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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 16:22 |
 Americans know less about world events than they did 20 years ago, and those who know the most also tend to get their information from satirical news programs, such as Jon Stewartís The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
That was the conclusion of a study conducted recently by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
The studyís findings are troubling. Only 69 percent of those polled could name the vice president of the United States. Only 68 percent knew that the U.S. has a trade deficit and a mere 36 percent knew the name of the Russian president.
All of these numbers were down from polls taken in 1989, when 74
percent of Americans knew that Dan Quayle was the vice president.
Predictably, education level was the most significant factor in how well participants in the survey did.
However, while education levels have increased dramatically over the
past 20 years, knowledge about world events has markedly declined.
Even though Americans have a much wider array of news sources to choose
from, it appears that people are less informed than ever.
This leads us to question whether increased competition for consumers has caused quality to suffer for the sake of quantity.
Certainly, the drive for readers has tended to bring sensational
violence to the front pages of newspapers, while more substantive
stories get pushed to the back of the paper ó if they are printed at
all.
Recent coverage of the tragic events at Virginia Tech highlighted this
phenomenon, as news reports devoted days of headline stories to
examining the psyche of gunman Cho Seung-Hui, while all other important
stories got pushed aside.
While no one would want to downplay the significance of this terrible
crime, it is worth noting that some major events took place during the
same time period.
Last week, heavy fighting erupted once again in Somalia, provoking a
humanitarian crisis. The French presidential election went into its
final days and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov was arrested
and interrogated for participating in a rally against Russian President
Vladimir Putinís increasingly authroritarian government.
And, let us not forget, 200 people were killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad last week.
All of these stories are important. It may be much easier to relate to
events here, but in an increasingly interconnected world, it is
important to understand that major political events in Russia, Africa,
or anywhere else, have an effect on our lives.
We would urge more newspapers and other media sources to start taking
these stories seriously and to step up to their role as educators, not
just entertainers, of the public.
At the same time, ultimately, the responsibility lies on each of us to seek out information about our world.
In an age when print, broadcast and online media are more accessible
than ever before, there is no excuse for being uninformed. Information
from every imaginable source in just about every part of the world is
accessible in real time, as events unfold.
And, of course, if all else fails, one can always watch clips of The Daily Show at Comedy Centralís Web site.
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