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REPORTING INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS IN ALBANIAN MEDIA

Rrapo Zguri

Zyra e TiranësRruga “Abdi Toptani”, Torre Drin, kati 3P.O. Box 1418Tirana, Albania

Telefon: 00355 (0) 4 225098600355 (0) 4 2273306

Homepage: http://www.fes.org.al

RINIA SHQIPTARE 2011Mes besimit për të ardhmen dhe dyshimit për të tashmen!

Alba Çela

Tidita Fshazi

Arbjan Mazniku

Geron Kamberi

Jonida Smaja – koordinatore e FES

Albanian Media InstituteInstituti Shqiptar i Medias

Reporting International Affairs in Albanian Media

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Tiranë, 2016

Rrapo Zguri

Albanian Media InstituteInstituti Shqiptar i Medias


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Published by: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung OfficeTirana Rr.AbdiToptani TorreDrin,Katii3-të KutiaPostare1418 Tirana,ALBANIA

Author:RrapoZguri

Editors:IldaLondoAgimDoksani

Cover:BujarKaroshi

The opinions, findings, conclusions and recommendationsexpressed in this publishing are of the respective authors and

do not necessarily represent those of Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

FriedrichEbertFoundation’spublicationscannotbeusedforcommercialpurposeswithoutapriorwrittenapproval.


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Table of Content

1.Objectandmethodologyoftheresearchstudy ................................. 6

2.ThesituationofinternationalnewsreportinginAlbania ............... 11

3.Internationalnewsinthepress ......................................................... 21

3.1.Internationalnewsinthepress–quantitativeapproach ........ 22

3.2.InternationalnewsofthedayintheAlbanianpress ............... 25

4.Internationalnewsontelevision ....................................................... 44

5.Internationalnewsontheweb .......................................................... 54

6.Conclusions ....................................................................................... 58

Bibliography .......................................................................................... 63


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Thedesireandtheneedtolearnaboutwhathappensbeyondour“fence”orborderhasbeenoneofthemostimportantpremises

fortheemergenceanddevelopmentofthejournalismandthenewsindustry.Fordecadesandcenturies,thepress,televisionandradio“have brought theworld to our living room” (Mikich, 2001)1 by somehowquenchingthethirstandnaturalcuriosityforwhatisnewsomewhereawayfromusanygivenday.Withthedevelopmentofthemediaandcommunicationtechnology,thegeographyofnewstoohasexpandedincreasinglyandtheprocessofinformingpeoplehasbecomeeverfaster.

However, themediacrisisof the last twodecades,maybefor thefirsttimesincetheemergenceofthepress,hasoutlinedashrinkingandnarrowingprocessofspacefornewsinnewspapers,radioandtelevision.Thereisnoshortageofresearchersacrosstheworldwhotalkaboutandbringevidenceaboutashrinkageofthegeographyofinternationalnewsandadeclineinthenumberofstoriesfromtheworld inall leadingmedia.Thisphenomenonwasnoticedbeforealso by the American Journalism Review (AJR) center, whichconcludedina2011researchstudythatin25years,from1985until2010,thenumberofworldnewsinthemainAmericannewspapershadfallenby53percentorinotherwordsbyhalf.2

1. SoniaMikich, cited in:Russ-Mohl, Stephan,Journalism,K&BPublishingHouse,Tirana,2010,p.2032. Shrinking Foreign Coverage,AmericanJournalismReview,2011,Link:http://ajrarchive.org/article.asp?id=4998


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ThistendencyhasbeennoticedalsoinAlbaniaandtheAlbanianmedia.However,todate,therehasbeennoresearchtoexplore,analyzeandreachconclusionsaboutthedimensions,typologyandoutcomesofthisphenomenonintheAlbanianmediaenvironment.Fillingthisvoidhasbeenoneofthemainspursforundertakingthisresearchstudy,whichviewsinternationalinformationandreportingasvitalandindispensablefortheAlbanianaudienceandsociety.

1. Object and methodology of the research study

Insometextbooksbutalsointheperceptionofalargepartofaudiences,based on localization, news fall into twomajor groups: “Domesticstories”and“Foreignstories.”However,accordingtoFurioColombo,thisdivisionreflectsthe“arbitrarycharacteroftheseparationbetweentheforeignandthedomestic”(Colombo,2010:12).Otherauthorsalsojointheideathatonlylocalizationisnotsufficientanddoesnotproduceanaccurateclassificationofnews.Therearemanystoriesthatcouldtakeplaceinsideacountry,butthathaveatransnationalorinternationalnature.Thus,for instance, thestoryabout themeetingof theNATOParliamentaryAssemblyinTiranaattheendofMaythisyearcouldhardlybeclassifiedsimplyasa“domesticstory.”Ontheotherhand,there is also adilemma regardingevents that takeplaceoutside thecountrybut that involves local charactersor actors, aswas the casewiththeconcertoftherenownedAlbanianoperaartistInvaMulainBelgrade,Serbia.Whatcategorywouldthestoryaboutthiseventfallunder?Isita“domesticstory”ora“foreignstory?”

In order to avoid to the extent possible the semantic confusion aswellastoprovideamoreaccurate“meter”fortheidentificationandmeasurementofresearchunits,thisresearchstudychosetousetheterm“internationalnews”insteadoftheterm“foreignnews”andtocallthe


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processas“internationalreporting.”

Based on a classification of international news provided by authorsPhilipElliottandPeterGolding,thestudydividesinternationalnewsintothreecategories:

1.Foreignnewsathome2.Homenewsabroad3.Foreignnewsabroad,(Elliott&Golding,1974)

Thiscategorizationisclearer,moredetailedandhelpsus,inthebroadercontext of international news, to see what the rapport is betweeninternationalnewsthatarenotrelatedtoAlbaniaorAlbanianactorsandthosethat,insomeway,arerelatedtothecountryanditsdirectactorsorinterests,i.e.containadomesticelement.

Nevertheless,thestudydoesnotneglectthecriteriaoflocalization.Intheprocessofempiricalresearch,aswellasduringthecodingofresearchunits,wealsomadeadivisionofstoriesbytheplacetheyoccurin,inordertoenablesomesortofgeographicalmappingofinternationalnewspublished inAlbanianmedia outlets. Naturally, the mapping processbasedonlocalizationalsohaditsownchallenges.Therearedevelopmentsor events that you cannot localize in a given country. For instance,somereportsrelatetothe“PanamaPapers”scandalthathadtodowithnumerouscountriesatthesametime.Therewerealsoothernewsstoriesthatdealtwithinternationaldrugtraffickingthatoftenarenotrelatedtoorlocalizedinasinglecountry.Forthatreason,duringthegeographicalmapping,weaddedthecategoryof“transnationalnews”tothedivisionofnewsstoriesbycountry,anapproachborrowedfromFurioColombo.

Aswasmadeclearabove, theobjectof thisresearchstudyinvolvesinternationalnewspublishedinAlbanianmedia.Theresearchedsampleincludesthepress,televisionandonlinemedia.


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Wechosefourdailynewspaperstoresearchforthestudy,namelydailies “Panorama,” “Gazeta Shqiptare,” “Shqiptarja.com” and“Mapo,”whichwemonitoredforathree-monthperiodfromMarch1,2016 toMay31,2016. Inselecting thesedailies,we took intoconsiderationthatthesampleshouldincludethebest-sellingdailyin the country (Panorama) as well as three other national dailynewspaperswithaspecialprofile,distinguishablefromoneanotheraswellasintermsoftheresearchpurpose.

Amongthetelevisionstations,thesampleincludesthetwonationalchannelswith the highest viewership in the country, namelyTopChannelTVandKlanTV.Wemonitored10ofthe7:30p.m.newsprogramsofthesetwostationsonrandomdays,duringtheperiodMarch1,2016untilMay31,2016.Thefollowingtableincludesthedatesofthemonitorednewsprograms:

Table 1: Dates of monitored newscasts

No. Top-Channel TV Klan TV

1 March7,2016 March5,2016

2 March16,2016 March13,2016

3 March22,2016 March22,2016

4 March30,2016 April12,2016

5 April8,2016 April18,2016

6 April15,2016 April24,2016

7 April27,2016 May6,2016

8 May3,2016 May10,2016

9 May14,2016 May19,2016

10 May25,2016 May30,2016


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Of the online media outlets, we chose albeu.com. We selectedthisportalasoneofthemostvisitednewsportalsthatalsofitsthecategory“digitalnative,”meaningthattheyoriginallyemergedontheweb.

Foralltheselectedmediaoutlets,thefinalmonitoredunitwasthepublished or broadcasted stories.Theywere coded and classifiedintovariablessuchas: lengthofstory(fornewspapersandonlinemediaoutlets)andtimelength(fortelevisionoutlets),theplaceitoccurredin,presenceonfrontpage,sourcesused,storyauthorship,topicoreventreported,etc.

Themain focus of themonitoringwas on the international newsof the day. However, the monitoring also included sports newsfromaroundtheworld.Thelatterwereidentifiedmoreintermsofquantityinordertolookatwhattheirrateisvis-à-visinternationalnews of the day inAlbanianmedia.Themonitored sample doesnotinclude“softnews”orcelebnewsfromtheworld.Inthecaseofnewspapers, themonitoringalso includedarticlesbelonging tocommentaries, such as editorials, columns andopinionpieces, inordertoverifythedegreeoftheirpresenceinAlbanianpress.

Besides quantitative data, we also collected qualitative data thathave to domainlywith themain axes of international reporting,some elements of reporting standards, such as for instance, thepresenceofsourcesused,etc.

Furthermore, because of the needs of the research study, weconducted a survey of 30 international reporting journalists whowork in differentmedia outlets.Theywere asked about differentissuesthathavetodowiththeconditionandsituationofinternationalreportinginAlbania.Belowisatableandgraphicofthedivisionofthosesurveyedbymediacategory.


