The media players can be considered as professional generators of national news, who manipulate presentations according to professional standards as well as local needs that are culturally based.

This book explores how powerful political and economic agendas in the national media environment influence the production processes. It shows how the outcome is planned and negotiated between correspondents on location, editors and popular anchors that express the local cultural and political heritage.

The study is based on interviews with media experts and newsroom observation at two Japanese TV stations; a public station (NHK) and a commercial station (TV Asahi), and it shows how events are 'domesticated' for the target audience.

Globalisation and real time reporting of events may lead to an apparent universalisation of news, the 'global village' syndrome, but we are also witnessing the particularisation of news images that maintain our world as many 'global villages'.

Students, scholars, and media and communication professionals will welcome this thorough analysis of news productions in a comparative perspective.

Nominated for the International Communication Association Best Book Award, 2004.