Foreign News Coverage: An In-Depth Analysis

A majority of Americans do not choose to ever watch international news, nor do they give it much importance in their daily lives. This is, alas, just their prerogative. As in the political sphere, many people in this country only pay attention to stories if these particular news accounts relate to the latter in some tangible way.

There is a growing number of foreigners who profoundly dislike what we stand for. In some cases, like Al Jazeera, the most popular Arab news network in the Arab world, the American point of view is communicated within the framework of an Arab context. The anti-American sentiment in this part of the world has grown to a breaking point. We see evidence of this through random burnings of American flags and demonstrations in crowded streets.

Communication can be understood in many different ways. Communication equals information, knowledge, power, and control. The majority of international news coverage that we see focuses on the Middle East. There is hardly any international news from Africa. Some parts of the African continent, however, are covered only when there's a famine or when there's a real crisis, like the humanitarian disaster in Darfur. It is imperative that the citizens of a country recognize the importance of international awareness, international understanding, and international interest. A lot of what happens around the world could very easily affect us down the line and many people in this country are very easily becoming aware of this scary phenomenon. How can we possibly understand the world in its context if we are not exposed to it in a substantial way? For those people who do pay attention to international news, the latter is becoming increasingly more aware of worldly events in other countries (i.e. China, Iraq, France, Russia, etc.).

The power of television has been revolutionary. People in this country can receive immediate access to foreign news around the clock (i.e. CNN News, Fox News, NBC News, ABC News, etc). Talking heads like Lou Dobbs and Bill O'Reilly comment on their perceptions about the world (and the way it's covered).

Sometimes, there is subtlety in the way news is presented and covered. It can be biased, unbiased, liberal, conservative, or even moderate. In all though, the international media resembles the American media more and more.

Some people say that CNN is an American way of looking at the world. The modernization theory exposes the world to the American way of life. The doctrine of Manifest Destiny involves the belief that the United States should spread democratic ideas to the rest of the world.

Pictures are very powerful on television. With the advent of television, the public has been able to internalize events from the living rooms and kitchens of their homes. People, mostly housewives, do not pay very much attention to the news coverage when it is featured on television. They, alas, do not give the news on television their full and undivided attention. This is really very iconic in many homes across the country. Of those people who are watching the news coverage extremely attentively when it appears on television, some are negatively influenced by the images and some are positively influenced by the images. A few complacently accept what is going on around the world and move on with their lives. Some get depressed when watching foreign news coverage and some even donate to various international charities. Many celebrities volunteer their time and engage in humanitarian efforts to help many very poor foreigners who call third world countries their home. Some of these celebrities even record albums and donate the money collected from the proceeds to various noteworthy causes (both within this country and outside of this country).

Perhaps the most important element when trying to analyze the view of news coverage is relative perspective. The way a particular person looks at news is different not only in this country but also in many different countries around the globe. People in this country who travel abroad will certainly know that the entire world looks very different when viewed by the eyes of foreigners.

Every single media organization is trying to put their version of history on the screen. Particular news networks (i.e. ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News, CNN News, etc. & so forth) all cater stories to particular target audiences. The figures, in this country, are really astounding. The time, on the big three news networks, devoted to Iraq has, unfortunately, fallen 60 percent between 2003 and 2006. Ultimately, Americans are just not exposed to, nor willing to watch or digest, a great deal of foreign news coverage. It should be imposed on us to reverse this trend.