Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Newspapers and magazines are the best ways to learn about a foreign country.

In today's developing world, the cultural borders between the countries are being effaced at a high speed as the international communications and bonds are becoming more strong. There are a lot of students that study abroad and much more businesspeople that travel internationally. It requires that they choose an efficient way to learn about foreign countries. Although it is a good way to use newspapers and magazines to this end, I think it is not the best way, nowadays. I would actually prefer the visual media like TV and internet video websites like youtube as the best ways to learn about foreign countries. Firstly, compared to reading an article on a newspaper or a magazine, it usually takes much less time and concentration to watch a video like a documentary to get familiar with another country. Usually, reading a report or an article needs that you have sufficient concentration and take enough time to understand it as an integrated collection of facts and descriptions. On the other hand, when someone is watching a video about introducing a typical country, it is much easier to stay involved and follow the flow of information as another person -the narrator- is responsible for presenting and keeping the audience update. So, the audience need much less concentration compared to someone who is reading a text. This is why it is a better way to watch videos than reading newspapers and magazines to get familiar with other countries, from a time and concentration cost point of view. Furthermore, the visual effects in the movies and videos, turns the process of getting information into an amusing entertainment. Sometimes, reading an article turns into a boring process. Specifically, when it does not have enough colorful and beautiful pictures and illustrations. In contrast, watching a video for the same aim gives you the opportunity of enjoying attractive visual and sonic effects while you are getting the desired information. Beside having fun, learning with pleasure can cause the information last for much longer time in one's mind, based on some recent studies. Thus, it is also a more effective way of learning if you try to watch videos instead of reading magazines and newspapers. In conclusion, I beleive that reading newspapers and magazines is not really the best way to get to know about foreign countries as it can be time consuming, concentration costly and sometimes even boring. In contrast, I recommend everyone to choose watching videos and documentaries as the best possible way to get familiar with different coutries.