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CNN WORLD REPORT: A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CREATION OF AN INTERNATIONAL NEWSCAST by SHEILA K. SIMMONS, B.B.A.

A THESIS IN MASS COMMUNICATIONS Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS

Approved

Accepted

December, 1994 !jX.J --r~ . - \~Gl4 ~)o.f69 C.·~ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like express my sincere gratitude to my committee

chairperson, Dr. Liz Watts, for her time and patience, and to Dr. John Fryman

for sparking my interest in the CNN World Report. As well, I would like to

thank two of my fellow graduate students for their support and

encouragement, Georgann Burrell and George Moore. Most importantly, my

family and friends deserve recognition for never doubting my ability to

succeed.

Someone once said, "There is no strength where there was no

struggle ... I try to remind myself of this proverb when life becomes more of a

struggle than I had anticipated.

.. II TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. LITERATURE REVIEW 10 Ill. METHODOLOGY 13 IV. DATA ANALYSIS 14 v. DISCUSSION 24 VI. CONCLUSION 28

REFERENCES 30

... Ill CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

fJ On ~~r ~~~~z, __at--&tfo p.m. EST, the Cable News Network (CNN) aired the ''first truly planetary newscast to which any country in any part of the

globe was free to contribute .. (Flournoy, 1992, p. 2). This program featured a total of 32 news packages from 27 countries, three territories, and an

international agency.1 A regional breakdown of the stories reveals ten

submissions from Europe, one from Australia, six from Asia, eight from South

America and the Caribbean, one from Africa, three from North America, one

from the Middle East, one from the Soviet Union, and one from the United

Nations.

Denmark's news package led the program. It focused on Danish

fishermen fighting with a West German freighter believed to be polluting the - , environment. Next, Australia reported on demonstrations taking place at

American military bases as well as reporting on a watering hole in the outback.

The program continued with an array of stories, from a report on Poland's

Arabian horse auction which used only natural horse sounds to Nepal's report

which told about the nation's annual festival to honor the rain god despite the

Napalese•s struggle against heavy rains which had killed many people. A news

package from Bermuda was the final report on t~_e first CNN World Report

program which examined the island's acceptance of the stock market crash.

•The concept behind the CNN World Report is to introduce uncensored

and unedited international viewpoints without editorial comments which would

1 Denmark, Australia, Brunei, Czechoslovakia, Puerto Rico, the United Nations, Taiwan, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Bulgaria, United States, Hong Kong, Aruba, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guam, Poland, Grenada, United Kingdom, Jordan, Soviet Union, Cuba, Finland, Nepal, Colombia, Switzerland, Japan, Cyprus, American Samoa, Saint Lucia, Portugal, and Bermuda, respectively. 1 2 convey every viewpoint as .. a valid component of reality .. (Flournoy, 1992).,The

purpose of this research is to document the decisions behind the adopted

concepts of the CNN World Report in order to establish its significance to international communications.

The CNN World Report is unlike traditional international news coverage

because the World Report focuses on international news; only a small percent

of the news presented is from the United States . .Evening network newscasts in

the United States, however, devote an average of 5.5 minutes or 25 percent of their 22 minutes to international news coverage (Weaver, Porter, & Evans, 1984).

Typical international news coverage by U.S. television networks features

more news on €developed countries than developing countries (Adams, 1986; Gaddy & Tanjong, 1986; Larson, 1982, 1984). Some .. so-called 'foreign• news is, in fact, news of the United States from a foreign dateline.. (Weaver, Porter, &

Evans, 1984, p. 362). The researchers explain that international news is often

coverage of foreign relations topics vital to the United States for economic and

strategic purposes. The topic and story choices of traditional network news

programs, ABC, CBS, and NBC, are similar to each other. CNN and PBS are

significantly ~ifferent in story topic selection from the traditional networks, with

1CNN having a greater number of international stories (Stempel, 1988).•CNN has more balanced and less sensational business and economic news than

ABC, CBS, and NBC, which suggests that the amount of time available

correlates to the quality of news (The Media Institute, 1983).

Traditional network news coverage of international events is primarily .. centered around atrocities in developing countries (Adams, 1982; Larson, 1984;

Stevenson & Gaddy, 1984; Weaver, Porter, & Evans, 1984). The World 3 Report's international news coverage differs from historical patterns of network coverage. •The World Report coverage includes less emphasis on atrocities and <-\0 includes more cultural, economic, and developmental topics (Fryman & Bates,

1992; Ganzert, 1990}.

• The CNN World Report's format initially consisted of three-minute news packages submitted by foreign news services and now consists __ oU_wo_~_~pd~ half minute packages. Each program is comprised of an average of 30 to 40 news packages, making an effort to regionally balance the program because some regions submit fewer stories than others even though the number of participating news organizations ·for each region is relatively equal (Flournoy,

1992). The news packages are aired on Sundays for two hours beginning at 3 p.m. EST and again at midnight in the United States. Sometimes 30 minutes is added to the World Report and CNN airs a two-and-one-half hour extended version of the program during the midnight time slot (Fryman & Harmon, 1994;

Ganzert, 1990}.

