The problem of modern locations in US news

US citizens seem uninformed about the tighter-knit world, and observers blame the media. Since the formation of their occupation, journalists have assumed that foreign coverage is shrinking as local news increases. The late-nineteenth-century redefinition of space, with the closing of the American frontier, focused news practice on the local. But content analyses of print, television, radio and online news show that in the twentieth century references to foreign countries grew, while references to local addresses decreased. Previous research shares practitioner assumptions and thus cannot explain the contradiction. Audiences want more foreign news, but as other locations become accessible news covers them less. Treating the public as ignorant expands the gulf separating practitioners. The trends mark another cultural redefinition, from physical ‘place’ towards digital-era ‘spaces’.