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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

~ Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816

A mural on a wall in my college residence hall reminded us, "Ignorance is bondage." In a country where the foundation of government is built of, for, and by the people, an uninformed populace loses its ability to effectively check and shape government policy. But in the information age of the 21st century, how can citizens effectively sift through the media to construct a broad understanding of the issues and events in the world?

Not surprisingly, the same technology that brings us the blitz of sights, sounds and words provides the tools to quickly and effectively harness the flow of information. A curious citizen with a few tools at his disposal can pull in a diverse survey of news stories in the same time one might normally spend reading a single morning paper. All it takes is an active, rather than passive approach to media consumption.

The Citizen News Gatherer
The key to developing an informed understanding of the world is to view events from various sources and perspectives. Any investigator understands the importance of consulting multiple sources and looking at an issue from different viewpoints. The same rule of thumb applies to the citizen news gatherer. No single media outlet can provide a complete picture of the world. To put together a more coherent jigsaw, one must look to different sources to accumulate the pieces.

No matter how 'objective' a media source appears to be--or more often, claims to be--every news source still must decide what to cover, an inherently subjective decision. The stories that a media outlet covers represent its perspective on the world, and its ideas and beliefs on what's important and what's not; moreover, so do the stories that get placed on the front page versus the ones that get buried in the back, or that receive a feature article rather than a short blurb.

Seeking out a true variety of sources necessarily involves more than just reading papers from different US cities. In the year 2000, six major corporations* dominated the US media landscape, down from 20 in 1992 and 50 in 1982**. In June of 2003, the FCC, led by chairman Michael Powell, voted to ease media ownership rules, allowing a single company to own TV stations that reach 45 percent, instead of 35 percent of the US market, allowing joint ownership of a newspaper and broadcast station in the same city, and easing rules around TV ownership so that a company can own two stations in most markets and three stations in large cities such as Los Angeles and New York. Increasingly, the major media in the US speak with a single voice. Within any one country, a certain perspective colors stories, and that is especially true in the US where the lack of diversity among the major media affects the breadth of stories and perspectives that can be offered.

With that said, the major media outlets in the US act as merely the starting point for the citizen news gatherer.

Beyond the major media of any given country, one can look to alternative, or independent media, and international sources. This is increasingly easy to do in the Internet age, but takes an active approach to news gathering that goes beyond passively turning on the television or radio to the nearest commercial station or picking up the city paper that lands on the doorstep. In the same time it takes to read the morning paper or watch a news program on television, one can go online and scan the headlines and read articles from a dozen different sources around the world to get a feel for what's happening and how it's being perceived and portrayed.

There is no set list of sources that hold all the pieces to the puzzle. The point is to consult a wide array of sources in order to get different perspectives and viewpoints. One might start with a scan of the major newspapers in the US, which give an indication of what the major US media (and hence institutions) deem important. Then, one can look to major newspapers in other English speaking countries, such as the UK, Ireland, Australia or media from other countries printed in English. If one can read different languages, then papers from countries where those languages are used can provide important insight into cultural variations and differing perspectives on world affairs. And remember the independent media, both domestic and abroad--media outlets that have a smaller circulation, but tend to be operated with help from volunteers or grassroots support, rather than receiving funding from corporations. Independent media can operate free from the constraints that hamper bigger media corporations--namely, responsibility to advertisers and the corporate bottom line or intertwined interests with parent companies or the government power structure.

Some Web sites exist that provide a summary of articles from various international sources at your fingertips. Most media sources have a Web presence that can be easily accessed. Some require subscriptions for selected articles or to access parts of their site. Nevertheless, one can select a broad list of sources with simple Web searches and bookmark the best sites for quick reference. Even without an Internet, one can accomplish a similar survey by spending some time in the periodical room of many libraries.

When interacting with media, one should keep in mind who wrote the article, who published it, and what connections these entities have to industry, government, and advertisers. Who's on the editorial board? What types of perspectives does the source generally provide--liberal, moderate, conservative, etc.? How is the media organization funded--through advertising, subscribers, non-profits, etc.? Where does the information come from for the stories--is there a reliance on government or industry sources, etc.?

In the modern age, a public citizen armed with an Internet connection and critical eye can stay well informed and up to date on important issues facing the world. And as is often repeated, an informed citizen is the cornerstone of a thriving democracy.

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* General Electric, Viacom, Disney, Bertelsmann, Time Warner, and News Corp.

** Bagdikian, Ben. (2000). The Media Monopoly, Sixth Edition. Boston: Beacon Press.