Disproportionate American Coverage

The bumper sticker I read on every Volvo I saw during my childhood in Vermont read, “Act Globally, Shop Locally.” A worthy message indeed and more relevant than ever with the growing concern about over-processed food (i.e. peanut butter, spinach, etc.), as well as the various chemicals that can be found in our food containers these days, but unfortunately this message cannot apply to the news we receive. The growing trend seems to be that local is better when it comes to news coverage. Independent sites, as well as those backed by mainstream media, are popping up all over the country. Mark Glaser, of PBS’ MediaShift, just posted the following on Twitter: “Putting together guide to local watchdog news sites for MediaShift, including VoiceOfSanDiego, MinnPost, StL Beacon, others.” I couldn’t help but think of David Simon’s comment on how newspapers must be the counterweight to bullshit and without them, local corruption will run rampant. Simon has often stated how it would be nice to be in local politics over the next decade, as the unchecked opportunities will be numerous while a new model for local news coverage is discovered. Watch a great interview that Bill Moyers conducted with Simon here.

I’m looking forward to the collection Glaser comes up with to see if there are any sources that I’m missing, but I couldn’t help but think about what we’re all missing with this increasing “local centric” mentality of news coverage. I have written before about the growing trend of hyper-local sites, but the void in our collective knowledge of the world is of far greater concern as news organizations continue to whittle away at their foreign news bureaus. This leaves us with a collection of independent journalists filing the void, often valiantly doing great work, but I worry how effective they are all the time and how safe? Start-ups such as Global Post have put together some great, experienced foreign correspondents, but while still in its infancy, there are bound to be gaps in coverage.

On Tuesday, Andrew Stroehlein, journalist and Communications Director for the International Crisis Group, expressed his worries about “a world without foreign correspondents.” He isn’t the first person to express concern about this growing trend to cut costs by bringing the bureaus home, but his post is worth a read for its unique perspective. Stroehlein gives two examples, in Somalia and Sri Lanka, of how news coverage is lacking. His logic is a bit flawed (which he seems to recognize and acknowledge), in that he discusses the cost-cutting measures being taken and that this has had an effect on the diminished coverage. However, in both scenarios the almost complete press blackout is due to security on the ground or government interference with the press.

“The first is Somalia, where the utter inanity of foreign news coverage in the West, particularly in the US, knows no bounds. Amid deafening hero-worship and chest-thumping, the US media machine was so proud that a new president with the world’s largest military at his disposal can kill a couple lightly armed thugs that few seemed even able to grasp the most basic fact of the situation: piracy is symptom, not the disease (NOTE: I wrote about this yesterday in urging people to focus on the solution, rather than just trumpeting the problem), and lawlessness off the coast of Somalia will continue as long as anarchy is allowed to continue on land. If only a tiny fraction of the Western media ruckus of recent weeks could be dedicated to Somalia itself, then international political attention might start focusing on the roots of the problem.”

Stroehlein continues,

“The other example of a crisis unfolding mostly not before our eyes is Sri Lanka, where over the past few months the situation in the north east has become incredibly desperate for some 150,000 civilians trapped in an ever-shrinking “safe zone” between their government that is shelling them and the cult-like LTTE rebels who shoot them if they try to escape. Today, as my colleague writes, “A mass slaughter of civilians will take place Tuesday at noon. And everyone knows it.” Once again, foreign correspondents are unable to cover the story, this time because the government is not allowing them in to the region.”

I would have included the genocide in Darfur along with these two examples as well, but Stroehlein has done a valiant job of describing the press’ failure to properly report as he has written it. The comments are also well worth reading.

Alisa Miller, the head of Public Radio International (PRI), explained in a TED Talk in 2008 why, although we (Americans) want to know more about the world now than ever before, the US media is actually showing us less. She walks us through the graphs and stats in great detail below and I have also included the map she references in her talk about news coverage in February of 2007.