A Yank, a Brit, a Dane, and a Finn walk into a bar. . . . You’ve heard this one?

Well, not the way it is told in the March European Journal of Communication, in which James Curran (Britain), Shanto Iyengar (United States), Anker Brink Lund (Denmark), and Inka Salovaara-Moring (Finland) compare the mass media of their respective nations. (Full disclosure: Michael Schudson is personally acquainted with Curran, Iyengar, and Lund.)

Unsurprisingly, the joke is chiefly on the Yank. The scholars conducted a survey that found Americans know less about international politics than the Europeans. Only 37 percent of Americans could identify the Kyoto Accords as a treaty on climate change compared to 60 percent in Britain and more than 80 percent in Denmark and Finland. Even when it came to identifying the Taliban, Americans came in last—58 percent of Americans answered correctly, compared to 68 percent in Denmark, 75 percent in the UK, and 76 percent in Finland.

Complete access to this article will soon be available for purchase. Subscribers will be able to access this article, and the rest of CJR’s magazine archive, for free. Select articles from the last 6 months will remain free for all visitors to CJR.org.