When I was growing up in the U.S. in the 1970s, 35-40% of an average nightly newscast focused on international stories.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Journalism talk is part of the nonstop background noise of American life.
When you live in America, it's kind of insular - the news coverage that you get - unless you're really smart about it and find more international news coverage.
Keep in mind that in 1985, I had a potential readership of over 50 million Americans. At that time, a good portion of those were under 30.
I don't think that my kind of journalism has ever been universally popular. It's lonely out here.
Journalism took me around the world. I worked in London for ten years and reported on the collapse of the Soviet Union, the troubles in Northern Ireland, and the first Gulf War.
In America journalism is apt to be regarded as an extension of history: in Britain, as an extension of conversation.
I generally don't follow domestic news that much aside from how it relates to the stories I'm covering abroad, like what Americans think of the War in Afghanistan.
There is no doubt that the way journalism worked when I was growing up and getting started has changed forever.
We have a lot of American TV in Australia. I grew up watching 'Seinfeld,' 'The Simpsons' and those prime time TV shows over the years that feature grown-ups and high school kids. We had a saturation of American voices.
I had gone to all the big stories of the '80s, which was one of the most fertile times in American journalism, around the world and here as well.