Strategically Communicating

It’s a sad reality that more and more foreign bureaus are being shut down. But there is still quality foreign media coverage out there–you just need to know where to look.

In Retreating From the World by Jodi Enda, while the four major U.S. newspapers–Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times–have closed down some of their foreign bureaus (an exception is NPR, which actually increased its foreign bureaus in the 2000’s and 30% of its broadcasts are international in scope), they continue to produce dynamic foreign news reporting. You can also visit GlobalPost.com, Pulitzercenter.org or Internationalreportingproject.org, among countless other international policy organizations, nonprofits and institutions, for good international stories (that do not necessarily have to do with war and that will give you context).

But not everybody will look.

While a plethora of news is increasingly at our disposal, people tend not to seek out foreign news unless it’s in front of them, says W. Joseph Campbell, a former foreign correspondent.

With consequences.

Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, says that foreign news is essential to an informed electorate and to the development of foreign policy. “Otherwise, our leaders do dumb things, and the American people never know about it. It’s just that important.”