The New Year is always a good time to check in with the rest of the world.

But with the state of journalism in our country these days, it seems like it's getting harder every year to keep up with our world.

Hi, I'm Rick Steeves.

Major TV networks have closed most of their overseas bureaus and as one of America's

leading journalist tells us, international news coverage in America needs a boost.

You need to pay sustained attention to a story and you need time to understand

foreign places. They're so complicated.

NPRs Stephen's keep assesses the media landscape for foreign correspondence

and what it takes to keep us informed

about our world coming up today on Travel with Rick Steeves.

Later in the hour we'll check in to hear what Travel Plans listeners have for the year

ahead with or without a passport. And Fred Plotkin inspires us to see

Vienna with a whole new light. The Vines, we think of them as being whipped cream and

Mozart and Walsas, it is all that, but it's also a city that even today is very cutting edge.

Let's enjoy the world together. It's Travel with Rick Steeves.

Vienna offered the quintessence of good and modern living at the dawn of the 20th century,

and it still rates as one of the most livable cities in the world.

We'll hear why it's one of Fred Plotkin's favorite places coming up on Travel with Rick Steeves. And our listeners inspire us to explore new places in the year ahead.

But first, Steve Innskye from NPR's Morning Edition helps us evaluate the state of today's media to see what it takes to have a society

that's well informed about the rest of the world. In so many ways we travelers

function these days like the medieval gesture in the Middle Ages. We get out

of our comfort zone, we leave the castle, we find out what it's like outside of our

...