Media...

Let's talk about the media now. As you may have guessed, it's hard for me to find out what is going on in the world. I have to have the English language papers. So that gives me the International Herald Tribune (put out by the NY Times) and the Jakarta Post.

The latter is a bit more common, but it's not what I expect out of the national paper. By that, I am comparing it to USA Today, not the NY Times, nor the Chicago Tribune. It also speaks with the Indonesian government's voice, a government ruled by the same party for 40 years. That has recently changed, but not very recently. So I'm not completely trusting of the Jakarta Post.

So I was shocked to find an article about the Pew Research Center. This is a well regarded organization that conducts all sorts of surveys on attitudes of various sets of people. The survey of discussion was the most recent from the Pew Global Attitudes Project.

The Jakarta Post indicated that most Western news sources have ignored this report, with the exception of the International Herald. Why the downplay?

It concerns China. 79% of Chinese are satisfied with "national conditions." Jordanians, 69%, and Pakistanis, 59%. The figure for the US is 39%. So the assumption is that Western media does not want to advertise the fact that people with oppressive governments are seemingly satisfied with them.

The fine print does say that the survey was overwhelmingly urban based, with an error of 2%. The rural tend to be less educated and less wealthy, factors that led to optimism.

I assume that I'll be reading newspapers from all over the world with the same grain of salt. It does lead me to wonder what I will read and think once I get back to the US media.

This link will take you to a list of all of the reports, some of which will make interesting reading as you avoid doing work...

Thoughts?