Limit this search to....

International News & Foreign Correspondents
Contributor(s): Hess, Stephen (Author)
ISBN: 0815736304     ISBN-13: 9780815736301
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
OUR PRICE:   $24.75  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: December 1995
Qty:
Annotation: American public opinion is having more influence than ever on how U.S leaders respond to international crises and formulate foreign policy. Yet at the same time, there is evidence that Americans are increasingly ill-informed about international affairs. This paradox raises many serious questions: What information about the world are we given by the mainstream media? How much? How good? By whom? Through what means? And how much foreign news is really enough? In this fifth volume of his highly acclaimed Newswork series, Stephen Hess addresses these questions and offers a revealing look at how the print and broadcast media cover international affairs and how foreign correspondents do their work. Hess contends that the United States is a nation of two media societies. One is awash in specialized information, available to those who have the time, interest, money, and education to take advantage of it. The other encompasses the vast majority of Americans, who rely on the top stories of TV networks' evening news programs and their community's daily newspaper. For them, Hess says, the diet of international news is not adequate. When the world imposes itself on the U.S. media, it does so in a big way - the Gulf War, the attempted coup in Moscow, the fall of the Berlin Wall. But there are remarkable peaks and valleys in international news coverage. According to Hess, TV in particular shrinks the globe geographically - with Asia underrepresented and the Middle East overrepresented, for example. And much of TV's focus on international violence is gratuitous, telling us where and how but very rarely why. Hess concludes with suggestions for improving international coverage.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | International Relations - General
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Journalism
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Communication Studies
Dewey: 070.433
LCCN: 95041808
Series: Newswork
Physical Information: 0.94" H x 6.31" W x 9.35" (1.07 lbs) 224 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Today, American public opinion is having more influence than ever on how U.S. leaders respond to international crises and formulate foreign policy. Yet at the same time, there is evidence that Americans are increasingly ill-informed of international affairs. This paradox raises many serious questions: What information about the world are we given by the mainstream media? How much? How good? By whom? Through what means? And how much foreign news is really enough? In this fifth volume of his highly acclaimed Newswork series, Stephen Hess addresses these questions and offers a revealing look at how the print and broadcast media cover international affairs and how foreign correspondents do their work. Hess contends that the United States is a nation of two media societies. One is awash in specialized information, available to those who have the time, interest, money, and education to take advantage of it. The other encompasses the vast majority of Americans, who rely on the top stories of TV networks' evening news programs and their community's daily newspaper. For them, Hess says, the current diet of international news offered is not adequate considering its potential importance to their lives. When the world imposes itself on the U.S. media, it does so in a big way--the Gulf War, the coup in Moscow, the fall of the Berlin Wall. But there are remarkable peaks and valleys in international news coverage. According to Hess, TV in particular shrinks the globe geographically--with Asia underrepresented and the Middle East overrepresented, for example. And much of TV's focus on international violence is gratuitous, telling us where and how, but very rarely why. Hess concludes with suggestionsfor improving international coverage.