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Table no. 2: Division of respondents by category of media

No. Category of media Number

1 Onlinemedia 11

2 Press 10

3 TV 6

4 Radio 2

5 Newsagency 1

Graphic no.1: Division of respondents by category of media

Asmaybeseen,wemadesuretoincluderepresentativesfromallmedia categories in the survey sample. Onlinemedia as well asnewspapers,representingthelargestnumberofmediaoutlets,alsohavethehighestnumberofrespondents.


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2. The situation of international news reporting in Albania

Afterthefallofcommunismandtheestablishmentofthepluralisticdemocracy system in the beginning of the 1990s, the countryexperienced a flourishing of private, pluralistic and independentmedia too. The overall number of newspapers and magazinesfoundedinthelasttwodecadesismorethantwohundred,includinglocalprintmediaoutlets(Godole,2014:72).Thenumberofdailynationalnewspapersreachesabout20,anumberthatisthehighestintheregionagainstthepopulationnumber.3

With regard to audiovisualmedia, at present, there are 2 privatenational televisionstationsandthepublicnational televisionwithits three district branches, 2 satellite televisions, 3 commercialdigitalplatforms,66localtelevisionstationsand83cabletelevisionstations.Therearealsotwonationalradiostations,1publicnationalradio station with its district branches as well as 71 local radiostations.4

This rich and diverse media ecosystem has also expanded thepossibilitiesandthespaceforinternationalreporting.However,thisspaceofinformation,especiallyintheprintmedia,remainslittlevis-à-vistherestoftheinformation.Besides,Albanianmediaoutlets,being relatively small ones, do not have a separate departmentfor internationalnewsand, inmostcases, iscoveredbythenewssectorsordepartments.Thisisalsoconditionedbythescarcehumanresourcesavailabletoeverymediaoutletandthescarcebudgetthattheyputasideforthisareaofinformation.

3. BalkanMediaBarometer–Albania,AMI,Tirana,2013,p.244. Source:Audio-visualMediaAuthority(AMA)


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Nevertheless, in spite of the absence of a separate editorialstructure,mostAlbanianmedia outlets include a separate sectiononinternationalnews,oftenlabeled“newsfromtheworld,”whichmaybedailyorlessfrequentlythanothernewsrubrics.Ofthe30media outlets included in the survey conducted in the context ofthisresearchstudy,itresultsthat27ofthemhaveasection,rubricorpageforinternationalnewsandonly3ofthemdonothaveonesuch.Withregardtofrequency,therubricisregularin25oftheseoutletsandin5ofthemitiscreatedoropenedonacasebycasebasis.

At present, the most important channels for internationalinformationinthecountry’smediaarethedailynewspapers,maintelevisionstationsandonlinenewsportals.Also,achannelthathasbeenfollowedbyarelativelysmallpartoftheAlbanianaudienceincludedforeignradiosinAlbanian,suchastheVoiceofAmerica,DeutscheWelle,ornewsagenciessuchasAFP,Reuters,BBC,etc.However,thecrisisandbudgetcutsledtolesshumanresourcesintheseagencies,leadingeventothecompleteinterruptionofservicesin theAlbanian language, as was the case of the BBCAlbanianService.TheAlbanianTelegraphicAgency(ATA)alsoplayedsomeroleforinformingthepubliconnewsfromtheworld,butthisrolehasbeenminimizedalotandthispublicnewsentityiscomingoutoftheinformationstagebothbecauseofthelackofvisionofpublicdecision-makingandbecauseofthepoorupdatingstrategy.

Ofgreatimportancefortheauthenticityandqualityofreportingonworldeventsisalsothepresenceofcorrespondentsofmediaoutletsindifferentcountries tobringoriginal information that isdirectlyverifiedonsite.Basedontheresearchinthecontextofthisstudy,it results that of themonitoredAlbanian daily newspapers, nonehas a correspondent in other countries of theworld.Meanwhile,


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of the television stations, it results that Top Channel TV has itsowncorrespondents inKosovo,Macedonia,Greece,Serbia, Italy,BritainandBelgium.KlanTVandABCNewshaveacorrespondentinBrusselswhileOraNewsTVhasacorrespondentinItaly.Oftheonlinemediaoutlets,Albeu.comhasitscorrespondentsinKosovoand Macedonia, while Balkan Insight (which is in the Englishlanguage),becauseofthenatureoftheportal,hasitscorrespondentsinallcountriesoftheBalkanregion.Asmaybeseen,thenumberofcorrespondentsoutsidethecountryisverylimited.Thismakesmostmediaoutletstorefertoortranslatefrominternationalmedia,oftenwithoutcitingthesource,aswillbeseenfurtherinthedetailedanalysisofinternationalreportinginthemonitoredmediaoutlets.

The main reason for the very low number of correspondents ofAlbanian media outlets out of the country is the one mentionedbyresearcherStephanRuss-Mohlwhenhetalksaboutthecutsincorrespondentjobsinworldmediatoo:thehugeexpensesrequiredforacorrespondentoutsidethecountry(Russ-Mohl,2010:203).

WithregardtoforeignmediaoutletsusedasasourceorreferencebyAlbanianmediaoutlets,somedatacomefromthesurveyconductedinthecontextofthisresearchwith30internationalnewsreporters.Inoneoftheaskedquestions,respondentswereaskedtolist5oftheforeignmediaoutletsmostusedbythemasasourceorreferenceforinternationalnews.Theresults indicatethat theforeignmediaornewsagenciesmostusedby journalists inAlbaniaasasourceforinternationalnewsaretheBBC,CNN,Reuters,AP,ANSAandVOA.Thetablebelowpresentsthenumberofthosethatcitedeachmediaoutletasasource.


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Table no.3: Number of reporters who mentioned each media outlet as a source

BBC CNN Reuters AP ANSA VOA The Guardian

Daily Mail AFP

26 18 12 10 8 6 5 4 4

Ararersourceincludedmediaoutletsorinternationalnewsagenciessuch as Sky, the New York Times, DW, Le monde, RAI, TheEconomist,Thetelegraph,AlJazeera,etc.

Thesurveymentionedabovealsoprovidesotherdata thatfurthercompletethepictureofinternationalreportinginAlbanianmedia.Withregardtohumanresourcesofthisfield,thesurveyshowsthatin40%ofAlbanianmediaoutlets,thesehumanresourceshavebeencutsteadily,in30%ofthemtheyarethesame,andonlyin16.67%ofthemtheseresourceshaveincreased.Thelatteraremainlymediaoutlets that havebeen started in recent years.Thegraphic belowpresentsthecompletedata:

Graphic no. 2: Trends in human resources dealing with international reporting


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Asidefromtheshortenedpersonnelworkingoninternationalnews,another problem is the excess burdenonpart of thesepersonnel.Given that these personnel has limited space in themedia outletandbecausethereisasmallnumberofstoriesfromtheworld,thereportersofthissectorgetengagedtoworkalsoonothersections.

Thetablebelowpresentssomedatawithregardtothisphenomenon.Asmaybeseen,only11of30surveyedreportersdealentirelywithinternationalnews,while15othersalsoworkonstoriesforothersectionsofthemediaoutlet.

Table no.4: Personnel in your media outlet working on international news are engaged:

a Onlyinworldnews 11

b Inworldnewsaswellasstoriesforothersections 15

c Noanswer 4

Ontheotherhand,therearealsomediaoutletsinwhichinternationalreporting is entrusted to reporters from other sections or thosewho are free for themoment get towork on international news,thus reflecting a poor level of appreciation for this category ofinformation.

The demographic data of the sample of 30 surveyed reportersmay help us create an idea also about the age of thoseworkingon international news.Asmay be seen in the graphic below, themajorityofsurveyedreportersofthisfield(83%)belongtothe25to39yearsagegroup,10%arefromthe40-49yearsagegroupand3%belongtothe18to24yearsagegroup.


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Graphic no.3: International news reporters by age group

Thissituationofthepredominationoftheyoungagegroupsisvalidnot only for reporters of international news, but also in generalfor theentirecorpsof reportersworking in theAlbanianmedia.AccordingtoresearcherJonilaGodole,ofthegeneralnumberofreportersinAlbania,42.2%belongtothe30-39yearsagegroupwhile42%belongtothe20to29yearsagegroup.Bringingthesetogether,theagegroupof20-39yearsoldmakesup84.2%ofthegeneralnumberofreporters(Godole,2014:149).

ThereasonsforthepredominationofyoungagesinthecorpsofAlbanian reporters may vary. However, the most important ofthemhastodowiththefactthatthemediamarketinAlbaniaisrelativelynew.Themajorityofmediaoutletswereborninthelasttwo decades. Responding to this newmarket, human resourcesalsodevelopedforthisareaandinthemajorityofcases,theytoowere created in the last two decades. Meanwhile, the majorityof reporters whowere educated and worked in the propagandamedia outlets during the communism period did not appear tobeappropriate for thenewand independentmediaoutlets; thus,


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the newspapers, radio and television stations created during thetransition period would be populated by young people mainlyeducated at Tirana University’s Journalism Department, whichwas also a new department that only opened after the fall ofcommunism,in1993.

However, when it comes to reporters of international news,considering the typology of the western reporter of this field,wemaysaythattheprevalenceofyoungagesmaybeseenasavariablethatreflectsalowerlevelofexperience.Meanwhile,itiscommonknowledgethat the“experience”factor in internationalreportinginthemediaisveryimportantand,quiteoften,makesavisibledifferenceinthequalityandstandardsofsuchreporting.

