Almost everyone in the world has heard of the United States, and most have opinions about it. But Americans have varying degrees of familiarity with the other 194 countries in the world besides their own, ranging from speaking the language of a foreign country and having lived or studied there, to having vacationed in many foreign countries, to only having read or heard about other countries, to almost no knowledge whatsoever.
Yet, important things happen in countries all over the world, things that will impact Americans. How do American journalists report to an audience with a wide disparity of familiarity with foreign countries? How do the journalists inform themselves of the countries, their history, the issues at play, when they themselves may not have a deep prior knowledge of the subjects?
How do American journalists approach explaining foreign countries, and the issues they face, to American audiences?