Increasing circulation? a comparative news‐flow study of the MontrealGazette's hard‐copy and on‐line editions

Abstract

International news‐flow research has repeatedly identified significant imbalances in the global exchange of news among regions of the world. With the emergence of thousands of news sites on the World Wide Web, and the corresponding ability of news audiences to access these sites, the Internet offers the technological capacity to globalize media content. This paper seeks to test that possibility by exploring the way one Canadian daily newspaper, the Montreal Gazette, occupies the geography of the Internet with its on‐line news operation. The paper reports on an exploratory comparative news‐flow study of the Gazette's hard‐copy and on‐line editions to determine whether on‐line publishing has prompted the Gazette to alter the boundaries of its news coverage. While the paper concludes that, indeed, the Gazette's website consistently carried far more international news items than its hard‐copy edition, it also notes that this distinction is largely explained by the website's very heavy reliance on wire‐service copy and its emphasis on sports news.