Besidetherelativelyyoungageofreporters,animportantfactorthat affects the level and professional standards of internationalreporting is the professional education and qualification ofreportersofthisfield.Basedonoursurvey,itappearsthat36.67%ofreportersofinternationalnews,i.e.aboutonethird,graduatedfrom university in journalism; 20% studied foreign languages,6.67% studied international relations, and 26.67% studied inbranchesdifferentfromtheabovethree.Thesurveyalsoshowsarelativelysmallnumberofthosewhodidnotdeclaretheprofileoftheireducation(10%).

Thedata showsaproblem that hasbeenpresent throughout thetransition period: part of those working in the media did notgraduateinbranchesrelatedtotheprofessionbutotherones.


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Graphic no.4: Reporters of international news by their university major

In spite of the field of their university studies, the reporters ofinternationalnewsrepresentaspecialprofilethatisdistinguishablefromotherones.Wetriedtofindouthowtheycametoworkinthisprofileandmorethanhalfoftherespondents(56.67%)statedthattheymanaged to specialize in thisfield thanks to their individualefforts,16.67%duetouniversitystudies,and10%duetotraining.

Graphic no.5: How did you specialized in international reporting


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Onenoticesthatthereareaverysmallnumberofthosewhobuilttheirworkprofileduringuniversitystudies,whichlogicallyshouldbe higher. Apparently, the teaching curriculum in the country’sjournalismschoolsleavestobedesiredwhenitcomestospecializinginthefieldofinternationalreporting.Areviewofthecurriculaofthecountry’sthreejournalismdepartmentsprovesthishypothesis.

The Bachelor level of journalism studies at the University ofTiranahashadforalongtimeonlythreeprofilesfortrainingfuturejournalists: political journalism, economic journalism and social-cultural journalism. International journalism did not exist as aprofileand the specificcourses related to it arevery scarce, suchas for instance, “JournalismAgency” andmore remotely related“Mediaindiplomacy.”

OnlytheMasterlevelofstudiesinthisdepartmentstartedin2010a separate profile called “European journalism,” which includedcourses that were directly related to the field of internationalreporting, such as the course “Reporting international currentaffairs.”Fouryearsafteritbegan,theprofilewasclosedduetothelowlevelofenrolment.

The University of Shkodra journalism department also did notincludeaprofileforinternationalreporting.Theonlyapproximatesubjecttothisprofileprovidedbythisdepartmentisthecourseon“Agencyjournalism.”ThejournalismdepartmentoftheUniversityofElbasandoesnot includeaprofileorcourse that isdirectlyorremotelyrelatedtotheprofileofinternationalreporting.

Inviewofthissituation,itisnaturalthatwhiletheprofileismissinginuniversities,opportunities for trainingandspecialization in thefield increase.Withregard to trainingorganizedwithreportersofinternationalnews,63.33%ofthosesurveyedstatedthattheywere


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rare,33.33%ofthosesurveyedsaidtheywerenotawareofsuchtraining,andonly3.33%(1in30persons)saidthatsuchtraininghadbeenincreasing.

Table no.5: Provided training was...

Frequent 3.33%Rare 63.33%Not aware of any such training 33.33%

Withregardtotheentitiesprovidingtraininginthisarea,thesurveyprovidesthefollowinginformation:

Graphic no.6: Training of reporters is most often provided by...

Asmaybe seen, entities providingmore training in the area ofinternational reporting are civil society organizations, amongwhichtheAlbanianMediaInstitutestandsoutfororganizingthe


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majorityofsuchtrainingcourses.Onenoticesinsuchinformationalso that only 3 percent of those surveyed recognize universityentitiesasprovidersoftrainingprograms.

Followingthisgeneralpresentationregardingthesituation,humanresourcesandthecontextofinternationalreportingintheAlbanianmedia,wewilllookingreaterdetailandinmoreconcretetermsat thesituationof internationalnewsinthepress, televisionandtheweb.

3. International news in the press

Asmentioned above, the four selected newspapers: “Panorama”,“GazetaShqiptare”,“Shqiptarja.com”and“Mapo”weremonitoredforathree-monthperiod,fromMarch1untilMay31,2016,includingall issuesof thisperiod.During themonitoringand theempiricalwork, we identified, counted and coded the daily internationalnews,comments/editorials/columns/opinionsaswellasarticlesofinternationalsportsnews.Softandcelebritynewswerenotincludedinthemonitoring.

Duringthese threemonths, thenewspapersPanoramaandGazetaShqiptare issued a total of 92 issues, while the newspapersShqiptarja.comandMapo,whichdonotcomeoutonMondayandSundayrespectively,i.e.onlypublishsixdaysperweek,published79issueseach.

The analysis undertaken in this research study would have beenmorecompleteifthecollecteddatacouldbecomparedtothoseofpreviousyears,butsuchinformationislacking.Thus,thecomparativeanalysisthatmaybecarriedoutinthecontextofthisresearchisthatbetweenthefournewspapersortwotelevisionstationsamongone


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anotherandthenbetweennewspapersandtelevisionmediaaswellastheweb.Meanwhile,thedatabasecreatedforthisresearchmaybeofuseinthecomingyearstodrawcomparisonsandhighlightthetrendsofinternationalreportinginAlbanianmedia.

3.1. International news in the press – quantitative approach

Themainfocusandinterestofthisresearchstudyconcentratedmainlyonthecategoryof theday’s internationalstories.However,giventhatmediainAlbaniademonstratesampleinterestininternationalsportsnews,theresearchincludedsuchnewsinordertoseewhichofthesetwopopularcategoriesofinternationalnewsdominatestheAlbanianpress.Thefollowinggraphicpresentsthetotalnumberofinternationalnewspublishedineachofthemonitorednewspapers:

Graphic no.7: Number of international stories by newspaper (March 1 – May 31, 2016)

As may be seen, the Panorama newspaper, which is also thebest selling newspaper in the country, published a total of 706internationalstoriesinthreemonths.Thefigureisalmostdoublethenumberofarticlespublishedineachofthethreeothernewspapers.


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Thefollowingtablepresentsdataregardingthegeneralnumberofarticlesofbothcategoriesandthepercentagetakenupbythenewsofthedayinthetotalofinternationalnewsstories.

Table no.6: Number of articles from March 1 until May 31 and the percentage of the news of the day.

Media Outlet News of the day

Sports News Total % of news of

the day

Panorama 374 332 706 53%

Gazetashqiptare 217 153 370 59%

Shqiptarja.com 254 73 327 78%

Mapo 166 207 373 45%

Meanwhile,wenoticethat thenumberofarticles inthe“newsofthe day” category in three of the newspapers is higher than thenumberofsportsnews.AtPanoramanewspaper, theratiois53%to47%infavorofnewsoftheday.AtGazetaShqiptare,theratioisenhancedfurtherat59%to41%,culminatingatShqiptarja.com,whichdevotesevenmorespacetonewsoftheday,whichtakesup78%ofthetotalofinternationalnews.AdifferentsituationisseenatMaponewspaper,wherebysportsnewsdominatesovernewsoftheday55%by45%.

Ananalysis of the ratiobetween these twocategoriesof news isimportant to highlight tendencies and priorities in internationalreportingintheAlbanianpress.Asmaybeseen,althoughnewsofthedaygenerallyprevail,therelativelylargenumberofsportsnewsspeakstoakindoftendencytoallowformoreandmorespacetonewsofthiscategory.


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An important indicator for the presence of international newsis the averagenumberof storiesper issueof thenewspaper.Ourmonitoringproducedthefollowingdatawithregardtothisaverage:

Table no.7: Average number of international news articles per newspaper issue

Media OutletTotal

number of articles

Total number of newspaper issues

Average number of articles per

issue

Panorama 706 92 7.67

Gazetashqiptare 370 92 4.02

Shqiptarja.com 327 79 4.14

Mapo 373 79 4.72

Datashowsthatfortheindicator“averagenumberofinternationalnewsarticlespernewspaperissue”aswell,thePanoramanewspaperis different compared to the three other newspapers, having anaverage about twice higher. Such an indicator shows that thisnewspaperreservesmorespacetointernationalnewscomparedtotheothermediaoutlets.Anapproximateestimateforinternationalnewsshowsthattheytakeupabouttwopagesinthenormal24-pageissueofthePanoramanewspaper.Intheotherthreenewspapers,thefigureis1upto1.5pagespernewspaperissue.

Another indicator of the level of appreciation that newspapernewsrooms show for international news is their presence on thefrontpagesofthenewspapers.Thisindicatorisimportantbecauseitreflectstheplacethatinternationalnewstakesintheagendaandhierarchyofthesemediaoutlets,theirimportanceandtheeditorialcare toward them.The following table showsdata related to thisindicator.


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Table no.8: Percentage of international news appearing on the front page

Media Outlets Total of articles

Number of articles beginning

on front page

% of articles on front page

Panorama 706 21 3%

Gazetashqiptare 370 23 6%

Shqiptarja.com 327 18 6%

Mapo 373 48 13%

Inthecaseofthisindicator,Panoramahasthelowestpercentageofinternationalnewsappearingonthefrontpage(3%),whileMapohasthehighestpercentage(113%),thusreflectingarelativelylargedifferencefromthefirst.

Onthisindicator,wemayalsodoakindofcomparisonwithwesternmedia.TheAJR-AmericanJournalismReviewresearchmentionedearlierprovidessomedatathatmayserveassomekindofabasisforcomparison.Thus,inthemainAmericannewspapers,thepercentageofinternationalnewsappearingonthefrontpagechangedfrom9percentin1985to6%in2010.ForthemainAlbaniannewspapers,this average is about 7%, very close to the average ofAmericanmedia and even a bit higher, especially considering that data forAlbaniannewspapersbelongto2016.

