| Abstract [eng] |
The main objective of mass media is to provide information to citizens about the newest happenings within a country and around the world. However contemporary mass media seems to be seeking data that would cause sensation and be dramatic. While it should firstly be informative. In addition, media imperialism was prevailing in media for quite a long time, though nowadays the picture seems to be changing as more and more news from the peripheral countries appear in the means of mass media. Thus this research attempts to determine what is the situation with foreign news selection criteria in contemporary media. The object of this Master Thesis is foreign news in the Lithuanian mass media and the peculiarities of their selection criteria in different means of mass media. The objective is to reveal the changes in foreign news selection criteria that are influenced by the improving information technologies and to figure out the criterion, which is dominant in modern Lithuanian mass media. The objective is pursued by raising the following tasks: to define the process of news production, considering the aspects of journalist’s work, the role of international news agencies in the process and the influence of the media market on the news production; to discuss and analyze foreign news selection criteria; to review the specifics of modern mass media, which is influenced by the newest technologies and, finally, to reveal the changes of foreign news selection criteria. Theoretical material of various journalists and news media researchers, covering the results of their research done on the topic of international news selection criteria, is presented and analyzed according to the scholarly literature analysis. It provided the frame of reference to examine the application of foreign news selection criteria, defined by Westerstahl and Johansson (1994), in the Lithuanian mass media. The combination of qualitative and quantitative content analysis was chosen for the empirical part of this research. Research results revealed that during the period of research (Feb. 16 – Mar. 11, 2010) the dominant criterion in foreign news selection was drama/ curiosity; however the importance of a country still has significance to the selection process. News that correspond to the factor of proximity has increased, however, the access criterion due to its costs remains rarely applied in Lithuania. |
