News agency: function, history, and role in modern media

The historian Volker Barth, lecturer at the Institute of History at the University of Cologne, came to the following conclusion in his habilitation thesis Wa(h)re Fakten: Knowledge Productions of Global News Agencies 1835-1939 to the following assessment: news agencies structure the perception of the world and determine how people experience the environment. The influence of these central actors in global news production can hardly be overestimated. With the exception of reports from their own correspondents, newspapers, TV and radio stations, as well as electronic information providers obtain all news from news agencies. News agencies select, classify and edit information and thus decide which local event receives global attention or becomes a global event. News agencies are journalistic service companies that use specialized production processes to produce the commodity news in order to subsequently make a profit from the sale of the news. The economic framework conditions lead to the fact that agencies primarily offer news that meet the expectations of their customers. Nevertheless, news agencies define themselves as guarantors of truth and promise credible, reliable news. Agencies pride themselves on providing neither commentary nor interpretation. They categorically assert factuality and neutrality of their news. This postulate of "pure facts" characterizes their corporate self-image and public self-presentation. Barth, on the other hand, criticizes news outlets for operating instead on the dual premise of producing both customer- and profit-driven commodities and delivering true facts. "They sell the commodity of news," Barth concludes.

Communications scholars Oliver Boyd-Barett (England) and Terhi Rantanen (Finland) introduce their 1998 book The Globalization of News by pointing out that news agencies have been steering the flow of news across the globe, some for over 160 years. They were the world's first international, indeed global, media companies, and in doing so they themselves became drivers of globalization. Despite their immense importance in informing the world about the world on a daily basis, the agencies disappear in our daily lives behind their acronyms on the margins of press and radio coverage.

Austrian media manager Wolfgang Vyslozil describes the role of news agencies as follows: "News agencies are rarely in the focus of public interest. Yet they are one of the most influential and at the same time one of the least known media genres. They are key institutions with substantial importance for any media system. They are the invisible nerve center that connects all parts of this system."

Recipient of the messages

News agencies produce content for all media and are also used by all media. In addition to daily newspapers, internet portals, television and radio stations, a great many associations and political actors as well as business enterprises also use news agencies to obtain information.

Agencies are so-called gatekeepers. They decide which news is relevant to be processed and forwarded, which events are worth communicating and which are not, or to which events it is necessary to send correspondents or reporters. They make a preliminary selection. Editors write the news; often freelance journalists are also commissioned for a fee.

The agencies are subject to a conflict of objectives: On the one hand, their reports are supposed to be as objective, complete and representative as possible for reasons of journalistic ethics. They are therefore considered reliable and well researched. If an important news agency nevertheless sends an erroneous report, it is often taken over unchecked by the editorial offices. Errors are therefore corrected and forwarded as quickly as possible. On the other hand, the agencies have to satisfy a wide variety of clients who, for their part, often engage in tendentious reporting.

The reports are sorted by departments, the different departments have different abbreviations at the news agencies, for example pl stands for politics and wi for economy. Furthermore, each news item is categorised with thematic keywords and can thus be classified by the editorial teams at first glance.

An agency's message is peppered with abbreviations. Behind them is information on the time of dispatch, length, priority, department and more. The first sentence of an agency message is called the lead. It should be designed in such a way that it encourages the reader to read on, should briefly and precisely reflect the content of the article in no more than 30 words, and should be written in the perfect tense. A news item should generally be no more than 700 characters, a report between 4000 and 5000 characters. Usually, radio-affine ten-line messages are sent out immediately and supplemented with more detailed summaries within the next few hours.

The editorial offices decide which services are subscribed to and thus delivered. The prices of the services are based on their volume and the sold circulation of the respective publication, in the case of electronic media they are based on the reach. Thus, there is price equity within the press industry with regard to news agencies.

The advantages of news agencies are topicality, universality and the rapid delivery of reports on current events. The disadvantage is that, due to their own prioritisation, reports can be lost and others emphasised, or certain facts can be presented in a one-sided way - and with great consequences. After all, a news agency is a news wholesaler. It is criticised that scientific news or news from developing countries are strongly underrepresented.

Editorial processing

The articles of the news agencies are either processed in the press and supplemented by own research results and information or they are simply taken over verbatim and provided with the abbreviation of the respective agency at the beginning of the article.

Under press law, the editors-in-chief or department heads of the respective publication are responsible for the result (dissemination liability), although their liability is significantly limited by the agency privilege.