MSM in the Arab World
Jan 21, 2005
Thursday and Friday constitute the weekend in much of the Muslim world. Athena uses that time to blog up a storm. Today, she provides excerpts from her research project:
Blogger “Ali” from Iraq the Model writes on June 15, 2004, “I’ve decided long ago not to trust what these people say and what the media shows me. I’ve decided not to even watch Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabyia. I decide to love and trust the others and not to allow small events committed by few ignorant to shape my views about a whole nation. No my friends, I refuse to be trapped in this momentary dark picture that's far from convincing and that's not just because I'm an Iraqi, it's because I can't let anyone tell me what to believe in.” He continues, “a reporter from one of the Arab satellite channels…gathered a bunch of teenagers, handed each one of them 20US $ and gave them some pictures of Saddam. He then asked them to shout and dance and made a great report out of it…Such perspective seems to be valid as it comes from such a source, and I’m quoting this today because I think that what happened yesterday doesn’t differ much from what happened in Fallujah and most of the ugly scenes the media was so keen to show us”.
This is the current state of Arab media. Sadly, most Muslims trust it. I know from experience. Many Muslims don't believe the Western media because they think that it is biased in favor of the West (essentially the Americans, believe it or not). Of course, the thought doesn't occur to them that the government controlled media in the Arab world may not be the gold standard of objectivity.
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