While we have been encouraged to look at media sources in the United States in this class, I couldn't help but post this to the blog after watching a short report on the Al-Jazeera English website. I oftentimes turn to Al-Jazeera for news overseas, not only to read about news stories that might not make headline news in the United States, but also to hear them from another perspective. In this 25 minute news video, the first 10 minutes or so are dedicated to recent American news coverage of Iran. I would recommend at the very least watching from 6:25-8:30. Here, a criticism of sensationalist broadcast media is given, in contrast with a more responsible print media. According to the Al-Jazeera report, it seems as though sensationalized visual-based news is winning the battle.
I do concede that for those who reject the hypodermic model of the media, just because the media might emphasize one "story" over another, does not mean that it will in fact do anything. The report, which aired on March 3rd, noted that the US military did not think it to be prudent to engage in military action with Iran. Nonetheless, something surely has to be said about the role the media takes in informing citizens. While I may not agree with everything in the short video, I do agree that most Americans have not seen the graph shown at minute 8:30. This is a good example of one news organization almost being a watchdog of another country's media behavior, which I found to be interesting and well worth 10 minutes of my time.
Actual Video Below:
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