This
study by Swiss Propaganda Research was first published in 2016, it is
presented by
off-guardian.org
in English for the first time. Translated by Terje Maloy.
It
is one of the most important aspects of our media system – and yet
hardly known to the public: most of the international news coverage
in Western media is provided by only three global news agencies based
in New York, London and Paris.
The
key role played by these agencies means that Western media often
report on the same topics, even using the same wording. In addition,
governments, military and intelligence services use these global news
agencies as multipliers to spread their messages around the world.
A
study of the Syria war coverage by nine leading European newspapers
clearly illustrates these issues: 78% of all articles were based in
whole or in part on agency reports, yet
0% on investigative research.
Moreover, 82% of all opinion pieces and interviews were in favor of
the US and NATO intervention, while propaganda was attributed
exclusively to the opposite side.
Part
7 - As the New York Times reported…
In
addition to global news agencies, there is another source that is
often used by media outlets around the world to report on
geopolitical conflicts, namely the major publications in Great
Britain and the US.
For
example, news outlets like the New York Times or BBC have up
to 100 foreign correspondents and other external employees. However,
Middle East correspondent Luyendijk points out:
“Dutch
news teams, me included, fed on the selection of news made by quality
media like CNN, the BBC, and the New York Times. We did that on the
assumption that their correspondents understood the Arab world and
commanded a view of it – but many of them turned out not to speak
Arabic, or at least not enough to be able to have a conversation in
it or to follow the local media. Many of the top dogs at CNN, the
BBC, the Independent, the Guardian, the New Yorker, and the NYT were
more often than not dependent on assistants and translators.”
In
addition, the sources of these media outlets are often not easy to
verify (“military circles”, “anonymous government officials”,
“intelligence officials” and the like) and can therefore also be
used for the dissemination of propaganda. In any case, the widespread
orientation towards the major Anglo-Saxon publications leads to a
further convergence in the geopolitical coverage in our media.
The
following figure shows some examples of such citation based on the
Syria coverage of the largest daily newspaper in Switzerland,
Tages-Anzeiger. The articles are all from the first days of October
2015, when Russia for the first time intervened directly in the
Syrian war (US/UK sources are highlighted):
Further
info, references, sources:
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