'To be an eligible contributor, individuals must be professional journalists with an organization that has the capability to prepare reports and the means to transmit those reports to Atlanta, Georgia. Also, the contributor must have the capability to receive and record the World Report so the program may be used by the contributor's news service (Flournoy, 1992).

Contributors obtain the right to use all news packages on the CNN World

Report for any purpose desired, as does the Cable News Network (CNN). All submissions to the World Report are archived in Atlanta, Georgia (Flournoy,

1992} .•All programs are archived in the_Sch.ool ofMas.s_Commql1i9~t_iqns at - . . Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. 4 Contributors pay all costs of producing and delivering their reports to

Atlanta, either by air freight or satellite. In return, CNN pays for assembling and transmitting the World Report to contributing countries (Flournoy, 1992).

The idea of World Report is a Ted Turner classic: a genuine wish to use television to improve international understanding, combined with a shrewd business and public relations strategy. It makes CNN a clearing-house for international stations, gives CNN's other programmes a source of fresh and cheap pictures, and makes friends for Turner's four television channels among the world's television companies. (Purvis, 1989, n.p.)

The production costs of the show are minimal. CNN serves only as the

"packager" (King, 1989). In direct response to contributor's requests to see how CNN's facilities in Atlanta operate, the CNN International Professional

Program (IPP) was developed (Loory, 1994a). The CNN World Report

Contributors Conference was developed to help foster dialogue regarding the CNN World Report. CNN gave some broadcasters in underdeveloped countries financial resources to attend the first Contributors Conference (Loory, 1994a).

Turner told contributor's at the 1989 CNN World Report Contributors

Conference that CNN does not judge each World Report program on profitability. "Certainly it's an additional expense and a significant one." Turner stated, "It would be far easier just to re-run something else" (Kioer, 1989, p.

A15}.

eAfter becoming a contributor, there are two requirements for news packages: (1) three-minute limit in length (as of July 1991, two and one-half ------minutes) and (2) reQc;>rted j_n English. The..qontent of the news packages • submitted is solely the decision of the contributing news agency, though the report must be in good taste and must observe all United States libel and slander laws. CNN World Report executives express a desire for "hard news" 5 with the video showing the people and culture of the country (Flournoy, 1992) .

.. By allowing nations to say virtually whatever they want, Turner has become the manager of a journalistic array o' disparate products and quality, and thus has forged ties that give CNN advantages in a competitive media marketplace ..

(Warren, 1990, p. 1:1 ). Loory stated that .. through the show, we•re building an international cooperative organization that would be a TV equivalent of the Associated Press.. (cited in Warren, 1990, p. 1:1 ).

The CNN World Report is .. the world•s first global newscast and international news exchange, one of the few positive outcomes from 20 years of rancorous debate in the United Nations about a •new world information and communication order... {Flournoy, 1992, back cover). Included in the 20 years of debate were thef~United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural

Organization•s (UNESCO) MacBride Commission•s recommendation54' These recommendations, in part, were concerned with the imbalance, content, and control of news flow (MacBride, 1984). The N'ew World Information· Order (NWIO) debate was argued within

UNESCO. The purpose of UNESCO was .. to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science, and culture ... UNESco·s programs .. seek the eradication of illiteracy, the promotion of scientific research, the preservation of the world•s cultural treasures, and the free flow of ideas .. (Giffard, 1989, pp. 1-2).

UNESCO had two communications programs: the Division of the Free

Flow of Information and the Division of Development of Communication

Systems. The purpose of the former was to remove obstacles that disrupt the freedom of information. The purpose of the latter was to upgrade the 6 technology and the techniques required to distribute information (Giffard, 1989).

In the 1960s, controversy over the .Western media•s dominance sparked the discussions of a .. new world information order .. (NWIO). The New World

Lnformation Orde_r_ debate was a confusing matrix of arguments, but an effort will be made to categorize the arguments into two separate debates, North-South and West-East, among three side,#\1\festern Bloc, Soviet Bloc, and the Third

World countries. The following three issues regarding freedom of information were applicable for both debates: (1) the imbalanced communication flow, (2) the content of communication flow, and (3) the control of communication flow (Stevenson & Cole, 1984).

• The North-South debate was concerned with communication between the industrialized countries of the North verses the nonaligned Third World countries of the South. The debate chiefly centered around the Western Bloc and the undeveloped Third World countries. The socialist countries were not a major factor in the North-South debate.

The North-South debate pertained to the idea that the North, specifically the United States, had enormous influence on cultural communications. Five specific charges were leveled about the imbalanced communication flow of news between the North and South:

(1) The North defines world news and, therefore, distorts authentic

Third World (South) values.

(2) Because the North defines world news, the North excludes the

remainder of the world not of immediate interest to it.

(3) The North was only interested in the fragile aspects of the Third

World (South). 7 (4) These distortions were then relayed back to the Third World

(South) due to its dependence on news agencies of the North.

