I have argued with journalists and cajoled students into thinking globally with their local stories.

Here is an example of how a Washington correspondent for a  New Jersey paper linked Pres. Obama’s current trip to Brazil with very local issues in New Jersey.

First posted at my Journalism, Journalists and the World site.

Congratulations to Herb Jackson, Washington correspondent for the [New Jersey] Record.

He not only understands the idea that there is a connection between international and local events, he knows how to dig into the various databases to get the numbers to back up the link.

Obama’s trip to Brazil key to N.J.

He did what I and a few others have been arguing for a long time. He took information already on hand from the wire services, looked up some data and did some local interviews.

Without spending extra money to send someone overseas, the readers of the Record got a news story that was specific to their local area AND showed how the New Jersey economy depended on global trade.

This is called providing context.

It would be nice to see more LOCAL reporting like this.

Too often most Americans don’t know or care about global events. In part, this is because the U.S. media don’t show enough intelligence to provide the context of why understanding what goes on in Brazil or Japan or Germany means to the local reader/listener/viewer.

Again, congrats to Herb Jackson for being a good journalist who sees connections vital to his readership.

In today’s Folha de S. Paulo there is a story about how Brazil sold Libya the anti-riot trucks and tanks being used against the demonstrators. And that is a good example of reporting about an international event and showing the local connection. It informs the Brazilian people about what deals its government has concluded.

Unfortunately, for the rest of the world will not hear about this. Seems as of noon today Folha did not put that story on its website.

Here is a picture of the story from the paper just to prove it exists:

I am not saying Brazil does not have a right to sell its products to anyone who can pay. All I am saying is that many in the world press went after the USA for selling tear gas to Egypt. Why then, are there no similar reports of Brazilian or French equipment being used in Libya and other despotic places?

UPDATE: It seems the article is now available but only to online subscribers. And you have to search by the actual title of the article. Searches for “Libia” or “Urutu” — Brazilian Portuguese terms for “Libya” and “tank” — came up with goose eggs.

If you want to see the online article, here is the link: Folha de S.Paulo – Brasil vendeu veículos “antimotim” ao país – 21/02/2011.

Just remember you have to register with the paper.

There is lots of information journalists can get from the Census Bureau.

I just posted some data on the DC SPJ site about African-Americans that the Bureau compiled. It is well worth a look. There are some interesting numbers that could easily lead to several good feature stories.

Black History Month: By the Numbers

The following item was first  posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World. One of the good things about the Wikileaks cables, I argue, is that it shows how the U.S. Foreign Service promotes and protects U.S. jobs — a very domestic issue.

Unfortunately few in the U.S. — and within the journalism community — understand that connection.

Perhaps a new generation of journalism students will grasp the local connection to international issues and the international side of local issues.

One can only hope.

A lot has been said about the Wikileaks cables and how they have — at a minimum — hurt the ability of U.S. diplomats to do their jobs. (A position I still hold.)

Most of the cables would have been declassified 10 years after they were written so anyone interested would have been able to see everything we are seeing today.

But that is just the problem — that “anyone interested” part. Damn few people in the States seem interested. (Unless they have a political agenda.)

Thanks to Wikileaks more people are now paying attention to what U.S. diplomats do. And how that work affects local situations.

A recent story in the New York Times showed how closely domestic and international affairs are linked. (Diplomats Help Push Sales of Jetliners on the Global Market)

Anyone who pays even the slightest attention to domestic economic affairs should know that the U.S. economy depends on trade. That means imports and exports. That means trade agreements and the ability to sell goods and services overseas.

And just how do you think the agreements that allow for imports and exports happen? Yep, through the work of the foreign services of a number of U.S. government agencies.

The Trade Representative Office works to make sure that our trade partners adhere to the trade treaties the sign with us.

The State Department negotiates the treaties and protects U.S. interests abroad. (Government and business.)