3.2. International news of the day in the Albanian press

Asitisalsothemainfocusofthisresearchstudy,amoredetailedspecific analysis has been provided for international news of theday.Asastart,wewilllookattheratiobetweenthethreecategoriesofthisnewsmentionedabove:1.Foreignnewsathome,2.Homenewsabroad,and3.Foreignnewsabroad.


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The ration between Foreign news at home / Home news abroad / Foreign news abroad.

This categorization is very useful for seeing more clearly whatthe priorities of the Albanian media are when it comes to theinternational news of the day. Howmuch place do internationalnewsabouteventstakingplaceabroad(foreignnewsabroad)takeup?Whataboutnewsabouteventstakingplaceabroadbutinvolvingdomestic characters or players (homenews abroad)?What aboutinternationalnewsabouteventstakingplaceinthecountry(foreignnewsathome)?

TheanalysisoftheratiobetweenthesecategorieshelpsusseetowhatextentAlbanianmediaareaffectedbythelocalelementininternationalreportingandhowmuchtheyareinclinedtoreportsimplyinternationaleventsthathavetodowithlocalfactorsorinterests.

Theprocessingofthemonitoringdataprovidesthefollowingdatathatoffersomekindofresponsetotheseresearchquestionsthatwehaveraised.

Table no.9: International news of the day by category and the % of foreign news abroad

Media OutletsForeign news at home

Home news

abroad

Foreign news

abroadTotal

% Foreign

news abroad

Panorama 20 29 325 374 86.9%

Gazetashqiptare 8 27 182 217 83.9%

Shqiptarja.com 18 31 205 254 80.7%

Mapo 12 24 130 166 78.3%


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It isnotdifficult toobserveinthetableabovethat inspiteof thepresence of international news that involve domestic elements,newsofthecategory“Foreignnewsabroad”takeupthemostpartof international newsof theday.They takeup about 87%of thegeneralnumberofinternationalnewsofthedayatPanorama,about84%inGazetaShqiptare,about81%inShqiptarja.comandabout78%inMapo.Thisshows that the localelement in thepresshasa relatively small impact on the general number of internationalstories.

Theratiobetweenthethreecategoriesofinternationalnewsofthedayispresentedalsointhefollowinggraphic:

Graphic no. 8: Percentage of international news of the day by category

Among the stories of the category “Foreign news at home,” onenoticesnewsstoriesabouteventssuchastheNATOSummitinTirana,themeetingoftheforeignministerialinDurrës,visitsbyheadsofotherstatesorseniorEUofficialsinAlbania,etc.Meanwhile,thecategory“Homenewsabroad”featuresstoriessuchasthevisitoftheAlbanianPM,theSpeakerofParliamentandtheoppositionleaderin theU.S.aswellasothervisitsofnational leadersabroad.Yet,aconsiderablenumberofstoriesofthiscategoryrefertocriminal


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activities by Albanians who have committed criminal activitiesindifferentcountries,etc.Also, thecategoryalso includesnewsstoriesaboutconcertsbyAlbanianartistsintheworld,suchastheconcertsbysopranosErmonelaJahoinLondonandInvaMulainBelgrade,newsaboutsuccessstoriesofAlbaniansabroad,etc.

Sources of international news of the day

In the course of the empirical research undertaken for thisresearch, we gave importance also to highlighting the sourcesused byAlbanianmedia outlets in international reporting. Firstofall, it shouldbesaid that innot justAlbanianmediabutalsoin worldmedia, the number of international news produced bythepersonnelofthosemediaoutletsthemselvesisrelativelylow.Thus,accordingtoAJR,intheeightmainAmericannewspapersin 2010, thepercentageof international stories producedby thepersonnelofthoseoutletsthemselvesreached4%from15%thatithadbeenin1985.

In the case ofmonitoredAlbanian newspapers, there is no dataregarding the percentage of authentic news stories producedby the personnel of thosemedia outlets. In almost one hundredpercentofthecasesinallfournewspapers,thenameofthestory’swriter is not displayed.Themain reason for this is that for themostpart,internationalstoriesarejustadaptationsortranslationsof storiespublished inworldmedia,oftenwithoutevenquotingthesemedia.Nevertheless, therearealsostories thatmentionorquotethesourceofinformation.Thenumberorpercentagetakenupbythesestoriesinthegeneraltotalofthenewsofthedayarepresentedinthefollowingtable:


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Table no.10: Number of stories that quote a source and their percentage

Media Outlet Total of news of the day

No. of articles that quote a

source

% of articles that quote a

source

Panorama 374 106 28%

Gazeta shqiptare 217 55 25%

Shqiptarja.com 254 44 17%

Mapo 166 37 22%

Also, the followinggraphic presents a viewof the ratio betweenstorieswithouta sourceand thosewitha source foreverymediaoutlet:

Graphic no. 9: The ratio “sourced stories” / “unsourced stories”

On an approximate average, only one fourth of the internationalnews stories published in themonitored four newspapers containorquoteatleastonesourceintheircontent.ThisspeakstothehighpresenceofthephenomenonthatSoniaMikichcalls“theworldintheeasiestway”(Mikich,2010),orthatArtanFugaterms“reportingtheworldfromthedoorstep”(Fuga,2015).Addingtothesetheother


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factofthelackofauthorship,wemayreachtheconclusionthattheoriginalcontentofinternationalnewsintheAlbanianmediaisverysmalloralmost inexistent,whichraisesquestionmarksregardingtheauthenticityandaccuracyofthesestoriesaswellasrespectforcopyright.

Ratio between long stories and short stories

Themonitoringalsoprovidesdataaboutthevariableof“lengthofstories”publishedineachofthemediaoutlets.Forthisvariable,weusedthecategoriesof“longstory”and“shortstory”inthisresearchstudy,consideringshortanystorythatisupto100wordsandalongone any story that ismore than 100words. In some cases, shortstoriesareclassifiedalsobythemediaoutletsthemselves,placingthemunderthesection“brieflyfromtheworld.”

Asmaybeseeninthetablebelow,intwoofthenewspapers,namelyGazetaShqiptareandShqiptarja.com,longstoriestakeupalmosthalfoftheinternationalstoriesoftheday.Intheothertwonewspapers,therearetwodifferentsights.AtPanorama,shortstoriesdominateandtakeupabouttwothirds(66%)ofthegeneralnumberofnews;atMapo,longstoriesprevailandtakeupaboutthreefourths(75%)ofthegeneralnumberofinternationalstoriesoftheday.

Table no.11: Number of short stories and long stories

Media Outlet Short story Long story Total % of long

stories

Panorama 246 128 374 34%

Gazetashqiptare 112 105 217 48%

Shqiptarja.com 132 123 255 48%

Mapo 42 124 166 75%


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Graphic no. 10: Percentage of short stories and long stories

Geographical mapping of international stories of the day

The geography of international stories in the four monitorednewspapers in the context of this research study differs fromonemediaoutlettotheother.Intermsofquantity,thePanoramanewspaperistheonethatcoveredthegreatestnumberofcountriesin threemonths of its international reporting,with 50 countriescovered.Then comes Shqiptarja.comwith 37 countries, next isMapo newspaper with 31 countries and last Gazeta Shqiptarewith28countries.ForthePanoramanewspaper,themostcoveredcountry,i.e.theonewiththemostnumberofstories,istheUnitedStates with 56 stories. For Gazeta Shqiptare, the most coveredcountryisBelgiumwith25stories.InthecaseofShqiptarja.com,themost frequently covered country is Kosovo with 32 storiesandforMaponewspaper,themostcoveredisMacedoniawith15stories.


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Table no. 12: Number of countries covered and countries with the greatest coverage

Media Outlet Total of covered

countries

Most covered country

No of stories – most covered

country

Panorama 50 U.S. 56

Gazeta shqiptare 28 Belgium 25

Shqiptarja.com 37 Kosovo 32

Mapo 31 Macedonia 15

World experience with international media reporting featuresseveral approaches that prevailed from one country to anotherand from onemedia outlet to another.One of themost appliedapproaches in international reporting, which has spread evenfurtherinrecenttimesalsobecauseoftheeconomiccrisisisthatof“nearestarea”(Russ-Mohl,2010:203).Thisapproachimpliesthe prevalence of news coming from or related to the nearestcountriesininternationalreporting.InthecaseofthemonitoredAlbanian newspapers, this typology might include newspapersShqiptarja.comandMapo,forwhichthemostcoveredcountriesare also the ones that are nearest geographically, speaking:KosovoandMacedonia.Asidefromgeographicalproximity, theproximityinoriginhasalsoplayedarole,withabout30percentofthepopulationinMacedoniabeingAlbanianandinthecaseofKosovo95%.

Insomeworldmedia,therehasalsobeennoticedtheapproachofthe“nextdoorgiant,”whichimpliestheprevalenceofnewsfrom


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theclosestbiggestcountry,as isfor instanceGermanyforsomeSwissmediaoutlets(Russ-Mohl,2010:204).Ifsuchanapproachwere to be applied inAlbanian media, news from Italy wouldprevailasthe“nextdoorgiant”ofAlbania.However,thisisnotverified,atleastnotinthepracticeoftheAlbanianmediaoutletsthatweremonitored.Tothecontrary,inoneofthemediaoutlets,namelyPanorama,“thegiant”isnotageographicalneighbor,butaremotecountrysuchastheU.S.InthecaseofGazetaShqiptare,the largest or most covered country is not determined by anygeographicproximity, but by thehighest profile events, such astheterroristattacksinBrussels.

This means that geographic proximity does not determine thefrequency of coverage in every case.Nevertheless, the “nearestarea approach” is considerably applied in the four monitorednewspapers.ThisisprovenbythefactthatneighboringcountriessuchasKosovo,Macedonia,Turkey,SerbiaorGreeceareonthelistofthemostcoveredcountries.

