In the Hot Zone Paper

Ok, so I know this doesn't have a whole lot to do with Greece, but I decided to put it up anyways, seeing as how it was written for the same class. Also, Kevin Sites is coming to Flagler March 22, and I am so excited!

Americans make up about thirteen percent of the world population. Of this thirteen percent, nearly seventy five percent have access to the internet. Though this statistic may seem less than impressive given how important the internet has become to our daily lives, compared to the rest of the world, it’s a miracle. North America is the continent with the highest percentage of people that have access to the internet; Australia is not far behind with a little more than sixty percent.

The digital divide has become a serious issue. Those people who have access to the internet and those who do not. One would assume that those who have access to the Internet would be flooded with knowledge about current event in and outside of his or her own country, but it simply is not that way. Kevin Sites makes a point of addressing the issue in a not so subtle way.

While most likely any American would be able to tell you who made the top twelve in American Idol or who took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, what would they be able to tell you about the current status of the flooding in Kazakhstan or even the allegations against ex-representative for New York, Eric Massa? The point is, Americans have little knowledge or care of recent events in the news aside from entertainment. Of the seventy five percent of Americans that have the ability to log on and stay up to date on important issues worldwide, few do.

Why do these numbers matter? In Kevin Sites, “In the Hot Zone” he writes, “We have unparalleled access to information, yet on the most important matters of our responsibility as global citizens, we live in information poverty. America is a third-world nation in its per capita knowledge of the people, issues and events outside its borders.” As a county with largest amount of people with Internet access, there is absolutely no reason for a statement to be true, yet it is.

It is true, proven by statistics, America does have unparalleled access to information and we consistently take it for granted. Before someone reads this and tells me to get off my high horse, I would not be as dense as to say I am not just as guilty. Though like Sites said, it is our responsibility as global citizen to be informed.

I absolutely agree with Sites and his accusations against Americans and the lives of information poverty that they lead. I would go as far as to say that we are a third-world nation in its per capita knowledge of people, issues and events inside its borders as well. It is not that we only choose to ignore what is happening outside our country but inside of it.

Perhaps Americans choose to be oblivious. When you live a seemingly “normal” life, it is easy to turn a blind eye and assume that everything is going fine. I’m sure most Americans do not want to wake up in the morning pour their cup of coffee and take it with a side of heaping guilt over the condition of the world around them. There is also the possibility that Americans are just plain apathetic when it comes to consuming global information. The “if I cannot see it, it is not there” mindset could play a major role in the lack of knowledge Americans have about current events.

Kevin Sites saw the problem of Americans lack of responsibility and decided to address it head on. He presented global current events in an entirely new way that forced Americans to interact and feel the emotions, hear the sounds and see the gruesome truth about what is happening around them and without knowing it, affecting their daily lives. The Hot Zone project was produced through Yahoo! In hopes of altering the way Americans viewed the importance of being dialed into global crisis. At the end of it all, Sites was left angry and unsatisfied in his pursuit to keep Americans informed and concerned in important issues and events. Though he may not have been able to fully alter American perceptions, he pioneered a new way of journalism and inspired a whole new generation of people just as eager to tell the truth and make it heard.