 2 The reliability coefficients for various variables are these: 1.00 for channel; number of SOTs, number of Asian SOTs, use of Asian language SOTs, country of origin and region;.83 for tone of story;.83 for own correspondent;.87 for on-spot reporting;.87 for development focus;.87 for element of conflict;.87 for Asia focus;.93 for placement;.95 for topic; and.97 for international by nature. 307

9 Table 2: Orientation of News Stories CNA CNN (n = 127) (n = 176) Supportive (%) Neutral (%) Critical (%) χ 2 = 8.1. df = 2. p =.02 as the topic most covered in CNA s bulletins (26%), whereas CNN concentrated on politics, with 33.5% of its stories being primarily political. The statistical test did not show significant differences between the two channels (see Table 1). Hypothesis 1 therefore was not supported. Hypothesis 2 predicted that CNA would present a more positive picture of Asia than its Western counterparts. Ideally, a more positive picture should include more positive stories and fewer negative stories. Our findings showed that CNA does carry proportionally more supportive stories, but the percentage of such stories is greatly inflated by the large number of supportive stories about Singapore, which accounted for 59.3% of all such stories. At the same time, CNA also carried more critical stories than CNN. Even though the statistical test showed significant differences between the two channels, these differences do not really indicate a more positive coverage of Asia as a whole by CNA nor do they support Hypothesis 2. No significant difference was found between CNA and CNN in their treatment of developmental news. 9.4% of CNA s stories focused on development-related topics such as education, health care, culture, social problems/services, and technology, whereas 11.9% of CNN s stories were devoted to such topics (χ 2 =.469, df = 1, p =.49). Hypothesis 3, which predicted that CNA would present more news reports about development in Asia, was thus rejected. In addition to the overall tone of the stories, we examined what kinds of stories were more likely to be prominently presented. The headline slot, first segment and first slots in the second and third segments are considered leading locations in a typical half-hour newscast. Most of CNA s 86 stories presented in such leading locations were negative. Such stories occupied 52.3% of the prime slots, whereas positive stories were given only 14% of the same slots. In comparison, CNN gave most of its leading locations to stories with a neutral orientation. Of the 124 prime spots for CNN s bulletins, 50.8% were given to stories with a neutral orientation and 43.5% to negative stories. Because the differences (χ 2 = 8.09, df = 2, p =.02) between the two stations were not in the direction expected, Hypothesis 4, which predicted that CNA would present more positive stories about Asian countries in the leading locations of their broadcasts, was also rejected. CNA s coverage of Singapore was found to be significantly different from its coverage of other Asian countries in terms of orientation. The majority of CNA 308

10 An Asian Voice? Table 3: Orientation of Singapore and Non-Singapore Stories by CNA Singapore Other countries (n = 28) (n = 99) Supportive (%) Neutral (%) Critical (%) χ 2 = df = 2. p =.00 stories on other Asian countries were found to be critical, but the majority of its stories on Singapore were positive. Such a significant difference (see Table 3) lends support to Hypothesis 5, which predicted that CNA would give Singapore more positive coverage. CNA s news coverage concentrated heavily on Southeast Asia, with 68.5% of its stories focusing on that region. Leading the pack of Southeast Asian countries were Singapore and Indonesia with 28 stories each. CNN s regional concentration was East Asia. In general, CNN s bulletins had a better geographic representation compared to those of CNA (see Table 4 for details). Hypothesis 6, which asserted that CNA would focus less on any particular part of Asia, was thus rejected. Both CNA and CNN had slightly fewer than half of their foreign stories filed by staff correspondents reporting from another country. CNA had 42.5% of its stories filed by its correspondents based in other Asian countries, and CNN had 44.9% of such stories (χ 2 =.17, df = 1, p =.68). CNA had 37.8% and CNN had 27.4% of their stories reported from the scene by their own correspondents based in a foreign country (χ 2 = 3.78, df = 1, p =.052). The differences were not statistically significant to support Hypothesis 7, which predicted that CNA would report more stories from the spot in Asia than would its Western counterparts. However, it should be acknowledged that the differences were very close to the significance level of.05 and could have been significant with a larger sample. Therefore, the possibility for CNA to file more stories from the spot than CNN may exist. This needs further investigation. CNA claims that it gives more opportunities for the Asian voice to be heard. The findings show that CNA had 64 stories and CNN had 62 stories, with at least one SOT. The former had 82.7% and the latter 85.8% of all SOTs recorded from Asian individuals or representatives of Asian-based organizations. These differences were not significant (χ 2 =.55, df = 1, p =.46). Hypothesis 8, which predicted that CNA would offer more SOTs of indigenous Asian sources than its Western counterpart, was rejected. Conclusions and Discussion The findings failed to show any significant differences between CNA and CNN in their news coverage of Asia. Reporting on politics, war, and terrorism and, to a 309