Inordertohaveamorecompleteideawithregardtothegeographicspread of international news in each media outlet, below is alist of countries covered by eachmedia outlet, accompanied byacorrespondingmap.Asmaybeseenin themapping,Albanianmediamostlycoverthenearestareaanditmayhappenthatentirecontinents, such asAfrica, SouthAmerica, orAsia, are almostuncoveredforthreeconsecutivemonths.


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PanoramaNewspaper

Total of covered countries:50countries

List of covered countries: Italy,Germany,France,GreatBritain,Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Austria, the Vatican, U.S., Canada,Kosovo,Macedonia,Montenegro,Serbia,Turkey,Greece,Bosnia,Russia,Ukraine,Georgia,Poland,China,Vietnam,Taiwan,India,SriLanka,NorthKorea,Japan,Indonesia,SouthKorea,Bangladesh,Pakistan,Iran,Israel,Iraq,Libya,Syria,Afghanistan,Egypt,Kenya,SouthAfrica,Tunisia,Somalia,IvoryCoast,Cuba,Brasil,Ecuador,Argentina.

Map of countries covered by the Panorama newspaper


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GazetaShqiptare

Total of covered countries: 28countries

List of covered countries: Italy,Germany,France,GreatBritain,Belgium, Denmark,Austria, Vatican, Netherlands, Iceland, U.S.,Canada,Kosovo,Macedonia,Montenegro,Serbia,Turkey,Greece,Russia,Ukraine,Japan,Pakistan,Iraq,Syria,Israel,Egypt,Cuba,Panama.

Map of countries covered by Gazeta Shqiptare


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Shqiptarja.com

Total of covered countries: 37countries

List of covered countries: Italy,Germany,France,GreatBritain,Belgium, Norway, Austria, Vatican, Switzerland, Netherlands,Sweden, U.S., Kosovo,Macedonia,Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey,Greece,Croatia,Romania,Russia,Ukraine,China,Vietnam,SouthKorea, Japan, Iraq, Syria,Afghanistan, Egypt, Tunisia, Somalia,Cuba,Brasil,Columbia,Mexico,Panama.

Map of countries covered by Shqiptarja.com newspaper


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GazetaMapo


List of covered countries: Italy,Germany,France,Britain,Belgium,Spain,Denmark,Vatican,Latvia,Portugal,Iceland,Sweden,U.S.,Kosovo,Macedonia,Montenegro,Serbia,Turkey,Greece,Bosnia,Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Poland,China,Egypt,Cuba.

Map of countries covered by Mapo newspaper

However,besidesnewsidentifiedwithacertaincountry,asnotedabove, thereisalsoagroupofnewsthatdonotrelatetoasinglecountryandthatwecalled in thisresearchstudyas transnational news.Typicalcasesamongthiskindofnewsispartofthosereportingonthe“PanamaPapers”scandal,somestoriesabout internationaldrugtrafficking,aswasthecaseoftheso-called‘AlbanianEscobar,’etc.Thefollowingtablepresentsthenumberoftransnationalstoriesforeachofthemonitorednewspapers:


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Table no.13: Number of transnational stories for each of the monitored newspapers

After looking at the geographic spread of international newsin thecountry’s fourmainnewspapers, letus lookat themaineventsthatdominatedinternationalreportinginthesenewspapersduringMarch1untilMay31,2016.

Events dominating international reporting

TheagendaoftheAlbanianmediaanditsprioritiesininternationalreporting reflect the interests, ties as well as the geopoliticalstrategyofthecountry.Aftertheemergencefromthehalf-centurycommunist isolation, Albania adopted the liberal-democraticsystem and, through a long process full of challenges, it isbecomingpartofthewesternEuropeanandEuro-Atlanticspaceand institutions.AfterNATOmembership, themost importantchallengeforthecountryisthefulfillmentofstandardsrequiredtobecomealsoanEUmember.Inasurveyconductedin2015,91percentofAlbanianswouldvote‘infavor’ofEUmembership.5 Meanwhile,Albania andAlbanians arementioned by differentauthorsforahighlypro-Americanspirit.

5. Human Development Report – Albania 2016, UNDP,Tirana,2016,p.77

Media Outlet Number of Transnational Stories

Panorama 35

Gazetashqiptare 41

Shqiptarja.com 34

Mapo 44


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Theprioritiesof themedia’sagendaininternationalreportingarealongthesamelineswith theprocessof thecountry’s integrationinto the Euro-Atlantic space aswell as the collective conscienceofAlbaniansthatAlbaniaisaEuropeancountryandthatits‘fate’iscloselylinkedwithdevelopmentsinEuropeandintheWesternHemisphere.Thismay be seen in the following list and rankingof events that dominated international reporting in the country’sfourmainnewspapers,shownbythemonitoringcarriedoutinthecontextofthisresearch.

Table no. 14: Ranking of events that dominated the 4 main newspapers

No. Dominating events Total of stories

1 ElectionsandotherdevelopmentsintheU.S. 99

2 TerroristactsinBelgium 93

3 DevelopmentsinKosovo 89

4 ISIS,terrorismandthefightagainstit 77

5 Emigrantandasylum-seekercrisis 76

6 DevelopmentsinTurkey 60

7 DevelopmentsinGreece 58

8 DevelopmentsinMacedonia 43

9 The“PanamaPapers”issue 40

10 DevelopmentsinSerbia 22

Asmaybeseen,thedevelopmentsintheUnitedStatesareatthetopofdominatingevents,amongwhichthepresidentialelectionsstandout inparticular.Apparently, in theAlbaniancase, thepracticeoffollowingthe“nextdoorgiant”wasnotpursued;instead,itseemstohavebeenthatoffollowingthe“giantfriend.”Nevertheless, itshouldbesaidthatthegreatnumberofstoriesaboutthepresidential


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campaigninthatcountry,forwhichtherehastraditionallybeenspecial attention, has been decisive in that regard. If we putaside the articles related to this campaign, stories about otherdevelopmentsendupbeingonethirdofthetotalofstoriesfromandabouttheUnitedStates.

Second in the ranking come stories that have to do with theterroristattacksinBelgium.AllfourmainAlbaniannewspapersfollowedtheseeventswithmaximalintensity,responsibilityandseriousnessanddevoted relatively largespace to them.Duringthe monitoring period, there were terrorist acts also in othercountries of the Middle East. However, for these events, thereportingspacewassmaller.Basedonthisfact,certainauthorshavearticulatedeventhesesofdoublestandardsappliedbytheAlbanianmedia,whichinfactdoesnotstand,becauseinthecaseofBrussels,wearedealingwitheventsthataremuchclosertous.Andwearenottalkingjustaboutgeographicproximity,butalsoaboutsystemic,culturalproximityaswellasproximityofacommonperspective.ThefutureofAlbaniapassesonthepathtowardBrusselsandnotintheoppositedirection.FeelingpartoftheEuropeanspace,itisonlynaturalthatthemediadevotemuchmorespacetoeventsthattakeplacepreciselyinthisarea.

In themonitorednewspapers,wefoundaconsiderablenumberof stories about events in our neighboring countries, such asKosovo, Turkey, Greece,Macedonia and Serbia, thus provingthethesisoftheprevalenceofthe“nearestarea”ininternationalreporting.We stressed also earlier that in the case of KosovoandMacedonia, beside geographic proximity, there is also theproximityofcommonorigin.Meanwhile,thepresenceofstoriesfrom Turkey also reflects Albania’s interest in this importantgeostrategic partner, which in certain contexts has been seen


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even as a “next door giant” ofAlbania, or some kind of “Bigbrother,”notinthesenseofthemetaphorofthetelevisionshow,butinthetraditionalAlbaniansenseaboutthepositionandroleofthebiggerbrother.

DevelopmentsthathavetodowiththefightagainstterrorismandISISappear tohavehadaplaceofpriorityforAlbanianmediain the above ranking.Albania has joined the front of the fightagainst terrorism, considering this a vital battle for the future.This appears to have been reflected also in the agenda of themedia.

Theother twogroupsof stories thathave todowith thecrisisofemigrantsandthe“PanamaPapers”reflecttheimportanceofsuch developments toAlbanian audiences and to the editorialpolicyoftheAlbanianpress.Theissueofemigrantsandasylum-seekersresonatesalsowithdevelopmentsinthecountryaswellaswithagrowing tendency for theemigrationofAlbanians inthepasttwoyearsbecauseoftheeconomiccrisisinthecountry.This situation has also increased sensibility to the crisis ofSyrianemigrants.WhilethePanamaPapersissueresonateswiththemajorproblems thatexist in thecountrywith regard to thephenomenonof“dirtymoney”and itsdissolution intodubiousinvestmentsacrossthecountry.

Presence of commentary on international developments

In a situation in which the latest news is becoming more of anexclusivityofonlinemedia,formanyauthorsenvisageatendencytowardanalyticalreportsandcommentariesforthepress.However,this tendency is not verified in any considerable extent in themonitoredAlbaniannewspapers.Thenumberofeditorials,columns,


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opinions,etc.,hasbeenrelativelysmallandaconsiderablepartofthemhavebeentranslatedfromforeignmedia.Withregardtothissituation,researcherArtanFugawrites:

“Someonewillsay,well,hereyouare,wehavenewsfromtheworld,butinfactweonlyhavethefoam,theirsurfaceandnothingmore,theirspectacularaspects,butnotanyprofoundandcontinuedreportingand,aboveall,withoutdevelopingthispresentationofinternationalcurrentaffairsinallgenresofjournalism,suchasinforums,analyses,commentaries,interviews,reportagesbyspecialenvoys,etc.”(Fuga,2015)

Themonitoring thatwe conducted shows the following situationwith regard to the presence of articles belonging to the genre ofcommentaries,whichverifiestheaboveobservationsandevaluations(seetablebelow):

Table no.15: Number of commentaries by media and authors

Media Outlet Number of commentaries

Foreign author Albanian author

Panorama 37 15 22

Gazetashqiptare 33 7 26

Shqiptarja.com 0 0 0

Mapo 44 24 20

Thus, thenumberofcommentaries is relativelysmallandalso,agoodpartofthem,aretranslationsofpiecesbyforeignauthors.Infact,inthecaseofShqiptarja.com,inthreemonths,therewasnone


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such.Even the number of analysts of international developmentshasbeenincreasinglydiminishing,makingthevoidinAlbanianmediainthisregardevenmorevisible.Meanwhile,theAlbaniandiplomatic corps, aside from some very rare interviews orlive feeds into television, provides no serious contribution inthe media for the analysis of different international events ordevelopments.

