How many times you have heard this and then waited anxiously for the news'? Against the background of the tsunami with devastating consequences, hurricanes in the USA which did an untold amount of damage to lives and property. Add to his the loss of life, homelessness coupled with chronic shortage of food directly attributable to the South Asian earth quake' you almost expect bad news all the time. Do we always get all the NEWS or do we get the NEWS that higher powers decide we should have access to? I found myself asking this very question during a recent visit to the USA.. My self-actuated assignment imposed intensive workload during the day. During the course of the evening, I wanted to find out what was going on in the rest of the world. My quest to keep up with the current affairs across the four corners of the world forced me to flick through 100s of channels; I tried the well established names such as CNN and NBC along with all the local media. Every one of these news providers focussed on home news. The phrase 'NEWS' is an acronym standing for North, East, West, finally S for South. In that regard, is it not reasonable to expect news from across the world? Clearly, people in some quarters don't subscribe to this view as I found out to my cost. I found myself in a virtual vacuum; a feeling of being somehow disconnected from the rest of the world or the world that I had become accustomed to. My mind was deprived of essential information; a news feed, and it was almost asking for information. I was asking people around me for information about the rest of the world' someone mentioned an explosion in England.. please tell me more I asked what and how this explosion happened.. Was there any loss of life? Did my friends and family suffer as a result of this explosion. I sincerely hope.. this is not another act of terrorism by some group wanting to make or leave its mark on the civilised world. I could not find any information. What impact does such a scenario have on people I was asking? People live their entire lives and don't even find out or get to know about the rest of the world.. How sad? Finally, the dire consequences of localised news focus creates a kind of unhealthy ignorance that we don't need. We are living in an information age yet some mediums prevent the free flow of that information. If we are going to change the world then we need to know the world, we need to replace the vacuum with information and we need to ensure that it is flowing in a natural manner. CNN, NBC & FOX NEWS' here is your chance to make your contribution to the world by making the American public aware of the rest of the world and its existence. Visitors to the USA will benefit as well. CNN is one global network which does reach people across the world. However, a lot more needs to be done to bring the world closer together and now. |
