Two Worldviews - International News in Le Monde and Asahi Shimbun

Some argue that an elite newspaper reflects the culture of the country whereit is published. If it is correct does the research on Le Monde (France) andAsahi Shimbun (Japan) help to interpret the cultures of the two countries?This study explores how Le Monde and Asahi Shimbun two prestigious newspapersfrom economically developed and free-press countries report internationalnews. It investigated and compared the international news on thefront page of the two newspapers (from March to August 2005). By codingthe story types countries/regions topics and news sources the study discoveredthat the two newspapers had significant differences in their coverageof foreign countries. The research found that not only did Le Monde have alarger percentage of international news on its front page than Asahi but alsothat Le Monde's foreign news abroad accounted for a larger percentage ofinternational stories than Asahi's. In other words Asahi was more inwardlooking (i.e. printing more foreign news at home and home news abroadstories) than Le Monde.The book is aimed not only at academic researchers but also at professionalsin the news industry.