Why is there so little international news in the American media?

Jasmine Donovan

ENG 225 Walker

3/20/03

Have you heard about the hijacked Cuban airliner that was escorted to land in Key West, Fla.? No? Well, blame your local news for not informing you.

A usual afternoon. Your usual routine of watching the nightly news. The usual layout of news; local, state, national. No big deal, right? Well, I must ask you, haven't you ever wondered what's going on in other countries? What was the top news story in India today, or maybe Italy? Surely, we mustn't be the only country in the world with news, so why don't we hear about other's stories, tribulations and events? Well, let me be the bearer of bad news - other countries do have fascinating news, but the American media just doesn't bother to present it. What are their reasons? Who knows? I know one thing - American news coverage is not comprehensive and it rarely ever shows news of the world unless it's, a) a catastrophic event, or, b) it has some sort of tie to the U.S.

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or one of its citizens. Do you think that is fair to the American public? I do not.

There are three reasons why I find this issue to be of such high importance. Firstly, I'm a journalism major; someone that wants to spend the rest of her working life producing news for the masses, and hopefully, doing it honestly. So, when I see a nationally broadcasted news show produce such a high amount of local news and low amount of international news, it makes me mad. I, truthfully, rather hear about 45 people being killed from a something-or-rather in some foreign country than 2 people being murdered in New York City. It's a simple question of impact - which one of these stories has...