My dad, who is from Iran, showed me this article and video the other day. Basically, the Daily Show and Colbert Report sent "correspondents" to Iran and Iraq to interview the people there and show how much they hate Americans. In the Daily Show's visit to Iran, Jason Jones approached the Iranian public asking them crazy questions about how much they hate Americans. The Iranian people just looked at him like he was crazy and said that no, they don't really have any bad feelings towards Americans. The whole segment is presented from a comedic standpoint of course but as a viewer, you are definitely able to see the truth behind all of this exaggerated talk about Iranians "hating" Americans. Jones even goes into an Iranian home that looks like it could be right here in America. They have all of the same things Americans have- even a Wii.
The article I have posted here is talking about how these comedy shows have brought out the truth about how the people in these countries. Lots of Americans have a perception about people from the Middle East- for example: darker skinned, cave living, turban wearing people who hate Americans and want to bomb the U.S. The videos show how messed up those perceptions actually are. The people in those areas, in general, don't live in caves or feel badly towards Americans. This article brings up the strength of comedy as a news source in America. People relate more and pay more attention to the comedy shows, and, in my opinion, they are a great way to provide the truth for Americans. I like that people are getting the truth from these well known comedic shows, but this also shows that people are NOT getting the real information from real news sources. The fact that people are having to get the truth from comedy shows the lack of interest in the news or perhaps the misrepresentation provided by the news. Either way, the answer to this problem pints to the idea that, as viewers, we are going to have to be as well-rounded as possible and pay attention to a number of different news sources to have a real idea of what is going on. Watch the video! It's funny! :)
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/commerce/090630/fake-news-goes-global?page=0,0
This post reminds me of that lady that I had that conversation with in the CopyMax/ OfficeMax. I think there are a lot of people who just refuse to believe otherwise about people overseas. In addition, there are a lot of people in the U.S. that have not and will not take the time to interact with or understand people of a different culture. I've been to Iraq and before I went I was hell bent on thinking the same thing because that is what I was told, but ignorance is not bliss. I felt like such an idiot after meeting the people and realizing how human they were. In war it is too easy to demonize the enemy and all those who resemble the enemy. I think it is due time that we step back and look at ourselves before making radical assumptions about others and thinking that it is fact. Great post.
ReplyDeleteUsing comedy as a news source is just another method to "attempt" to talk about national or international storylines. In theory, it's an effective tool to discuss otherwise depressing subject with a comedic standpoint, or twist if you will. Another thing that I would like to point out is that any educated citizen would know that people in the middle east are not "cave-dwellers", rather the terrorists that hide in these countries are the "cave-dwellers" in question. From my understanding, the middle east as a whole is a rather wealthy region (Dubai has the worlds only 7 star hotel). My last last opinion is that every media corporation expresses their own views towards storylines to a certain extent, to the point where I believe that there is no such thing as "unbiased" news anymore...
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