Conghaileach
22nd October 2002, 17:38
PULLMAN, WASH. The profusion of international news available on the
Internet has made it increasingly difficult for the average American
to ignore the rest of the world, a trend researchers say threatens
Americans' long, proud history of disregarding anything not about them.
"With all the foreign newspapers and multi-cultural sites, the Internet
is making it almost impossible for the average American to remain
uninformed and apathetic," said Samantha Lessborn of Washington
State University, which conducted the survey. "Americans can still
do it. But it now takes effort, whereas before it was as easy as
turning off Tom Brokaw whenever he said 'In South Korea today...'"
According to survey participant Danny Grisham, a 22-year-old from
Cheyenne, Wyoming, it's not just the plethora of international news
on the Web that is irritating.
"Look, I can get around the news. I just turn off Reuters headlines in
MyYahoo," he said. "But even some of the search sites like Yahoo
and Alta Vista are available in different languages. Like everybody
in the world doesn't speak English."
"I can see where it's important if we're, like, beating some country in
the Olympics or bombing them or, ideally, both," Grisham added.
"But if some Colombian drug lord sinks a ferry full of Israeli soldiers
in North Latvoania or Serbo-Malaysia, or wherever, and Americans
aren't involved, what has that got to do with me?"
Other respondents said they were appalled, not just by the availability
of non-U.S. news, but by the way important U.S. news is reported by
some of these foreign sites. "Yesterday, for instance, the St. Louis
Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, OK, and I go to the London Times
site and it's not even there," said Chip Pernadge of Kansas City, Mo.
"Jesus, no wonder those guys lost the war and had to give Hong
Kong back to Canada."
Sensing a market opportunity, Net Nanny, makers of Net Nanny
filtering software, announced this week it will introduce NetNarrow,
an English-only product that automatically filters out content that
appears to be international. Specifically, the software looks for
world datelines and keywords indicative of irrelevant foreign stories,
including "Shiite," "post-Apartheid," and "Bob Geldof."
Survey-taker Craig Barker of Brooklyn, New York, said he will be
among the first to get NetNarrow."On the Web, there are so many
ways to get news from so many different places, I could really get
some fresh insights into what's going on in other countries if I
wanted to," he said.. "But I don't want to."
"You'd think these Internet people would know that," Barker added.
"I mean, that's why the Internet is called America Online, right? It's
supposed to be about America."
Internet has made it increasingly difficult for the average American
to ignore the rest of the world, a trend researchers say threatens
Americans' long, proud history of disregarding anything not about them.
"With all the foreign newspapers and multi-cultural sites, the Internet
is making it almost impossible for the average American to remain
uninformed and apathetic," said Samantha Lessborn of Washington
State University, which conducted the survey. "Americans can still
do it. But it now takes effort, whereas before it was as easy as
turning off Tom Brokaw whenever he said 'In South Korea today...'"
According to survey participant Danny Grisham, a 22-year-old from
Cheyenne, Wyoming, it's not just the plethora of international news
on the Web that is irritating.
"Look, I can get around the news. I just turn off Reuters headlines in
MyYahoo," he said. "But even some of the search sites like Yahoo
and Alta Vista are available in different languages. Like everybody
in the world doesn't speak English."
"I can see where it's important if we're, like, beating some country in
the Olympics or bombing them or, ideally, both," Grisham added.
"But if some Colombian drug lord sinks a ferry full of Israeli soldiers
in North Latvoania or Serbo-Malaysia, or wherever, and Americans
aren't involved, what has that got to do with me?"
Other respondents said they were appalled, not just by the availability
of non-U.S. news, but by the way important U.S. news is reported by
some of these foreign sites. "Yesterday, for instance, the St. Louis
Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, OK, and I go to the London Times
site and it's not even there," said Chip Pernadge of Kansas City, Mo.
"Jesus, no wonder those guys lost the war and had to give Hong
Kong back to Canada."
Sensing a market opportunity, Net Nanny, makers of Net Nanny
filtering software, announced this week it will introduce NetNarrow,
an English-only product that automatically filters out content that
appears to be international. Specifically, the software looks for
world datelines and keywords indicative of irrelevant foreign stories,
including "Shiite," "post-Apartheid," and "Bob Geldof."
Survey-taker Craig Barker of Brooklyn, New York, said he will be
among the first to get NetNarrow."On the Web, there are so many
ways to get news from so many different places, I could really get
some fresh insights into what's going on in other countries if I
wanted to," he said.. "But I don't want to."
"You'd think these Internet people would know that," Barker added.
"I mean, that's why the Internet is called America Online, right? It's
supposed to be about America."