At GNV, we have thus far analyzed how international news is covered, focusing mainly on Japan’s major newspapers. For example, we have examined how various themes are reported, such as global poverty issues and armed conflict issues, health and medical issues and climate change issues. At times, we have also made the news programs of NHK and commercial broadcasters, online news, and news apps—media other than newspapers—the subject of our investigations. In all GNV articles, we have revealed significant biases with regard to countries/regions and content.

However, until now—except for NHK’s International Reporting 2016—we have not focused on BS news programs. In addition, most of the news programs we have analyzed so far have been of the general format where a newscaster conveys the latest news; we have rarely dealt with programs that invite experts as guests and offer in-depth explanations of a single news item. Therefore, in this article, we examine the news programs broadcast by commercial BS channels to see how they report on the world, analyzing by country/region and theme.

Homepages of BS news programs, photographed on January 10, 2024 (Photo: MIKI Yuna)

Subjects of analysis

This article covers the 60-minutes-or-longer news programs aired on weekday nights by four commercial BS channels: BS Fuji’s BS Fuji LIVE Prime News (hereafter, Prime News), BS-TBS’s Hodo 1930, BS11’s Hodo Live Inside OUT (hereafter, Inside OUT), and BS Nippon TV’s Shinsou NEWS. The period covered is the three years from January 2021 through December 2023 (※1).

All of these BS news programs state as their concept that they “deep-dive” into the news. In a single broadcast they mainly take up one theme (depending on the program or episode, multiple themes may be covered), explain the news with guests such as experts, and aim to provide reporting in a style different from typical terrestrial news programs, as their stated purpose.

Except for Hodo 1930, each program lists the themes it covers on its official website. What themes does each program consider important? For example, Prime News selects one topic from five themes—“politics, economy, international, environment, and social issues”—as “issues currently attracting strong public interest” to report on. Inside OUT lists themes such as “domestic and international politics, economy, sports, health, medicine, and culture,” and Shinsou NEWS cites “global affairs, epidemics, war, disasters, and division” as themes to convey the “‘now’ that will still be talked about 100 years from now.” While it does not list specific themes, Hodo 1930 espouses a concept of deep-diving into the news to meet viewers’ “want to know” expectations.

To dig deeper into the news, each program allocates more than an hour in weekday prime time and brings a wide variety of guests onto the show. Guests include not only Japanese members of parliament, former Self-Defense Forces personnel, scholars, and journalists, but at times officials from foreign governments as well. What kind of reporting do these programs produce with such great effort? We analyze the coverage by region/country and by theme.

Countries and regions that receive attention

From here, we look at data analyzing the target programs by country and region.

First, we divide into three groups—“Japan,” “countries/regions other than Japan,” and “no related country”—to grasp the overall picture of BS news programs (※2). Here, the figures for “countries/regions other than Japan” are treated as international reporting. Unless otherwise noted, figures are totals for the four programs mentioned above: “Prime News,” “Hodo 1930,” “Inside OUT,” and “Shinsou NEWS.”

In BS news programs, reporting on “countries/regions other than Japan” accounted for 34.2% of all coverage in 2021, 59.1% in 2022, and 65.0% in 2023 across the four programs combined. Between 2021 and 2022/2023, the proportions of coverage about Japan and coverage about other countries/regions reversed. Although the graph shows totals for the four programs, each program shares the trend that the share of international reporting increased in 2022 and 2023 compared to 2021 (※3). Considering that the share of international reporting is around 10% overall in major newspapers, NHK’s terrestrial news programs, and online news, we can say that these BS news programs take up international news relatively often.

The graph shows that international reporting increased substantially over these three years. As explained later, this is due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war that broke out in 2022.

Next, we look at the data broken down by region. Here, the base number for the data is the “countries/regions other than Japan” data.

In 2021, Asia (including the Middle East) accounted for 60% of international reporting, followed by North America and Europe. This is similar to the reporting tendencies of major newspapers before 2022. In 2022 and 2023, however, Europe abruptly came to account for a majority of international reporting. Europe’s share of international reporting had been less than 6% in 2021, so this is a remarkable increase. North America, while not as prominent as Asia or Europe in 2022 and 2023, maintained around 10–20%, receiving a certain level of coverage. However, the countries/regions reported within these areas are limited to only a handful. As will be discussed later, Asia is dominated by China, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, Israel, and Palestine; North America by the United States; and Europe by Russia and Ukraine. Across all years, the three regions of Asia, North America, and Europe account for more than 90% of international reporting.

