Nuuskartering van Nederland deur Beeld en van Suid-Afrika deur Trouw

Abstract

The fall of communism and the end of apartheid brought about major changes on international political and socio-economical levels. It lead to the change of geographical maps of the world in order to reflect the new political realities. These changes also lead to a reorientation in the media. Standard perceptions of the nature and flow of news and the way in which conceptual news maps are formed, were questioned and had to be researched. As a result probably the largest news flow research project, the Global News Flow Project (GNFP), was undertaken by researchers in 42 countries in 1995. This study elaborates on that of the GNFP in that it concentrates on the news flow pattern between South Africa and the Netherlands as described by Trouw and Beeld. The researcher argues that news flow between two countries can be mapped on the basis of mainly three factors, i.e. the press landscape in which the news is generated and flows, the criteria which are applied in the selection of news, and the flow patterns of the news. The concept 'press landscape' and it's role in news flow is discussed in terms of the functional approach and the gatekeeper theory, after which both the press landscapes of South Africa and the Netherlands are described according to these approaches. A new model for the selection of news is proposed in which the gatekeeper's role in the generation, selection and distribution of foreign news is highlighted. These two concepts, press landscapes and news selection criteria, are drawn together in the discussion of news flow in terms of factors influencing the news flow pattern and the functions of news flow. All news reports published in Beeld (concerning the Netherlands) and Trouw (concerning South Africa) in 1992 and 1996 were analysed against the background of the two countries' press landscapes. The results show that the news flow patterns between South Africa and the Netherlands are not typical of news flow between the North and the South or developed and developing countries. It also confirmed that news flow patterns between two countries are altered by changes in the press landscape in one of the two countries. This is especially indicated by the change in the focus of the main subjects of news reports on South Africa that were published in Trouw in the two years under consideration.