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News Language and the Study of International ReportingJACK Li iJiThe years 1990 and 1991 again confirmed the importance of studies in international reporting. The annual wire service rankings of the top 10 stories of 1990 contained seven international subjects, including Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the reunification of Germany, and the surrender of Panama's Manuel Noriega.' And with war in the Persian Gulf and revolution in Eastern Europe, 1991 has seen international reporting continue to dominate the news.Recent years have also seen great changes in the practice of journalism around the globe. The Communist press model was discarded in several Eastern European nations, including the Soviet Union, yet governments proved unwilling to relinquish state control.^ U.S. international reporting, especially from the Middle East, has been subjected to increasing censorship from other governments as well as the U.S. military.Death and danger have also marked the years. Reporters were assaulted anddetained in tlae Middle East. In many nations, especially in Latin America, reporters have been kidnapped and slain by those who sought to silence their investigations.-As international events continue to shape the world and journalism, study of international reporting should assume great importance in the journalism curriculum.Students who will never set foot off U.S. soil will need to know key international events, how and why those events are reported, and the implications of those events for the practice of journalism around the world.The purpose of this essay is to present a model outline for the international reporting class. Attempting to incorporate aspects of instruction in comparative media systems as well as analyses of media, it explores the structure of the course and the outcome of its instruction. Specifically, the approach was an analysis of international reporting, rather than a skills course in foreign correspondence. It applied concepts from philosophy, political science, and rhetoric to focus on the language of international news and the reporting process by which a very few global events are selected and crafted into the symbolic form of the news report.The goal was increased understanding of international news. News languagewas defined as journalistic conventions and canon—traditional practices and policies —that structure and shape news reports for both print and broadcast media.Jack Lude is assistant professor of journalism at Lehigh University.Journalism EDUCATOR 66These conventions include the focus and reliance upon events, summary leads, inverted pyramid construction, broadcast stand-ups, use of interviews and official sources, the dominance of political leaders as sources, and the very conception of the news report. Often taken for granted, these conventions, and the ways they are used in global settings, are integral to understanding international reporting.^ This approach —although a difficult philosophical leap for manystudents — was rewarded with deepened insights into the promise and problems of international reporting.Course objectivesDespite their importance, international communication or reporting classes have received little attention in previous research. Several scholars, however, have attempted to incorporate international dimensions into the journalism curriculum.' Along similar lines, interesting research applies insights from anthropology to develop intercultural dimensions in the curriculum."Of course, the global component of a program can be given most depth and attention in a course solely devoted to international journalism. One means of bringing this component to programs is through coursework devoted to foreign correspondence. As the literature suggests, however,not many programs have the resources for such a specific course. Rather, as reflected in important texts, the global component of journalism programs is often conceived as a survey of global media systems and an analysis of issues facing the field.For example, John Merrill's Global Journalism: Survey of International Communication begins with four chapters that provide background and analysis of media philosophy, news fiow, the media systems approach, and current controversies in global communication. The book's second part offers a comprehensive rundown of media systems in six world regions.'Likewise, L. John Martin and Anju Grover Chaudhary, authors of Comparative Mass Media Systems, first provide an overview chapter on the goals and roles of media systems. They then discussed essential issues, such as the nature of news, the use of media as vehicles for education and entertainment, press freedom and media economics —each from the perspective of the Western, Gommunist and Third Worlds."The approach applied here incorporated aspects of the survey course as well as foreign correspondence. The emphasis, however, was on analysis and understanding of the practice of journalism on a global scale. International reporting thus was approached in two ways. It embraced the practice of journalism in individual countries around the world, including a studyof comparative media systems. But it also allowed analysis of the conventions underlying U.S. foreign correspondence.Again, this approach to international reporting promoted study of the language of news and stressed that the language of international news encourages particular events to be reported and in a particular way.From the outset, students applied the thoughts of James Garey to critical study of international reporting: "Press criticism," Garey wrote, "is essentially the criticism of language, it is a vital response on the part of the public to the language the press uses to describe events and to the events that accepted standards of journalistic language allow to be described."