One of the best ways of getting acquainted with a new setting is to skim through a local newspaper. The Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area is larger than any Israeli city. Even though the Twin Cities are cosmopolitan and politically aware, their news is heavily local and devoid of politics. However, the lead headline in the Star Tribune (the major local newspaper) on June 21, 2009, focused on the demonstrations against the rigging of Iranian elections. A second international item told the tale of the New York Times journalist who escaped the Taliban. Aside from these articles, the remaining stories dealt with local issues.

In contrast, this was hardly the type of news the Tel-Aviv tourist that same day would read in the English edition of a Hebrew-language newspaper. The Internet page of Ha’aretz was much more internationally focused – only three of the twenty-seven items were local news. Seven of them dealt with Iran, including a piece that asked which of the two camps in Iran was more likely to “nuke” Israel, two dealt with Syrian-Israeli relations, and one reported on a car bombing in Iraq. Only one item – that the owner of Israel’s largest bank was swayed by clairvoyant messages in dictating bank policy – could be described as both local and not inherently political.