Who is American media? Seriously, I'm asking. Occasionally I check out MSNBC. But Tom Friedman goes to China frequently. - Christopher Galtenberg

What picture do you think the American media should be painting of China? They are quickly industrializing and it's exciting to see how much growth they are able to sustain... It's amazing what 1B+ people can do - Chris Reichow

Christopher: I watch a lot of media. CNN, MSNBC, ABC, New York Times, tons of different newspaper and blogs. We only see a very small slice of the world on our media. It's not just about China, either. We get tons of celebrity news, but not much about the world. - Robert Scoble

Robert, you are part of the American media and you are telling us what is really going on. The old guard media is dying. People like you will replace them. Hang in there and keep it coming. - Steve Olson

Chris: they should tell the American people the truth of why jobs are getting outsourced. It's not just about low cost anymore. Also, when you see the HUGE library and book store here in Shenzhen you see a people who value learning. THAT should be a wakeup call for Americans. Instead of talking about abortion or what Britney Spears ate for lunch they should be worried about how to compete on global scale. - Robert Scoble

Wow, that IS an eye opener for at least This American! - Carlton Hackett

India still has a long way to go before it can have the kind of influence economic China wields. India's got a great deal of problems that are not going to be easily solved with the type of gov't in place and the lack of leaders this country has. It amazes me how much India has progressed despite the gov't. The motto running this country that I've seen is "Greed is Good!" - Pankaj from IM

I think china has 10 to our 1 new engineer/comp sci graduating every year. that is shocking our lack of new talent - Bryan Thatcher from twhirl

Scobleizer, the Americans already had a taste of what China has to offer from the Olympics, especially the opening and closing ceremonies. Wait til people rummage through your flicker photo and video streams how fast China has progressed over the years. :) - imabonehead

not sure about the quality of eng coming out of china but in India over 900,00 engineers graduate each year. less than 5% are globally employable - Pankaj from IM

The culture of anti-intellectualism which has seized control of the right in recent years is helping to undermine American competitiveness in the world. Most Americans are unable to make the connection between the rise of a George W. Bush and Sarah Palin in American politics and the decline of the American economy. - Sean McBride

If you still can't blog, just e-mail me the text with your login and password, and I'll post for you. The whole Web will watch. - Louis Gray

Louis: the problem is I'm tired by the time I get home so it's all I can do to Twitter and FriendFeed. Blogging? Hmmm. - Robert Scoble

Now you know how it feels for many of us in China. There is an awful lot more to China than the same old stale stuff. - Paul Denlinger

American Media?? You mean there are others besides Twitter, Friendfeed, and HuffPost?? :p - Clarence Chiang

Oh dear ... I was afraid we are being sheltered from the truth...no surprise, but still angry too! - Susan Beebe

was waiting for this to be blamed on president bush and wasn't disappointed when that happened. - Jonathan Jesse

I watch almost no TV, but get my news online. One thing I really like about online news is that it is so easy to read what I want to, and skim past the stuff that doesn't interest me. Of course that works both ways. I've not the slightest interest in the celebrity bimbos, so skip that myself, but I could read that and nothing else. I check into a few UK sources too - BBC, Guardian, Telegraph. They give a more balanced world view, in my opinion, than domestic US media. - Ian May

As someone who works everyday with an offshore Indian development team I'd agree with Pankaj's comments. We (the west) are still outsourcing based on cost but in many cases the offshore teams (particularly in India) aren't mature enough to deal with us. Some of the issues I see regularly are a shortage of good lead developers but loads of green ones, coupled with a culture that promotes teaching over learning. - Andy Davies

This is a given. All Americans should NOT take our media with anything more than a grain of salt and read international media. - Patricia

I doubt Americans have any less interest in learning. Their government doesn't pay for their bookstores (or wait, maybe they do - they're called Libraries - I've seen some pretty big ones), so they make wiser economic decisions. - Jesse Stay

Visiting a bookstore in China is one of the scariest things I did when I lived over there. Not only are their wall after wall of business books (Inventory Management Guide vol. 6, Elements of Human Resources Management in low wage industries, etc) but there is a growing number of 'creative' works coming out. When the creative ideas developed 'in house' in China meet the factory powerhouses, oh holy crap. It won't just be Joe the factory guy looking for work... - Andrew Leyden

Great insights Mr Scoble, Post China, I hope you do a detailed blog post and perhaps video or two on what you have learned/think - JimmyJet

The story perpetuated by the media continues to be one of the Chinese government "controlling" everything, especially information, in China. However, I think the vast amount of information out there is simply uncontrollable, despite whatever firewalls are in place. Once they start to take that information and COLLABORATE, then they can truly INNOVATE, and that's what should give us pause... - Chris Reichow

great that you recognize shortcomings of MSM take on China, but it's what sells. Also, bear in mind that your trip (although you met with perfect people for such a trip) was a "survey course" at best. It takes a ton of effort and time to get perspective on the place and to dig through what people in meetings are actually saying. The truth is probably somewhere in-between. I am personally so happy that you made the trip, and that you will hopefully be a fair-broker of China-related information out there. - sage brennan

sage: yup, you can only get an incomplete picture, but I've gotten access to stuff that would blow your mind. Unfortunately I can't tell about a lot of it. But there is major disruption happening right in front of us. I'm working on a blog post now. - Robert Scoble

Robert- i'm glad that you're seeing these things and blogging about it. it's good for others to see. @Sean Mcbride, can you elaborate on anti-intellectualism? - Patricia

Patricia -- I was referencing a good deal of past discussion here with Robert Scoble and others about know-nothing (and anti-intellectual) trends in the Republican Party in recent years to attack and deride the coastal elites which are most responsible for generating the intellectual capital that is barely keeping America competitive with China, India, Europe and the rest of the world. A nation which ridicules intellectual achievement is heading for immense economic problems. - Sean McBride

Unfortunately, it's the celebrity news that America in general is most interested in, so that's what kind of "news" media will break and cover. It's what gets ratings and makes money. - Nathan Johns