Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Journalists compare media at Southern Illinois U.
By Diana Soliwon
Daily Egyptian (Southern Illinois U.)
03/23/2006

(U-WIRE) CARBONDALE, Ill. — Oversimplified and sensationalized news has led to Americans knowing little about the world around them, particularly the war-torn Middle East, two seasoned journalists said Wednesday at Southern Illinois University.

Jon Sawyer and Habib Battah met on campus Wednesday to discuss misconceptions about Middle Eastern culture and ways to improve global media coverage.

Every seat in a conference room in the Communications Building was filled for the one-hour event "Understanding the Middle East: An Arab Journalist and a U.S. Journalist in Dialogue."

Sawyer opened the discussion by cornering the conglomeration of media organizations as the seed of American apathy. Sawyer retired this year from a 31-year career at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to head the new non-profit organization, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, which focuses on improving coverage of global affairs.

"American media so often gets it wrong ... about countries that we know far too little about, "Sawyer said.

Battah, managing editor for Middle East Broadcasters Journal in Beirut, Lebanon, said the media is actually teaching people less about the Middle East.

He said misconceptions about the interests and safety of the people in the Middle East are fostered by stereotypes from the media.

The FBI has listed 26 Middle Eastern countries as places too dangerous to visit, he said, but 1.4 million violent crimes occur in America each year.

"What's more dangerous: Visiting those 26 countries or staying home?" he asked.

Izabel Liwo, a sophomore studying radio and television, was born and raised in the United Arab Emirates. She said that the Middle East is really no different than the rest of the world.

"There are terrorists everywhere," Liwo said. "The Middle East, Europe, Asia, America. It doesn't matter where you are."

The journalist also pointed out that the culture within the Middle East is strikingly similar to American culture.

"I'm going to show you what people are really interested in watching over there," Battah said, and proceeded to show clips of the Arab-version of American Idol.As people in the room laughed after particularly bad auditions, Battah noted how easy it is to bridge the gap between misconceived stereotypes by simply learning about what each have in common.

Tara Spotanski, a senior studying speech communication disorders and sciences, said she found the presentation surprising.

"They're on the other side of the world, "Spotanski said. "All you're thinking is that they're living a poor life, but they are actually a lot like us."

Both journalists agreed that part of the solution is for Americans to be better informed. Battah urged those attending to do their own research on things that appear in the news to better understand context. It is very simple, he said, to do research on the Internet to learn the history behind a news report.

"We act like history didn't happen," Battah said.

To make research easier, Sawyer said the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting uses Internet2 technology, a new non-profit consortium that connects information between academia, industry and government.

"Hopefully this type of pro-bono journalism will increase and further better reporting," Sawyer said.

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