Why are so many Americans ill-informed about world events?
May 1st, 2008 | by admin |
asked:
I’m not trying to be rude here, but I often find that Americans have relatively less knowledge about world events than other nationalities.
I’m not trying to be rude here, but I often find that Americans have relatively less knowledge about world events than other nationalities.
Do American newspapers, news programmes etc concentrate more on domestic stories, or is there another explanation?
(i.e: somebody asked about visting Croatia and the first 2 responses were questioning his/her sanity because of it being “war-torn”!)
Caffeinated Content
6 Responses to “Why are so many Americans ill-informed about world events?”
By ku_lok on May 3, 2008 | Reply
American news services have become political in nature and selectively report the news to their customers.
Their focus is to sell papers and TV advertising, not to report the truth.
As a result, Americans believe what is told them. It is easy and requires no effort on their part.
So what you know depends on who you listen to.
By twisted illusions on May 4, 2008 | Reply
Because they couldn’t care less. They are busy with their own world. I’m not generalizing, but most of the time, Americans have this attitude that they are the best people in the world and other countries are just small pigments that don’t really matter. Or perhaps they’re busy with making money because of course you would agree that money is more important than hearing news from the other parts of the world.
(This is not a generalization because there are other Americans who are well-educated enough about the happenings in the world.)
By alion300 on May 6, 2008 | Reply
That’s a hard question to answer. It ranks with why most
Americans only speak one language. Maybe it has to do with the fact that to most Americans the USA is the center of the
universe and the rest of the world doesn’t matter so much.
By elven_rangers on May 9, 2008 | Reply
Because the USA doesn’t really have a free effective press. Big news agencies such as Fox and CNN serve the administration in powers (not to mention they were one of the main reason Bush came to power) and their news are always biased to favor the USA point of view.
Opposed to them, there are BBC and Al Jazeera, two top quality agencies renowed for the fact they show things just as they are but the aforementioned USA agencies go out of their way to discredit these two to the eyes of the american public.
By ginger lady on May 11, 2008 | Reply
I was so angry when I saw that answers. I don’t want to judge the whole nation and I hope there are some educated poeple in America.
How come we must know every single county in Africa and Asia in elementary school and they can’t even learn about Europe?
By neparis2001 on May 14, 2008 | Reply
(Uh, ranger… if you honestly think CNN is a RIGHT WING FRONT and the BBC and Al **** are “quality” - then you are even MORE DEMENTED than you act. What SOCIALIST/MARXIST/COMMUNIST COLLEGE are you GETTING this ENDLESS *PROPAGANDA* FROM??? I GOTS ta KNOW…)
The truth is that many American are a bunch of LAZY A.S.S.E.S. dumbed down and politically endoctrinated by a CRAPPY puclic school system and passed on to “higher education” for complete ZOMBIFICATION…
Education, unions and Hollywood. A MATCH made in HELL…