Although the U.S. is globally engaged, a great number of Americans have little or no understanding of what goes on in the rest of the world. Among average Americans, knowledge of world history and geography is generally rather poor, while other issues seem far more interesting. 

This can be seen reflected in the mass media, where lifestyle and celebrity topics clearly win out in popularity at the newsstand. Below are covers of the U.S. edition of Time magazine, next to covers of the international editions from the same week.