Rick Steves' Travel as a Political Act Blog - Putting Your Global Perspective into Action at Home, Part 5

Putting Your Global Perspective into Action at Home, Part 5

Seek out balanced journalism. Assume commercial news is entertainment — it thrives on making storms (whether political, military, terrorist-related, or actual bad weather) as exciting as they can get away with in order to increase their audience so they can charge more for advertising. Money propels virtually all media. Realize any information that comes to you has an agenda. If already consuming lots of TV news, read a progressive alternative source that's not so corporation-friendly (such as The Nation magazine, www.thenation.com).

Read books that explain the economic and political basis of issues you've stumbled onto in your travels. A basic understanding of the economics of poverty, the politics of empire, and the power of corporations are life skills that give you a foundation to better understand what you experience in your travels. Information that mainstream media considers “subversive” won't come to you. You need to reach out for it. The following are a few of the books (listed in chronological order) that have shaped and inspired my thinking over the years: Bread for the World (Arthur Simon), Food First (Frances Moore Lappe), The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt), Future in our Hands (Erik Dammann), Manufacturing Consent (Noam Chomsky), War Against the Poor: Low-Intensity Conflict and Christian Faith (Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer), Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes (Robert McAfee Brown), The United States of Europe (T.R. Reid), The European Dream (Jeremy Rifkin), and The End of Poverty (Jeffrey Sachs).

Contribute to the Travel as a Political Act Readers' Forum. It's designed so that we travelers can share ideas and encourage and inspire each other. Please join the discussion there, share thoughts generated by this blog, and contribute ways you've enjoyed incorporating your world view into your local activism.

About This Entry

You are reading "Putting Your Global Perspective into Action at Home, Part 5", an entry posted on 07 May 2010 by Rick Steves.

5 replies to this entry. Add your comment below.

Previous Entry, Putting Your Global Perspective into Action at Home, Part 4, posted May 05 2010

Next Entry, Keep on Whirling, posted May 10 2010

Comments [ top ]

I find my appreciation of life from the result of travelling and learning covers all areas...not just idealism from different sources....from art I have learned of beauty, culture, strife (ie guernica), history....I have appreciated new foods and tastes.....ie fries with Mayonasise...and different world views...ie all the isms...I will look at the books you mention Rick....particularly like the title The European Dream to investigate....

Posted by: Bill27 - May 07, 2010 11:34 AM

I am surprised by how many of my friends get their news from only one source. One good friend strongly believes that "if it's broadcast on TV, it must be true." My well-educated parents sometimes have a hard time filtering the internet. With all the access to so much information, shouldn't we teach media awareness in school?

Posted by: Candy Sawyer - May 07, 2010 3:45 PM

The Nation is a very bad and very biased news source. I recommend the New York Times and NPR as the most balanced sources in the U.S. For foreign sources I like the BBC and Spiegel.

Posted by: bill - May 08, 2010 10:32 AM

Why not try reading some Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams? Maybe then you'll understand why, for example, Nicaragua and Singapore differ so much today, when they were in about the same condtion at the end of WWII.

Posted by: Scott - Jun 08, 2010 11:10 AM

Your opening paragraph is so true. The storm we are reading about today from the out of context video presented by one news source is exactly what I believe your state-all information has an agenda. Just 24 hours later the story is expanding and with more information we are seeing a bigger picture. Again, as you state get your information from more then one source and I don't mean the US major networks or US cable. They have their agenda to sell ads to make the profits the shareholders require. You need to do your own research to find facts. Not get them from a talking head. Again, thanks Rick for your opinions and sharing your blogs.

Posted by: Henry - Jul 21, 2010 9:25 AM