Monday, January 14, 2013

Blog Post 1 - Katie W.


1. A link to a media account of a news item related to the Middle East along with your own overview of how the item connects to our course.

I believe this piece of news from The Economist is relevant to our class because it shows how media coverage is connecting the Western part of the world with the Eastern part of the world and vice-versa. The infamous 24-hour Arab news network, Al Jazeera, only recently bought the American television network Current TV, which reaches 40 million households. This is more than relevant because it proves that through media and particularly film (because TV is something we can all relate to) there is more communication and understanding between the Eastern and Western worlds. This provides a path of similarities and even perhaps a transfer of cultural knowledge between regions. Optimistically, but hopefully... this will give individuals in both parts of the world a better understanding of each other. However, during the Arab Spring Al Jazeera backed groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar. Groups that were supported by Al Jazeera and are now rising to power in the Middle East amid the torn apart governments are not large fans of the United States, which could pose problems in the future. Media can be used to bring people together to find common ground or be used to manipulate how people thing about certain topics and entire populations of people.


The Economist - "Al Jazeera: Must do better"

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