Cahiers d'études sur la Méditerranée orientale et le monde turco-iranien, n°20, juillet-décembre 1995

CONTENT CHARACTERISTICS OF MAJOR IRANIAN NEWSPAPERS s A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SIX TEHRAN DAILIES

Naiim BADII

Conventional standards of news selection and reporting, and many accepted news values, need to be reassessed if readers and listeners around the world are to receive a more faithful and comprehensive account of events, movements and trends in both developing and developed countries. . .

The act of selecting certain news items for publication, while rejecting others, produces in the minds of the audience a picture of the world that may well be incomplete or distorted. High professionnal standards are needed for journalists to be able to illuminate the diverse cultures and beliefs of the modern world, without their presuming to judge the ultimate validity of any foreign nation's experience and traditions.

Many Voices, One World The Mc Bride Report�

During the past two decades, numerous studies tend to show that newspapers of the developing countries are highly dependent upon the international news agencies for reporting the world affairs, and, in some cases, the events of their own countries. As Phil Harris states, the relationship between the news media of the advanced Western countries and those of the developing nations is one of dependence and international news media tend to occupy a crucial position in this relationship2. He says dependence is taken here to be a conditioning situation in a relationship between national collectivities characterized by an asymmetry in distribution and control of power and resources. Thus defined, dependence characterizes the nature of the