WSU @ Notre Dame Brief Preview

Jeff Tuel, USC, and Oregon

Foreign News Assignment

After searching through some of the major foreign news stations from all around the world I've come to a few conclusions about not only their coverage but ours as well.

I noticed that for most of these stations they reported what was important not only in their region of the world, but also covered stories elsewhere. It was refreshing to observe stories about places or events that I had never heard of.

The news that we get here in America focuses on things that the rest of the world may not be concerned with. A few of the things that were not discussed as much if at all included stories about sports, celebrities, and offbeat stories. American news tends to spend a lot of time reporting on the activities of celebrities, the results of sporting events, and then weird stories that have very little implication on the rest of the region if not the entire country or world.

I also noticed that there was a lack of blatant political bias. American news usually associated itself as either leaning to the left or to the right, and their storied reflect their bias. However foreign news tends to report the news fairly without too much of a spin on important issues. On the other hand it was obvious that Al Jazeera is run with somewhat of a government agenda. BBC seemed to be the most informative news station, focusing on the most relevant stories as they pertained to the rest of the world.

Al Jazeera Questions

1. I personally don't think that the online resources for Al Jazeera will be all that affective in reaching, let alone creating, an US audience. When people go to get their news they go to sources that they trust, usually a source that is homegrown. All the same, I would not expect the Al Jazeera audience to start going to CNN or FoxNews to get their information.

2. Kind of like my answer to the first question, no, I don't think it should be allowed to be broadcast in the US. I don't see the point in it. People are not going to start watching Al Jazeera news over the likes of a CNN or FoxNews or even a BBC for that matter. Al Jazeera, from what I've observed, tends to have an anit-America twist on some of their stories. I don't think that something like that should be allowed to be broadcast on American airways, whether they're right or wrong. Call me discriminatory but I just don't think that a Middle East based news source has a place in America. Just as I would not expect them to like having a US based news source broadcast on their cable.

3. The main difference that I noticed between the reporting on Al Jazeera and the US news outlets is how the United States is portrayed. In Al Jazeera articles they are not afraid to criticize the US or any other country for that matter. I've noticed that the US tends to almost never do wrong when homegrown outlets are reporting on issues regarding the US. On the other hand Al Jazeera is not afraid to be critical of traditional powers or question those in power.

4. I feel that for the most part that they are adhering to their code of ethics. However if any of those codes listed are compromised it may just be a case of opinion from one party or another and may differ. Their code of ethics contains a grey area because journalistic approaches change from person to person and outlet to outlet. I may think that they are not adhering to their code of ethics, but someone else may see no problem with it. No news is ever straight down the middle, they all contain biases. For the most part I think that Al Jazeera does adhere to their code of ethics and any critical analysis that can be used against them is the same that can be used against any major news outlet.

I love Sports.