Today’s Pick: The Internet is NOT flat!
This Global Attention Profiles map shows what countries were included in the New York Times news coverage of December 1, 2003. Countries in red received the most attention, while pink and blue countries received smaller and smaller amounts of media coverage.
That was Ethan Zuckerman’s emphatic message at the recent Ontario Library Association conference in Toronto. Zuckerman, a research fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, studies the intersection of technology and developing countries. He co-founded Global Voices Online, a “global citizens’ media project” at Berkman that collects and distills web content from across the world, particularly from the Global South; he’s also behind the Global Attention Profiles project (GAP), which monitors the geographic distribution of media attention.
Zuckerman provides a much-needed counterpoint to Thomas Friedman’s Gospel of Globalization, the idea of the digital revolution as great global equalizer. Zuckerman argues that an Internet connection alone cannot correct the vast disparities between developed and developing nations. While he recognizes the democratizing potential of such technology, he emphasizes the fact that persistent structural and systemic disadvantages keep Friedman’s dream from becoming reality.
Zuckerman’s work with GAP is a graphic example. As the map above indicates, certain countries receive far more media attention than others - attention that turns out to be directly proportional to national GDP. Developing nations are thus rendered invisible, and as they fade from our collective radar screen they lose opportunities to participate in the global economy and receive humanitarian aid.
With GAP, Zuckerman raises awareness of the imbalances of our media coverage. With Global Voices Online, he actively changes the balance. Want to wade into the global media conversation yourself? Start here:
Kathryn is the Market Research Information Specialist Intern at MaRS. She is a graduate of the Masters of Information Studies program at the University of Toronto.