He opens his browser and begins navigating the Internet. Like many young Americans, John has a PC that gives him access to the world's most popular information network. Okello, on the other hand, lives in Lira, in North Uganda, where telephones are a rarity. There is only one for every thousand residents in Sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike John, Okello does not have access to an e-mail service, as is commonly used in the United States, and he can only send messages using pen and paper.
Everyday life is made up of an overabundance of events.
Journalism is the individuation of those events deemed newsworthy. Reports are piled sky-high on their desks in offices and hotels far from the actual events, transforming the production of information into a passive elaboration of news. Thus, the disparity between the world's North and South is reflected not only in fact technology, but also and above all in the selection and distribution of the news. The American television network CNN has only three bureaus in all of Africa, and the Italian Agency ANSA just two. The director of a major European daily newspaper, for example, will find it more efficient to pay annually for a wire service, than to maintain and staff an office in Nairobi.