Public Better Informed in Other Countries?

A 2008 academic study compared the level of public knowledge about current events in Denmark, Finland, England and the U.S. It found that the countries with TV/radio dominated by public broadcasting -- Denmark and Finland -- were the best informed. Our country, dominated by corporate media, was the least informed. The study's authors suggest that differing media systems play a role in those results.

In a related note: A 2003 study of U.S. public knowledge of facts related to the Iraq War found that misperceptions were greatest among those whose primary info source was Fox News, least among those whose primary info source was public broadcasting.

U.S. public misunderstanding seems to be growing: A Pew poll taken last month found that almost 1 in 5 Americans believe President Obama to be a Muslim; only 34% know he is a Christian. 43% chose "don't know."

Global Voice Online, a favorite of mine

Interesting news of the world from bloggers/others who live or hail there! In protest, Chinese professor (and blogger) offers himself up as slave. Online expose of official corruption in India. Earlier this year, a group in Lebanon that was fed up with the reader-unfriendly, unresponsive website of the Daily Star newspaper, offered a redesign of the website themselves.

French President to Citizen: Get Lost, You Idiot!

President Sarkozy caught on Net video. French politicians having difficulty tolerating the scrutiny from new media, Internet, YouTube -- especially compared to coverage they'd received from traditional media. A conservative cabinet member was videoed dancing with young folks to Black Eyed Peas tune. Our ex caught on video.

Video and Blogging for Human Rights

The nonprofit group, Witness.org, distributes video cameras in hopes of minimizing human rights abuses. Their slogan: "See it. Film it. Change it."

Vancouver Film School students created an inspiring video, "Iran, A Nation of Bloggers", and put it online months before the tech-fueled protests over Iran's disputed 2009 election.

Egypt: Internet Use Can Get You Killed

With the Egyptian government dominating all major media in the country, brave Egyptians (citizen journalists) risk imprisonment and torture to blog or tweet about human rights abuses. Renowned Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas interviewed annoyingly by elitist BBC anchor. Abbas (and his mom) were assaulted in their home in April 2009, reported Global Voices Online.

Fascinating video (with far-from-perfect English translation): "Internet Freedom in Egypt"

Profile of blogger Marwa Rakha, born and raised in Egypt. Her blog post on an incident of mass detention of bloggers, including Wael Abbas, to cover the aftermath of a massacre of Egyptian Christians.

Last June, 28-year-old Khaled Saeed was beaten to death in public for the crime of Internet use.

Crowd-funded Journalism

Would you spend $20 to help underwrite a feature or investigative report? Check out Spot.us, a community-funded journalism project explained in this video by founder David Cohn.

As Daily Papers Shrink

Filling some gaps left by shrinking or disappearing dailies are nonprofit news sites -- from the well-funded, well-staffed VoiceofSanDiego.org to Baltimore's smaller InvestigativeVoice.com