In the U.S., coverage of the California wilfires dominated the airwaves in 2006. Photo: youngthousands (flickr)

Chances are, most Global Envision readers don't rely on nightly TV newscasts to keep abreast of international developments. But what about the 70 percent of Americans who do? According to a recent network news review, people who get the majority of their international news from TV networks may be hearing only a fraction of the story.

According to the Tyndall Report, international news coverage dropped to a 21-year low in 2008. Out of the nearly 15,000 minutes that made up the nightly newscasts from the three major U.S. television news networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — only 1,900 minutes (13 percent) were dedicated to world news. Of the top 20 most-reported stories of the year, only three were international in scope: the Iraq war, the Beijing Olympics and the conflict in Afghanistan. International coverage in daily newspapers isn’t faring much better, with nearly two-thirds cutting their foreign coverage over the past three years.

Is the choice to pare down foreign reporting simply an effort to cut costs, or a reflection of a disinterested public? Whatever the reason, the consequences of being ill-informed could be pretty serious. As Mark Mellman writes in the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill, the public's disengagement leads to a lack of concern about international events. Less concern equals less accountability for our leaders. Given the world’s increasing interconnectedness, it seems to be particularly bad timing to begin to tune out.

Photo: Andrew Heavens (flickr)

One of the more critical and less talked about environmental changes occurring right now in several regions of the world, is a developing shortage of water. The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting has partnered with the Common Language Project to send journalists into East Africa in order to report on this growing crisis: According to the Pulitzer Center, "Water scarcity in East Africa is fueling conflict and thwarting development while growing in step with local populations and rising global temperatures."

The blog postings by these journalists, as they learn more about the politics of water in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, are worth reading, watching and listening to.

Youyouyouyouyou! Shout tiny little kids at our beat-up land rover as it races down the arrow-straight road from Yabello, slowing occasionally for dust devils and herds of annoyed camels.

We’re on our way to Dillo, to report on some of the most extreme water scarcity problems in the country. I’m trying to focus on my notes, all of the interviews and statistics I’ll need to contextualize the interviews we have set up and the long-distance water walk we’ll be participating in the following morning.

Problem is there are too many distractions.

Photo: Danny McL (flickr)

It is shocking to read and hear about elections dissolving into civil crisis as we are seeing in Kenya right now. However, as a Kenyan friend of mine is warning, we should be reluctant to take media portrayal of an event as absolute truth:

“When it comes to international media I am nothing short of disgusted. The international community has a very bad (not to mention ignorant) view of Africa. So when something happens to slightly re-affirm that view they have a field day with it. I am not in any way trying to downplay what is happening in Kenya but you all have to understand that there are those of us who voted for the current president and are happy with the outcome. However, a happy Kenyan is not deemed 'newsworthy' as compared to a disgruntled rioter. That is the sadistic nature of journalism.

Before I watched the international coverage on the Kenya, I used to feed on everything the news said. At least now I know to take everything with a pinch of salt...Kenya has 42 tribes, that's why I don't see the Rwanda scenario playing out. However, the biggest tribe (the Kikuyu) are scattered everywhere in Kenya. There's even a joke that they are found everywhere in the world. The opposition has decided to eliminate Kikuyus in the opposition strongholds..thus the killing. Only because the president is Kikuyu. Apart from those places in Western Kenya, the rest of us are fine...it's very unfortunate and maybe the Kofi Annan team will realize that this has shifted from a political crisis to a humanitarian crisis.”

It is hard to understand the political situation going on in countries far away from us, ruled in a way unknown to us. Judi, my friend, makes a provocative argument about the desire to sensationalize stories rather than give bare-bones facts of the matter in cases like these, and it is difficult to know where to go to learn exactly what is taking place without hyperbole.