FoF: How does the news shape the way we see the world?

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Today's Favorites on Friday comes courtesy of the power and result of social networking and social media.

This morning, I checked my Facebook account. I noticed that a Facebook friend, Achim J. Mueller from Germany, had posted a link to World Mapper, a collection of world maps where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

I thought it was a great resource, so I twittered about it. Soon after, a new Twitterpal, Clinton Forry, twittered back and recommended a video from Public Radio International's (PRI) YouTube Channel.

It's by PRI CEO Alisa Miller on how the reporting of news in the USA shapes the way Americans see the world, and why Americans seem to know less and less about the world around them and their many connections to it.

Frankly, I think this is a great video for international education professionals to see — and to share with their students, both those leaving the USA to study abroad and those coming to the USA for education. At 3:51", it doesn't take long to watch and is full of thought-provoking information.

For those who are interested, I regularly seek out and file videos like this on my own YouTube channel, to which you can subscribe. There's a number of other helpful playlists available there, especially for international education professionals.

By the way, here's how social networking played a role in this post. I've never met Achim personally (the guy who posted the map resource), but he was recommended as "someone you should know" by Rich Thoma. Rich is in the telecom industry and got to know me — he's even called to have a couple of phone conversations — because he saw that I had connected with his friend, David Hinson on Facebook and through Hinson's Twitterstream. I got to know Hinson because I was exploring a new social conversation tool called Plurk and, like me, Hinson was a Plurk "early explorer". Turns out Hinson was from Nashville (where I grew up). And he's the developer of a Facebook application that I use to connect with my LinkedIn contacts who are on Facebook. Small world, indeed.

What do you think of how American news sources report the news?

Tagged as: Alisa Miller, Facebook, Germany, LinkedIn, Plurk, Public Radio Interanational, Social network service, Twitter, USA, video, YouTube

{ 8 comments }

Barbara Velazaquez August 1, 2008 at 11:26: Thank you so much for sending this. I just sent it to our social science faculty and have already received two very positive emails, one stating he will use this with all of his future classes.
Kelly O'Brien August 1, 2008 at 11:40: Excellent….thanks for the link
Lois Larson Johnson August 1, 2008 at 11:54: I really appreciate you drawing attention to the video and the problem that exists with the view the world has of the US media!
Michele L. Tomseth August 1, 2008 at 1:00: Thanks for all the items you pass on to us. This item may be perfect for our semester/year abroad orientation.
Dawn Harris Wooten August 1, 2008 at 1:17: Thank you for drawing attention to this brief yet poignant Youtube piece. I
will be sure to show it to my students this fall.
Jenny August 1, 2008 at 2:17: I am VERY interested in seeing your YouTube collection of pertinent international education videos. What is the link to that site?
Ruth Marie Sylte August 1, 2008 at 2:49: Thanks for asking. You can find my YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/rmsylte

If you have a YouTube account, you can subscribe to mine and be notified when I upload or link new videos.
Miguel Karian, Ph.D. August 2, 2008 at 1:49: An excellent piece. Thanks for sharing it. I also collect such videos of
interest, and they are available here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4388E56B0DDB261E