After receiving accolades for its coverage of the democratic uprising in Egypt, Al Jazeera English has renewed its campaign for greater access to the U.S. television market. Recently, the network took out a full page ad in the Los Angeles Times, corresponding with a grassroots promotion on its website asking viewers to contact their local media outlets and cable providers.
Currently, Al Jazeera English is only available via cable in isolated U.S. locations - Toledo, Ohio; Burlington, Vt.; and Washington, D.C. Many people credit this lack of market saturation to American Islamophobia. While I agree that Al Jazeera carries an extra burden due to American stereotypes about Islam, I don’t see Islamophobia as the essence of the problem. Do I believe Islamophobia looms large in America? Absolutely. But in this case, Islamophobia is a red herring. Al Jazeera's relative lack of market saturation is just one symptom of a larger disease - American indifference toward “the other.” Let me be clear: I don’t mean ignorance, I mean indifference. The problem is our disinterest in international news, in general, and in news from international sources specifically.
Take, for example, BBC News. In 2007, the BBC America cable channel launched their American-focused BBC America News program. Different from their BBC World News program, BBC America News looked primarily at stories related to the United States. For three years, by tuning to the BBC America channel, you could watch this news program along with reruns of charming British comedies and classic Masterpiece Theater episodes. However, recently, BBC America axed the news in favor of an all-entertainment lineup. In selected areas, Americans may still be able to watch BBC America News on PBS, but again, this depends on your location. The status of BBC World News is even worse. Like Al Jazeera, the BBC’s international news channel has almost no saturation in the U.S. Since Americans seem disinterested even in this very Western, slightly international perspective,what hope is there for a completely non-Western news perspective like Al Jazeera?
This issue may not seem all that important, but that is exactly the point. Americans just don’t care that we have a very insular view of the world. We are a large country with thousands of media outlets - most of which communicate inward-focused and distinctly American perspectives.
We hesitate at, and even fear to seek, outside perspectives. Have we become so boastful that we think we cannot learn from the viewpoints of others? Is it too hard to discern, understand and learn what is good from a perspective different than our own? Or are we just too overwhelmed by our day-to-day tasks to insert even five more minutes of something else?
Some of these are perhaps fair reasons. Many days, I feel too overwhelmed to even catch the day’s top stories on my car radio. However, I think God is clear about our need to seek counsel and outside perspective. The author of Proverbs explains, “A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.”
I recognize that not all outside perspectives are “wise counsel,” but neither are many of our American perspectives. I simply worry that if we don’t look outside our American bubble, we might lose sight of the greater world that God has created. Today, the global church is majority non-Western. So, how can we learn from Christians across the globe, if we do not understand their non-Western perspective? And how can we serve "the other" around the world if we do not fully understand their needs?
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Comments (16)
One of the most remarkable things I noted in my past time as an expat in Japan about the Christian community in that minority Christian nation was that those Christians held their faith identity before their national identity. They marveled at the notion of national or regional identity being a barrier between Christians and modeled that belief via multiethnic congregations in a nation troubled by a history of xenophobia. American Christians might well benefit from adopting more of that attitude and dislodging their faith from their national identity.
js
I think the Western church has so much to learn from the rest of the global Church. The tide IS changing though - Asian theologians are illuminating aspects of the gospel that we let extinguish, African believers are living in a fullness of Jesus' power that we have grown blind to, and the Latin American church has helped us rediscover that Word and deed work hand-in-hand (these are limited and quite oversimplified examples, but the lessons from believers of numerous people groups around the world are countless).
I am excited for the American church! If we can let go of control, the flood gates can open, and we can learn so much more about the fullness of God's kingdom.
The 'otherization' that takes place in US culture, and the subsequent sidelining of those perspectives is so pervasive. Definitely something that Christians could be talking about more, in a way that would bring real progress! Let us remember how often Jesus makes deliberate efforts to bridge the divide between Jews and Samaritans. We as Christians good do a amazing things on this front.
We're too violent. It's the media's fault.
We're too sexual. It's the media's fault.
We're too crooked. It's the media's fault.
We're too fat. It's the media's fault.
That didn't happen here (that I see, full disclosure, I'm running super thin on sleep so maybe I missed something.)
I'm thankful for that.
We might also consider the way news itself has become a commodity in American culture. News is big business because it sells confirmation of one's own world view. In other words, we don't watch news to get information; we watch news in order to have talking heads tell us that our stereotypes and assumptions are correct, which helps explain why Fox and MSNBC thrive on political polarization. Sadly, Americans are (willingly?) stuck in this marketplace mindset about news in which the commodity value of news takes precedent over its potential for civic engagement.
Your write, “'Americans just don’t care that we have a very insular view of the world'? Maybe 30 years ago, today not so much."
I certainly recall when, perhaps a year or two ago, I saw the Economist rise to become the most prominently displayed news weekly at kiosks and bookstores. Similarly I believe it has only been in the past few years that the FT can be easily purchased in even smaller airports. Even so, they are still minority publications (cf. http://www.npr.org/templates/s... ) and self-consciously snobbish ones at that (albeit ones I read).
Moreover the emergence of these from the far margin of the US market to merely the outskirts has coincided with the collapse of the foreign desks of many other news outlets, which may account for increased public appetite for such decidedly international coverage. It's also coincided with much public anxiety over America's place in the world---another driver.
My experience (and many market surveys) suggest that the exodus from network news and print journalism is fueled by internet news and specialty cable news which is either culled from various sources and largely underfunded with respect to foreign offices, or is targeted at specific readers with a specific cocktail of social/political/religious views and demographics. While you may be an outlier, many are engaging in a kind of journalistic form of The Big Sort.
js
The issue is not that our American news sources don't cover international stories (though they could certainly do a better job of that). Rather, it's that, even with an abundance of international sources available to us, we choose to consume news that is first filtered through a comfortable, familiar, western lens, denying us a greater understanding of the other. To learn ABOUT the other is not the same as learning FROM the other.
I think a critical point to make is that Robin's article is not about you nor do your experiences really matter to the statistical nature of the point she is making. Good for you for following various news sources. However, your experience is not the median one.
js
I'm happy to have a conversation on this. I agree about the Pew report: yes, people are getting their news from different sources than they used to. The big question---which Pew does not address---is whether that is used by most consumer to obtain a greater breadth of views (as in your case) or to obtain a more narrowly focused news products. Robin and I seem to agree that the latter is true for the median consumer. Likewise, the internet (and cable news before it) has certainly enabled the latter by reducing the barriers to entry for media representing niche views. My empirical sense of things is that media consumptions is becoming more narrowly focused, not broader. I imagine you experience that in your business too: for example, the sorts of demographically targeted ads my parents and mother-in-law see on Fox news are ads I never see on ft.com, much less highly targeted media like monocle.com. In contrast, when I get the Sunday edition of the Washington Post or New York Times, ads run the gamut.
Now I will agree that for some consumers electronic delivery has chiefly had the effect of broadening their access to news outlets of different views, you are one example. Perhaps I'm naive, but I suspect that is not the norm.
js
I have found the radio to be better for a range of in depth news coverage & B.B.C. World in particular.When I lived in England in the 60s. I listened to the A.F.N. & then to Radio Beijing to get the opposite point of view on the same news!
However, I am a little unclear about your reasoning in the second half of your comment. Would you like to elaborate? How does the content you posted connect with watching Al Jazeera? Do you believe that Al Jazeera espouses such views? Do you think we cannot learn more about those issues in general by better understanding an Arab worldview?