We’ve posted previously on the tendency of the U.S. media to ignore the rest of the world (in favor of Britney Spears), even changing the cover of magazines sold in the U.S., but not elsewhere, in ways that coddle our ethnocentrism.
Given this phenomenon, this four-minute clip from a Russia Today news program (in English) is particularly striking. The reporter notes that the U.S. media is covering the ongoing foreign political protests more thoroughly, and with more positive enthusiasm, than it has the protests in Wisconsin.
Thanks to Abby Kinchy, fellow UW-Madison alum and Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, for the tip.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 14
Steve — March 1, 2011
I find it interesting how the media is covering the protests more than I thought they would however it appears that most Americans still do not care.
They may support or agree with what the unions are fighting for but they don't care enough.
Not that this example is much of empirical evidence but below is a screen shot of CNN a couple of weeks ago at one of the crescendo points of the protests:
http://timelydonut.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/cnn.png
Based on the most popular stories people seemed to care more about the Grammy's, Bieber, sharks and the iPhone than they did the protests.
Pew did a study showing that the media also covered the Egypt protests well (compared to other stories). But while half of the news stories were about Egypt by the media one third of individuals seemed to care. Here is the link to that story:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1888/interest-in-egypt-protest-news-up-but-still-lags-coverage-gas-prices-bad-news-economy-mixed
I haven't seen any data on how much has been reported and what the 'interest' in Wisconsin but I would be interested to see what it would be.
Thomas — March 1, 2011
This doesn't seem too difficult to explain, the corporate media is opposed to strong worker protections and would rather focus attention elsewhere.
Michael Bishop — March 1, 2011
Um, the "right" to collective bargaining is not equivalent to the "right" to free and fair elections.
I don't doubt that the media is biased against foreign governments, and in favor of our own, but maybe the media, and the American people, recognize the difference between the fight for freedom and the fight for stronger unions.
Moochi — March 2, 2011
It's fear, pure and simple. They're afraid that the protests in Wisconsion and all around the country showing solidarity for it will get stronger.
Oh, and they're all Koch-suckers. Can't forget the money involved.
Thomas — March 2, 2011
I suppose the natural experiment would be if a major Tea Party protest was planned at the same time that these revolutions were going on in North Africa and the Middle East. My money would be on 60%-70% coverage for the Tea Party vs. 30%-40% for the real revolutions.
We don't need state run media, our 'free' press is doing it for them.
casey — March 2, 2011
Just a note-
The Kremlin owns and runs Russia Today and the station has a very clear anti-American bias. No matter what is happening in America, Russia Today will spin it out to be worse than imagined. PBS in Chicago picks it up and runs episodes of Russia Today now and then. What I saw reminded me, a little bit, of a Chinese newspaper my friend brought back for me when he visited the country. All of the foreign wire stories in the publication focused on evil Americans or American companies screwing the Chinese in some way. The most striking example I remember was the story about the American couple who adopted and then were charged with molesting a Chinese baby. Russia Today is run very much the same way, and the idea of the Kremlin criticizing our domestic protest coverage is laughable. Because when protests break out in Russia, the government just sends out goons with clubs to stop it.
larrycwilson — March 2, 2011
MSNBC, at least in the persons of Maddow, Matthews, and Schultz ,seem to be following Wisconsin in detail and in full support of the protesters.
Datura — March 2, 2011
It amazes me how many middle and working class Americans seem to think that things like labour unions and universal health care are somehow evil tools of oppression. These are things that most countries in the developed world, and many in the developing world, take for granted as fundamental building blocks of their democracies.
From reading comments on various articles on this issue in the past few weeks, it seems like the general attitude (obviously not here) is one of intense jealousy - they don't have rights as private sector workers, so why should public sector workers have the luxury of basic rights?
Instead of helping billionaire oil tycoons further strip people of their rights, private sector workers should be rising up and demanding their right to collective bargaining. What was that about no taxation without representation?
pg — March 3, 2011
Outside of Rachel Maddow's coverage, the sparse reporting I have seen on the Wisconsin protest seems to generate the most angry, mean, rabid, comments imaginable. Every type of bad-faith arguing, name-calling, and outright misinformation is standard discourse, when the whole thing isn't just being ignored in favor of more articles about Charlie Sheen.
Tom — March 3, 2011
I agree America's news outlets do not pay attention to issues that are more important that Britney Spear's new baby or Charlie Sheen's new trip to jail, but...
Russia Today is not a reliable source. The channel has a very heavy anti-American slant and some of their stories border on ridiculous.
For example one story they ran claimed that America would break up by 2010 and Alaska would become part of Russia, the West would become part of or highly influenced by China, and the North-East would become part of the EU.