Besidestheaspectsanalyzedabove,itwouldalsobeofinterestto look at the ratio that soft news from theworld take up, buttheywerenotpart of themonitoring.Nevertheless, the surveyof 30 reporters provides a piece of informationwith regard tothisaspect.Thus,tothequestionwhatkindofstoriesprevailintheoverallnumberofinternationalstories,13oftherespondentssaidthatsoftnewsprevail.ThisshowsthattheAlbanianmediahavenotescapedthe“trend”ofanincreasedpresenceof“low-calorie news lemonade” asMikich calls this category of news(Mikich,2001).

Ontheotherhand,Albanianmediahavenotbeenabletoescapeakindofwidespreadtypologyofinternationalreportingbasedonthefourkeywords“war/illness/criminality/disaster,”asMikichobserves fora largenumberofwesternmediaoutlets (Mikich,2001). News stories out of this typology are rare even in themonitoredAlbaniannewspapers,thusprovidingthesituationoftheprevalenceoftheworld’sdarkordramaticsidebutleavingaside a large number of stories about events that produceoptimismandamorepositiveperspective.


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4. International news on television

Themonitoringfocusedontelevisionmediaoutletsinthisresearchwassomewhatmorelimitedthantheoneofthepress.Thus,inthetwonationaltelevisionstationsTopChannelTVandKlanTV,wemonitoredonlytenprimetimenewseditionsforeachmediaoutletontenrandomdaysduringtheperiodMarch1,2016untilMay31,2016.Forthatreasonandbecauseofthedifferencesandspecificsof televisionoutlets as compared to thepress, it is impossible tocarry out an extensive comparison between them. Nevertheless,apartial comparison,on those termswhere it ispossible,willbeundertakeninthisresearchstudytoo.Meanwhile,therewillalsobeacomparisonbetweenthetwotelevisionstationsthemselves.

The dates of themonitored news editions are different from oneanother.TheonlydatethatisthesameforbothisMarch22anditwasselectedbecause the terroristacts inBrussels tookplace thatmorning.Wedecidedtomonitorbothtelevisionstationsinthesamedayinordertolookatthespecificsanddifferencesbetweenthemwhencoveringaneventofsuchascale.

Theultimateobjectofthemonitoringincludedinternationalstoriesof themainnewscastof7:30p.m. inbothmediaoutlets.Fromaquantitativepointofview,weconductedameasurementofthelengthofeachstoryandhighlightedotherdataregardingthecategoryofnews,thelocationwhereittookplace,thetopic,etc.

International news on Top Channel

TheconductedmonitoringprovesthatthespacethatinternationalnewsstoriestakeuponTopChanneltelevisionisconsiderable.Thedataforthistelevisionstationispresentedbelow:


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Table no.16: Length of international news on Top Channel

No Date of news program

Total length (minutes: seconds)

Length of international news (minutes :

seconds)

1 March7,2016 33:24 2:42

2 March16,2016 31:04 5:07

3 March22,2016 32:40 22:51

4 March30,2016 31:02 14:56

5 April8,2016 33:41 14:15

6 April15,2016 30:50 13:38

7 April27,2016 30:44 10:13

8 May3,2016 30:54 9:36

9 May14,2016 24:44 8:04

10 May25,2016 33:38 8:04

TOTAL 312 : 41 109:26

Asmaybeseen,internationalnewsstoriesonTopChanneltelevisiontakeupon average about one thirdof the total timeof thenewsprograms.Thus,of312minutesand41secondsofthetotallengthofthetennewsprograms,109minutesand26secondsbelongedtointernationalnewsstories.

However, understandably, the ratio between international newsandclearlydomesticnews isdifferent fromoneday to theother,dependingon the intensityandsignificanceof thedomesticnewsandthenumberofhighprofileeventsfromtheworld.Thus,whentherewerehigh-profileeventsinthecountry,suchasforinstanceonMarch 7 and 16, international news took up less space.On aday when there were high-profile international news, as was for


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instanceMarch22,thetimelengthofinternationalnewswasabouttwothirdsofthegenerallengthofthenewscast.

In looking for the reasons for this considerable prevalence ofinternational news stories,we verified data such as the coveragein newscasts of numerousmeetingsor visits byAlbanian leadersabroad or many other stories of categories containing a localelement,suchasthecategories“foreignnewsathome”and“homenewsabroad.”Thedataandratioofthesetwocategoriesofnewsvis-à-visthecategory“foreignnewsabroad,”presentedinthetablebelow,provesthissituation.

Table no.17: Total length of international news of the day by category on Top Channel television

Media OutletForeign news at home

Home news

abroad

Foreign news

abroadTotal % e Foreign

news abroad

Top Channel 20:05 42:59 46:22 109:26 42.3%

Inordertocreateanideaaboutthepresenceofinternationalnewswithalocalelement,itshouldsufficetotakealookattheeventsthatwerereported,suchasforinstance:thecaseoftheso-called“AlbanianEscobar” or other instances of international drug trafficking thatinvolvedAlbanians, the visit of Speaker of Parliament IlirMeta,ofPMEdiRamaandoppositionleaderLulzimBashatotheUnitedStates,thedecreeforthemartyrizationoftheclericsoftheCatholicChurchsignedbythePope,thevisitofPresidentBujarNishanitotheCoE,theministerialofWesternBalkansForeignMinisters,theinternational meeting inAlbania of representatives of the worldchromeindustry,anEUreportonAlbania,theechooftheAlbanianPM’sstatementsaboutDonaldTrump in theU.S., theWBreportonAlbania,anAlbanianballetperformance inBelgrade, thevisit


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ofCommissionerJohannesHahntoTirana,thevisitofProsecutorGeneralAdriatikLlallatotheU.S.,theconcertbyErmonelaJahoinLondon,theNATOParliamentaryAssemblymeetinginTiranaandmanyothers.

This considerable presence of international news with a localelement speaks to an agenda that is considerably influenced bythiselement.Thiscategory includesparticularlyplentyof reportsinvolvingAlbanianpoliticalleaders,whichalsoreflectsalevelofpoliticizationoftheagendaoftheAlbanianmediaand,atthesametime,theincreasedmediatizationofpolitics,whichseeksandusesoftenparticularlythetelevisionmediaoutletsforitspublicrelations.

Intermsofthegeographyofinternationalnewsstories,TopChannelTVcoveredduringthesetennewseditionsatotalof12countries,namelyGreece,Italy,theUnitedStates,Kosovo,Macedonia,Italy,Austria,Vatican,Croatia,SwitzerlandandSerbia,aswellaseventsinvolving several international institutions, such as NATO, theEU,andUEFA.Asmaybeseen,internationalreportingoftenwaslocalizedinthe“nearestareas”andintheEuro-Atlanticspace,thusdisplayinganevidentabsenceofnewsstoriesfromotherpartsoftheworld.

International news stories on Klan TV

The monitoring indicates that the time that international newsstoriestakeuponKlanTVaswellisquiteconsiderable.SimilarlywithTopChannel,theytakeupaboutonethirdofthegeneraltimeofthenewseditions.Thus,of295minutesand51secondsinthemonitoredtennewsprograms,96minutesand43secondsbelongtostoriesfrominternationalreporting.Moredetaileddataisprovidedinthetablebelow:


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Table no. 18: Length of international news stories on Klan TV

No Date of newscasts

Total length (minutes : seconds)

Length of international news stories

(minutes : seconds)

1 March5,2016 29:24 9:42

2 March13,2016 30:20 12:51

3 March22,2016 30:49 16:17

4 April12,2016 31:03 12:53

5 April18,2016 25:16 5:31

6 April24,2016 30:15 10:14

7 May6,2016 31:07 8:21

8 May10,2016 30:35 5:01

9 May19,2016 30:46 8:35

10 May30,2016 26:16 7:18

TOTAL 295 : 51 96:43

JustasinthecaseofTopChannelTV,theratiobetweeninternationalnewsstoriesandclearlydomesticstoriesonKlanTVisdifferentfromoneday to theother.OnthisTVchannel too, in thosedayswhentherearehigh-profileinternationalstories,asweretheterroristactsinBrusselsonMarch22,internationalnewsstoriestakeuparelativelylongtimeand,inthisconcretecase,morethanhalfofthetotaltimeofthenewsedition.

Thereisasimilaritybetweenthetwomonitoredtelevisionstationsalsointermsoftheratiobetweeninternationalstorieswithalocalelementandstoriesofthecategory“foreignnewsabroad”intermsofthetimetheytakeup.Asmaybeseeninthetablebelow,thenewscategoryof“foreignnewsabroad”takesup48.6%ofthetotaltime


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ofinternationalstories,whichisveryclosetothe42.3%figurethatthey tookuponTopChannelTV.Nevertheless, there isacertaindifferenceanditisinfavorofKlanTV.

