ABSTRACT
One approach to the empirical assessment of global exposure begins with assessing how concerned individuals are with international affairs, as such concerns represent an outward-looking orientation toward events and issues beyond a person’s national borders. People with high global exposure pay attention not only to their immediate vicinity and happenings, but also to what is going on in other countries. This element of international concern reflects the core of what Robert Merton (1968) proposes as differentiating two types of people: the cosmopolitans and the locals. His classic study of the small town of ‘Rovere,’ inhabited by 11,000 people on the Eastern seaboard of the US depicts the locals as community leaders whose life worlds are largely restricted to their immediate environs or, most expansively, to national issues. The foundation of their influence as opinion leaders rests on their familiarity with a host of town issues and an extensive network of personal relations. The cosmopolitans, by contrast, are oriented toward the greater world beyond. For instance, they regularly pay attention to war news and international politics. The cosmopolitans are often recent arrivals, younger, and less dependent on local economies for their careers, usually having brought their prestige, skills, and previous status to the town. The locals are native born, focused on interpersonal relations, and operate local businesses inside a little world as a way of life. The locals, predictably, favor community newspapers for the daily events in Rovere and nearby cities. The cosmopolitans usually subscribe to Time, The New York Times or The Atlantic Monthly, not merely for a broader, analytical coverage of world news, which enables them to retain a sort of contact with the outside world, but also to satisfy their distinctive tastes in science, culture, or art and help reduce their sense of ‘cultural isolation’ (Merton 1968:461). Merton (1968:447) concludes that ‘the local type is parochial and the cosmopolitan is ecumenical.’