11 Table 4: Coverage of Asian Regions CNA CNN (n = 127) (n = 176) East Asia (%) Southeast Asia (%) Central/South/West Asia (%) χ 2 = df = 2. p =.000 lesser extent, business, accidents, and disasters, seems to be the journalistic preference of both channels. Crisis- and conflict-driven reporting is evident in news reports of both stations. There were a handful of development news items presented by both channels, but these were insufficient to create an impression on the viewers that Asia is more than political strife, stock market crashes, and separatist wars. In addition, CNA tends to confine its attempt at developmental journalism to government says so reporting of events and issues that are primarily based in Singapore. Despite its Asian origin, CNA fails to present Asia in a more positive way than CNN, which is supposed to be biased by its Western perspective of news as well as Western views of developing countries. The findings seem to show that CNN is actually more cautious than CNA in its treatment of Asian stories, not only in the selection but also in the placement of news items. This seems to contradict CNA s objective in counterbalancing the biased coverage of Asia by Western media. In addition, CNA seems to have failed to cover a larger Asian region. Its focus is confined to Southeast Asia whereas CNN gives a more equitable coverage of the various Asian regions. Part of the problem is that CNA is a more locally based channel than CNN. With its smaller contingent of correspondents and narrow angle from Singapore, it may better reflect ASEAN as a region, but certainly cannot bring viewers a perspective as broad as CNN s news coverage. In addition, no evidence was found that CNA has made greater efforts than CNN in presenting an Asian voice by offering more sound bites from indigenous Asian sources. These findings have lent support to some earlier studies (Gupta, 1995; Hasim, 1986; Lacuna, 1983; Ogan, 1987; Szende, 1986; Vilanilam, 1975), which showed that non-western media might not be very much different from the Western media in reporting various kinds of events and issues that are supposed to distinguish them (Bandyopadhyay, 1988). It is probably overly optimistic to believe that additional regional news sources in the developing world would improve the balance of news flow, as Richstad (1988) proposed. The political bias found in regional news exchanges (Goonasekara, 1997) was also found in a regional news service operated by a single country. The way CNA covers Asia seems more a function of journalists beliefs about what events and issues should be covered than on what its management believes. Our findings indicated that as long as they are free of external pressures, journalists, whether from the East or West, are likely to focus on events that are person- 310

