Getting the Story

Since we created the Wessex Times we have almost always been reliant on sourcing our articles on information we have gathered from elsewhere. Even the stories we have composed entirely ourselves are to the most part dependant on research into facts and background obtained via other means. That can be simply using wikipedia or other web-sites.

But where do the media get their information?

Some larger organisations such as the BBC or big newspapers like the Times, the Telegraph, Guardian and so on have their own correspondents on the ground and create their own stories. They also have reporters with contact to parliamentarians and government agencies, to the large NGOs and associations but other than ongoing reports on politics and sporting events they are reliant on receiving suggestions particularly for new stories on what are known as news agencies.

News Agencies

News agencies have existed for a long time and were created to provide newspapers with information about a wide variety of news events happening around the world. Initially the agencies were meant to provide the news items only to newspapers, but with the passage of time the rapidly developing modern mediums such as radio, television and Internet also utilised their services.

Founded in 1835 as Agence Havas, and changing its name in 1944, Agence France-Presse (AFP) is the world's oldest news agency, and is now the third largest news agency after the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters.

Associated Press (AP) was founded in New York in the U.S. as a not-for-profit news agency as long ago as 1846. That is almost 180 years ago.

In 1907 E.W. Scripps created the United Press Associations and in 1909 famous William Randolph Hearst[1] formed the International News Service (INS) both of which challenged the position of Associated Press.

Much later in 1958 United Press absorbed INS to form United Press International (UPI).

Working in Nuremberg Germany in the seventies my main source of current english information was AFN, American Forces Network radio which transmitted on AM frequencies around the world. The news broadcasts always ended by saying information was obtained from AP and UPI. Those old enough to remember and within range of an am AFN transmitter may remember the famous Wolfman Jack rock music shows and the completely invented success stories and Viet Cong body counts from the raging Vietnam war.

In 1851, Reuters was founded in England and is now the second largest news agency in the world with over 2,000 offices across the world

Not wishing to be left out and obviously in need of their own news stories the Soviets in Russia formed the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) in 1925. during the cold war we would often here a news story which started out: TASS claims....

Xinhua was later founded as Red China News Services in the Chinese Soviet Republic.

According to Wikipedia: Political change in the Third World resulted in a new wave of information dissemination and a series of news agencies were born out of it. These agencies later formed their own Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool (NANAP), which served as a premiere information service in the Third World.

Fourth largest news agency worldwide is EFE a Spanish organisation. It was founded in 1939 and is the biggest Spanish-language news agency.

The largest German-language news agency is Hamburg's DPA which is a limited company. (GmbH]. Founded after the second world war in 1949 it has grown to be a major worldwide operation serving print media, radio, television, online, mobile phones, and national news agencies. News is available in seven languages, among them German, English, Spanish and Arabic.

The oldest German news agency still in operation is the Protestant News Agency EPD, tracing back to 1876.

Wessex Times gathers and double checks most of its information from these agencies. Other sources may well include initial reports from the BBC and British press outlets but in may cases stories start from other areas of the world including The Times of India, Singapore Times, Newsweek, Time, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, the German media including Bild, FAZ and SZ. Al Jazeera is also an important media service with up to date information and which was always valued as a reliable source of news except unfortunately when reports covered Arab-Israeli topics.

Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of News Agencies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_news_agencies

[1] William Randolph Hearst Sr.April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation's popular media by emphasising sensationalism and human interest stories. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887 with Mitchell Trubitt after being given control of The San Francisco Examiner by his wealthy father, Senator George Hearst.