Newsworthiness

Jakarta --- When criticized for the over-the-top soap operas, invasive gossip shows and bloody crime programs that dominate their schedules, most TV stations protest their innocence by claiming they only give the people what they want. But if the results of a new survey are to be believed, the stations will have to find either a new excuse or new programs. According to the survey, TV viewers want...

WASHINGTON – With all the tumult in the news media today - the decline of the old media, the rise of the citizen journalist, the startling discovery that a woman can, in fact, read a teleprompter from behind a big desk just like a man - it is sometimes the subtle changes that go unnoticed. Take, for example, the recent decision by Time magazine to hit the newsstand on Fridays instead of Mondays...

The mass media in Israel have recently faced an unprecedented attack from readers, listeners and viewers who are unwilling to accept the media's conduct during the Second Lebanon War. This may be partially due to the conduct of the war and its outcome. The official communications authorities are trying, albeit somewhat hesitantly, to take a stand, but do not conceal their dissatisfaction. The...

Environment comprises a minuscule 0.35 per cent of news on popular Hindi news channels, closely trailing agriculture at 0.4 per cent and health at 0.5 per cent. GREEN-HUED, BUT NOT THAT MUCH: A view of the Sahara Samay newsroom. Sahara Samay, the survey found, also led in terms of diversity in the coverage of news, closely followed by DD News and NDTV Hindi. Diversity of environmental news...

IF SILVIO Berlusconi is worried, he is not showing it. All summer he has sung, danced and thrown extravagant parties for his friends, at one point whisking off his wife for a surprise birthday celebration in Morocco. But this week, when the orange-tanned former Italian prime minister returns to work in parliament, he faces the most difficult decision of his career. To continue as leader of the...

There are anniversaries sure to bring complaints from readers if the newspaper doesn't show deference with some coverage: Pearl Harbor Day, VE Day, D-Day and many others. The voices on the phone line, shaking with anger if they don't see the coverage they expected, often sound elderly. When the pivotal events that altered their lives are missed or downplayed by the newspaper, it's personal. I've...

An editorial in Monday’s Australian entitled “Endgame for Iran” is another sign that the vast resources of the Murdoch global media empire are being mobilised to support a new US war of aggression against Iran. A similar editorial headed “A nuclear Iran is not an option” appeared in the same newspaper last week, along with an opinion piece in the London-based Times entitled “What a shambles over...

Jakarta - In Indonesia, newspaper readers who are tired of daily politics and endless domestic problems sometimes skip the headlines that makes them frown and turn to the classified advertisements. It is both shocking and amusing. 'Would you like a second honeymoon? Call me, Rosita, a sweet and aggressive woman, sexy, bra size 36C, able to cure premature ejaculation, great service, 250 thousand...

BEIRUT: It's been said that the vibrancy of a city's media culture is a good indication of that city's quality of life. A metropolis with a lot of magazines is a metropolis with a lot going on. If one were to survey the newsstands in Beirut earlier this summer, one would have been impressed with the number of new and established titles on display - a spate of fashion rags, business journals and...

The variety of perspectives offered by the online international news environment is limited. It offers little real information diversity, a situation sharply at odds with a decade and a half of fervour for the democratising potential of new media, a study by the University of Ulster's Centre for Media Research has concluded. Online news websites have improved access to international news but since...