(5) There was a lack ~f development news from developing countries which should be reported to the rest of the world (Stevenson & Cole, 1984).

fThe East-West debate was concerned with communication between the dominant Western Bloc and the socialist Soviet Bloc. The flow of news was minimal in both directions and was controlled by the receiving country.

Three specific complaints from the East about the West were leveled, though less defined than the charges from the South about the North. The first complaint was over the cultural sovereignty of the socialist countries. The socialist countries of the East believed countries should not have to speak to other countries through international news agencies, and each country should be responsible for the news concerning its country (Stevenson & Cole, 1984). The second complaint was over governmental responsibility. The Soviet Bloc wanted to hold individual governments responsible for all news broadcast from their countries. The third complaint was over direct satellite broadcasting. The

Soviet Bloc wanted all countries using direct satellite broadcasting to obtain perm iss ion from the targeted nation's government.

In 1977, UNESCO formed the International Commission for the Study of

Communication Programs, later called thef!lacBride Commission, for the purpose of examining the fields of communication in order to explore the communication problems that existed in the world. ffhe commission was created in response to the criticism from Third World countries of the South that the Western Bloc of the North controlled information and inaccurately reported

Third World countries' information (MacBride, 1980). 8 In 1978, UNESCO approved the Declaration on Mass Media which called for "free and balanced flow of information" (Stevenson & Shaw, 1984).

The MacBride Commission was then suppose to make recommendations. In

1979, the MacBride Commission asked, in general, that the world•s broadcasters provide:

more justice, more equity, more reciprocity in information exchange, less dependent in communication flow, less downward diffusion of messages, more self-reliance and cultural identity, and more benefits for all mankind. (MacBride, 1984, p. xviii)

The commission also made the following more specific recommendations:

The press and broadcasters in the industrialized world should allot more space and time to reporting events in and background material about foreign countries in general and news from the developing world in particular. Also, the media in developed countries - especially the •gatekeepers•, editors and producers of print and broadcasting media who select the news items to be published or broadcast - should become more familiar with the cultures and conditions in developing countries. Although the present imbalance in news flow calls for strengthening capacities in developing countries, the media of the industrialized countries have their contribution to make towards the corrections of these inequalities. (MacBride Commissions, 1984, p. 263)

The Commission•s recommendations were philosophical statements which led to many interpretations. The recommendations did not endorse any side of the

New World Information Order debate.

~~( The report recognized the need for improving the balance of international communication, but at the same time, it endorsed most of the traditional principles of a free flow of information concepts that some would consider as antithetical. (Stevenson & Cole, 1984, p. 6)

The International Program for the Development of Communication

(IPDC) was created by UNESCO to accomplish the vague objectives of the New

World Information Order outlined by the MacBride Commission. The efforts of 9 the IPDC were two-fold. First, the IPDC funded multiple projects to improve

Third World countries• information flow which was considered by all participants to be a worthwhile venture. Second, though, was the fact that most of these projects were centered around governmental operation and objectives. The

Western Bloc did not support this type of venture in philosophy but was expected to support it with resources. Even though some effort had been made in the name of the New World Information Order, the issues of the debate still remained unsettled (Stevenson & Cole, 1984).

The CNN World Report's structure and the MacBride Commission•s recommendations regarding the imbalance, content, and control of news flow appear to coincide with one another. "fhe purpose of this research is to document the CNN World Report from its conception to its first production in order to answer the following research questions:

01: What factors influenced the creation of the CNN World Report?

02: Did the CNN World Report follow the MacBride Commission•s

recommendations regarding the imbalance, content, and control of

news flow?

03: How did the CNN World Report locate its initial contributors? CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

The CNN World Report was the most important event in terms of global news exchange because it created a .. marketplace of viewpoints and perspectives on the news around the world .. (Flournoy, 1992, p. 10). Ninety

percent of the planet's population is within the realm of one of the satellites used by CNN's news service (Flournoy, 1992).

The World Report has the unique quality of offering viewers the

opportunity to judge the correctness of their opinions and ideas with regard to

international news events. CNN World Report shows the viewer events, places,

people, and cultures that are not familiar to them (Flournoy, 1992).

When a news package is viewed on other international newscasts, the journalists are translating the events, places, people, and culture into a familiar frame of reference common to the viewer (Flournoy, 1992). Viewers are not often aware this transformation has taken place before they view what they presume to be correct information which can greatly influence their judgments of the world (Flournoy, 1992; Korzenny, del Toro, & Gaudino, 1987; McNelly & lzcaray, 1986). This organization of cultural logic takes place without conscious thought because it appears to be normal in their frames of reference.

Instinctively, viewers assume the perspective in which they view the world is correct. But, if the news was gathered by a single reporter and then filtered through the reporter's frame of reference, the view is highly likely to be less than an entire picture of the event, place, people, or culture in which it was reported

(Flournoy, 1992).

Robert Stewart conducted a study on the CNN World Report which suggests that .. even a brief encounter with news from a non-Western

10 1 1 perspective can have a dramatic effect on a person's world view" (Stewart,

1988, p. 13). John Fryman and Mark Harmon conducted a study on the CNN

World Report which suggests th~t viewers must be amenable to international ~ ~ perspectives while maintaining a "critical eye for biases, •• as well as learning to - ~ '--- appreciate news for its information rather than its production quality (Fryman & Harmon, 1994).