By contrast, coverage of Africa, Latin America, and Oceania is so scarce that even combined they do not reach 1% of international reporting. In the statistics, Africa appears only in 2023 and Latin America in 2021 and 2023. Africa consists of Sudan (3 times), “Africa” as a region (2 times), and Algeria (1 time), while Latin America consists of Brazil (2 times), Mexico (1 time), and “South America” as a region (1 time).

To elaborate, both references to “Africa” were about Russia’s expanding influence on the continent, and coverage of Sudan included two broadcasts focusing on the rescue of Japanese nationals in connection with the large-scale clashes between the army and a paramilitary group that began in April 2023, plus one broadcast about the involvement of a Russian private military company in the clashes. The two Brazil broadcasts were about the COVID-19 explosion/variants, in relation to Japan. The broadcasts in which Algeria and Mexico appeared were not aimed at deepening understanding of those countries (※4). While much of the coverage of these regions involved Japan or the Russia-Ukraine war, the Shinsou NEWS episode aired on December 6, 2023—“The rise of the ‘far right’ in Europe and South America… What are the keywords behind it?”—was a rare case that focused on the situation in those regions themselves.

As for Oceania, it was covered in each year but still did not reach 1% of the total in any year, and nearly all coverage was about Australia; Tonga was taken up once when an eruption occurred in 2022. Moreover, the title at that time was “Undersea cable risk from Tonga volcanic eruption: What are the issues for Japan’s crisis management?” (Shinsou NEWS, January 26, 2022), with the main topic being Japan’s infrastructure rather than Tonga. As with major newspapers and NHK programs, coverage of Africa, Latin America, and Oceania is extremely limited.

Next, we look at the ranking of countries/regions covered. The graph below shows the five countries/regions with the most coverage each year. As with the regional graph above, the base data here is the “countries/regions other than Japan” data.

In 2021, coverage was heavy on East Asian countries/regions such as China, South Korea, North Korea, and Taiwan, as well as the United States. In 2022 and 2023, however, Russia and Ukraine together came to account for roughly half of all international reporting. This matches newspaper reporting trends in the first half of 2022. In every year, the top five countries by volume account for about 80% of the total.

As is clear when compared with the regional graph, nearly all coverage of North America over these three years was about the United States, and 90% of coverage of Europe in 2022 and 2023 was about Russia and Ukraine. The only exception for North America was a broadcast (Prime News, May 12, 2023) about the reciprocal expulsion of diplomats by Canada and China after a political confrontation.

For Asia, in 2021 the four countries/regions shown in the graph (China, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan) accounted for about 88%, and in 2022 those four countries/regions accounted for over 90%. In 2023, however, due to the Israel-Palestine war that began on October 7, coverage of Israel and Palestine increased dramatically, and their share within Asia rose from just over 1% in 2021 to about 30%—reducing the combined share of China, South Korea, North Korea, and Taiwan to about 55%. In other words, the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine war caused a significant shift in the balance of coverage among countries/regions within Asia. At the same time, some parts of Asia—South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia—remain woefully underreported. Among these, India, Myanmar, and Afghanistan were covered every year, but even at most they were taken up around 10 times a year, amounting to only about 1–3% of Asia-related coverage. International reporting on BS news programs repeatedly focuses on a small set of countries.

We have presented three graphs so far, all of which show that the components in 2021 differ greatly from those in 2022 and 2023. The reason for this change over three years is the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Following the outbreak of the war, coverage of Russia and Ukraine surged, greatly increasing the volume of international reporting and sharply raising Europe’s share. In 2021, the year before the war, the number of appearances by the two countries across the four programs totaled 18 for Russia and 1 for Ukraine; in 2022, Russia appeared 314 times and Ukraine 180 times; and in 2023, Russia appeared 283 times and Ukraine 245 times. It is clear that BS news programs have uniformly focused on the Russia-Ukraine war.

