"Why we know less than ever about the world"

Alisa Miller is the CEO of Public Radio International and her presentation is about “why we know less than ever about the world.” The U.S. media is showing less news even though the public wants more. Her first graphic is a world land mass map that represents the news coverage Americans see; the U.S. and Iraq are huge. It represents the number of seconds cable news dedicated to news stories by country for February 2007. When she removed one story from the news the size of the U.S. was divided in half. That story was the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Miller stated that it is cheaper for news organizations to cover Britney Spears and other celebrities. News organizations have cut their foreign bureaus in half. There are no network news bureaus in Africa, India, or South America home to 2 billion people. Most Americans get their news via the local news only 12% of that is world news. I think this is disturbing, college graduates today know less than their counterparts 20 years ago. I believe it is important to pay attention to where your news comes from. Everything is not being covered and if you truly want to be informed you have to go out and find the news. It’s sad that the number one news stories are those about celebrities having babies or partying. I liked the presentation because I realized that the news state was in disarray but I didn’t realize how distorted things really are. Her graphics weren’t as outstanding as some I have seen on Ted.com but they got the point across.