Middle East Journalists Panel Extra Credit

I thoroughly enjoyed the panel that was in class this past thursday that talked about what it is like to be like a journalist in the Middle East. It was enjoyable to hear their opinions on our questions, their response to our questions, and the way they operated in their country. The thing that stood out to me the most is how when one of us asked a question and the panelists heard just a bit of the question from the translator all of their hands shot up almost immediately. To me it seemed to me like these journalists came here wanting to learn about us as American college students, but more I feel like they wanted to teach us something. They wanted to let us know what it was really like to be in the Middle East. What it was really like to be on the frontline of what we see on the news everyday. In my opinion they saw this as an opportunity to filter out the American media where we get our news from and to let us know what it was really like. I appreciated that and thought it was interesting to hear their opinion. 

Out of all of the panelists the one that intrigued me the most was the reporter from Palestine. It was clear to me that he was the most into the panel and was having the most fun. I previously spoke about how they had a message they wanted to get across, the Palestinian journalist had the most to say. At the end it was so interesting to see them all campaigning to get their final points across. The journalist from Palestine was by far the most outspoken. I am not surprised about the argument that he made about American journalism at the end of the panel. In America we do make a much bigger deal about a suicide bombing by someone from Palestine, than we do make a big deal about innocent Palestinians dying at the hand of the Israeli army. However, recently American media has been portraying Israel in a poor light with their naval blockade. 

Finally, I found it interesting when a student asked if they felt women had the same opportunities   and one of the female reporters responded by saying that female journalists in her country was becoming a trend. This diminishes the stereotype that Middle Eastern countries do not give women an equal opportunity to succeed. That is an example of how I learned that the media really is not that different or far behind as the media here.