Themes that are covered and those that are not

Next, we examine international reporting by theme. In GNV’s methodology, we use 16 categories (※5). The graph below shows, for each year, the five categories that were most frequently covered in international reporting (※6).

As the graph shows, in every year the top five categories by volume alone account for more than 95% of all international reporting. Politics, military, economy, and war/conflict appear in the top five every year. Meanwhile, themes that have an immense impact on humanity—such as weather/disasters and environment/pollution, and health/medicine after 2022—are rarely covered. The thematic selection is highly skewed.

This category-based graph also shows, as do the country/region graphs, that the components in 2021 differ greatly from those in 2022 and 2023.

First, politics was the most frequent field in 2021. There was extensive reporting on summits between national leaders, developments in East Asian countries around Japan, and the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Next, the military field had the second-highest volume, with frequent coverage of North Korean missile launches, China’s advance into the South, and security arrangements premised on a Taiwan contingency. Third was health/medicine, almost entirely topics related to COVID-19 continuing from 2020, such as each country’s countermeasures, vaccine diplomacy, and the World Health Organization’s investigation into the origin of COVID-19.

In 2022, the situation changed dramatically, with war/conflict surging to first place. Fully 99% of international reporting in this category was related to the Russia-Ukraine war; exceptions were rare, such as “Forgotten conflicts: Syria, Afghanistan, and Myanmar today” (Inside OUT, June 20). In 2022, Russia appeared 314 times and Ukraine 180 times, whereas Syria, Afghanistan, and Myanmar each appeared only twice, including the broadcast just cited. These are indeed the “forgotten” conflicts that the news programs failed to report. There was also no mention of the Yemen conflict, long called the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” or of numerous armed conflicts in Africa (such as in Burkina Faso and other West African countries).

This tendency remained unchanged in 2023, with war/conflict still the most covered field. Following 2022, the Russia-Ukraine war received the most coverage, and the Israel-Palestine war that began in October was also covered. Reporting related to these two conflicts accounted for fully 99% of war/conflict coverage in international reporting in 2023. Other examples include “The forgotten humanitarian crisis: Rohingya refugees persecuted in Myanmar for years” (Shinsou NEWS, March 24), “Intensifying fighting in Sudan: Issues in evacuating Japanese nationals—discussion with former Self-Defense Forces leaders” (Shinsou NEWS, April 25), and “Tokiko Kato talks about war: Withdrawal from former Manchuria; performs ‘A Million Roses’” (Shinsou NEWS, broadcast on 8/15). While the Russia-Ukraine war was reported hundreds of times, conflicts such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 6.9 million people have been forced to flee, received no coverage.

Official site of Shinsou NEWS, photographed on January 10, 2024 (Photo: MIKI Yuna)

Skewed coverage

So far, we have looked at data on international reporting within BS news programs, broken down by country/region and by theme. You may have discerned the reality that coverage concentrates heavily on a handful of countries and themes.

At the beginning, we introduced each program’s concept as stated on its website. How well do the programs put those concepts into practice? Here we look regardless of whether the reporting is international or not.

Prime News states that it selects one topic each time from “politics, economy, international, environment, and social issues,” but there is very little coverage of environment or social issues. As for the environment, there are only a few episodes such as the February 23, 2022 broadcast “Tense situation in Ukraine ▽ Small modular reactors and decarbonization: in-depth comparison of safety & cost.” Not only Prime News but the other programs also rarely cover environmental topics. Even the UN climate conferences (COP), which newspapers tend to concentrate on, were mentioned only once, when Inside OUT covered “COP28 climate measures: what is ‘blue carbon’?” on December 15, 2023.

In addition, Shinsou NEWS lists “epidemics” as one of its reporting themes. About 90% of coverage related to this theme was about COVID-19, but there were also reports on monkeypox, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. However, in 2023 the volume dropped sharply, with only one report on January 10 about the COVID-19 situation in China.

