On Dan Halton's Review of Foreign News Coverage
| Author | Garry Dwyer-Joyce |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200105600308 |
| Date | 01 September 2001 |
| Published date | 01 September 2001 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
GARRY
DWYER-JOYCE
On
Dan
Halton's
review
of
foreign
news
coverage
ANYONE
WHO
SAT
IN
A
FOREIGN
EDITOR'S
CHAIR
during
the
1990s
will
recognize
the
decline
of
foreign
news coverage
by
Canadian
media
as
described
by
Dan
Halton.
He
suggests
that
it
was
part
of
a
trend
across
North
America
and
predicts
that
Canada
will
follow
the
United
States in
further
deterioration.
However,
it could
be
argued
that
Canada's
experience
in
the
1990s
was
slightly
different from
that
of
its
southern
neighbour
and
that
the
trend
for
the
future
is
more
positive.
Halton
cites
the
North
American
Free
Trade
Agreement
(NAFTA)
as
one
of
the
reasons
for
Canadian
media
preoccupation
with
domestic
events.
This
is
certainly
true,
but
Canada
was
also
rocked
by
the
near
vic-
tory
by
separatists
in
the
Quebec
Referendum
in
1995
and
by
the grad-
ual
realization
that
government
deficits
were
bringing
the
country
to
the
verge
of
bankruptcy.
Complacency
turned
to
concern,
and
the
media,
quite
rightly,
reflected
that
concern
with
more
domestic
coverage.
Of
course, anyone
interested
in
the
rest
of
the
world
would
argue
that
understanding
conditions
abroad
would
give
a
fresh
perspective
to
solv-
ing domestic
problems,
but
that
argument
was
drowned
out
in
the
bab-
ble
of
voices
screaming
for
attention
on
the domestic
scene.
Print
and
radio
were affected,
but
television
news
suffered
the
most,
especially
after cutbacks at
CBC
and
CTV.
Halton
argues
that
this
preoccupation
with
domestic
news
will
only
worsen
with
the
advent
of
corporate
convergence in
the
media. He
Garry
Dwyer-Joyce
is
Documentary
Producer
with
CTV.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Summer
2001
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