The World Report news packages are stories of events, places, people,

and culture from the perspective of a contributing country which present a new

culturally rich perspective to the Western viewer. The CNN World Report

provides the once voiceless Third World countries with the power to speak of

their events, places, people, and culture. This is possibly the first opportunity

some of the Third World countries have had to be heard outside their own

borders. But, even with this breakthrough, news gathering has to be selective

which omits much of the world's news (Flournoy, 1992) .

.,A comprehensive study conducted by Fryman and Bates on the CNN

World Report investigated whether or not the World Report was consistent with

the MacBride Commission's idea of a balanced news flow by looking at the

types of stories and origins of stories the World Report broadcasts as well as

how the CNN World Report compares to international news on the traditional

network news (Fryman & Bates, 1992).cfhe resea~~~ers analyzed a census of ---·· ------the 203 broadcasts from October 25, 1987, to September 8, 1991, and found ~ -----······- ...... ______--·- ·------··· .. the.__CNN_World Report does differ fro 'I'_ international news on traditionaJ network---- news programs because less importance is placed on international atrocities.

"The CNN World Report coverage of the world is one which comes closer to

addressing the NWIO [New World Information Order] concerns over imbalance

of information flows" (Fryman & Bates, 1992, p. 10). Prior to the Fryman and 12 Bates study, a similar study was conducted using ten broadcasts from 1989.

The researcher found a shift in topic choice away from atrocities, as well as a significantly different regional distribution of stories on the World Report as compared to the U.S. networks (Ganzert, 1990}.

Research on the CNN World Report has also been conducted in the area of development news. Research revealed that development news was of primary importance to developing countries in the program's first year. By 1989, though, the amount of development news from developing countries had decreased while development news from developed countries had increased (Dilawari, Stewart, & Flournoy, 1991 ). From these results, Dilawari, Stewart, and Flournoy {1991) suggested:

the presence of CNN World Report on the menu of American news programs has increased the amount of development news available in the U.S. If there is also a decrease in international news dealing with conflict and crisis on the American networks, as Shuster {1988} suggests, we may well be seeing a significant trend. The contributions of non-U.S. journalists--particularly those from developing countries--appear to be making a significant dent in the .. old order .. of information. (p. 20) CHAPTER Ill METHODOLOGY

To obtain the information needed to answer the. research questions in

this paper, interviews were conducted with Mr. Ted Turner, owner of CNN; the first Executive Producer and Associate Producer of CNN World Report; and

other relevant researchers. Also, speeches made by Ted Turner at the 1989 and 1990 CNN World Report Contributors Conferences were used. Document

searches in the CNN World Report Archives and the Texas Tech University

Library were conducted to obtain previous research on the CNN World Report.

13 CHAPTER IV

DATA ANALYSIS

Robert Edward (Ted) Turner Ill is the founder, part-owner, and chairman

of the board for Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc. (TBS), parent company of

Superstation TBS, CNN, CNN Headline News, and TNT. In December 1976,

Turner began broadcasting WTCG Channel 17 by satellite to all of North

America and beyond. Turner changed the name from WTCG to SuperStation TBS.

•On June 1, 1980, Turner's Cable News Network (CNN) began broadcasting. CNN's programming consists of coverage of major news stories

and daily reports on business, entertainment, fashion, finance, medicine,

nutrition, sports, and weather (Television & Cable Factbook, 1987). CNN's structure provides raw news which allows viewers to form their own opinions

(Henry, 1991 ). ..CNN officials readily acknowledge that despite having a round the-clock schedule, the network does not explore most topics deeply .. (Henry,

1991, p. 27). CNN is a headline service with an abundance of overlap and

repetition (Henry, 1991 ). Turner .. is the soul of CNN: serious, pragmatic, not flashy but fiercely competitive .. while taking little part in the day-to-day operations (Painton, 1992). Turner's statement regarding starting CNN wa~ .. l am the right man in the right place at the right time. Not me alone, but all the people who think the world can be brought together by telecommunications.. (.. Prince, .. 1992). ..I've never met anybody who can so quickly recognize a truth and internalize it, .. Jane Fonda said. ..When he feels something i.s right, he just does it. Without a backward

look ... CNN, which was dubbed .. the 'Chicken Noodle Network' for its low

14 15 wages and amateurish presentation, is now the video medium of record .. (Painton, 1992).

With Turner's .. go-for-broke nervelessness .. (Henry, 1991) and .. ferocious concentration on results .. , he create/Headline News, the second CNN channel in 1981, in only 90 days. Headline News repeatedly airs updated half-hour news, sports, economic, and entertainment broadcasts.

