Today I will take you to learn about the foreign media news agency, AFP.
Brief introduction. Agence France-Presse, founded in 1944, is one of the four major world news agencies in the West, along with Reuters, the Associated Press and the United Press. The predecessor was the "Hawass News Agency", which was founded by Charles Hawass in 1835. AFP is the oldest of the four major news agencies in the West. AFP has more than 2,000 employees from 81 countries, of which around 900 are working abroad, and 110 offices in 165 countries and territories around the world, which are divided into five regions:
North America (9), headquartered in Washington, D.C.;
Latin America (21), headquartered in Mondevideo (capital of Uruguay);
Asia Pacific (25), headquartered in Hong Kong;
Non-European zone (52), including 36 in Europe and 16 in Africa, headquartered in Paris;
Middle East (9), headquarters in Nicosia (capital of Cyprus).
Historical Background: AFP was formerly known as Hawass. During the First World War, the Havas Society grew rapidly, with more than 300 staff members in Paris alone. During the Second World War, Paris fell, but the Havas Society did not stop working. In August 1944, Paris was liberated, and the staff who had been forced to leave the press office by war returned. Later, several news agencies founded by Havas in the Resistance merged to form AFP on the site of Hawas. In September of the same year, AFP was granted the status of a temporary public institution by decree. It should be noted that although AFP is a non-profit, autonomous public organization licensed by a special law of 1957 and independent of France**, i.e. nominally an independent newspaper association (this will be mentioned below), it is in fact the official news agency of France.
On January 10, 1957, France** issued a decree stipulating that AFP should accurately, promptly, clearly and completely independently send information to the whole world 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to report on world politics, finance, sports news and transmit all kinds of **, AFP's reports are in French, English, Spanish, German, Arabic and Portuguese. Among them, there are 11 lines in the French version, accounting for 60% of the text of the messages sent, and 3 lines in the English version, accounting for 15% of the text of the messages sent. The English, Spanish, and German manuscripts were compiled by the head office, the Arabic manuscripts were translated and distributed by the Middle East News Agency in Cairo, and the Portuguese manuscripts were translated in Lisbon and São Paulo. With the intensification of competition in the international news market, the deficit in '02 alone has accumulated to 71 million euros, for which AFP has taken a number of countermeasures, mainly three:
In terms of strategy, we should make use of our strengths and avoid our weaknesses, and attach importance to developing countries and regions.
In terms of management, "development and diversification", the so-called development, is to improve the original products, keep improving, pay attention to improving the quality of manuscripts in business, strive to be accurate and rapid, pay attention to the collection of exclusive news, pay attention to the use of series of reports, the so-called diversification, is not to hold on to the defects, and constantly introduce new products.
Stay on top of new communication technologies. In recent years, AFP's new product development has begun to be combined with new communication technologies, and many ** and ** products have become the core of AFP's business. The new strategy reversed AFP's competitive disadvantage, with an operating profit of 18.9 million euros in 2007, up 40 percent from 2006. Multi** and ** services became AFP's third largest revenue**.
Position Overview: AFP is one of the world's leading news agencies, known for its responsiveness and comprehensive and accurate reporting. Agence France-Presse news is also often quoted by a number of well-known French newspapers or portals**. As a result, its news is authoritative not only in France, but also around the world. AFP mainly reports on the news, and when reporting on events, ** media outlets such as Le Monde will also express critical opinions in the article. This is clearly stated in AFP's constitution: "AFP's mission is to provide accurate, impartial and trustworthy coverage of current events around the world at all times." ”
As one of the mainstream news agencies in the West, AFP's reporting follows the principles of objectivity and truthfulness, and aims to promote and defend the mainstream values of the West. Although it is one of the most influential news agencies in the world, like the Associated Press and Reuters, its reporting methods and perspectives are very different from those of the Associated Press and even Reuters across the strait.
AFP reporters should be aware of the differences in style and perspective from other Western news agencies in the process of preparing and writing their stories, and then develop a reporting plan and division of labor that is suitable for the topics of the news agency and its different committees.