Al Jazeera Response

           I really enjoyed watching the video in Wednesday’s class on Al Jazeera. The most interesting part for me was when they showed news footage from the United States. This interested me because when we watch the news here in the U.S, it is portrayed that Iran is lying and that they are the bad guys; similarly, that is the way the U.S is portrayed to Iranians. That really showed me that there are always more than one, or even two, sides to a story and to know the whole truth you must listen to all sides. Likewise, it showed that each side, intentionally or unintentionally, presents bias to their people. Iranians show American and European men and women killing their women and children while American and European news stations show and talk about Al Qaeda more than anything. It was just very interesting to see how differently each culture portrayed the war and each other.

            Another reason I enjoyed the film was it made the war a little more real to me. Obviously I have known it has been going on because there is no way someone can overlook that. But, I have no family in the military, I have no one in my family who takes special interest in politics, nor do I have anyone who can really explain to me what is happening and seeing that video made remember that it is violent and very deadly; I have always been removed from the war and that made me feel a little closer to it.

            The activity we did in class was also really informative. It helped me to see that I am really fortunate to have the things I have. It also made me think about the fact that some people never had these things and maybe never will. It was interesting to reflect on all of the privileges we, as Americans, take for granted. Lastly, seeing how much stuff Americans had in comparison to 80 other countries was interesting. The book was published about 20 years ago and Americans still had a significantly more than other countries. My first thought was what that same experiment would look like today.

Overall, I found Wednesday’s class enjoyable, informative, and very interesting. I’m interested to see what else I can learn about other cultures and how differences in those cultures affect the news and other aspects of life.