Well today I read a plausible explanation on Little Green Footballs. I am not going to quote the posting extesively because it is lengthy, but just give you the gist of it...essentially, the Associated Press (AP) is responsible for most of the news reports and news photographs that you see and read in the papers. It is owned by the about 1,500 member newspapers that subscribe to it's services. AP also has a for-profit wholly owned subsidiary called APTN, Associated Press Television Network.
news organizations (mostly TV but not all) subscribe to APTN and pay an annual amount to both watch and then re-use the stories that are fed over the GNW [Global News Wire]. The stories are supplied with sound, but no journalist to do a voice over. Most commercial news stations (like the BBC, SKY, Fox or CNN) would take this feed, decide which pictures to use then re-edit it and supply an appropriate voice over for the story. The video comes with a written description of the shots and the events that occur in them.
The fee for this feed depends on the size of the receiving organization, their audience size and a negotiation with APTN's sales force. It is pretty much impossible, however, to operate a TV news organization without taking feeds from either APTN or Reuters or usually both. The agreement with APTN usually allows the receiving news channel unlimited use of the video for two weeks. If they want to re-show those pictures after that they have to separately license the pictures (which can cost anything from $100 to $10,000 per 30 seconds depending on the content).
A Separate Service for Arab States
However, there is another significant part of their business model that affects the rest of the business. While most of the world takes news pictures with minimal interpretation beyond editing, the Arab Gulf States have asked for and receive a different and far more expensive service. These states pay for a complete news report service including full editing and voice overs from known journalists. The news organizations in the Arab countries don't do anything (beyond verify that they are appropriate for local tastes) before broadcast.
What this means is that while there are around 50 people producing news pictures for the whole world working in Camden [London] at any time, there are a further 50 Arabic speaking staff producing finished stories exclusively for the Arab states of the gulf. This has a tremendous effect on the whole feel of the building as these two teams feed pictures and people back and forth and sit in adjacent work areas. The slant of the stories required by the Gulf States has a definite effect on which footage is used and discarded. This affects both the Gulf newsroom and the main global newsroom.
First of all, I think its scary that most of the news is disseminated and edited through one central source. However, I understand the economy of scale, and I can understand that it is impossible for even the large networks to have their own reporters, camera crews, producers, etc. everywhere, at all times.
To me, what this means is that the APTN, AP, Reuters and all the other news services
have an even greater responsibility to the people who read and watch their material. The ethics of their positions require that they report honestly and accurately. If they cannot maintain this high standard, it is up to us, the consumers, to let out retailers (the news outlets) know that their supplier (the AP, etc.) is not supplying what we want. We must be vigilant and vocal and tell the news outlets that we want responsible, accurate news.
No comments:
Post a Comment