Oln 1988, Turner initiated TNT, Turner Network Television, which airs the movie library he acquired in 1986 from MGM/UA. The MGM/UA acquisition put

Turner in such tremendous debt that he had to accept investments from a .. consortium of cable operators ... ·He retained majority ownership in CNN but has to request approval for any allocation in excess of $2 million (Painton, 1992).

b''By the start of 1991, CNN had already been transformed from the tiny, money-losing venture ... into a profitable, prestigious worldwide network, the realization of Marshall Mcluhan's 1964 prediction of a 'global village' .. (Kioer,

1991, p. A:10).~able News Network International (CNNI) was started in January 1991 which reached 700,000 cable household in 16 countries. CNNI's signal replaces the regular CNN signal that had been beamed to the countries.

The CNNI signal carried more international programming (Scott, 1991 ). As of

November 1994, CNNI is available in 212 million locations outside the United

States and CNN is available in 64 million household in the United States

(Padula, 1994). CNN International expanded rapidly. ..In Poland, state TV shows

Headline News four times a day. In Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, television channels formeriy geared to Soviet troops now transmit CNNI and material from

French and German TV and Sky News, CNN's British competitor.. (Kioer, 1991, 16 p. C:6). Moscow showed CNNI on the Soviet UHF frequency as pilot program from January through April 1991 though the broadcasts terminated for technical reasons (Vita, 1991 ) .

.. Cable News Network changed how Americans and others around the world get their news (Vita, 1991 ). CNN's news is fast, good, and available (Vita, 1991 ). CNN attained new .. worldwide indispensability .. in 1991, starting first in

January with live coverage of the Persian Gulf War, second with round-the-clock coverage of the aborted Soviet coup in August, third with the Clarence Thomas hearings, and fourth with the culmination of the William Kennedy Smith rape - trial and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December (Kioer, 1991 ). CNN

.. was the prime source of news, information, and up-to-the-minute political intelligence for the U.S. government .. (Henry, 1991, p. 24) . .. CNN also reflects Turner's belief that TV news can be done far more cheaply than it was at the once profligate broadcast networks .. (Zoglin, 1992, p.

32}. CNN proved to its broadcast network rivals that news could be disseminated cheaply. Broadcasting live from remote locations at length is

CNN's greatest expense and is the most necessary for its survival (Henry,

1991 ). CNN spent approximately $30 million on the Persian Gulf War coverage

(Painton, 1992}. Broadcasting live has also caused CNN rivals, nationally and internationally, to pursue more live international news coverage. ..Nations are losing control over informational borders because of CNN .. (Henry, 1991, p. 26}. In late 1991, CNN executives were attempting to .. deepen and broaden the network's reach in Asia... Eason Jordan, CNN's managing editor

international news, explained .. Over half the people on Earth live in Asia. How

can you not give it a lot of attention?.. Across Asia and the Pacific nearly

100,000 homes and more that 7 4,000 hotel rooms receive CNN via paid cable 17 or satellite subscription. Millions more viewers pick up its signal illicitly or in excerpted form via commercial television stations that have contracted with

CNN. Its biggest television statiC?n contract is with Japan's largest commercial television companies, TV Asahi which reaches 13.6 million of the 40 million Japanese households that have televisions (Deans, 1991 ).

As part of CNNI's expansion, CNN opened two six-member news bureaus in New Delhi and Bangkok which will help CNN "tailor special reports to the region" (Deans, 1991 ). By March 1992, CNN had expanded to 16 foreign bureaus and eight U.S. bureaus (Zoglin, 1992).

From CNN's infancy in the early 1980/Turner had a vision of global programming (Scott, 1991) that permitted CNN to become ••the world's most widely heeded news organization" (Henry, 1991 ). Concurrent with the start of

CNN in 1980, UNESCO's MacBride Commission released its finding on international communication in Manv Voices. One World which focused on the

New World Information Order (Flournoy, 1992). The MacBride Commission asked the world's broadcasters to· provide: .

In 1989, Ted Turner stated in his address to the CNN World Report

Contributors Conference in Atlanta, Georgia:

When I started CNN, I really didn•t have any intention to go outside of the United States with the service and, in fact, where I got the idea that the service was of value in other countries was from Fidel Castro in Cuba. (Turner, 1989, p. 101)

Turner proceeded to tell the story of how he was invited to vislbastro in 1982, and on this trip he learned Castro used CNN to obtain news of world events

(Turner, 1989). 18 Turner traveled to Africa and Asia during the 1980s and .. spoke to businessmen, communication people, bankers, and just people on the street ..

(Woods, 1994, March 31 ). Everyone he spoke with complained that Third World news was collected by the West not by Asia and was, therefore, from the

Western point-of-view and most coverage was negative (Woods, 1994;

Flournoy, 1993). This perspective only showed the atrocities that took place rather than the every day productive lives of the people (Flournoy, 1993; King, 1989).

Turner learned more about UNESCO during early 1987 (Loory, 1994a). He felt it necessary to have countries report their views and thoughts of the news and not always reporting the United States view (Woods, 1994; Flournoy, 1992; Turner 1990, 1989).

