News agency

From Free net encyclopedia

A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to organizations in the news trade: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. They are also known as wire services or news services.

News agencies can be corporations that sell news (e.g. Reuters and Associated Press), cooperatives composed of newspapers that share their articles with each other (e.g. AP), commercial newswire services which charge organisations to distribute their news (e.g. Business Wire, Eworldwire, and PR Newswire). Governments may also control "news agencies," particularly in authoritarian states, like China and the Soviet Union or non-profit organizations operated by both professionals and volunteers. A recent rise in internet-based alternative news agencies, as a component of the larger alternative media have emphasized a "non-corporate view," as being largely independent of the pressures of business media.

News agencies generally prepare hard news stories and feature articles that can be used by other news organizations with little or no modification, and then sell them to other news organizations. They provide these articles in bulk electronically through wire services (originally they used telegraphy; today they frequently use the Internet). Corporations, individuals, analysts and intelligence agencies may also subscribe. The business proposition of news agencies might thus be responsible for the current trends in separation of fact based reporting from Op-eds.

[edit]

Prominent international news agencies

Agence France-Presse
All Headline News (AHN)
ANP (The Netherlands)
ANSA (Italy)
Associated Press
Australian Associated Press
BASA-press (the first independent news agency from The Republic of Moldova)
British Broadcasting Corporation
Bloomberg L.P.
Canadian Press
Canadian University Press
China News Service,China
City News Bureau of Chicago
Cox Enterprises
DPA (Germany)
EFE
EIN News
Independent Television News
Interfax
Israel News Agency - Israel
ITIM - Israel
ITAR-TASS, Russia
Kyodo News (Japan)
Nippon News (Japan)
OANA
The Press Association (UK)
Pacific News Service
Press Trust of India
Reuters
United Press International
Wireless Flash News
Xinhua News Agency, People's Republic of China
Yonhap, Korea

News agencies are distinct from news syndicates that distribute comic strips and other editorial material, such as columns and features, and also from PR services that distribute press releases. Sometimes news agencies have separate arms for such work, but many such organizations are completely separate.

[edit]