Question 2: What are the political influences?

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Examining the News

If you know in which country a news article was produced, you can consider some of the political limitations and influences that affect the production of news in that country.

Government control?

Perhaps the most basic form of political influence over the news is direct government control over the activities of journalists. There are many ways in which governments can limit the ability of journalists to freely report the news. They can:

control access to information created by government agencies or employees
harass or even attack journalists who print stories with which the government finds disfavor
require news organizations to register with the government so it can monitor or even censor journalistic activity
operate the news media themselves and attempt to control citizens' access to alternative sources of news
pass strict laws about libel or defamation, thus making it a crime to criticize those in power

Knowing about the press freedom in a particular country from which you're reading news is important. To take the most extreme example: If you know that the government in a country controls the only available news outlet, you will want to take this into consideration when you read an article from that official government news service. Free of outside scrutiny and with almost complete control over the dissemination of news in a particular country, such news services provide only the official government "spin" on an issue.

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How to find out

To learn about how the political, economic, and legal situation in a particular country can affect the news produced there, you can use these resources:

Index on Censorship is a publication which tracks limitations on free expression all over the world. The website has lots of information, but you can get even more information by connecting to Index on Censorship magazine through the UIUC Library. In the magazine you can find the "Index Index," which chronicles instances in which free expression has been curtailed in various countries.

Freedom House is an organization that conducts a comprehensive annual survey of press freedom around the world and makes it available on their website as an interactive map. Countries are given a rating of free, partially free, or not free, depending on how well Freedom House considers them to "permit the free flow of news and information." Be sure to read the explanation of why the country in question was placed into each category, because there is a lot of variation within each category.

Press freedom is not an either-or situation.

Every country falls somewhere in-between total freedom of the press and total government control.