12 An Asian Voice? alized, dramatic and conflict-oriented, observable, novel or deviant, or linked to ongoing, current interest in the media (Jamieson & Campbell, 1992). In other words, the universal values shared by commercial media tend to prevail. Despite CNA s claim for an Asian perspective in its news reports, its staff, from the managers to the newsroom editors, could not provide a clear definition of the term. The editors and correspondents have not been given guidelines on how they should reflect such a perspective in their news reports. The lack of such guidelines often results in inconsistencies when it comes to interpreting and translating the concept at a micro- or working level (Osman, 2002). It should be noted that CNA is targeted to break even financially in 2003 (CNA, 2000e), and its umbrella corporation, MediaCorp, is expected to be listed on the Singapore stock exchange soon. Such financially motivated pressure would make it more difficult for the channel to embark on a conscious effort to foster a taste for positive news among its audience. When such efforts are not made, even if CNA were to focus on the positive developments in Asia and strive for a balanced coverage of the region, it might not get an audience for such news. As discussed in the literature review, matching the audience s preconceived notions and stereotypes of Asia, fostered by many decades of exposure to Western media, could be the easiest option for ensuring high viewership and the consequent growth in income. The emphasis on a healthy bottom line also means that CNA has to take into consideration the interests of those who would help ensure its financial viability when it comes to the selection of news topics, the countries focused on, and the views aired. If potential advertisers and the general business community are the target audience, then it is natural that the priority of the channel would be to provide insights for the businessmen or women who need to have a genuine understanding of the unique economic and political conditions in Asian cities and to be warned about potential political, economic, and social crises that could affect their business. This discussion leaves us with the question of whether CNA has taken on an impossible task in attempting to provide a different perspective of news. On one hand, the channel might not find an audience with an appetite for an Asian perspective of news. On the other hand, it may not have the financial backing and time to foster a positive impression of Asia and change people s preconceived notions of news. Whether CNA is editorially equipped to present the Asian perspective is, of course, another question. It may not be incorrect to say that the premise for CNA s emergence is the comparison of Asian journalism at its best and Western journalism at its worst. As Kuo (1990) described, the Asian-good vs. Western-evil juxtaposition is too simplistic. Asian governments have been condemning the Western media for several decades for spot news reporting with a focus on the negative and the extraordinary. Such reporting is not inherent in Western journalism, however. It is simply bad journalism, and, unfortunately, in many parts of the world, this is what the audience is accustomed to. What is regarded as a good story by the Asian media is probably not much different from what is regarded as a good story by their Western counterparts (Tay & George, 1996). 311

13 Coming from a country where the media are too closely associated with the political elite, CNA may not have the ability to give an unbiased perspective. Continuing to claim that it is difficult to put a finger on what the Asian perspective of Asian news coverage is would further undermine CAN s credibility as a regional news station. Lacking representation of the larger Asian region and its concerns, giving a perspective that is not much different from that offered by the fully commercial Western media, and creating an unflattering impression of Asia with crisis and conflict-driven stories could make the channel seem neither credible nor ethical. In sum, this study shows that despite its promise of an Asian perspective, CNA is not significantly different from CNN in its news coverage of Asia. Its news on Asia is just as crisis and conflict-driven as that of CNN. The failure of CNA to present Asia with a different perspective seems to show that being Asian does not automatically enable Asian journalists and media to present news about Asia in a way significantly different from their Western counterparts. The reporting of Asian journalists tends to be influenced by the same set of values that dominate the journalism profession elsewhere. References Altschull, J. H. (1984). Agents of power: The role of the news media in human affairs. White Plains, NY: Longman. Bandyopadhyay, P. K. (1988). Values and concepts of news. Communicator, 23, Chalkley, A. (1968). A manual of development journalism. Manila, Philippines: Thomson Foundation & Free Foundation of Asia. CNA (2000a, July 30). CNA reaches target of 5 million households. Retrieved November 7, 2000, from CNA (2000b, February 7). The channel, our positioning. Retrieved November 7, 2000, from cna.mediacorpnews.com/aboutus-new/channel.html CNA (2000c, March 1). Our future: Going regional: Chairman s address at CNA s media conference. Retrieved November 7, 2000, from future1.html CNA (2000d, March 1). CNA goes regional in September. Retrieved November 3, 2000, from cna.mediacorp.com/aboutus-new/news html CNA (2000e, March 10). Mediacorp group to go public in one or two years. Retrieved November 7, 2000, from Dilawari, S. R., Stewart, R., & Flournoy, D. (1991). Development news on CNN World Report. Gazette, 47, Goonasekara, A. (1997). Cultural markets in the age of globalization: Asian values and Western content. Inter Media, 25, Gupta, V. S. (1995, August). Influence of politics and policies on journalism values in Asia. Paper presented at the AMIC Seminar on Asian Values in Journalism, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Harris, R. J. (1999). A cognitive psychology of mass communication. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Hasim, S. (1986). Usage of Southeast Asian news in Malaysian papers. Media Asia, 13, Hester, A. (1974). The news of Latin America via a world news agency. Gazette, 20,

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