Foreign News Agencies

There are hundreds of agencies which are in the business of supplying information to the mass media. They combine spot coverage with interpretation of important events. Although a news agency does not directly deal with the public it works through the intermediary or other means. These agencies are referred to as news agencies, feature agencies and syndicates. The impact of these agencies on what we read, see and hear is quiet significant.

AFP
AFP is a post war successor to the Agence Havas, founded in 1835. The French newspapers control the agency by having the maximum representation on its board of directors. Although AFP is described as an unsubsidized, autonomous organization, in effect the French government and various agencies under it support and subscribe to AFP. With a wide network within the country and abroad, AFP is regarded as one of the major global major news agencies. AFP grew out of a translation agency which sold the translations to various newspapers. Two of its employees, Paul Julius Reuter and Bernard Wolff, started news agencies in the US and Germany. AFP has more than 10000 newspapers and 70 agencies as its subscribers. Its operations are in more than 150 countries with a network of 110 foreign bureaus. Today the agency continues to expand its operations worldwide, reaching thousands of subscribers via, radio, television, newspapers, and companies from its main head quarters in Paris and regional centers in Washington, Hong Kong, Nicosia and Montevideo, all sharing the same goal: to guarantee top quality international service tailored to the specific needs of the clients in each region.

Reuters
In October 1851 Paul Julius Reuter, a German-born immigrant, opened an office in the city of London which transmitted stock market quotations between London and Paris via the new Calais-Dover cable. Eighteen months earlier he had used pigeons to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service which operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Reuters, as the agency soon became known, eventually extended its service to other European countries. It also expanded the content to include general and economic news from all around the world. The reputation of its service was enhanced by a succession of reporting scoops. In 1865 Reuters was first in Europe with news of President Lincolns assassination. As overland telegraph and undersea cable facilities developed, the business expanded beyond Europe to include the Far East in 1872 and South America in 1874. In 1883 Reuters began to use a column printer to transmit messages electrically to London newspapers and in 1923 developed the use of radio to transmit news internationally. In 1927 it brought in the teleprinter to distribute news to London newspapers. In 1925 the Press Association, the UK Press Agency, took a majority holding in Reuters Ltd. And in 1939 the company moved its corporate headquarters to 85 Fleet Street, London. Recently in 2005, the corporate headquarters were moved to Canary Wharf, London. In 1941 Reuters restructured itself so that it was owned by the British National and Provincial Press, together with the Press Associations of Australia and New Zealand. The Reuters Trust Principles were put in place to safeguard its independence. The principle govern how the company conducts business, committing Reuters to independence, integrity and freedom from bias in the gathering and dissemination of news and information. Reuters became a public company in 1984.

Associated Press
Associated Press is one of the largest news-gathering services in the world. AP distributes international, regional and local news to media everywhere.

The Associated Press is a non-profit organization. It is owned and controlled by more than 1500 daily newspapers in the US. These members along with 6000 US radio and TV stations receive news from the Associated Press. News media in 111 other countries also subscribe to its services. This agency provides news in five languages. The Associated Press offers daily reports, features, photographs and graphics. Its photographs are sent digitally via satellites. Six New York city newspapers founded the Associated Press in 1848. They began the service to save money on the gathering of news by telegraph. Today, the Associated Press has about 230 news bureaus worldwide. Its headquarters is in New York.

United Press International

United Press International is one of the largest privately owned news agencies in the world. It distributes news, photographs, television news radio news, and cable television news programmes to about 6000 subscribers. Its clients include newspapers, radio and television stations, news magazines, and cable television stations in more than 100 countries. It has more than 230 bureaus worldwide. UPI was founded in 1907 by Edward Scripps. In the 1930s, UPI established a network of news bureaus throughout the world. UPI pioneered in some key areas of news coverage, including the wired transmission of news photographs in 1925. UPI has been merged, bought and sold several times. In 1992, UPI was bought by London based Middle East Broadcasting Centre Ltd.

ITAR-TASS
In existence since 1904, the ITAR-TASS news agency is one of the worlds largest international information agencies. The successor to the Soviet TASS news agency, it was re-named in 1992. when Russia proclaimed its sovereignty following the collapse of the USSR. It has retained its status of being the state central information agency. Previously available to only a select few, the agencys resources are now available to anyone who is interested, both within and outside Russia; the mass media, academic institutions, organizations and private individuals. ITAR-TASS relies on a widespread net of correspondents. Currently, it has more than 130 bureaus and offices in Russia and abroad. They also cooperate with more than 80 foreign news agencies. ITAR-TASS s editorial and other desks process information from correspondents, check and analyse facts and translate into five foreign languages. ITAR-TASS offers today 45 round-the-clock news cycles in six languages, and more than 40 information bulletins. The agency also operates a photo service, the largest of its kind in Russia. This service offers pictures of the latest breaking developments, available for prompt transmission in digital form. Clients also have access to an extremely rich photo achieve dating back to the beginning of the 20 th century. Also available is the INFO-TASS electronic data bank, which contains all agency materials produced since 1987. Conclusion These five major agencies exert a great influence in the news gathering scenario in the news gathering scenario in the world. Imbalance in news reporting, European and American-centric news collection, prejudiced reporting of the third world etc are some of the allegations constantly made against these agencies by communication experts. History tells us that the language of the ruler becomes the language of commerce and court in the subject country. This is true to a great extent in our neo-colonial world, especially in the news collection and news distribution scenario.