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Today more than ever, we Americans are affected by what’s happening in other countries.  Foreign policy is a paramount issue in today’s politics, we are at war in Iraq and Afghanistan and our economy will increasingly compete against the growing prowess of nations such as China and India.  While all of this interest stirs, our media providers are showing us less and less of the things that are happening in places away from our shores.

Awesome talk made by Allisa Miller – head of Public Radio International – at the TED conference this past March, outlines some very interesting facts.  Though we must keep in mind that she is using data collected from only a one month period (February 2007), the data is still quite startling.  She states that the percentage of news stories reported by the networks and cable news outlets from happenings in India, China and Russia accounted for a combined 1% of the stories reported on that month (1%!).  She also brings up that one story alone that month accounted for more coverage than all of the combined stories from every country in the world besides Iraq.  What story was that you ask?  Nothing less than the death of the Anna Nicole Smith!

What is wrong with this picture?   Doesn’t it seem wrong that our news outlets can’t seem to stop reporting on the lives of celebrities and focus on using their resources to attempt to enlighten us on how we might make our communities, country and world better places?

I certainly doesn’t appear to be our fault.  Ms. Miller continues to note that in the past 20 years, the number of Americans who say they “closely” follow international news has increased by 15% (from 37% 20 years ago to 52% today).  Part of the problem, Ms. Miller continues is that the number of foreign news bureaus in our American media companies has decreased by 50%.  It’s as if our own news outlets have given up on trying to cover the major international news, and simply focused on domestic news.

But why is this?  Part of the issue may be our geographical position in the world being rather isolated from the Eurasia and African continents.  That combined with our economy issues and rising cost of travel means that it’s simply cheaper and easier to cover domestic news.

However, I believe that this is simply another sign that points to the fact that the traditional “top-down” method of reporting on the news is broken.  In today’s world, the news simply moves to fast and happens in to diverse of locations for a single company or entity to keep up with it.  So what’s the solution?  How can a single corporate entity diversify itself enough to keep up with the world’s news by not simply building off the AP?  Is it even possible?  And if so, what sort of business model will make it feasible?  Anyway, interesting things to consider, especially if you care about international news.  Video of the talk is below: