Comparing Global Medias

Today, via Geeky Mom Laura Blankenship, I discovered an article in TechCrunch, about a site that lines up the front page of CNN or other news sites with those of Al Jazeera, France 24, BBC, NPR, or several others, so that visitors may compare for themselves the differences between the stories covered, from which perspectives, to what degree of detail and whether or not it is through first hand reporting or some other source. Unfortunately, CNN seldom compares favorably, hence the URL for the site, http://wtfcnn.com/.

Sadly, the disaster which is cable news in this country is, in large part, media giving the people what they want and not, as some would believe, some vast elitist conspiracy to keep the masses hypnotized by mindless infotainment so they are distracted which they go about undermining the foundation of our society. If you need evidence of that, compare an hour of the domestic feed of CNN in the US to an hour of the feed on CNN International. The network caters to its international audience not just with an hour of news the focuses on international subjects, but with broadcasts that are more serious in tone, and that devote much less time to entertainment and puff pieces.

Sites sites such as WTFCNN.com are a welcome resource for those of us who teach about intercultural relations and how the media of different societies represent one another. I’ve been wanting to develop a resource of that kind for quite some time. In this, a 30 minute video from the flagship news broadcast of several networks around the world would be provided and translated into English.

There would be two sets of of video. The first set would include examples of 30 minutes of broadcast coverage from 6-8 stations around the world on a day on which there occurred a significant event that caught the attention of people all over the world. This would be something along the lines of the start of the American invasion of Iraq, the Earthquake in Haiti, the Madrid train or London transit bombings, or the inauguration of President Obama. Any event would do, as long as it is significant enough to be mentioned in most of the news broadcasts.

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What would be so helpful about a resource like the one I am proposing is that translation would permit it to overcome the issue of language. What do the French, Saudis, Germans, Thais, and Americans see when they watch the news in their languages? American pundits often accuse political figures of using a certain tone when they speak in English, another when they speak in their own language. This is exaggerated.

The only think I know close to that is Meedan.net which is an Arabic<>English forum that uses machine translation.

Meedan.net is a digital town square where you can share conversation and links about world events with speakers outside your language community. Everything that gets posted on meedan.net is mirrored in Arabic and English – whether it’s the headlines you read, the comments you write, or the articles you share.

Check it out. It’s a good site.