Alisa Miller: Why We Know Less Than Ever About the World

Another entertaining and enlightening TED Talk, this one on the failure of US news sources to provide information about the world. I wish she had talked longer.

The news is really making is dumb.

Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, talks about why -- though we want to know more about the world than ever -- the US media is actually showing less. Eye-opening stats and graphs.

Alisa Miller is President and CEO of Public Radio International. She oversees the development of ome 400 hours of programming a week, bringing challenging radio programs to millions of listeners. She is responsible for making PRI programs such as This American Life accessible through satellite radio, and for spearheading the development of new programs such as the political humor show Fair Game. And yes, she is the first woman to take the helm of a public radio network.

Miller is an advocate for a global perspective in news programming. She notes that, even while society becomes more globally interconnected, "Americans seem to know less and less about the world around them." (Symptoms include the closure of foreign news bureaus -- and the increasing share of broadcast time devoted to Britney Spears.) Diversity in reporting, she says, is not just important -- it is vital for everyone who seeks to understand and act for good in an interdependent, increasingly complex world.

Tags: TED talks, Alisa Miller, Why We Know Less Than Ever About the World, media, news, culture, information