The Foreign Commercial Service (Commerce Department) has offices around the world promoting the sales of U.S. products from fortune cookies (yes, really) to aircraft.

The Agriculture Department has offices in most of the major U.S. embassies promoting U.S. agricultural sales as well as working to ensure the safety of food imported into the United States. (BTW, did you know that Wisconsin ginseng is more popular in China than Korean or Chinese ginseng?)

So why is there so much talk about cutting the foreign affairs’ budgets? I can only think it is out of pure ignorance of what the U.S. foreign service agencies do for the American government, people and businesses.

As I have stated before, foreign affairs does not have a constituency that can speak for it before Congress. The Pentagon hands out contracts to all 435 Congressional districts. And all the other agencies deal with domestic issues that voters can see and understand.

Unfortunately, the U.S. media have not helped the situation. Years of neglect about why events in the rest of the world mean anything to the American people have given us a generation (or more) of globally unaware people and leaders.

The amazing thing about the NYTimes story linked above is that the Times is treating this as news. As the article said, “It is not surprising that the United States helps American companies doing business abroad, given that each sale is worth thousands of jobs and that their foreign competitors do the same.”

Interestingly, the article focused on the sale of Boeing passenger jets. Yet there are also a number of Wikileaks cables that deal with the sale of U.S. military hardware. And this is just as important to keeping U.S. factories working.

Too bad they missed that little tidbit.

The authors find the details to be interesting. And they are. But, again, anyone who paid attention to such things did not need Wikileaks to get this kind of information.

But with media groups cutting budgets and bean counters screaming, “Local! Local! Local!” the resources are just not available to do the stories that explain to readers/viewers/listeners the connection between overseas’ events and their local economy on a regular basis.

So I guess even the harshest critics of Wikileaks should be thankful that finally the media are beginning to do some stories that show the domestic impact of what the foreign services do overseas. (I don’t really expect to see many more like the story mentioned above, but it would be nice.)

From my favorite government agency…

Facts and figures for all sorts of great stories.

World Statistics Day: Oct. 20

http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/

The United Nations General Assembly designated Oct. 20, 2010, as the first-ever World Statistics Day to highlight the role of official statistics and the many achievements of national statistical systems.

Statistical organizations throughout the world will celebrate World Statistics Day at the national and regional level. The census, the U.S. Census Bureau and 13 other principal federal statistical agencies together have been collecting statistics about the nation’s people, economy and society since 1790.

Stats for Kids

74.5 million

The number of children under 18 in the U.S. in 2009.

Source: 2009 population estimates http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/natasrh.html

84 percent

Percent of children who ate dinner with a parent five or more times per week in 2006.

Source: A Child’s Day: 2006 http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p70-118.pdf

70 percent

The percent of children under 18 who lived with both parents in 2009.

Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam.html

59 percent

The percent of children ages 6 to 11 who were highly engaged in school in 2006. The index for measuring a child’s engagement in school is based on whether a child is interested in schoolwork, whether a child works hard in school and whether the child likes school.

Source: A Child’s Day: 2006 http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p70-118.pdf

56 percent

Percent of children who are subject to family television rules, such as limiting what programs they may watch, what times they may watch and how many hours they may watch television.

Source: A Child’s Day: 2006 http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p70-118.pdf

42 percent

Percent of children ages 6 to 17 who participated in sports in 2006.

Source: A Child’s Day: 2006 http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p70-118.pdf

33 percent

Percent of children ages 6 to 17 who participated in extracurricular clubs in 2006.

Source: A Child’s Day: 2006 http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p70-118.pdf

5.3 million

Estimated number of “stay-at-home” parents in 2009 in the United States: 5.1 million mothers and 158,000 fathers.

Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam.html

Stats for Everyone

310 million*

Estimated current U.S. population. We reached 300 million in 2006, 200 million in 1967 and 100 million in 1915. When our nation achieved independence in 1776, we had a population of only 2.5 million.

*National and state population counts from 2010 Census data will be released by Dec. 31, 2010.

