Covering International News

International news constitutes an essential part of a bulletin in mainstream media particularly the print media. Globalization, which has been enhanced by the increasing advancing technology, enables diverse people to co-relate closely despite the geographical and social gap. The connectivity results in making people get interested in knowing of the happenings in foreign countries. It is, however, critical to note that international stories follow specific patterns that make them newsworthy. This research paper analyses the kind of stories that are covered in the "International News" segment of a newspaper focusing on The New York Times, USA Today and the Washington Post as examples. Notably, this research aims to determine the news aspects that attract an audience from other countries.

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Description

The description of the data collected from the analysis is summarised in the table as follows:

The New York Times USA Today Washington Post

Number of international news stories 10 8 10

Origin of the stories Sri Lanka, Spain, Sudan, Brazil, Poland, United Kingdom, Afghanistan, South Africa Britain, Sri Lanka, Philippine, North Korea, Mexico, Madagascar, Thailand Sri Lanka, Quebec, Spain, Italy, South Africa, China, Sudan

Subject of the stories War, Elections, politics, disasters, Education Tourism, politics, wildlife, War Disasters, Elections, Business, politics, Elections, Disasters, Democracy

Analysis

From the chart, it is evident that international news stories constitute a significant part of the local newspapers. It can be concluded that the pattern projected by the highlighted stories mostly comprised of unhappy happenings or the ones that stir a lot of emotions to the global society. Importantly, it was discovered that stories that attract an international audience originates from countries that are popular for topics that spur a global concern. For instance, Afghanistan, as noticed in The New York Times, is a country that raises global uproar due to its series of war events that claim life destruction as well as people.

As mentioned above, the kind of stories that fit to be international must be able to raise a global uproar. From the chart, it was evident that the topic of war appeared more frequently in all three papers. For instance, all the newspapers narrated the war crisis of Sri Lanka where a suicide bomber claimed the lives of many people. Again, another issue that qualified as a newsworthy international story is a democracy that involves politics and electioneering. For instance, the illumination of Spain Election in the New York Times.Interpretation

Notably, the findings portrayed that the stories that were covered as international news directly affect people. According to Francis, people in a certain country read or listen to world news that concerns their wellbeing (Campbell, Martin & Fabos, 250)s. In other words, the story presented should be aspects that relate to them either directly or indirectly (Campbell et al., 250). For Instance, War crisis, the most repeated issue in the three papers is an issue that can happen anywhere regardless of a nation's stability regarding security and democracy. In this context, the issue of war affects Americans indirectly as their state holds one of the best democratic systems. However, this situation can be changed in cases of poor leadership that stir up rebellious attitude among the citizens against the government.

Again, events that can contribute to emotional reactions constitute world newsworthiness. Importantly, the stories that are written basing on such occasions are purposively meant to influence people to act, in which, in most cases involve disastrous situations (Segev, 413). Besides, the actions advocated in this news are designed to help regulate the damage that resulted from the calamities or that they happen in the future (Segev, 413). It is critical to note that the calls for actions are requested either directly or indirectly (Segev, 413). For instance, a writer may ask the audience to contribute aid or let them decide by sparking emotions through the narration of events. In the three newspapers that were evaluated, the stories concerning disasters such as the Madagascar hurricane by the USA Today stir up some positive reactions of donations as the writer was sure to incorporate pictures that showed people suffering.

Chiefly, international news is not only made of unfortunate and other sad events but also the positive ones. McIntyre (224) explain that good news emerges from occasions that reflect social cohesion and promotes societal organizations regarding life development which includes social, political and economic development. From the findings, the socio-economic based events that were noticed from the stories include tourism, elections, politics, and business.

Evaluation

The study was a success, but several limitations faced it. The major one was the availability of print newspapers materials. As a student, I found it expensive to buy the newspapers for three weekdays as per the requirement of this project. Therefore, I had to rely on the online versions to retrieve the information I required which may have resulted in inaccurate summation of the total number of stories.

The paper that did the best in covering international stories was The New York Times as it covered stories from a significant number of countries. More so, the states focused are not close to America; thus, enabling Americans to have a glimpse of events that are happening far away from their home country. On the other side, Washington Post did poorly in the compilation of international stories as it focused more on a single occasion. For instance, several stories concerned the Sri Lanka Suicide bombing during the last two days (Washington Post).

In my view, newspapers do not give enough information about other countries' cultures as they focused more on giving out the event's details as they happened. I think that the writers of news deal more with the actuality of a situation instead of its further details. Importantly, I believe that the local newspaper has an obligation to cover international events as their audience who are local should know what is happening beyond their sphere.

Engagement

The Editor,

Washington Post.Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS SEGMENT

Over the past three days, I have been analyzing the story coverage of your paper specifically the section for international news. Importantly, there are notable concerns that I want to bring to attention to better the quality of the world news segment.

I noticed that your paper lack diversity regarding foreign countries in which the stores are covered. I saw that your coverage was majorly based on countries that are close to America regarding geographical distance. As much as it is essential to illuminate these nations, it is also necessary for your American audiences to know of the events that are happening far away from their home country. In my view, this approach is limiting the scope of international coverage making it lack adequate content; thus, I advise that you to begin sourcing for news from far away countries like Asian Countries.

Nevertheless, I discovered that your stories do not portray the cultural experiences of the foreign states in which the concerned events are happening. One aim of global news reporting is to enhance globalization by educating foreign ways of life. Moreover, the mentioning of cultural aspects breaks the monotony of the article by attracting the readers' attention. In this context, I recommend the cultural encounter in your global news where the writer will portray a culture exchange.

Washington Post is one of the excellent newspapers in the local American market as it tasked with informing its audience events regardless of the limiting factors of geographical space. I believe that it will maintain and improve its popularity in the global area if the concerns raised above are critically addressed. I am requesting that you work towards quenching the information thirst regarding the global news by providing in-depth stories.

Yours Sincerely,

Works Cited

Campbell R., Martin C. R., & Fabos M. Media & Culture: Mass Communication in Digital Age. St Martin's, 2015

Francis H. How to become an International News Reporter. Writing-World Retrieved from https://www.writing-world.com/international/francis.shtml. Accessed on April 29, 2019.McIntyre K. What makes "good" news newsworthy. Communication Research Reports. 2016. 33(3), 223-230.

Segev E. Visible and Invisible Countries: News Flow Theory revised. Journalism. 2015. 16(3), 412-428.

The New York Times. World Section. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/section/world. Accessed on April 28, 2019.

The Washington Post. World. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/?utm_term=.9ad5558a6057. Accessed on April 28, 2019

USA Today. World and International News. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/. Accessed on April 28, 2019