Longing for the day ...

Interesting idea, that ...

Just read about the Backbench World Problems Index. Not sure the mathematics will work out precisely but it's a great start to analysing a problem that has plagued Australian media for quite a while. Even if the numbrs are debatable and, as Justin points out, need refinement, I'm sure we can larn from it and develop/refine the metrics.

Australians are not quite as myopic as the yanks, but one of the first things you learn in journalism school is about "news values" - that readers want to learn about things near and dear to them. Given that most of the Australian population is immigrants of some form or other, we ought to be very intersted in world events - but you hardly ever read about them in Australian newspapers.

Perhaps the BWPI assessors could do a comparison with the SBS World News, which has always struck me a significantly different and more informative ...