*Study of news languageThe course was designed for 15 to 20 journalism and non-journalism majors of junior standingand above, meeting for the usual 50 minutes, three days a week, over a 15-week semester. Because of the large amount of material, organization and pacing were essential. The semester was divided into two parts; each part had two required texts.To study the language of international reporting, students needed to gain sensitivity to and understanding of news conventions. Basic questions were addressed: What gets reported and why? How is it reported and how could it have been reported? Two texts provided a framework: Daniel J. Boorstin's The Image: A Guide to Pseudo Events in America and Murray Edelman's Constructing the Political Spectacle.'"Almost 30 years ago, in The Image, Boorstin provided insights into news conventions that still ring true today. His analyses of pseudo-events, the manufacture and meaning of celebrity, and the process of image making add greatly to understanding reporting, particularly international reporting.In his first chapter, for example, Boorstin discusses pressures that transformed news gathering to news making. He traces the rise of many news conventions, including pseudo-events, interviews, presidential press conferences, press releases, news leaks, and other staples of reporting. Such conventions seek to satisfy the modem era's "extravagant expectations" about "what happens in the world, how much of it is new, and surprising, and important," Boorstin says."Another of Boorstin's important insights is the creation of celebrity. A celebrity, Boorstin says, is a human pseudoevent, "a person who is known for his wellknownness."" Celebrities have replaced heroes, Boorstin argues, and the molding and marketing of celebrity has become an essential part of the political process.For four weeks, students updated Boorstin's analysis and applied his insights to international reporting. For example, examples of broadcast and prestige press coverage of modem international news fixtures, such as summits, conferences, treaty signings, and arms talks were broken down and analyzed from Boorstin's perspective on pseudo-events. His discussion of how news conferences "produce'' news was supported by televised reports on the Gulf War press briefings.Boorstin's insights into how political celebrities can be created by news language were exemplified by U.S. reporting of Mikhail Gorbachev. Clippings from early U.S. press coverage of Gorbachev in newsmagazines were compared to later clippings to reveal the path of his varied celebrity — from media-slick ideologue to far-sighted diplomat to Nobel Peace Prize winner to neo-Stalinist reactionary. Coverage of other international political celebrities, such as George Bush, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel and others, was discussed.In the three weeks following, students read Edelman's little book that adds to Boorstin's insights with a sophisticated analysis of political language and the reporting process. Edelman's chapter on the construction and uses of political leaders, for example, was a perfect complement toBoorstin's discussion on the creation of celebrity. "Everyday reporting of the political spectacle systematically reinforces the assumption that leaders are critical to the course of governmentalaction,' Edelman notes. The media, he says, "thrive upon heroes, villains, contests for votes, legislative and judicial victories and defeats, and especially upon the evocation of leaders with whom people can identify or whom they can blame for their discontents.""Edelman also probes a dark side of international reporting. He provides insights into the process by which global enemies can unify political consensus—a process in which reporting is essential. Citing and extending Boorstin's work, Edelman affirms the integral role of news language in constructing such political spectacles. He writes: "It is language about political events, not the events in any other sense, that people experience; even developments that are close by take their meaning from the language that depicts them. So political language is political reality."'*The class compared Edelman's and Boorstin's views on political leaders and again reviewed the newsmagazine coverage of Mikhail Gorbachev. The class applied Edelman's thoughts on political enemies to international news by studying news clippings and television stories offigures such as Khomeini, Noriega, Hussein and others.To finish this section, students pondered the words of George Orwell: "Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."" Students considered the role of news in maintaining and shaping such language.Global journalismIn the second part of the semester, the students then considered the global survey perspective, focusing on international reporting in other countries. Using Merrill's or Martin and Ghaudhary's book, the class devoted four weeks to surveying and comparing media systems, with emphasis on the reporting process and news language. "The raw materials from which the news is fashioned are events that may or may not be readily accessible to all," Martin and Ghaudhary note. "The acts in themselves are not news. They become news when they have been processed by a reporter and editor, much as air and water are not commodities that can be traded commercially until they have been bottled and marketed.""Much time was devoted to current problems in international journalism discussed by the texts. For example, Merrill offers a chapter that traces the continuing struggle over news flow." Students extended the discussion to the emerging role of GNN as a conduit for telediplomacy and examined updated information on the new world information order and U.S. relations with UNESGO. Likewise, the Martin and Ghaudhary text provides three excellent chapters on the conception and practice of international press freedom.'" Students updated these chapters with discussionsof the current status of glasnost and continuing threats to press freedom in Ghina, Latin America, and other regions.Seeking to counter the vertigo that can result from a somewhat breathless survey of world media systems, the class also spent four weeks focussing on media in one particular country—the Soviet Union. Using Ellen Mickiewicz's Split Signals: Television and Politics in the Soviet Union,the class confronted news canon and convention in a very different press system."Mickiewicz analyzes international news on Soviet television, Moscow reporters in Washington, the image of Americans on Soviet television, sources for Soviet newspeople in America and other topics. Using Mickiewicz's analysis and insights from area scholars, the class contrasted U.S. and Soviet news values.Beyond the booksEvery attempt was made to make the subject of international reporting come alive. Throughout the course, readings and discussions were supplemented by outside material. Videotapes that described U.S. network news production were valuable. Students were introduced to beisic technical conventions, such as stand-ups, camera angles, lighting, and the like, which help structure local, national and international news broadcasts.