The global news race: The branding of CNN

The notion of the global marketplace and its wares has received much recent attention. The term "global" has been tacked indiscriminately onto everything from lingerie to luxury cars. Along with it, the global additive carries powerful implications for the product brand it represents. Despite its permeation into almost every aspect of current marketplace culture, the concept of "global" has remained elusive at best. As applied to news, a product which, in itself, must be consumed on faith, the picture of global takes on a more significant role in the cultural landscape.;A two-part study was undertaken in the form of a historical analysis covering the global news marketplace, the global brand, and two global news brand leaders, the BBC and CNN, and a content analysis using CNN World Report, a news program devoted entirely to news gathered from contributors across the globe.;Audio and visual variable categories which seemed to comprise global news were created. These included country and regional representation, use of graphics and other production elements, narrator types, gender of narrators, and prevalence of the news brand. Variables were coded for a 12-month sample. The program presented a number of visuals designed to indicate a sense of the global at work, the most prevalent of which was the globe. Stories were reported from approximately 141 countries and territories, which makes up 93% of the total world population. Use of all off-screen narrator over footage enhanced the perception of the global as a ubiquitous image. The CNN brand was present during the majority of the sample (80%, N = 2,581), and was absent only when it impeded the viewer's experience of other on-screen elements.;Global news as presented through CNN, is at once timeless and dateless (no time or date references were made at any time throughout the sample), and devoid of informal banter used by news anchors in many local U.S. newscasts. Because of its even-handed, almost bland presentation, CNN's brand of global news appears designed to suit a growing global economy based on a least-common-denominator appeal, making it an ideal product for carrying the global brand.