I [Turner] read the UNESCO reports and various international news magazines about how there was a great deal of discomfort, particularly in the smaller countries and the less wealthy countries, that all the flow of news around the world was controlled by the large countries and also, to a great degree, by the great powers of the West. But that would also apply to the great powers of the East--our friends from the Soviet Union--at that time. That was right. It was right. The only time that India was ever mentioned in the news was when there was a war or a rebellion or a Bhopal. And it•s not right. And that was where I came up with the idea that in the World Report we would have a regular place where everybody in the world could be heard. And of all the things and ideas that 1•ve come up with in my life, I think the World Report will go down as one of the most--if not the most--important. Because for the first time, everybody else in the world has the opportunity to speak to everybody else in the world on a regular basis. (Turner, 1990, p. 118)

tStuart Loory, the first Executive Producer, became involved with the CNN

World Report in July 1987 when he was asked to meet with Ted Turner in

Atlanta, Georgia. At the time, he was Senior Correspondent for CNN in the

Washington Bureau. Loory had been at the Washington Bureau since October

6, 1980, as vice-president and managing editor (Whittemore, 1990). Prior to 19 joining CNN, he was the managing editor of the Chicago Sun Times (King, 1989).

fIn the meeting, Turner mentioned his travels in Africa and Asia, and explained what he had heard in those Third World countries about the

imbalanced communication flow. Turner told Loory that something had to be

done, and he outlined his idea for the CNN World Report (Loory, 1994b}. Loory began working on the CNN World Report in early August 1987.

Loory was on a .. mandate .. with a small budget allowing for only absolutely necessary expenditures (Loory, 1994a).

Loory said there were all kinds of practical considerations which had to

be made in the beginning. Turner, employing his .. seat-of-the-pants'' style of

management (Painton, 1992}, allowed Loory to make crucial decisions more a regarding t~e structure of the World Report.• At times, .. I felt myself being diplomat than a journalist .. (Loory, 1994b, February 23}. The process of locating

appropriate contributors was not an easy task because there was not a good

up-to-date list in existence of broadcasters with news operations who might be

able to contribute to the CNN World Report. In addition to not having a list of broadcasters around the world, it was

even difficult to find a complete list of all the countries. A suggestion was made

for Loory to go by the United Nations membership list, but the United Nations

does not have universal membership. At the time, the United Nations list would

have excluded North Korea, Vietnam, and a few other countries. Another

suggestion was made to ask the State Department for a list. The process of 'ocating appropriate contributors was further complicated

by the issue of who was an appropriate contributor. What was to be done about

international organizations or groups of people who aspire to be countries for 20 example, the Palestine Liberation Organization; the Vatican, which considered itself a political entity; the Afghan rebels; or the Turks in Northern Cypress?

Loory developed the philosophy of being as .. inclusive as possible" rather than

exclusive (Loory, 1994b). The same was done with the question of what

happens to a country where more than one broadcaster wants to contribute.

Loory decided the World Report was not dealing with countries but rather with international broadcaster (Loory, 1994a). All broadcasters could contribute, but

only one piece a week would be used from a particular country. If there were two or three contributing broadcasters, as in the beginning with Great Britain

and Germany, a rotation schedule would be worked out for them (Loory, 1994b).

Loory used every available international broadcasting union membership list and the Radio and Television Handbook to create a comprehensive list of names and telex addresses or mailing addresses for each broadcaster (Loory, 1994a). Letters were sent to invite the broadcasters to become a part of the World Report (Loory, 1994b}. Another important consideration was ~ow much time to give each contributor: an equal amount of time or more time to larger countries? If the larger countries received more time, what constituted a larger country? Loory decided to allot an equal amount of time for each contributor (Loory, 1994b).

Loory decided that all material should befsubmitted in English.

Contributors were told the reports should be in English. If it were not in English but in the contributor's native language, contributors were to send a script of the report in English and the English script would be dubbed into the report. If contributors could neither send a· report in English nor send an English script, 21 they were to send the report and the producers would deal with it.

Consequently, most of the news packages came in English.

The first letters to prospective contributors were sent by telex in August of

1987. The letter stated the World Report would start on October 25, 1987. It outlined the arrangement, whereby if a contributor submitted a three-minute report, the contributor would be entitled to tape the whole program.

In most cases, no response was received from the first letter so multiple letters were sent to prospective contributors (Loory, 1994b). The process of seeking contributors continued until the program became a .. success .. at which time prospective contributors began seeking out CNN (Loory, 1994a). In a telex letter from Loory to George McCiere of UN TV, Loory stated that by August 27,

1987, ••fifty nations and dependencies have agreed to take part in the CNN

World Report--19 from the Western Hemisphere, 14 from Europe, three from the

Middle East, two from Africa, and 13 from Asia and the Pacific•• (Loory, 1987, n.p.).

In mid September 1987, two months after Loory began work on the World

Report, he hired Brooke McDonald as the Associate Producer. She left her position at Maryland Public Television and began working for CNN on October

2, 1987 (McDonald, 1994). Later she became Coordinating Producer of the

World Report (Loory, 1994b).