^"Movies and television programs that dealt with international reporting were alsohelpful. For example, clips from Warren Beatty's "Reds,"' which chronicled the lives of correspondents Jack Reed and Louise Bryant as they covered the Russian Revolution, gave the class some fun and flavor. News programs on Mideast hostages led to discussion of the story of Terry Anderson, the Associated Press chief Middle East correspondent, who had been held captive since being kidnapped at gunpoint on March 16,1985, and recently released.Guest speakers were essential to personalize material. Area scholars familiar with particular international media systems were encouraged to bring and analyze specific examples of news reporting. Important insights were provided by former foreign correspondents. Fortunately, the course has been taught near metropolitan papers whose staffs contain a number of reporters with international experience. Their visits were planned for late in the semester so students ask more sophisticated questions. Most reporters have been intrigued by the discussions because international news conventions and canon were topics they had not often confronted. Glasses without access to correspondents might find that video profiles of prominent journalists can personalize reporting for students.^'Reporting researchProjects, papers and exams were designed to have students apply their insights to cases of international reporting. The first analysis was based upon Boorstin's work; students were required to find and submit a U.S. newspaper article filed from outside U.S. borders that met Boorstin's criteria for a pseudo event. Students showed how features of the report's language confirmed Boorstin's discussion.Other analyses were based upon Edelman's ideas on the construction of political enemies. Students found and submitted newspaper articles that degraded and demeaned U.S. "enemies,' such as Noriega and Hussein; they isolated conventions by which enemies were constructed in the news.To dramatize the impact of conglomeration and consolidation on international news, another assignment was a two-person presentation on media barons who dominate the ever-shrinking world of international journalism. Individuals and organizations profiled have includedRupert Murdoch, Robert Maxwell, Katharine Graham, Jean-Luc Lagardere, Hachette SA,Reinhard Mohn, Bertelsmann AG, Al Neuharth, Time-Warner, Gapital Gities, and Ted "Rimer."The final project was a research paper that introduced the class to international news research. Each student was to carry out a preliminary quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the work of a U.S. Moscow correspondent." Using a brief coding scheme, developed by students themselves, each student researched for a three-week period: story subject, placement, length, location in the Soviet Union, Soviet and American sources, and other topics. Each student was encouraged to probe stories using insights from Boorstin and Edelman. That is, were stories based upon pseudo events, as Boorstin suggests? Did U.S. news use the Soviet Union as a political enemy, as Edelman suggests? In final classes, students compared results of their papers, attempting to bring together the analyses and insights of the semester.EvaluationThe major weakness of the course discussed here: too much ground to cover. Entire seminars are taught on critical analysis of news language and conventions - and entire seminars are devoted to surveys of media systems. The combination of the two areas, although producing rich insights into international reporting, definitely strained the limited time and resources ofthe course.The primary implication of this wealth of material was that the survey of global media systems was restricted. Although four weeks were devoted to the survey, some nations or regions were travelled through hastily. Because such a survey already is tightly compacted, cutting material was difficult. Some essential subject areas, such as media economics, were touched on all too briefiy.One way designed to combat this weakness was group presentations of survey material. Groups of four or five students were responsible for particular sections of the survey text. For example, from the Merrill text, divided by world regions, students presented summaries of each system. Or, from the Martin and Chaudhary text, divided by subjects, students made presentations on topics from Westem, Communist and Third World perspectives. Groups supplemented text material with research and interviews with scholars and intemational students. Groups were encouraged to make the material memorable and enjoyable by using props, visual and/ or audio materials.Despite the challenges faced by the amount of material, important benefits resulted from this approach to intemational reporting. In formal evaluatory essays and informal discussions, students reported that they received deepened insights into how intemational news "works." They said they came to a fuller understanding of how news, especially international news, is influenced and shaped by media conventions.Although the course retained its appeal to joiimalism majors, the broad approach also seemed to be relevant to other majors, such as political science, intemational relations, area studies, and others. As international events continue to shape the world as well as the news, study of the language of intemational reporting can prepare students for life as citizens in the global village。