An unwanted election in Bhutan

The remote country of Bhutan (in Southeast Asia) as just become a democratic state, first elections (with an 80% turnout of all registered voters) and citizens are worried about what kind of effect this may have on their lives. A man was quoted as saying that, "democracy can be a good thing - we hope" and many voters  said they were casting a ballot - with a heavy heart - simply because this was the wish of their recently-abdicated ruler, King Jigme Singye Wangchuk.

This may be one example of how democracy aid and democratization may not work for or be accepted in all countries. 

-Emily

20th Debate: Reality Show or a Spinoff?

The presidential debates not only become personal, but most importantly, comical. This short article discusses a recent SNL skit that parodied the Democratic Party debates- "codifying" Obama, while harassing Clinton. 

The actual footage from the debate (87 minutes long) is posted with the article, as is a picture of the SNL skit, which you can view as short clip of on Youtube.com. 

-Emily

BBC Ends English Shortwave Service in Europe

Remapping media space? Listeners cut off by “desert, snow and sea” will no longer be able to hear the BBC shortwave transmissions in Europe. We all comprehend, or, at least, have an inkling as to how new technologies have made the old broadcasting venues obsolete. The only surprising thing in this article is that it took a mighty long time for the BBC to realize that it was blowing in the wind.

Mickey Goes to Washington

Here is a look at how corporations are contributing to national brand building. Courtesy of Disney!

Syria Blocks Facebook

This is an interesting, if short, article about how the Syrian government has blocked facebook because Isreali people were joining Syrian-based groups. This article is relevant to what we've been talking about in class pertaining to the fact that technology can be used to liberate and also to constrain.
-carrie

Senate Moves to Shield Phone Companies on Eavesdropping

Yesterday, the Senate approved the President's "warrantless wiretapping program, which allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans' International communications without a court warrant if they were suspected of having terrorist ties".

Isn't this just one more excuse from the government, to attack citizens personal privacy, while we are not even allowed to know what the Oval office is doing most of the time!

Art Theft in Zurich

Last Sunday in Zurich, four paintings were stolen from a private gallery in a quiet neighborhood. These four paintings came to an estimated value of about 163 Million USD. These painting were stolen in broad daylight by men wearing ski masks. Witnesses say that the robbers had Slavic accents when they spoke German. This is the second painting robbery in Switzerland in a week, the first was in Pfäffikon. The robbery in Zurich was considered to be one of the biggest ones in Europe, in terms of net worth.

An interesting part of the story that appealed to me is that all this plays on the fears of the Swiss. With the recent elections which hoped to oust non white immigrants from Switzerland, in hopes of lowering the crime rate. This has encouraged the fear of the Swiss that their country will become a destination for foreign criminals.

Pangea day

A friend of mine found this link and showed it to me. It is a video project which seeks to show a different perspective. They are asking for videos to be submitted from around the world. It is a way to battle the conglomeration of media that exists today. This is from the people to the people. If you watch the trailer it explains better.

--Brigitte

Newsmuseum

I found this website where it shows you the front page of various newspapers across the world. This is an easier way to look at more sources of news.

-- Brigitte

Challenger to Mugabe

I thought this was interesting because the different articles are very obvious as to what's important and what's not, in accordance with each. In most news articles, the journalists talk about the fact that Mugabe's ex-finance minister, Simba Makoni, will be running against him in the next ellections (African press). However, in the BBC article, it doesn't mention Makoni at all, but instead mentions another opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. Finally, in a third article on the issue, there is no mention of the opposition that Makoni is facing, not even mentioning is explusion from the party if he were to run (CNN).

CNN
BBC
Mail&Guardian

-carrie

U.S. Says It Accidentally Killed 9 Iraqi Civilians

This is a story from the NYT, written by Solomon Moore and Qais Mizher. It is about a recent air strike gone wrong that resulted in the deaths of at least nine civilians. I thought it was an interesting article because it admits that the U.S. made a bad mistake. While we know it must be happening, we don't often see proof of it being published, especially through venues with such wide circulation like the NYT.
Also, note the picture included in the article. It shows one of the victims with a mourner. I thought it was sort of incredible that the picture ran with the story, as it shows most of the face. There are such strict regulations surrounding photos of American soldiers that it is an interesting contrast to note.

Alauna

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/world/middleeast/04iraq.html?_r=3&ref=world&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

FOX News and Obama

I was not planning to focus on FOX, but I happened to come across this on Youtube. It is a compilation of a number of news features about Obama that have been aired on various FOX news programs. The quality is admittedly poor, but I think the stories are interesting. They certainly are examples of the conservativism of the network and they highlight ridiculously irrelevant topics (such as cigarette smoking and middle names). I look forward to hearing your comments.

Alauna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouKJixL--ms

Colombians against FARC (guerillas)

On Monday February 4th, there were marches in Colombia and around the rest of the world protesting the FARC and their actions. The past 10 year have been filled with kidnappings and other actions that have been done by the FARC. They kidnap Colombians and foreigners in order to gain leverage in Colombia'c civil war which has been going on for the last 40 years.

The marches that took place were an accumilation of Colombian's discontent with the sitatuation. People took to the streets wearing white and bearing the Colombian flag while singing the national anthem. Marches on smaller scales have happened before but not to this extent and not in countries outside Colombia.

The interesting thing is that this whole day was started on Facebook. This just goes to show how an social networking site can have some positive consequences.