When McDonald began working on the World Report, a telex list of prospective contributors was already on the computer but it was extremely unorganized (McDonald, 1994). For each address, she had to figure out which organization belonged with which country. McDonald spent her first three weeks with the World Report reorganizing the contributors list into a database of 22 contact people including their phone numbers, company or organization

names, and whether their stations were public or private (McDonald, 1994).

t Loory stated that in the beginning, there was a tremendous distrust by other CNN producers of the idea of broadcasting unedited and uncensored

material. _.he other producers felt if the World Report aired unedited or

uncensored material, it was running propaganda. Loory•s answer to them was,

to the extent that the World Report aired propaganda, the other producers were

also running propaganda when they aired an unedited speech by the President

of the United States because no editorial control over the speech existed.

Loory said as long as the World Report was airing material that reflected every

point-of-view and every ideology, then it was no longer running propaganda but

was creating a marketplace for news and information from many different

points-of-view. World Report viewers were certainly intelligent enough to

distinguish on their own between what is factual and what is not factual, he said.

Loory also said the other producers thought all the material was going to

~e dull and technically poor (Loory, 1994b). Loory stated that the entire

premise of the CNN World Report was that content was more important than

quality and no .. heroic measures were taken .. to upgrade the quality of a report .

He stated that only minor adjustments were made in sound or color to make a

report air worthy (Loory, 1994a). The material, in fact, was important enough and new enough to develop an audience (Loory, 1994b).

Loory stated the CNN World Report had a larger than average audience for its time period from the beginning. The rating for the World Report was higher than the program that it replaced. It did so well that a half-hour or hour version was aired at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday night against 60 Minutes, and that did 23 well, also. At that point, the program started airing once on Sunday afternoon and again on Sunday evening.

Loory believed the program was on the air at the worst possible time of the week because on Sunday people are preparing for the work week.

However, in some cases the rating went up at midnight on Sunday when the program was on the air instead of going down as had happened traditionally.

With regard to the requirement for all contributors to observe the United States libel and slander laws, Loory said very few stories during the time that he was doing the program were kept off the air. In retrospect, one of them, he said, was as ironic as it was funny. For the very first program, a contributor in

Thailand submitted a three-minute piece about a man who was a bigamist. The report told the story that one of his wives got jealous and dismembered his male anatomy. The man picked up the dismembered part and went to the police hospital in Bangkok where it was reattached. The segment concluded that after a long period of time, the dismembered part was functioning. Loory decided not to use the report, and Turner agreed with Loory after viewing the report.

McDonald corroborated Loory's account of the bigamist story from Thai TV

Station Color Channel 3. She explained that Loory said the World Report could not use the report, and she was asked to write the contributor an explanation letter. Loory told her to explain that the report had handled the topic in a light hearted way and did not give enough medical details.

11 Loory stated that CNN does not make money from the CNN World Report but it does make money through the international connections made by the

World Report. McDonald explained that CNN was able to gain access to Iraq because of the World Report's connection with Iraqi TV. Representatives from

Iraqi TV attended the 1989 CNN World Report Contributors Conference. CHAPTERV

DISCUSSION

Several factors influenced the creation of the CNN World Report, some ideological and some more subtle; but the driving force was without a doubt,

Ted Turner. Turner realized the CNN network was valuable to other countries when he visited Cuba in 1982 and discovered Fidel Castro used CNN for world news coverage. Following his visit to Cuba, Turner traveled extensively around the world. During his travels to Africa and Asia, he learned of the imbalance in news flow from Third World leaders who criticized industrialized countries for only covering atrocities in their countries and never covering everyday life.

Turner did not know at the time these criticisms were part of the New World Information Order debate.

Turner believed an injustice to Third World countries was being done, and he decided to try to correct that injustice. Turner then learned that

UNESCO had published a report which, in part, was concerned with the imbalance of news flow. Turner read the MacBride Commission•s report and other articles regarding the imbalance in news flow and decided to create the

CNN World Report. Turner is an astute businessman and found a way to promote his vision of global communication while creating an international network of contacts. He gained a competitive edge over national and international news agencies in two respects. First, he created alliances for CNN to use in other ventures. For example, Turner gained access to Iraq during the Persian Gulf War because of ------. his World Report's connections with Iraqi TV. Second, he devised a cost-cutting plan where CNN receives new, fresh, and free programming that would

24 25 otherwise be expensive. In return, he disseminated it to the whole world in the form of the CNN World Report.

Although Turner was aware of the MacBride Commission's specific concerns about the imbalance of news flow, no formal link existed__Qetween the ---- -. CNN Walls!_ Report structure and the UNESCO MacBride Commission's , ·----...:..._ -- .. recommendations.

The MacBride Commission called for more equity in content and control of the communication flow (MacBride Commission, 1984, p. xviii). The

Commission specifically called for the industrialized world's broadcasters to __ .. _~ ··------·------···-·- .. allot more space and time to reporting events in and background material

about foreign countries in general and news from the developing world in particular.. (MacBride Commission, 1984, p. 263).

The CNN World Report's structure which was created by Stuart Loory appears to follow these recommendations. The World Report has a policy of

being as .. inclusive as possible .. with regard to contributors. The World Report

accepts reports from all professional journalists who have the technical

capability required to create a report and transmit it to Atlanta as well as the

capability to receive and record the broadcast. Subsequent to those guidelines,

the World Report will accept groups of people who aspire to be countries,

political entities within countries, and multiple contributors from a single country.

