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| Chapter 14: Foreign Policy |
| Get Involved |
The United States invented the Internet. But as of 2008, the United States does not lead the world in terms of cheap access to broadband Internet bandwidth. Since 2001, surveys suggest, the United States has fallen from having the 4th highest percentage of its homes with broadband per capita, to out of the top ten. Nations like Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, South Korea, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Canada and Great Britain all ranked higher, as the twenty-first century approached the end of its first decade. The United States also in recent years has faced more of a “digital divide,” in terms of the access of its citizens to cheap bandwidth, with disparities emerging in terms of income, race and urban vs. rural living.
So in terms of using the Internet to reach the mass public, other nations in the world may have valuable lessons to teach the United States in the future. The role of new technologies may also play a greater role in countries where citizens lack the same democratic freedoms as they possess in America. In countries where citizens lack the same secure freedoms to access information or to criticize the government in public, online forums and electronic communication may be an even more important form of advocacy. Finally, the Internet can be an invaluable tool for Americans to learn more about how other countries conduct their own politics, and the variety of models through which democracy may be practiced. |
1. As one example of an innovative effort to use the Internet overseas, the Global Voices project, located at http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/, is a nonprofit network of bloggers worldwide. Global Voices reporters use the Internet to report on events at home, often in governments and in corners of the globe that the American media lack the resources to cover.
Visit the Global Voices website. Describe a news story overseas that you had not heard about before visiting the website. |
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| 1b. Using the website pop up menus on the Global Voices site, select a region of the globe that interests you and a topic. What is a story there of concern to local bloggers? |
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2. How does foreign public opinion compare to the United States’? Another worldwide guide to public opinion is the Angus Reid Global Monitor, located at http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/, which tracks foreign policy and polls in many different countries.
Visit the Angus Reid Global Monitor, scroll down the website, and select a public opinion poll not conducted within the United States. What is the survey about, and what are its specific findings? |
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| 2b. Enter the name of a country (China, Great Britain, Russia, etc.) in the website search engine, and see if you can locate a local poll conducted there. What were the results of this survey? |
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