How important are professional foreign correspondents today

Introduction

What we see and hear from the popular news sources comes is a result of foreign correspondents’ work. Their role includes “shaping the image of a country to the eyes of the foreign audience daily through their reporting” (Archetti 2011, p.2). However, modern trends in news production show a different perspective on the role of reporters. Professional Foreign correspondents “seem to become an endangered species” (Brüggemann et al. 2017, p. 540). Foreign correspondents become a subject of re-interpretation and constant questioning as a result of changes in the news sphere. The work environment becomes a subject of dramatic transformations due to the economic and technological innovations which restrict the power of correspondents and eliminate their importance (Brüggemann et al. 2017, p. 542). The globalisation phenomenon, the spread of the Internet as well as the intensified speed of news spreading are the elements of the modern world which leave little or no space for foreign correspondents in the sphere of news reporting. In addition, the challenged brought by technological advances, this paper argues that the role of foreign reporters undergoes a difficult time, facing multiple challenges. Looking at the consequences of modern technology integrations and the spark of individual reporting question the role of foreign correspondents. This paper brings to the attention of the current trend in foreign reporting such as the impact of modern technology and how the journalists are adapting to such changes.

Main Body:

The global trends in newsgathering have been significantly influenced by the globalisation process. Globalisation process created a tight web where countries around the world found themselves closely interconnected. The phenomenon of interconnectedness embraced multiple spheres of everyday lifestyle, including economic, political and cultural. In this case, the news reporting realm has also been affected by the trend of globalisation. This is because access to information about events abroad has become a matter of a click. The Internet plays an important role in the establishment of such a trend. The creation of the Internet allowed the spinning of the globalisation process, opening more access to the information. With the advances of the Internet platform, modern ways of communications have become even faster. This results in a “lower costs, greater speed, and easier use” (Hamilton and Jenner 2003, p. 113). With modern technologies, global events are covered in a matter of seconds. The lower time requires to cover the events which might be taking place in one part of the world consequently impact the economic side of foreign reporting. The news commercialisation which has been fuelled by technological advances which in turn increase the speed of new coverage put great pressure on the role of foreign correspondents. In order to be first to present a cover of the events and keep up with information updates, the modern news publications opt for the lower ways of news cover. With the change of requirements to the kind of news are now being covered and reported, the role of foreign correspondents has transformed. As the facts and details of the story are presented and sent to any destination, requiring an extremely short period, the question of the necessity of expensive foreign bureaux automatically raises (Sambrook 2010, p. 7). The time taken by a traditional foreign correspondent to fly to a destination point as well as expenses related to travelling matter seems to be less attractive in the modern commercialised environment. Therefore, the technological advances which have changed, especially the integration of the Internet have changed the environment of foreign reporting. As the environment has taken a different outlook which now prioritises the time taken for an event to be reported, thus making news publications to operate in the highly competitive global market, making the role of foreign correspondents less relevant to the modern reporting.

Following such claim, it is important to bring to the attention arguments against the claim. It is clear from the evidence above that the world has become more interconnected. The technological advances, especially in the mass media, enable to transmit wirelessly any kind of information regardless of the distance or time. Besides, with such developments people from one end of the world can access to any kind of informational resources as well as share with their own. However, it is clear that with the Internet advances and global interconnectedness less time is required to report on an issue, but the question of information legitimacy and fact-checking rises. With increased competition among the news sources as well as economic strains places on foreign correspondents, the matter of facts checking receives less attention. Having profession foreign correspondents on the ground at the moment of the event means that the process of gathering the information, the methods used by a professional create a more valuable analysis of the event. Professional foreign correspondents enable to transfer an image of a state where the event is taking place as well as precisely adapt to the environment. This enables the correspondents to effectively minimise “geopolitical and geo-cultural distance” (Hafez 2002, pp. 12–42 cited in Hahn 2009 p. 504). Instead of simply prioritise the time matter of being the first to report, professional correspondents enable to “contextualise topical developments abroad to avoid misunderstandings and misperceptions” (Hahn 2009 p. 504). Therefore, the role of foreign correspondence remains important.

