Where we get our news from can sometimes be as important as the news itself. The same story reported from different perspectives can give readers a wide variety of information and provide divergent conclusions on the status of current affairs.

Whenever I feel I have a good handle on a particular subject or event, I seek out other opinions to justify, or shoot holes in, my own conclusions. I have found that the best positions and most reasonable recommendations are those based on the inclusion of many sides of an issue. Finding diversity and inclusiveness about world concerns and regional issues can be a challenge to us here in the mountains due in part to geographical and cultural isolation, be it real or assumed.

Like many, I don’t have an incredibly overriding concern with issues that don’t directly or radically affect my life. I have learned that there are some things over which I have little control or impact. My world revolves largely around home, family and friends, jobs, community and my particular place or role in it. I get my news from hometown newspapers, weekly publications like The Smoky Mountain News and some national media. My wife and I spend much of our time out doing things we enjoy or feel compelled to do, so rarely are we home waiting for the news to come on, browsing news links on the web or flipping through the advertisements in Time or Newsweek. About once a month I buy a Sunday Charlotte, Atlanta or Raleigh edition to see what’s going on beyond the foothills. Every so often I peruse a copy of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal for that big city perspective on where we’re at as a country and a society.

Almost all the news I get is written by Americans about America’s issues and American challenges and how global developments affect America’s interests abroad. At times I’ve wondered what other countries and cultures see in their news, and if they too are blasted for weeks on end about Monica Lewinsky, O.J. Simpson or some controversial court appointment.

A few months ago I came across a reference to a relatively small publication out of New York City specializing in world news from world sources. I visited the web site of World Press Review (www.worldpress.org ) and found a compilation of articles from newspapers around the globe (all translated thankfully). I saw titles like The Korea Herald, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Hindustan Times, Die Zeit from Germany and Dnevnik (opposition paper) from Macedonia. I saw articles on America from very different outlooks, by authors who’s names I wouldn’t even try to pronounce. I marveled at the differences in reports on topics I heard first from Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters, and I began to understand the meaning of the phrase “a world of difference.” America and her people are viewed differently than what we are usually told when seen from the eyes of someone on the front lines of a civil war in the Balkans or at a resettlement area in Israel.

I read with interest the top stories of other countries, news items we never hear about (or if we do it is sound bytes with little background or substance), and rarer yet how the incident affects daily life for the countries inhabitants and the world as a whole. It’s interesting to hear about our country from a place like Pakistan, or how President Bush’s treatment of the Kyoto Accords is seen from China’s reporters. I found myself scrutinizing our country’s actions and policies, and how the news we receive is somewhat tainted with American idealism and rationale. This often leaves the pure facts and implications for daily life to someone else. We see what reporters, editors and media conglomerates want us to see.

I wondered, as I read, who else would be reading this stuff and would find these global perspectives of interest, or challenging, or a refreshing change from the overly Americanized version of world news we get in this country from the big news networks. I came to my own conclusion that the readers would be diverse and concerned, probably a little more educated, traveled and affluent than, say, National Enquire readers. Most would probably be interested in things requiring some “outside of the box” thinking. In short, I determined them to be the type of people I would enjoy sharing an engaging conversation with, or possibly even my neighborhood.

I decided to contact those readers with a classified advertisement offering homesites for sale at our Unahwi Ridge Community development in Jackson County. I’m not sure what type of responses I’ll get from the ad, but I hope to gain some insight into how rural southern Appalachia is viewed by people from other places and perspectives.

Maybe they’ll wonder and ask why anyone would want to live in the middle of the mountains, away from the luxury and conveniences that cities offer, out where there are bears and snakes and races on Friday nights. I’ll tell them everything I find wonderful about living here, about the challenges we face from growth and development, about how the region’s character is changing, and maybe provide them with a little new insight on how our region fits into the world’s big picture.

(John Beckman is a building contractor and Operations Manager at Unahwi Ridge Community\Pomme de Terre Farm in Jackson County. Contact him at www.unahwiridge.com)

 

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