Scholarship is learning and sharing what you learned.

I am a political scientist at the University of Iowa. For something over five years I have been studying global communication.

Global communication is the news produced by media that aspire to a global audience. Specifically, I look at Aljazeera English, BBC World, and CNN World every night. They all aspire to a global audience — though the corporate underpinning for the websites invests more or less in this global enterprise. To have a contrast I also look at Aljazeera Arabic. I cannot read the Arabic, but I learn what I can by looking at the pictures.

The goal is understanding the emerging global culture. Culture is ‘carried’ on communication, and these media that aspire to a global audience are one of the beginnings of that emerging culture. Movies and jeans are other global communication.

So, this is Globalizing News because that is what these media are doing. And it is what I want to understand.

The motivation for writing this blog is recording what I am learning. I spend an hour every midnight looking at the websites. I notice patterns. But a week later I do not remember the pattern or I remember the pattern but I cannot remember where I noticed it. I need a simple way to record the patterns I notice.

Scholarship is learning and sharing what you learn. If all I did was notice patterns and record them in a ‘private’ place I would be failing as a scholar. So, this is a way to share.

If anyone should happen by I hope you find these patterns interesting.

Bob Boynton