Mapping the Geography of Online News

Abstract

This article is a product of the Geography of News Project, whose express purpose is to assess the Internet’s potential to foster an expanded, and more international, news geography. The article begins by discussing the relationship between news and geography, then describes and analyzes the results of a news-flow study of the websites of three international newspapers with extensive online editions: The Times of London, Libération of Paris, and Ha’aretz of Tel Aviv. It argues that while each of these newspapers adopts a distinct online strategy, the geographies they map out remain highly circumscribed, reinforcing significant distinctions in the newsworthiness of various parts of the world and suggesting that our understanding of news value must include the value of audiences for whom news is produced.