Two Worldviews

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