GNV has thus far investigated trends in international coverage across a variety of media, primarily Japan’s major newspapers as well as news programs and online outlets, pointing out the scarcity of international reporting while also examining biases in the countries/regions and topics covered.

In this article, we take up NHK’s program specializing in international coverage, “International News.” Because it is a program dedicated to international reporting, there is no shortage of international news within its lineup, but how is coverage distributed by region? We analyze the countries and regions featured across one year of broadcasts in 2023 and look at the resulting trends.

International News 2023 official website (Photo: Haruka Gonno)

About “International News”

International News is a 40-minute news program aired on weekdays at 10 p.m. on NHK BS1 since 2014. Since 2021 it has also been broadcast over terrestrial TV, with a recording of the previous day’s program airing from 4:20 a.m. on the following day. The broadcast year is attached to the program title; for example, the title for broadcasts in 2024 is “International News 2024.”

The program states that it aims to “clearly convey what is happening in the world now,” striving to present global events and their backgrounds in an accessible way. Within the program, stories receiving particular attention are treated as features, and there is a segment called “油井’s VIEW,” in which Hideki Yui, former chief of NHK’s Washington bureau and the program’s anchor, offers analysis—showing ingenuity in how the news is presented. In addition to politics and incidents, it also covers business, culture, and entertainment, under the concept of “40 minutes that brings the world closer.”

We previously covered “International News 2016” in a GNV article, and now, seven years later, we analyze once again to see whether there have been changes in coverage trends.

Countries and regions in the spotlight

First, we look at regional trends by breaking down a full year of International News 2023 coverage by region (※1). Asia was the most covered region, accounting for 38.6% of the total. Next came Europe at 31.9%, followed by North America at 13.6%. These top three regions together made up 84.2% of all coverage. In the 2016 study, the top three regions were the same and together accounted for 84% of the total, indicating a similar pattern. It is also apparent that coverage of Latin America and Africa is extremely limited. Africa, which was 5.2% in 2016 (※2), fell to 2.5% in 2023, while Latin America rose slightly from 1.3% in 2016 to 2.0% but remains at a low proportion.

To unpack this disparity, we look at which countries were most frequently covered within each region. For Asia, coverage of East Asian countries closely connected to Japan (※3) accounted for 44.3% of all Asia-related reporting, while stories related to Israel and Palestine—where major clashes reignited in October 2023—made up 16.4% of Asia coverage. By contrast, reporting on Southeast Asia and South Asia was limited. For example, it is noteworthy that India, which in 2023 became the world’s most populous country, accounted for only 3.1% of Asia-related coverage. Within Europe-related reporting, items concerning Ukraine—which has been at war with Russia since 2022—made up 43.6%, roughly half; combined with Russia, the two accounted for 69.1%. In North America, coverage of the United States was 99.1%, indicating a concentration on a single country within the region.

In Africa, which received little overall coverage, the most reported country was Sudan, where armed conflict broke out in April 2023; it was featured about nine times, accounting for 45.2% of Africa-related items. However, the last time Sudan was covered on International News 2023 was the June 22, 2023 broadcast, and the program did not cover the escalation of the conflict in the latter half of 2023 even once. In Latin America, Mexico had the most mentions, with three.

Next, including the above, we look at coverage by country. As the figure shows, the ten countries covered most frequently and their shares were: Ukraine 13.9%, the United States 13.5%, Russia 8.2%, China 7.3%, Israel 4.9%, Turkey 2.3%, Myanmar 2.1%, North Korea 2.0%, Thailand 1.9%, and the United Kingdom 1.8%. In GNV’s coverage analyses up through 2022, the United States and China were the central focus of international reporting, but in 2023 Ukraine surpassed the United States and Russia surpassed China in volume of coverage.

The overwhelming attention to the Russia–Ukraine war is also evident from the program’s official website for International News 2023. On the top page there is a special tab for the “situation in Ukraine,” which is the only tab organized by region or theme among tabs for program content, broadcast schedules, articles, and so on. Did the situation in Ukraine in 2023 warrant that much attention? While it is true that ongoing fighting continued to cause many deaths, Ukraine’s counteroffensive did not advance and the front lines barely shifted in 2023, suggesting a stalemate. Elsewhere, conflicts with rapid developments and heavy casualties also occurred in 2023, leaving questions about singling out only one for special treatment.

News that went unreported

Thus far we have looked at the countries and regions most frequently covered on International News 2023. Significant events also occurred in countries and regions that received little to no coverage. In “Top 10 Underreported Global Stories of 2023,” GNV highlighted major developments that Japan’s newspapers scarcely reported. Here we examine, by theme, whether International News 2023 covered such stories.