This is the group Un millón de voces contra las Farc - Colombia

-- Brigitte
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4918B7D1-D4FB-494C-B936-098794773E9E.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/americas/index.html
http://www.eltiempo.com/

EuroNews: No Comment

This is the "No Comment" page from EuroNews that we talked about today in class. It really is interesting to take a look at the day's news without any commentary. Thanks for bringing it up!

Alauna

What Europeans Think of Iowa and New Hampshire

This article parallels the article Professor Douai posted last week pertaining the subject of Europeans involvement in the American election campaigns. The attached article does not ask citizens their thoughts on the campaigns; instead, it highlights what newspapers in other countries are publishing. 

My thought after reading this article was, "have Europeans always thought that Americans are really that racist??"

-Emily 

Le Monde: Scheherazade in the White House

This is just an extra article that I found, but it seemed very relevant to our recent discussions about framing. While the idea of framing is probably not new to any of us, the ways in which it is used can be surprising. This particular story gave a few examples of how Hollywood is being used by the White House. It seems like an interesting mix at first, but I was quite shocked at the lengths some of our recent presidents have taken to associate themselves with various cultural icons or values. This article was written by Christian Salmon, taken from Le Monde Diplomatique.

U.S. Economy at a Glance- BBC

This is the BBC's article about the U.S. economy. Compare its uses of hard facts with the Fox article. There are some very interesting differences to note.

Alauna

The U.S. Economy According to FOX News

Both of these articles deal with the current economic situation in the United States. There have been rumors of a recession, and the Bush administration is currently trying to pass a stimulus package which involves a hefty tax breaks and other “solution.” The story taken from Fox News has very few hard facts. It talks about Bush’s visits to a few large companies in the U.S. as well as his optimistic outlook on the economy. The article taken from the BBC website seems much more structured. It uses more graphs, charts, figures, etc. It deals with real issues such as inflation, unemployment, and the current budget deficit in the U.S. Both articles discuss the same issues, but in very different ways. While one focuses more on Bush, the other focuses more on fact. I found them very interesting points of comparison.

Alauna

Pakistan's Silent Majority

I found this video clip very fascinating in relation to Entman's Projection of Power in chapter 3. It gives analysis for the question of support v. opposition of Pakastani President Musharraf. It is interesting that he believes he has supporters because of the successful election results, but in reality the majority of the voters, who live in rural areas, do not support him or his policies. This clip acts as an investigation, and visually shows the countryside, the people, and the honest opinion of their leader.

Raw Video: Iranian Boats 'Harass' U.S. Navy

Here is the second of the two clips.

Iranian Video of Navy Incident

Here is one of two links that we discussed today in class.

Should foreigners vote for the next U.S. president?

Would it be conceivable to think that non-U.S. citizens would vote for the next U.S. president? According to the New York Times, outsiders/foreigners are pining for change in the White House as much as American voters. The occupant of the White House, outsiders recognize, has potentially as much influence on their own lives as their local governments. So, is it too much to ask for a chance to vote for the next U.S. president? And what would such a vote be? Does such a question imply that U.S. foreign policy is not so 'foreign' a policy for outsiders, that it is part of the daily/domestic policy discussion outside the U.S.?

The Second Link - Michael Yon's Website

Frontline Blogger Covers War in Iraq With a Soldier's Eyes

I found this article relevant to the issue of free flow information that we discussed day 1 of class. Also, i think that it relates to agenda setting and the influence of media on public discourse. It tells the story of soldier, Michael Yan, and his transition into the journalistic world through the method of blogging. I thought this a good example of an alternative news source although i stumbled across it while browsing a mainstream media source, so how effective it would be without the mainstream connection i do not know? Regardless, it was fascinating to discover that anyone can be a journalist if they have an interest in the subject, and a story to tell. I encourage you to look at the 2nd link, which is the soldier's website initiated and run by him. He seems to write without reservation, and does not hesitate to depict, with oral language and visual image, the true situation of the Iraq War. I think it is a relief that there are still sources of information and news material in the world that are initiated by individuals who have no goal other than to inform the public of current situations. The negativity of his popularity gained through mainstream media sources is now his work has become a source of profitable income, and a market has been created to try and sell his written thoughts and photo images. Still, i think that the initial plan of an open blog about the Iraq war was a good one.

Al Jazeer's take on the Kenyan Crisis

This article was supposed to be attached to the other post on the Kenyan Crisis, but for some reason I could not post two links.

Kenyan Crisis

Both of these articles summarize the dismal state that Kenya is in after the re-election of Mwai Kibaki, the president of Kenya. These stories were the headlines stories in each sources section on Africa. BBC World has chosen to direct it story towards the EU's influence and command over the situation, while Al Jazeera continues to report more on violent outbreaks and ethnic tensions. 

Make sure to look through the photographs these two sites have posted to describe this particular situation. Some are terrifyingly brilliant and, I believe, really portray the brutal situation in Kenya rather than the actual elections result and what it will mean for Kenyans. 

I would also like to point out that when searching for this subject matter in a popular Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, a single story on Kenya's crisis could not be found...

Civil liberties: freedom of speech "The Tongue Twisters"

This is an interesting article about the struggle to keep up traditional views and uses of freedom of speech while involved in a war and without conflicting with the need for national security. It seems that this article may be appropriate for the beginning of this particular class since it touches on the harsh reality that individual speech may not be as free as we perceive or wish it to truly be. 

Al Jazeera Domesticated?

This is an interesting article on al Jazeera's domestication, how it refrained from being critical of Saudi authorities after their recent scandalous verdict to incarecerate a rape victim. It is even more scary to think that the fate of political reform and media freedom has to hang on Arab political regimes, in the absence of grassroots/popular support and demands to safeguard such 'advances.'