Interest in International Current Events

World Trade Center, New York, September 11, 2001

Telecommunication technology enables events that are happening in one place to be instantaneously transmitted all over the world.  For example, in September 2001, the terrorist attacks with hijacked airplanes on the World Trade Centers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington DC were seen all over the world, with portions of the subsequent events (such as the building collapses) being shown live on media outlets such as CNN.

Events such as the New York City terrorist attacks contain so much tragedy and spectacle that everyone would be captured with morbid fascination and sadness.  In real life, such dramatic events are the exception rather than the rule.  Most of the time, global media outlets cover visually unspectacular subjects such as politics and economy, in which we expect there is less interest.

We will now cite some survey data about Latin Americans' interest in events that take place in other countries.  In the Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica study, there were 6,378 survey respondents between the ages of 12 to 64 years old in television households in 18 countries in Latin America.  When these respondents were presented with the statement "I am very interested in events that take place in other countries," 34% of them said that they 'completely agreed.'  

In the table below, we show the breakdown by demographic groups.  Higher agree rates are found among Brazilians, Venezuelans and Central Americans, middle-aged males, better educated and more affluent people.

New York City, September 11, 2001

The popular paradigm for economic development over the last two decades has been based upon liberalization through economic restructuralization and open trade.  As national economies become integrated into the global economy, there are some swings and shocks that reverberate across the world system.  Thus, a default in Russian government bonds may lead to withdrawal of investments from third world countries in general, such as Brazil; in turn, the slowing down of the Brazilian economy means dire consequences for countries such as Argentina and Paraguay which count on exporting goods to Brazil, and so on.  This type of volatility have dramatic impact on people's lives.  These economic shocks are very frustrating to policy makers as well as citizens, since many of the extra-national events are beyond their control.  The best that one can do is to pay attention to these events, assess their potential impact and adjust one's plans accordingly.  

On the business side, the survey data showed 46% of persons who are business decision makers (more precisely, those who have made purchases of over US$500 for their companies in the last 12 months) completely agreed with the statement.  By virtue of their business positions, these people have the need to keep up-to-date with outside events.

On the individual side, in a previous article, we have pointed out how consumer confidence affected spending.  In the next table, we show the relationsihp between consumer confidence and the amount of attention paid to events in other countries.  The least interest is shown by those who are in stable financial conditions and who did not and/or do not expect to experience change.

(posted by Roland Soong, 9/16/2001)

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