Despite the effective adaptation of foreign correspondents to the fast-changing environment does not guarantee that their role in the news reporting will remain significant. The fear of being redundant in the modern news world partly comes as a result of the high increase in several personal blogs. From the claim above, it is evident that modern technology has changed our perception of how to gather news. Along with the increased flow of information and the number of sources, the appearance of citizen journalism and blogging creates a challenge to the role of foreign correspondents. The blogging trend which is evident in the modern world contributes the claim that “almost anybody with access to a computer can ‘report’ to a worldwide audience” (Archetti 2013, p. 421). Blogging has become an attractive alternative to traditional news reporting, especially when it comes to the news from abroad. With access to the Internet and a desire to write, anyone can become a reporter. Ordinary citizens are now willing to take a role of editors. This enables them to select the events according to their interests rather than passively accepting whatever has been presented to them by traditional media. Blogging realm has enabled the news consumers to “select the international news that they want to read, view, or listen to” (Hamilton and Eric Jenner 2003, p. 135). The personalisation of the content, as well as a variety of the type of news available online, has become one of the challenges for the profession foreign correspondents. Changing status from “the highly personalised” (Ibits., p. 136), blogs became a modern alternative to the traditional news reports. Similar to the claim made about the value of time and commercialisation of the news, blogging more effectively meet the public needs (Ibits., p. 137). Modern blogging and popular social media have limited the role of the traditional foreign correspondents who previously enjoyed exclusive access to the information, making them “the principal source of information form far-flung lands” (Sambrook 2010, p. 8). Therefore, as the innovative methods of presenting news and meeting the needs of the audience are more effectively accomplished with the spark of personal blogs, the importance of foreign correspondents becomes questionable.

The modern environment which enables anybody to become a reporter and present individually selected type of new questions the importance of foreign correspondents. However, social media, including blogging, becomes an alternative pool of information for foreign correspondents. Popular media platforms and constant information update in 24 hours mode allows professional correspondent to keep informed at any point in time. Despite one of the main functions of foreign reporters is being at the place of the event occurring, the time taken to travel to the destination now can be effectively covered. With live updates and the modern blog-reporting, professional reporters can remain updated on the events. This helps news correspondents not only able to fully cover the story and present to the large audiences as well as “aggregate information on unfolding events as other media and eyewitnesses tweet about them” (Cozma and Chen 2013, p. 37). Similarly, blogging and social media resources which seem to limit the importance of foreign correspondents enable the professional to cover larger areas of the events. Being limited by a publishing house or news agency in term of how much can be published, modern online resources remove such barriers. The online blogs can be popularly utilised by professional reporters who aim to expand on the events which might not make in the main publication. Therefore, modern technologies and increases the number of resources available for reporting activity can be usefully utilised by foreign correspondents. In turn, contributes to the importance of foreign correspondence rather limits it.

The information of any kind is now available in live mode. This means that any desired news articles or cover of any events can be published without the patronage of big news houses. Although the global population has received open information access, the question of legitimacy and required fact-checking raises more often. This feature will remain as a crucial benefit of professional correspondents who tend to be more attentive to facts-checking rather than fast production of news reports. However, with the rise of the Internet and global interconnectedness, allowing people to be exposed to a greater number of sources, the effect of agenda-setting might be less effective. Agenda setting power comes as an attribute of professional new correspondents. News companies might not be able to send their reporters to every corner of the world, rather selecting a certain number of places which fits into an established agenda. Traditional foreign reporters might only cover a certain area which fit into set criteria, thus “distributing information to the public to inform on the matter of considered important” (Pavlik 2000, p. 235). The agenda-setting power enables to manipulate the public opinion by appeal with a certain image of the world or fostering specific attitudes towards the event. The professional new correspondents who tend to be part of such news institution exert such power, limiting the reality. With the modern advances in the communications sphere, it has become more difficult to control public opinion or influence their choices. Professional correspondents are no longer possess an exclusive status of gatekeepers who filter an information flow as with access to the Internet anyone can change the matter of reporting. Therefore, the power and role of professional correspondents become questionable.

Conclusion:

The arguments raised in the paper demonstrate that the role of foreign correspondents becomes questionable. The rise of modern technologies such as the Internet and increase media commercialisation status places greater priority towards fast news. In turn, this creates a barrier for traditional reporters. Similarly, an increased number of informational resources enables anybody to be a reporter as well as publish audience tailored content. Therefore, the evidence supports the claim that the importance of foreign correspondence has been greatly reduced.

Bibliography

Raluca Cozma and Kuan-Ju Chen (2013) What is in a Tweet, published by Routledge

Jaci Cole and John Maxwell Hamilton (2008) The History of a surviving species, published by Routledge

Oliver Hahn (2009) Transatlantic Foreign Reporting and Foreign Correspondents after 9/11: trends in reporting Europe in the United States, published by International Journal of

Press/Politics

Cristina Archetti (2011) Reporting the Nation: Understanding the Role of Foreign Correspondents in 21st Century Public Diplomacy, published by University of Salford

Michael Brüggemann et al. (2017) Diverging worlds of foreign correspondence: The changing working conditions of correspondents in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, published by Journalism 2017, Vol. 18(5) 539–557

Cristina Archetti (2013) Journalism in the age of global media: The evolving practices of foreign correspondents in London, published by Journalism 14(3) 419–436

John Maxwell Hamilton and Eric Jenner (2003) The New Foreign Correspondence, published by Foreign Affairs, Vol. 82, №5 (Sep. — Oct. 2003), pp. 131–138

Richard Sambrook (2010) Are Foreign Correspondents Redundant? The Changing face of International news, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

John Pavlik (2000) The Impact of Technology on Journalism, published by Routledge