A while ago, I queried my fellow members of the Online News Association. Simple question:
What non-American sites do you regularly visit?
Within hours my mail box was bulking with responses. At least, that’s what I hoped. But alas, in vain. After some subtle prodding I did get some better idea what (mostly American) online-colleagues consider international inspiration.
Let me list them all:
- Canadian Broadcasting Company
And that was about it, although some funny guy mentioned that we shouldn’t forget the international flavor of Alaska and New Mexico.
Damn colleagues, we just can’t be bothered, can we?
As I was about to give up, someone alerted me to the following site:
Global Voices Online, managed by Curt Poff, who plugged his site as follows: “It’s not hard news. But still, you get a good idea about what folks are blogging about in far-flung locations around the world.”
And so I find myself for some time already, mostly after midnight, surfing the world wide web of blogging. Little pearl in that international ocean of opinions is by far the bloggers from Burma. It is a beautiful world.
December 18, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Tim, I think for many people it’s a question how one manages time. In a perefct world with unlimited time, I am sure most people would look at scores of news global web sites every day.
In reality, I think we can allocate only so much time in the workday to checking in on news sites, foreign or domestic.
And what is chosen is, of course, a matter of taste. There are a couple of US news websites I look at not only because I like to, but because given how strong they are editorially, I feel I have to in order to do my job well.
December 18, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Very true. That’s why I wrote, ’surfing after midnight’, when I should be in bed.
The more time I spend on other websites, the more I learn, and the more I realize there is so little time…
I was trying to get a transatlantic debate going, after having visited the ONA conference in Toronto and noticing how US oriented the whole thing was.
There is a lot happening in unexpected outbacks.
December 28, 2007 at 3:31 pm
[...] this month fellow ONA member Tim Overdiek posted an entry on his blog listing his favorite non-US news sites. I tried getting in a plug for my shop, but he [...]