We begin with environmental issues. In 2023 there were various developments related to climate change and waste. Among those GNV included in its Top 10 were the rapid, fourfold increase in fossil fuel subsidies across G20 countries; the worst water shortages in a century in Iraq; the holding of the first-ever Africa Climate Summit; and the European Union’s agreement to ban exports of plastic waste to non-OECD countries. None of these were covered on the program. News related to the environment and pollution accounted for just 1.4% of all items, suggesting the program pays relatively little attention to this area. Within that limited coverage, there were relatively many items on environmental issues in the United States and Latin American countries—for example, air pollution in New York and the destruction of the Amazon.

Next, how was education covered? GNV’s Top 10 highlighted the severe global shortage of teachers. On International News 2023, items relating to education overall made up 1.6% of coverage—also quite low. The only mentions of children deprived of education due to conflict and other factors were two related to Ukraine and one related to Myanmar, for a total of three. There was also one report on teacher shortages in the United States. However, there was no coverage of Sub-Saharan Africa, where teacher shortages and the impact of conflict on education are said to be most pronounced.

Continuing to health and medical issues: In 2023, one of GNV’s Top 10 highlighted developments was that generic manufacturing of a tuberculosis drug became possible. Items on health and medicine accounted for 1.2% of International News 2023 overall. Among health-related coverage, pieces on infectious diseases were all related to COVID-19; none dealt with tuberculosis.

Special tab on the situation in Ukraine (Photo: Haruka Gonno)

Lastly, we look at reporting on violence, such as armed conflict or terrorism, and on refugees accompanying such events. Starting with wars and conflicts: In GNV’s Top 10, hundreds were reported killed in mass murders of migrants by Saudi border guards, and conflict and terrorism in Burkina Faso intensified, with deaths surging. On International News 2023, items on the situation in Ukraine accounted for 42.4% and those on Israel for 17%, comprising the large majority. Meanwhile, the Saudi mass killings of migrants and the conflict in Burkina Faso were never covered; in Africa, only news about Sudan was featured. As for terrorism, many pieces looked back at past attacks such as the 9/11 attacks that occurred in the United States in 2001 and the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, in 2008. Only one item dealt with a terrorist incident in 2023: the suicide bombing in Pakistan in July.

As above, despite being very significant from a global perspective, many stories were scarcely covered on International News 2023.

Factors behind skewed coverage as seen from sources

We have now looked at the countries and regions covered on International News 2023 and the stories that were not. What background factors lead to a world that is covered and a world that is not? Hints can be found in the program’s sources. On its official site, International News 2023 is described as “a full-fledged international news program composed of NHK’s reporting network spanning the globe and news arriving from broadcasters around the world.” We therefore examine the program’s coverage tendencies through two elements: NHK bureaus and the broadcasters with which it collaborates.

Placement of NHK’s overseas general bureaus

First, NHK’s overseas bureaus. NHK has a total of 29 bureaus serving as bases for overseas reporting, about half of which—15—are in Asia. There are three in the single country of the United States, and 4 in Western Europe, indicating a concentration in certain areas. By contrast, in the regions noted earlier for extremely low coverage—Africa and Latin America—there are just two bureaus in Africa (Cairo and Johannesburg) and only São Paulo in Latin America, showing that the number of bureaus is also extremely small. From this distribution, it can be said that NHK does not place priority on these regions, and this is reflected in the low volume of coverage.

Next, partner broadcasters, as seen via “World News,” which airs news from around the globe on NHK BS. Looking at the broadcasters appearing on World News, there are 10 from Asia, two from the United States in North America, and 5 from Western Europe; in contrast, Latin America is represented only by Brazil. There were no news segments from African broadcasters.

In this way, the regional skew in the placement of overseas bureaus and partner broadcasters is likely being reflected in coverage trends.

Summary

We analyzed the coverage tendencies of International News 2023, and found that they closely resemble the patterns GNV has observed to date in television, newspapers, and online news. While many regions and major events remain underreported, compared with our earlier analysis of International News 2016, continued overwhelming attention to the situation in Ukraine stands out.

Although NHK’s “International News” program aims to convey “what is happening in the world now,” in reality it is presenting fragmented portions of the world. We will continue to watch how these coverage patterns change going forward.

※1 The detailed methodology is as follows. We extracted topics from the broadcast archive posted on the program’s official website and analyzed the countries and regions. For each broadcast, we counted the countries appearing in the topics; when many countries appeared, we calculated each country’s number of mentions as “1” divided by the total number of countries appearing (for example, if only Japan appeared, that would be “1”; if Japan and the United States both appeared, “0.5” would be allocated to each).

※2 　This likely reflects a temporary increase in coverage due to the dispatch of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to South Sudan.

※3　 We counted Macao (Macao Special Administrative Region), South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and North Korea as East Asian countries.

Writer, graphics: Haruka Gonno

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