Breaking news: The world is still there
Remember the “Where’s Waldo?” books, challenging kids to find the not-so-subtly dressed namesake in the midst of an equally colorful and crowded setting? Oddly enough, I was thinking about them last week while talking to my students about the coverage of international news.
James Foley of Rochester, N.H., is a freelance contributor for GlobalPost in Benghazi, Libya. Foley was detained by forces loyal to the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi last April. He was released after being jailed in Tripoli and is one of the lucky foreign journalists who have escaped death in covering war-torn regions of the world. (AP Photo/GlobalPost File).
What do Waldo and foreign news coverage have in common? It could be that although neither Waldo nor the events and people of the world are easy to find at times, they are both there if we take a little time looking for them.
The traditional lament is that the nation’s news media have cut back drastically on the coverage of international news. That is an accurate statement. There are fewer eyes on the world from the likes of the network news companies and newspapers like The Chicago Tribune, which collapsed all their foreign bureaus and let their sister paper The Los Angeles Times staff them instead. Of course the LA Times is also cutting back, too, as are all newspapers around the country.
The reason, however, is not that journalists don’t believe the world is a pretty good story. In this age of globalization, it is more a story than it ever has been. The problem is that the media exist in the same market-driven economy as every other business. So they will turn their attention to the places and stories that interest readers and viewers.
Local news comes first
And Americans are more interested in America than anywhere else. The international media scholar Jaap vanGinneken writes about the unwritten rule of news priorities in America when he posits that 10,000 deaths on another continent equals 1,000 deaths in another country, equals 100 deaths in another state, equals ten deaths in the capital city, equals one celebrity.
That’s a little paraphrased, but you get the idea. As John Cougar Mellencamp sang, “Ain’t That America?”
Yet there is another side, or I should say sides, of this debate on cutbacks of international news coverage. You could make a strong case that the only cutbacks are in those media we’ve traditionally looked to for world news. In case you haven’t noticed, there are a few other windows to the world and these portals have been mushrooming. Like the following:
* The World Wide Web. Remember it? That’s the portal that features a lot more than Words With Friends and Facebook. Hard to believe, but true. Did you know there is even one site, sponsored by the Newseum in Washington D.C. that allows you to scroll through today’s front pages of 626 newspapers from 60 countries around the world? And did you know you can find virtually any newspaper in the world simply by going to a listing like onlinenewspapers.com and clicking on the paper you want, some of which have English translations available?
* Alternative News Portals. Although they may take you out of your comfort zone in reading about or seeing the world through the prism of Western eyes, some significant alternative news agencies have developed over the past 20 years or so. The most significant of these — by far — is Al Jazeera. This is the independent news agency out of Qatar that offers both a newspaper and video stories of the world’s news, and it offers them through the prism of the Middle East and not the West.
Al Jazeera launched an English-speaking channel in 2006 to report world news from a Middle East perspective and challenge the dominance of Western media. The station, which has angered Washington and some Arab governments with its reporting from Iraq, said it wanted to give a fresh voice to under-reported regions round the world. (AP Photo/ Hamid Jalaudin)
Al Jazeera had the most profound effect on the flow of international news of any news organization in recent memory. Entire regions of the world now feel their story can be told through non-Western eyes, and that’s a big thing for them. We may not agree with the Al Jazeera viewpoint, but it is interesting to have an alternative view of world events.
In looking at world news impact, you could also make a strong case for CNN as well, especially if you’re talking about CNN International and not Domestic. The former has a lot of non-Western correspondents.
* New Models of News Media. Into the hole left by closed foreign news bureaus of traditional media have stepped some new kinds of news media organizations. On the international scene, one hopeful sign is Globalpost.com. It’s mission, straight from its Web page, reads: “The GlobalPost Mission is to provide original international reporting rooted in integrity, accuracy, independence and powerful storytelling that informs, entertains and fills the void created by diminished foreign coverage by American media.”
It is staffed by a network of foreign correspondents who live in the regions of the world they cover and who contribute their reports as freelancers to Globalpost, which has only 18 full-time staffers at its Boston headquarters. The funding comes from a small group of private investors who believe in the importance of international news. Globalpost also accepts advertising and offers subscription services to members who join.
The job is ours
Ultimately, the responsibility for keeping up with world news lies with each of us as individuals who should want to be informed citizens of that world. It’s not that hard to find news of the world; it’s just located largely in places where we aren’t used to looking.
But then, Waldo wasn’t always where he was supposed to be either, was he?
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Comments
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It is true that American’s are interested firstly in their own country rather than other countries and area’s around the world. America as a whole is a very self-centered country and sadly is more focused on what is happening with celebrities rather than poverty and destruction that is happening around the world. Although, if we really want to find international news you can usually find some information on the web, you just have to know where to look. I have never heard of Al Jazeera and how he launched an English speaking channel in 2006, but I think it is a great idea. It is also great to hear how some private investors have made it their mission to sponsor freelance reporters to help get international news out. That is such a blessing to the world.
This article was very enlightening. I had not quite realized the diminishing international coverage in our news today. It is a shame that so many Americans are disinterested in anything that does not involve Hollywood and the latest celebrity gossip. Americans need to realize that we are living in a global world and events outside the US do and will continue to shape and transform events which happen inside the US. There is a direct connection between international issues and domestic policy which few Americans seem to realize or care about.
After reading this blog post, I feel like it has a lot in common with the lesson of the week. I agree that it is the job of the individual to want to be informed on international issues, but I also think the media is not living up to their job descriptions and are failing on their end to give the people the real, important stories. There is responsibility on both sides, but I don’t think the media should be able to cut out important international stories because they think people want to hear about the latest make-ups and break-ups in Hollywood. Yes, we are California citizens. Yes, we are American citizens. What people fail to remember is that we are world citizens too, and what is going on across the globe is as important as what’s going on around the corner. People need to start realizing that, and the media has the ethical responsibility to give people the truth, however difficult it might be.
“And Americans are more interested in America than anywhere else.” Just recently Howard Stern asked a group of people a question that infuriated my cousin who is in a Corpsman for Navy and works at the White House. Howard Stern asked a group of people which would they rather: all of al Qaeda to be wiped out and killed or the Giants to win the super bowl, the group collectively called for the giants to win… With no regard to what a world with no al Qaeda would mean! This proves that initial statement to be true. Sad, but true.
You made various good points there. I did a search on the subject and found mainly persons will agree with your blog.
Ethnocentrism runs deep in America, Brianna, but it also does in a lot of other countries as well. Thanks for the comment!
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