Furthermore, while programs cite “international,” “domestic and international politics,” and “global affairs” as their targets, as we have seen, international reporting ends up limited to a small set of countries/regions (East Asia, the United States, Russia, Ukraine). We have already noted the lack of coverage of Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania, but in fact coverage of Europe outside Russia and Ukraine is also very limited. BS news programs will report on Japan’s prime minister participating in the G7 summit or hosting a G7 summit in Japan, and will use the G7 as a frame for coverage, but even if there is a change of chancellor in Germany or a presidential election in France—both G7 members—they do not cover it.

TBS headquarters building in Tokyo, Japan (Photo: Toshihiro Gamo / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED])

Conclusion

We have examined what kind of coverage BS news programs provide. Even with a broad definition of international reporting, the share of international news was higher compared to newspapers and other media. On the other hand, we also found that the bias in which countries/regions are covered is even more pronounced than in newspapers. What should reporting aspire to be? Let us revisit each program’s concept in closing.

Prime News cites “issues currently attracting strong public interest” as what should be broadcast. Hodo 1930 also states as its concept that it responds to viewers’ “want to know” expectations. Focusing on topics that are already drawing public attention may make sense when it comes to boosting ratings. However, the role of reporting is not merely to passively cover the news that is making waves; rather, shouldn’t it be to proactively highlight global issues and generate interest in them? These programs, which devote more than an hour of prime time—when many people are watching TV—to coverage, are in an ideal position to create new public interest.

Shinsou NEWS proclaims the concept of “conveying the ‘now’ that will still be talked about 100 years from now.” Conveying the “now” is certainly important. But we should pay attention to the fact that the “now” being conveyed is skewed. There is a saying that “journalism is the first rough draft of history.” This means that reporting becomes the primary material when history is written. In other words, what remains in history is greatly influenced by the degree of media attention. In the current media environment, the countries/regions and themes that receive attention are skewed. If this continues, won’t the world visible 100 years from now also be narrowed?

In 2022 and 2023, international reporting on BS news programs was dominated by the Russia-Ukraine war. It will soon be two years since the war began—how will this reporting trend change going forward? Will it remain as it is, be swept away by a new major event, or revert to coverage focused on domestic Japan as in 2021? Will the day come when a wider variety of countries and regions are covered? We will continue to watch closely.

※1 The detailed survey method is as follows. Based on the titles in the broadcast archives posted on each program’s official website, we analyze themes and countries according to GNV’s categorizations (※5). Note that there may be countries mentioned in the actual broadcast that are not counted in these statistics because they do not appear in the title. Also, each program sets a theme for each broadcast, but some episodes contain multiple themes; in such cases, categorization is based on the first theme that appears in the title. In addition, although Inside OUT has a different segment on Fridays than on other weekdays, Fridays are included in the survey.

※2 The BS news programs in this survey do not have a clearly defined segment explicitly labeled as international news, as general news programs do. Therefore, we counted the countries that appeared in each broadcast; when multiple countries appeared, we divided “1” by the number of appearing countries and allocated that value as the number of broadcasts to each country (for example, if only Japan appears, that counts as “1”; if Japan and the United States appear, both are allocated “0.5”).

※3 Share of international reporting in each program

2021: Prime News 33.0%, Hodo 1930 27.9%, Shinsou NEWS 47.8%, Inside OUT 27.9%.

2022: Prime News 54.1%, Hodo 1930 65.1%, Shinsou NEWS 70.7%, Inside OUT 47.8%.

2023: Prime News 66.1%, Hodo 1930 73.0%, Shinsou NEWS 74.8%, Inside OUT 49.4%.

※4 The broadcast in which Algeria appears covered the news that Sergei Surovikin of Russia, who has ties to Wagner, visited Algeria. The broadcast in which Mexico appears was about discussions of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), triggered by the discovery in Mexico of mummies said to be “alien corpses.”

※5 GNV categories (16 items): politics; war/conflict; society/life; economy; terrorism; accidents; military; incidents; science/technology; health/medicine; arts/culture; education; environment/pollution; sports; weather/disasters; protests/riots. In this article, items that could not be classified into any of the 16 categories were grouped into an “other” category.

※6 Here, out of all broadcasts, we exclude those that featured only Japan and those with no related countries, and count as the survey target the broadcasts that covered both a country/region other than Japan and Japan plus other countries/regions. Therefore, the base data differ from that used in the country/region graphs.

Writer, Graphics: Ayane Ishida

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