The World Report takes this position in order to be as just and equal as

possible.

In the beginning, Loory had to decide how much air time to give to a

contributor and decided on equal time for all contributors which promotes

equality. Loory, then, asked for all material to be in English. On the surface, the

English requirement does not seem to lend itself to the .. inclusive as possible .. 26 philosophy because it hampers contributors• participation, but further reflection indicates that it is as .. inclusive as possible .. because the requirement is not steadfast. Contributors who cannot produce the material in English, may send an English script with the report so the English can be dubbed into the report. If the contributor cannot provide the report in English or a script in English, then the contributor can send the tape to Atlanta, where the producers will work to get it translated. The producers will try to find a way to air every submitted report.

With respect to airing all submitted reports, the program•s policy requires that all submissions should be in good taste and all United States libel and slander laws must be observed. Loory stated very few submissions were not aired because of poor taste or libel and slander law violations, maintaining the .. inclusive as possible .. philosophy in actual practice.

Loory stated that when the CNN World Report was first starting, other

CNN producers believed the World Report would be airing propaganda. Loory believed that as long as the World Report was as .. in.c.lusive BS.-PQ.ssible .. showing all points-of-view then the World Report w~s not airi~g ;-=;:;nda, it ~ was airing a marketplace of ideas where individuals were free to decide for / themselves what was accurate. When Loory began working on the details of the program and developed the .. inclusive as possible .. policy, he decided that he needed to contact broadcaster instead of countries. He then was faced with the task of compiling a complete list of broadcasters in order to be able to contact potential contributors. He ultimately found that no one single list existed for broadcasters, so he used every available international broadcasting union membership list and the Radio and Television Handbook to create an initial list. Then when 27 Brooke McDonald, Associate Producer, began working on the World Report three weeks before the first program, she had the task of creating a database which would organize the contributors list in a more comprehensive manner.

A limitation exists within the scope of this research regarding original documentation. The only original document on the CNN World Report prior to its production that could be located was a telex letter sent as a follow-up to a meeting between Stuart Loory and George McCiere of United Nations TV.

Danila Mendoza, Television Producer of UN TV, furnished this document.

Numerous attempts were made by Georgann Burrell, research assistant for the

CNN World Report Television Archives, to acquire original documents through her contacts in Atlanta, Georgia, but without success. Brooke McDonald stated she believed the documents in Atlanta were destroyed some years ago. Robert

Stewart, professor at Ohio University, who has studied the CNN World Report extensively along with Don Flournoy, did not have copies of the documents, either. CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION

This research traces the development of the CNN World Report from its

conception to its first production. The World Report has established itself as a

viable program offering a variety of news reports from numerous countries. The

World Report's conception is the single most important part of understanding its aspiration to correct the imbalance of news flow.

Flournoy suggests {1993, December 13) .. the New World Information Order is dead because, today, technology is possible for any country to speak

for itself ... This evolution in international communication has taken place with

regard to the CNN World Report. The CNN World Report has attempted to rectified the New World Information Order issues of the North-South and East

West debates: imbalance of communication flow, content of communication

flow, and control of communication flow. The World Report's .. inclusive as ~sible" philosophy has eliminS:ted these issues by accepting virtually all contributors, airing virtually all reports, and being equal partners in the control of

communication. This research revealed insights into Ted Turner and CNN, as a whole.

First, it appears that while TJ!!!!_er~ vision was to create a~~ village .. with

the CNN World Report. Turner•s mission w~eate.profits for CNN. CNN .-·-- now has the advantage of a global network of broadcasters to use for profit

making ventures which far exceeds broadcasters contributions to the CNN

World Report. Second, Turner cultivated the network of broadcasters from 1987 to 1990

so he could start CNN International (CNNI) in early 1991. Coincidentally, 1991

turned out to be a year of tremendous national and international events. CNNI 28 29

countries into instant witnesses of history .. (.. Prince,•• 1992, p. 23). CNN became a model for other news agencies (Vita, 1991 ).

This research sets the stage for more specific studies on the CNN World

Report and the MacBride Commission. Fryman and Bates (1992) studied the imbalance in news flow issue of the New World Information Order debate with respect to the MacBride Commission recommendations for typ~ _of story and ---- - ·--- origin of story. ------Future research should focus on the other two NWIO issues: content of communication flow and control of communication flow. Studies should investigate the specific content of each report, rather than the broad category type and origin of reports. This research would reveal insight into each contributor.

Research should be conducted on the control of communication flow with regard to gat.ekeeping by the contributor's news organization and country. This research would reveal exactly who controls which reports are submitted for broadcast to the World Report. Turner stated in his address to the 1990 CNN World Report Contributors

Conference, .. One thing ... we have done with the World Report and with CNN is we have accomplished--or are accomplishing--the democratization of information... ..What we are seeing is not just the globalization of television but also, through television, the globalization of the globe.. (Henry, 1991, p. 27). REFERENCES

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