CNN World Report: Ted Turner's international news coup

by Don M. Flournoy

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' - and it comes not from government intervention but from the risk-taking of a socially concerned capitalist and entrepreneur. CNN founder, Ted Turner, established World Report in 1987 not as a profit venture but for the specific purpose of giving people around the world 'a chance to be heard from'. The CNN World Report consists of news collected by local journalists from 130 countries representing 185 broadcast news organizations. CNN agrees to carry the stories on its internationally-distributed network without censoring or editing them, and makes all such stories available to participating stations for their own use without cost or copyright restrictions. From the very first broadcast, Ohio University's Institute for Telecommunications Studies has tracked this unusual news programme, seeking to answer such questions as who contributes to the CNN World Report, and why? Is the participation across regions equal? Do the more affluent stations tend to dominate the newscast? What local use is made of this material? What is the news about? Is it crisis/political news? Development news? How does World Report reflect the status of women as reporters? As newsmakers? How does its content compare with that of other international news services? What are the rules of exchange, and how have these rules evolved and been accepted by participants? Finally, what are the motivations of Ted Turner and CNN, and what do they expect to gain? The book is a scholarly study written in a friendly style which describes how an 'off the wall idea' of Ted Turner's is making big changes in the established order of international news and helping to position CNN as the competitor to beat in the international news business.

102 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1992