Source: U.S. and World Population Clocks  http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html

155.6 million

The number of women in the U.S. in 2009. Overall, the U.S. had more women than men (151.4 million). In a few states, however, men outnumbered women, such as Alaska where there were 362,000 men and 336,000 women.

Source: 2009 Population Estimates http://www.census.gov/popest/states/asrh/ and http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/

36.9 million

The number of U.S. residents who claimed Irish ancestry in 2009, which was eight times the population of Ireland itself (4.5 million).

Source: 2009 American Community Survey http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-_caller=geoselect&-state=dt&-format=&-mt_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G2000_B04006 and Ireland Central Statistics Office http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/population/current/popmig.pdf

70,490

The estimated number of centenarians (100 years old or more) in the U.S. in 2009. Projections indicate that in 2050, the number will be more than 600,000.

Source: 2009 Population Estimates http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/2009-nat-res.html Projections http://www.census.gov/population/www/projections/downloadablefiles.html

58 percent

The percent of female advanced degree holders among ages 25 to 29 in 2009.

Source: Current Population Survey: 2009 Educational Attainment http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/

85 percent

The percent of people 25 or older who held at least a high school degree in 2009.

Source: 2009 American Community Survey http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y&-qr_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G00_S1501&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-format=&-CONTEXT=st

28 percent

The percent of people 25 or older who held at least a bachelor’s degree in 2009.

Source: 2009 American Community Survey  http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y&-qr_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G00_S1501&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-format=&-CONTEXT=st

28 percent

The percent of householders who rated their homes a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 in 2009.

Source: 2009 American Housing Survey http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/ahs/ahs.html

25.1 minutes

The national mean travel time to work in 2009.

Source: 2009 American Community Survey  http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y&-qr_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G00_S0801&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-format=&-CONTEXT=st

24.3 pounds

Per capita candy consumption in 2009.

Source: Current Industrial Reports, Confectionery: 2009 http://www.census.gov/manufacturing/cir/historical_data/ma311d/index.html

Statistical Agencies

230

The U.S. Census Bureau website includes links to more than 200 international statistical agencies. Visit them by clicking the link below.

Source: http://www.census.gov/aboutus/stat_int.html

14

Number of U.S. principal statistical agencies. They are the Bureau of Economic Analysis; Bureau of Justice Statistics; Bureau of Labor Statistics; Bureau of Transportation Statistics; U.S. Census Bureau; Economic Research Service; Energy Information Administration; National Agricultural Statistics Service; National Center for Education Statistics; National Center for Health Statistics; Office of Environmental Information; Social Security Administration Office of Research Evaluation and Statistics; National Science Foundation: Science Resources Statistics; and the Internal Revenue Service’s Statistics of Income Division.

Source: Office of Management and Budget Statistical Programs of the United States Government http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/information_and_regulatory_affairs/10statprog.pdf

Statisticians

29,208

Number of statisticians employed in the United States in 2009.

Source: 2009 American Community Survey http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-_caller=geoselect&-state=dt&-format=&-mt_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G2000_B24124

20 percent

Percent of statisticians employed by the federal government, with most of them concentrated in the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services in 2008. Another 10 percent worked for state and local governments.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos045.htm

13 percent

Projected growth of employment of statisticians from 2008 to 2018.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos045.htm

$72,820

Median annual wage for statisticians in May 2009.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics  http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes152041.htm#nat

Special Editions of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Facts for Features are issued to provide background information for lesser-known observances, anniversaries of historic events and other timely topics in the news.

Note: Facts for Features are customarily released about two months before an observance in order to accommodate magazine production timelines.

Questions or comments should be directed to the Census Bureau’s Public Information Office: telephone: 301-763-3030; fax: 301-763-3762; or e-mail: pio@census.gov.

For more information about the U.S. Census Bureau, please visit http://www.census.gov/ and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and YouTube (/uscensusbureau).