Table no. 19: Length of international news of the day by category on Klan TV

Media Outlet

Foreign news at home

Home news

abroad

Foreign news

abroadTotal % e Foreign

news abroad

Klan TV 14:32 35:10 47:01 96:43 48.6%

However,ifwecomparetheaveragepercentagetakenupby“foreignnews abroad” on television to the average in the print press,wenotice that there is a largedifferencebetween these two typesofmedia.Formthelevelof82.45%thatthisaveragewasinthefourmainnewspapers,inthecaseofthetwomaintelevisionstations,itonlygoesupto45.45%.Thereasons?Theymaybeseveral.Butwethinkthatthemostimportantisthegreaterpresenceofinternationalnewswith a local element due to themore politicized agendaoftelevisionstationsandtheirbeingmoreopentopublicrelationsbythemaininstitutionsofthestateandpolitics.Anotherreasonmaybe the greater presence on television (especially onKlanTV) ofeventsthathavetodowithcriminalactivitiesabroadthatinvolveAlbanians.

AmongthenewsonKlanTVwithalocalelementwemaypointtothestoriesthatreportoneventssuchas:criminaleventsandthoseofinternationaldrugtraffickingthatinvolveAlbanians,theoustingfromItalyofanAlbanianlinkedwithISIS,thesuccessesorfailuresrelated toAlbanian sportsmen abroad, the oncoming of refugeestotheborderwithAlbania,thevisitofPresidentBujarNishanitoStrasbourg, the IMFreporton theAlbanianeconomy, thevisitof


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PMEdiRamatotheUnitedStates,thevisitoftheAlbanianDeputyPMto theUnitedNations, thevisitofPresidentBujarNishani toCroatia,thefightbetweenAlbanianandEnglishinmatesinaprisoninEngland,thestatementsoftheItalianpolicechiefabouttheso-called“wiretappingissue,”etc.

Thiscategoryincludesinarelativelylargenumberandwithalmostdaily frequency especially stories that are related to criminalactivitiesbyAlbaniansintheworld.IthasbeenobservedthatthenewsroomofKlanTVreservesunusualfollow-upandcoveragetothis category aswell as to stories that have to dowithAlbaniansportsmenaroundtheworld.

Withregardtothegeographyofcoverage,itisbroaderthanthatoftheothertelevisionstation,TopChannel.ThetenmonitorednewsprogramsofKlanTVcoveredatotalof21countriesand,besides,someofthesewerestoriesaboutinternationalinstitutions,suchastheEU,NATO,FIFA,CoE,IMFandtheUN.Thelistofcountriescovered by Klan TV includes Italy, Turkey, Greece, the UnitedStates,Spain,Thailand,Switzerland,Germany,Austria, theGreatBritain,theVatican,Romania,Belgium,France,Kosovo,Bulgaria,Macedonia, Serbia, Brasil, Croatia and Poland. Thus, the totalnumberofcountriescoveredbyKlanTVisabouttwiceasbigasthatofTopChanneltelevision.Thegeographyofthenewsisalsomoreextensiveasnewseditionsincludestoriesevenfromremotecountries suchasThailandorBrasil.TheKlanTV’snews rubric“Brieflyfromtheworld”playsarolehereasitusuallyincludes5-6newsstoriesinabout2minutes.

Withregardtopriorities,KlanTVtooisfocusedonreachingmainlythe“nearestareas” in termsofageographic,culturalor systemicproximity.


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Reports on the March 22 terrorist acts in Brussels

As was noted earlier above, in the case of the terrorist acts inBrussels, we monitored the news programs of both televisionstations–TopChannelTVandKlanTV–onthesameday.Itshouldbeemphasizedthatnewsstoriesaboutthiseventcamefirstinthenewscastsofbothtelevisionstations.TheprimetimenewsprogramofMarch22onTopChannellastedforatotalof32minutesand40seconds,ofwhich21minutesand3seconds,i.e.about64%ofthetimewasdevotedtothereportsontheeventsinBrussels.ThenewseditiononKlanTV lasted for30minutesand49 secondsandofthese,13minutesand47seconds,i.e.about45%,weredevotedtotheeventsinBrussels.

Thissituationispresentedgraphicallybelow:

Graphic no.11: Percentage of time taken up on the day of the events in Brussels

Asmaybeseen,TopChannel,comparedtoKlanTV,devotedmoretimetoreportingabouttheterroristattacksthathadtakenplaceinBrussels.


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Inorder toanalyze the stepsandcontextof the reportingon thisevent,letuslookseparatelyattheframeworkofthereportinganditselementsforeachofthetwomediaoutlets:

Top Channel StoryontheeventandlivereportfromcorrespondentinBrussels ________________________7:33

Reactionsbyworldleaderstotheterroristattacks __________________________________2:36

SecurityatRinasAirport.Tirana-Brusselsflightcancelled ________________________5:27

Albaniaandterrorism.Securitysituationinthecountry ______________________ 3:28

EchoandsecuritymeasuresinKosovo _________________________________________0:55

TestimonyfromBrussels.“Live”feedofAlbaniancitizenthere ___________________1:44


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Klan TV

ReportoneventandlivereportfromcorrespondentinBrussels _______________________ 7:15

Albaniaandterrorism.Securitysituationinthecountry _______________________3:05

Reactionsbyworldleaderstotheterroristattacks ________________________________1:40

ReactionsbyAlbanianleaderstotheterroristattacks _______________________________ 1:47

From a general view, both these media outlets have a similarstructureofthereportingframeworkforthisevent.Asmaybeseen,bothTVstationsstartoffwiththeintroducingreportontheeventandprovidedalmostthesametimetothestory(TopChannelTVdevoted7minutesand33secondsandKlanTVdevoted7minutesand15seconds).Duringthenewscast,bothTVstationsused live feedswiththeircorrespondentsinBrussels.Meanwhile,asidefromthereportontheevent,bothmediaoutletsdevotedasimilarnumberofminutestothereactionsbyworldleadersaswellastothesecuritysituationinAlbania.

Asidefromthesimilarities,thefollowingdifferencesstandout:

-TopChannel devoted a longer time and broader context to thetopicofsecurityinAlbaniaincorrelationwiththeterroristactsin


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Brussels;italsodevotedaseparatestorytotheechooftheeventandthesecuritysituationinKosovo.

-KlanTVdevotedseparatestorytothereactionsbyAlbanianleaders

-TopChanneldevotedseparatestorytothesituationandreactionofAlbaniancitizensinBelgiumand,tothateffect,itofferedalive feed withanAlbaniancitizenwholivedinBrussels.

Boththeconnectionmadeandthereportingbybothmediaoutletstothesecuritysituationinthecountrymaybeconsideredanappropriateelement to the structure of reporting on the event. Meanwhile, thedifferencesconsistinthescopeofthebackgroundandcontextoftheevent.

As a conclusion,wemay say that bothmedia outlets devoted theproperinterestandtimetotheevent.Theybuiltarelativelycompleteagendaofthereportingontheevent.Also,thereportingincludeslivefeeds,whichprovidefootagefromthesiteoftheevent,asidefromfootageobtainedfromforeigntelevisionstations.

5. International news on the web

The selected online media outlet,Albeu.com, is a genuine onlinenewsportal.Thisonlinemediaoutletwasmonitoredforaone-monthperiod,fromMay1,2016untilMay31,2016.

Albeu.com is one of the best-known online media outlets in thecountry.ItwasfoundedonJuly4,20036andispartofthecategoryofonlinemediathatarelabeled“digitalnative,”i.e.thatwerebornontheweb.ThepublisherofthisportalisIdaverSherifi,oneofthe

6. Online media in Albania, AMI,Tirana,2014


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pioneersandvisionaryandsuccessfulfoundersofonlinemediaintheAlbanianlanguage.

The portal has been constructed in such a way as to serve at thesame timeas anewsportal forAlbania,Kosovoand theAlbanianpopulationinMacedonia.Therefore,itsthreemajorsub-divisionsarelabeledAlbania,KosovoandMacedonia.Newsfromtherestoftheworldfallunderthecategory“World.”

Basedonthemonitoringconductedfortheneedsofthisresearchstudy,itresultsthatAlbeu.comisanewswebsitethatdevotedconsiderablespacetointernationalnews.Intheconceptofitsstructure,itisnotconfinedwithinthegeographicboundariesofAlbania,butwithintheAlbanian-speakingspaceoftheBalkans.Therefore,aswenoted,aseparatespacehasbeendevotedtonewsfromKosovoandfromMacedonia,andthisspaceisconsiderable.Nevertheless,followingthesamemethodologyasfortheothermediaoutlets, inthisresearchwewillclassifynewsfromKosovoandthosefromMacedoniainthisportalasinternationalnews,giventhatthestudyisgeographicallylocalizedinAlbania.

ThefirstobservationwemadeaftermovingfromthemonitoringofnewsinnewspapersandintelevisionstothemonitoringonAlbeu.comisthatonlinemediatodayhavedefinitelytakenovertheexclusivityofnews.Yearafteryear,newsisincreasinglymigratingovertowardthewebinAlbaniatoo.Theedgeappearsinseveralaspects:bothinquantitativetermsandintermsofgeographicreach,nottomentionthespecificadvantagesoftheweb,suchasthespeedofconveyingthenews,theinteractivity,themultimediality,theinfinitespace,etc.

