"Musharraf's Monster..."-Shahan Mufti

I think its so awesome that the Pakistani media didn't take these new laws of restriction sitting down, they stood up and fought! I also think that was kick ass what Hamid Mir did locking himself in the newsroom and refusing to cut transmission, they should totally make a movie about that. I also think its pretty sweet that that incident made Musharraf break his reputation for never apologizing and saying this, "“Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the freedom of media, this is my mandate. I strongly condemn any violation of this.”
Its crazy to think that they don't really have schools in the state of Sindh and that TV will be their educators now that they have cable lines. Im also really glad I don't live in a country that is so volatile like that and is such a tough atmosphere for journalists trying to cover wars and politics while trying to be controlled by the government and threatened.

"The new Arab conversation"-Gal Beckerman

I think this article brings forth the changing world at hand! Now blogging is a regular seen way for people to express themselves, even people in Arab countries! (gasp) Our American media rarely reports any news-let alone GOOD news- from the Arab world besides the war on terrorism. People in the Arab world are portrayed so negatively by American media. Although I am aware of how different their culture and lifestyle is from the Western way of life, I was suprised to read that only 10 % of the Arab world has internet access. The internet definetly is a medium of freedom, just the fact that I am writing this blog right now shows that I am free to express my thoughts and put it on the web for anyone in the world to read. I like what the one blogger Salem Pax said about how all you hear about Arab people talking about is God and Allah. At least in my case that rings true because when I hear anything about the Arab world I automatically think about religion. And I can't think of any Arab personalities in movies or on TV besides political figures and terrorists you see on the news. So I think its really cool to hear about all the different opinions of the Arab people who are blogging. Even if it is a small number, and the elitest of their countries, to me it's a step forward. I really like the last paragraph of this article-

"The young insider-outsiders of the Middle East, blogging openly about their frustrations with the Arab world, about its persistent prejudices and limitations, as a way of liberalizing their societies, are doing what the front line of any social movement does — they say the unspeakable, they form the bonds that were previously unthinkable, they stand in the places that they are not supposed to stand. The Arab world will reform only when mindsets begin to change and a culture of dissent burgeons where it has never been allowed to exist openly before. If there is a way to kick-start this process, it is surely in the post of a twentysomething blogger wondering out loud why things can’t be more open, more transparent — more different."

reaction to Howard French article

The China media is less aggressive in foreign coverage because they are mouth pieces for the Chinese government says Yu Guoming, professor at People's University in Beijing. She says as government mouthpieces, the media is intricately linked with their government's policy and propaganda. I think the pressure of being so closely watched by the government, combined with the rule Chinese editors say the government has over them needing authorization to send reporters overseas or open over seas bureaus- has caused Chinese media to be seriously lacking in the coverage of foreign reporting. It shocked me to hear how after the Burmese soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, the Chinese media sent out a false report stating the, "Myanmar government has been restrained in handling the monks' protest and didn't use force."

I really believe that because China is a communist government, they run the media with an authoritarian hand which leads to state censorship and control over how much foreign media coverage they want to grant access to their people.

reaction to "Drawing a New Map for Journalism in the Middle East"

I thought this article was very interesting because I do not know a lot about media in the Middle East. The only familiarity I have with it is Al Jazeera because it has been talked about all over American media. I give a lot of a credit to Abdul Rahman al-Rashed for starting an alternate and competing media channel in the Middle East in the face of all the adversity he has to face. I can't even imagine what it must be like to receive death threats based on what you report and also the pressure of being critically watched by political regimes must be so stressful. I really like the ending quote by Rashed, “It’s about an idea: don’t try to change politics directly. Just try to change the media for the better. And I think the result will be a better Arab world.”
I do think that many journalists try to change politics through their reporting and on-air time and I his quote here puts that into perspective.

reaction to Ostrovsky reading

Reading this article about the TV coverage of Beslan just makes me more grateful to live in a country where our media is not government owned and controlled! I cannot believe how little they covered it. And I also couldn't believe the incensitivity of the Russian networks to air hostage movies in light of the whole situation. I liked the quote from the television reviewer Irina Petrovskaya, "One of the most disturbing lessons of Beslan is the readiness of the television once again to become the re-translator of official lies. Ten years of democracy in Russia turned out to be not enough to create freedom of speech. And to a large degree the responsibility for this rests with the media and the journalists."
I think that is what happens when the government wants to and controls the media, they can broadcast any lies they want simply because they control the flow of information. It reminds me of John Mayer's song ,Waiting on the World Change, in the line where he says,
"when you trust your television
which you get is what you got
cause when they own the information
oh they can bend it all they want"
Even though there is controversy in the US about media conglomerates and private ownership of media, Im would rather have that then get deliberate false reporting delivered from the government.