Amin Kazak Lecture

From the beginning of Amin's lecture I was immediately reminded of the first day of our class when we began defining frames and lenses. Our perceptions about how we view information and how we present information can have great effects on the facts. As a result we often argue about the accuracy or political affiliations of many American media stations. We argue about how conservative Fox News has become; then we argue about how liberal CNN has become. Amin explained that the situation is very much the same in the Middle East. The television stations are owned and operated by many different groups. Here are a few that Amin mentioned:

Al Jazeera - Americans have been very critical of this station so it was to my surprise that the station is financed by Qatar, an American ally.

Al Manar - This station is controlled by Hezbollah and therefore often presents a negative frame when discussing issues of Israel.

Al Arabia - This station is financed by Saudi Arabia and thus is more sympathetic to the Untied States.

The frames presented by each television station are quite unique. For example, on this day CNN and Fox were both covering the kidnapping of an American soldier, however Al Jazeera didn't mention the story at all. Very interesting.
Of course, the American stations never overlook stories for political reasons....