Making Information Widely Available: The Media and World Affairs

Abstract

Reading foreign newspapers when you travel, or watching the television of other countries, tells you that news is a geographically variable concept. You may look in vain for updates on stories that were making banner headlines in your own country when you left home. Instead, you will find local and regional matters reported, involving people and places of which you know very little. A few big stories from around the world, typically wars and disasters, will find their way into the media everywhere, but otherwise what a well-informed person is supposed to know depends on where he or she lives.