INTERNATIONAL TV NEWS, FOREIGN AFFAIRS INTEREST AND PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE

TLDR

The study examines how much foreign news public service and commercial TV channels broadcast in different media systems and its relation to public interest and knowledge of foreign affairs. The authors analyze TV newscast content and public opinion surveys across 11 countries to assess supply and demand of international news. They find that market‑oriented media devote less to international news, favor soft over hard stories, and that coverage is limited by national interest and proximity, yet hard news coverage positively correlates with citizens’ foreign‑affairs knowledge. Keywords: commercial television, foreign affairs, information environment, international news, media systems, news interest, public broadcasting, public knowledge; funding was provided by several national research agencies.

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates the volume of foreign news provided by public service and commercial TV channels in countries with different media systems, and how this corresponds to the public's interest in and knowledge of foreign affairs. We use content analyses of television newscasts and public opinion surveys in 11 countries across five continents to provide new insight into the supply and demand for international television news. We find that (1) more market-oriented media systems and broadcasters are less devoted to international news, and (2) the international news offered by these commercial broadcasters more often focuses on soft rather than hard news. Furthermore, our results suggest that the foreign news offered by the main TV channels is quite limited in scope, and mainly driven by a combination of national interest and geographic proximity. In sum, our study demonstrates some limitations of foreign news coverage, but results also point to its importance: there is a positive relationship between the amount of hard international news coverage and citizens' level of foreign affairs knowledge. Keywords: commercial televisionforeign affairsinformation environmentinternational newsmedia systemsnews interestpublic broadcastingpublic knowledge ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by a number of funding agencies, including: Aalberg, the Research Council of Norway; Papathanassopoulos, UoA Special Account for Research Grants and the Hellenic Secretariat of the Media; Soroka, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Curran, the Economic and Social Research Council, UK; Hayashi, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; Iyengar, the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government.