Withinthetimespanofonemonth,underthecategory“News–World”ofAlbeu.com,atotalof162newsstorieswerepublished;463newsstorieswerepublishedinthecategory“News–Kosovo”and 295 news stories were published in the “NewsMacedonia”


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category,withamonthlytotalofinternationalnewsof920stories.So,injustonemonth,Albeu.comhadpublishedabout23percentmore international news stories than had been published in threemonths in thecountry’sbest-sellingdailynewspaper,Panorama.Thedatamaybeseeninthefollowingtable:

Table no. 20: Number of international stories on Albeu.com for the month of May 2016

No. Category No. of stories

1 News–World 162

2 News–Kosovo 463

3 News–Macedonia 295

Total 920

Oneadvantageofonlinemediathatwehaveverifiedistheonerelatingto the geographic spread of international news. Thus, a total of 48countrieswerecoveredwithnewswithinonemonthonAlbeu.com,afigureapproximatetothenumberofcountriescoveredbythePanoramanewspaperinthreemonths.ThefollowinglistandmapprovidesthegeographicspreadofinternationalnewspublishedonAlbeu.com:


List of covered countries: Italy, Germany, France, Great Britain,Belgium,Sweden,Norway,Austria, theVatican, Switzerland,USA,Canada,Kosovo,Macedonia,Serbia,Turkey,Greece,Bosnia,Croatia,Slovenia,Russia,Ukraine,CzechRepublic,China,Vietnam,Taiwan,India, Sri Lanka, North Korea, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea,Bangladesh, Australia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Syria,Afghanistan,Yemen, Egypt, Nigeria, Tunisia,Algeria, Peru, Brasil,Ecuador.


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Map of countries covered by the news portal Albeu.com

Considering the fact that a very large number of articles have todowithdevelopments inKosovoand inMacedonia,wemaysaythatAlbeu.comclearlyappliesthe“nearestarea”approach,whichinthiscaseisnotjustgeographicproximitybuthasalsotheelementofcommonorigin.

LeavingasideKosovoandMacedonia, themost covered countryappearstobetheU.S.with31articlesinonemonth.Amongthesestories, more than half of them have to do with the presidentialelectioncampaigninthecountry,thusreflectingthesametendencyasthatintheprintortelevisionoutlets.

The events that dominate this media, also due to its profile, aredevelopmentsandeventsinKosovoandMacedonia.


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6. Conclusions

ThemonitoringandanalysisofthesituationofinternationalreportingintheAlbanianmediawastheprimaryfocusofthisresearchstudy.WevieweditsundertakingasindispensableespeciallybecausethelibraryofstudiesontheAlbanianmediahaslackedresearchdealingspecificallywithinternationalreporting.Meanwhile,animportantreasoninvolvedthedevelopmentsofthelastdecadeinthemedia,whichfeaturesadeclineinthenumberofinternationalnewsstoriesinthemainmediaoutlets,especiallyinprintandtelevisionaswellasashrinkingofthegeographyofcoverageofthesenewsstories.

Themainobjectoftheresearchstudyinvolvedinternationalnewsofthedayinthepress,televisionandweb,butthemonitoringalsoincluded internationalsportsnewsfromtheworld,asa relativelylargecomponentofinternationalnews.Inordertoavoidanysemanticconfusion,insteadoftermssuchas“externalnews”or“newsfromtheworld,”theresearchemploystheterm“internationalnews”andtheprocesshasbeentermed“internationalreporting.”

The study confirms that after the fall of communism and theestablishment of pluralistic democracy in the country, theconditionswerecreatedfortheemergenceanddevelopmentoffree,independentandpluralisticmedia.Thisledtoamultiplicationofthecapacitiesandspacealsoforinternationalreporting.Alargenumberofchannelsof internationalmedia informationexisted inAlbaniaduringthepast25yearsafterthefallofcommunism.

Nevertheless, during the last decade, due to the crisis in themedia and because of the emergence of new channels of onlineinformation, a decline has been noticed in international news in


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thepressandtelevision.Thesemediaoutletsdonothaveaspecialeditorialstructureforinternationalnewsanditismainlycoveredbythe news department or newsroom.Meanwhile, human resourcesforthisfieldhavebeenshrinkinginabout40%ofthemediaoutlets.

Becauseofeconomicdifficulties,Albanianmediaalsolackorhaveaverylimitednumberofcorrespondentsabroad.Thus,noneofthenewspapershascorrespondentsinothercountries.Fromtelevisionmedia, Top Channel TV has its own correspondents in Kosovo,Macedonia,Greece,Serbia,Italy,GreatBritainandBelgium.KlanTVandABCNewshaveacorrespondentinBrusselsandOraNewsTVhasacorrespondentinItaly.Oftheonlinemedia,Albeu.comhasits own correspondents inKosovo andMacedonia,whileBalkanInsighthascorrespondentsinallcountriesoftheBalkans.Thelackorlimitednumberofcorrespondentshasbeentothedetrimentoftheauthenticityandqualityofinternationalreporting.

Themonitoringandsurveyalsohighlightedproblemsof the lackofuniversityprofilization in theareaof international reportingaswellas inadequacyofcapacitiesfor trainingandspecializationinthisfield.

Furthermore,humanresourcesworkingon international reportingareatarelativelyyoungageandthisreflectsalowlevelofexperience.Mostofthesurveyedreportersofthisfield(83%)belongtotheagegroupof25to39yearsold.

Wecanalsoreachsomeconclusionswithregardtothetendenciesand standards of international news. Thus, the monitoring ofdailynewspapers,onenoticesthatthenewspaperwiththehighestcirculation of all (Panorama) also features a higher number andgreatercoverageofinternationalnewsstories.Likewise,Panoramaalso features the highest number of articles per issue, with an


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averageof7.67storiesperissue,afigurethatistwicebiggerthantheaverageoftheothernewspapers.

Meanwhile, the indicator of the presence of international newsstories on the front page ranks Panorama the last with only 3%of the stories and thefigure goes up to 13% in the case of dailynewspaperMapo.

Withregardtotheratiobetweencategoriesofinternationalnewsoftheday,theanalysisofcollecteddataindicatesthatcomparingtheaveragepercentagetakenby“foreignnewsabroad”ontelevisiontotheaverageinthepress,wenoticethatthereisamajordifferencebetweenthesetwotypesofmedia.From82.45%thattheaveragewasinthefourmaindailynewspapers,itonlyreaches45.45%inthecaseofthetwomaintelevisionstations.Thereasonshavetodowiththegreaterpresenceofinternationalnewswithalocalelementontelevisionbecauseofthemorepoliticizedagendaoftelevisionstationsandtheirbeingmoreopentopublicrelations’effortsbythemaininstitutionsofthestateandofpolitics.

With regard to sources of international news, in an approximateaverage,onlyonefourthoftheinternationalnewsstoriespublishedinthefourmonitorednewspaperscontainorquoteatleastonesourcefortheircontent.Meanwhile,inalmostonehundredpercentofthestoriespublished inall fournewspapers, thenameof thearticle’sauthorisnotused.Therefore,wemayreachtheconclusionthattheoriginal contentsof internationalnews inAlbanianmedia isveryscarceoralmost inexistent, something that raisesquestionsabouttheauthenticityandaccuracyofthesenewsstoriesaswellasaboutthelevelofrespectforcopyright.

With regard to thegeographyof the spreadof internationalnewsstories,againthebest-sellingnewspaperPanoramahasthehighest


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numberofcoveredcountries,atotalof50.Intermsofthetypologyofthespread,theapproachofthe“nearestarea”prevailsinShqiptarja.comandMapoasthetwocountriesmostcoveredintermsofthenumberofstoriesarethetwothatareclosestintermsofgeography:KosovoandMacedonia.Yet,the“nearestarea”approachalsoseesconsiderable application in the two othermonitored newspapers.Unlike many international media outlets, Albanian newspapersdo not feature the “next door giant” approach, whichmeans theprevalenceofstoriesfromtheclosestbiggestcountry.

With regard to events that dominated international reporting, theagenda of theAlbanian media and its priorities in internationalreporting reflect the interests, ties and geopolitical strategy ofthe country. At the top of events that dominate the agenda aredevelopments in the United States of America, led especiallyby events that are related to that country’s presidential electioncampaign. Apparently, the Albanian media does not apply thepractice of following the “next door giant” but rather that offollowingthe“giantfriend.”SecondintermsofrankingarenewsstoriesthathavetodowiththeterroristactsinBelgium.However,newsstoriesabouteventsinvolvingourneighborssuchasKosovo,Turkey,Greece,MacedoniaandSerbiaareinconsiderablenumbers,thusproving the thesisof theprevalenceof the “nearest area” ininternationalreportingintheAlbanianmedia.

Anotherproblemremainsthescarcenumberofcommentariesandofanalystsof internationaldevelopments,making thevoid in theinternationalreportingofAlbanianmediaoutletsevenmoreevident.

Referringto thelargepresenceofsoftstoriesfromtheworld,wemaysaythatAlbanianmediatoohavenotescapedthe‘trend’oftheincreasedpresenceof“low-calorienewslemonade”asMikichcallsthiscategoryofnews.


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Also,Albanianmediadidnotescapeanothertypologythatisquitewidespread in international reportingbasedon the fourkeywords“war/illness/criminality/disaster.”Newsoutofthistypologyarerare in themonitoredAlbanianmediaoutlets, thusbringing forththeprevalenceofthedarkordramaticsideoftheworld,andleavingasidequitealargenumberofnewsstoriesaboutthoseeventsthatgenerateoptimismandamorepositiveperspective.

Movingfromthemonitoringof internationalnewsinnewspapersandon television to themonitoringofnews in theonlinemedia,wefindthatpresentlyonlinemediainAlbaniahavedefinitelytakenover theexclusivityofnews ingeneralandof internationalnewsin particular. International news is increasinglymigrating towardtheweb inAlbanianmedia aswell.The advantagemay be seenin several aspects: both in quantitative terms and in geographicreach,not tomention thespecificadvantagesof theweb,suchasthespeedofconveyingthenews,theinteractivity,multimediality,theinfinitespace,etc.Inthecourseofonemonthalone,Albeu.comhad published about 23 percent more international news storiesthanwerepublishedinthecourseofthreemonthsinthecountry’sbest-selling newspaper, Panorama. During one month, a total of48countrieswerecoveredwithnews,afigurethat isclosetothenumber of countries covered by the Panorama newspaper in thecourseofthreemonths.


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