Alisa Miller or Public Radio International (PRI) is speaking at TED this week. PRI has set up a page for this TED talk which aims at helping citizens become more aware of international news, the limitations of existing news structures and the importance of global journalism. The video below is very well done and makes these previous points through statistics and visualizations.

Our society is becoming more globally interconnected each day. In our increasingly interdependent world, events taking place in distant countries can be of vital significance to Americans; in turn, the choices and actions we take here at home can reverberate around the globe. Yet, Americans seem to know less and less about the world around them, their many connections to it, and the complexities and interrelationships between major issues such as peace and security, energy, sustainability and the environment, economic development, health, and the arts and culture.

This is important because how we comprehend our world shapes how we live in it and what actions we take.

While the target audience is American, I do not get the sense from my contact with high school and undergraduate students that Canadian youth/adults fair much better in their understanding of the global context. Sure, we could blame US news sources and tout the differences evident in our beloved CBC. I know it is not enough. So, what do we do? How do we get our children to better understand the global context? How do we get our kids to see the importance of global perspectives? And more importantly, how do we get them to care?