Today my JOUR289I class diverged from the norm - instead of holding a regular class a panel of journalists from about ten different Middle Eastern countries (including Tunsia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco to name a few) was held in our classroom. It was a lot of fun watching and listening to the discourse from the eleven very friendly and open people as they spoke to us, some in English but mostly in Arabic (two translators were present) in regards to the journalistic occurrences in their country. It surprised me (although it shouldn't have) just how different their worlds are from how the United States news manages to portray them. The U.S manages to portray them as all being the same, but from the discussion held in the room it became very evident just how different they all are. I am sad to admit that I did have an image of all Middle Eastern countries as being unable to express their thoughts and views on close to anything, but I am glad that through this forum that that belief was expelled.
Although there wasn't anything in regards to my topic that came up during the discourse, I still thought I'd share a few points.
I was very surprised at a few of the things which popped up in conversation; I think one of the main surprises was from the female journalist from Saudi Arabia. As I remember it the question was what rights are afforded to females in the country as far as becoming journalists. While one woman before her answered that women have virtually taken over the field of journalism in her country, the Saudi Arabian woman informed us that women there have no right to be journalists, are not allowed to attend school for journalism, and are only able to work within the field as freelancers. Even more than that woman are not allowed to drive - this struck me as the biggest blow. With no way to get to the story how can they be expected to write it? The answer to that is of course that they aren't. Furthermore, they are not allowed to hire a chauffeur until the age of 35 *another gasp* (the woman speaking was obviously much younger than this age btw), and taxis are inconvenient in the area which she works and lives. Among her colleagues she is the only one with no way to transport herself. After hearing these comments I had a ridiculous amount of respect for her and her work because I honestly don't know that I would have had the courage to overcome all of these barriers to do my work. But thankfully from the looks of things the circumstance in the other countries represented are not as dire for women journalists.
On another note I was definitely able to appreciate a comment made by one of the panelists that even though there is some of information (in his country) that they get they are not supposed to pass on to readers/viewers/listeners if it is in regards to something they are not allowed to approach, if he still believes that that information should be given to the people he is able and willing to pass the information on to a colleague in another country nearby where the rules are not the same. This way that information still spreads. I think that as journalists this is a respectable action, as sometimes the people need to know information even if those in control don't want them to hear it.
Alot of other noteworthy things were mentioned but I won't recount every little detail. But all in all today was a very good class.
I enjoyed reading this summary because you note specific points that stood out for you and place into better context the differences between Western journalism and that in the Middle East. It was especially interesting to read your responses to the comments made by the woman who describe the number of barriers and challenges she faced just to complete her job. One can only imagine what keeps her going to constantly fight those challenges. I also appreciated your condor about what you THOUGHT about the region before and what you perceive it to be now. That, alone, is a process so important for all of us in learning about the world and I hope others will give some thought to your points as well....
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