Where's the World News?
Posted by tom | Jul 27, 2005When visiting some friends this summer, the husband mentioned that xm satellite radio -- BBC in particular -- is his news source. Why? Because its hard to find international news on the radio, in the newspaper, or the TV. Since our conversation, I've taken more notice of my news sources and have heard and seen his point, even with NPR Radio. I have realized that most of my world news has come from the international friends and students which I have as part of the university community (and supplimented by some web crawling). This is quite a blessing. But it has struck me deeply that to engage our world, we need to be a part of it, not just part of an entertainment culture that has All Ears for Tom Cruise, All Eyes on Brad Pitt. . .
If only Michael Jackson's trial had been held in Darfur. Last month, CNN, Fox News, NBC, MSNBC, ABC and CBS collectively ran 55 times as many stories about Michael Jackson as they ran about genocide in Darfur.
The BBC has shown that outstanding television coverage of Darfur is possible. And, incredibly, mtvU (the MTV channel aimed at universities) has covered Darfur more seriously than any network or cable station. When MTV dispatches a crew to cover genocide and NBC doesn't, then we in journalism need to hang our heads.
There is little world news in America because America does not seem to care much for the world. If they did, they would never let their president send a man like John Bolton to the UN.
Posted by John A. Cantrill, Jul 30 2005, 19:49