Nothing shows the multiplicity of perspectives, viewpoints, and mental models as much as the international media. Here's yet another area where substantial funding and research need to go into figuring out how a story in one cultural reference frame will appear when reported in a different cultural reference frame.
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(IHT, Nov 19, 2006)
America's media bubble
Lawrence Pintak
The Boston Globe ...There used to be a time when the U.S. media wrote the global narrative. The world saw itself through a largely American camera lens. No more. The launch last week of Al Jazeera International, the English-speaking cousin to the channel the Bush administration loves to hate, is just the latest reminder of that....Here in the Middle East, we can watch more than 300 channels...
The perspective of these channels is different. So is the spin...
Journalistic bias? Like terrorism, it's in the eye of the beholder. After five years of Sturm und Drang from the Bush administration about the evils of the Arab media, American officials still don't really get it. The genie is out of the lamp. News people abroad - whether Arabs, Irish, or Zimbabweans - do see the world, and U.S. policy, differently than their American counterparts. Their news organizations will report differently. It's a fact.
Even more important , every statement, every offhand comment is reported instantly. Live. 24/7. There is no place to hide. No such thing as Davos rules. Just ask the pope. Like politics, all policy is local. It's no longer just about how it plays in Peoria. There's also Peshawar and Pretoria.
American officials can no longer say one thing and do another.
Yet American officials who should know better still don't get it. A U.S. public diplomacy official involved in communicating with the Muslim world recently asked me if there were Arab blogs. Only hundreds - and they are changing the face of Arab politics.
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