Iranian discussion
Nov 6th, 2008 by scastellanos
Although I was only at the discussion for about 20 minutes because I had class at 9, I did gain some interesting insight. First, I thought that it was interesting how many Iranian students in the class were majoring in “American studies.” I was really curious as to what that entailed. Politics? History? Pop culture? I was also curious to know what they were planning on doing once they graduate. Would they move to the U.S.? Become teachers, or diplomats in foreign policy specializing in American relations?
I thought that the professor asked a good question about whether we thought CNN was objective. It’s true that some broadcast news stations do lean one way or the other, but I think CNN does do a very good job at attempting to remain fair and balanced. They specifically have some programs such as Campbell Brown’s “No bias, no bull” and Anderson Cooper 360 degrees, where his motto is “keeping them honest.” Therefore, I do think that CNN does try to remain unbiased, but at the same time, it is also well known that Fox News is more of a conservative media. That raised a good point about whether Americans that have particular political views watch the media that best reflects those views. It occurred to me that, although I am a journalism major and want to remain as objective as I can in my profession, I do watch CNN more than I watch any other broadcast news station out there. And, I do lean more to the left. I thought that was a great point, because what we get out of the news we choose to watch most often reflects a majority of the beliefs we have. It’s almost like selective hearing - many people agree with the news channels that most reflect their political positions, and don’t agree or don’t watch much of any other channel that happens to diverge from their views. I also thought it was interesting that the professor got a little defensive when Lynn asked him how the state system worked in Iran. I don’t think her intention was to try and compare it but more just get background information about it. I was really curious about that too, but obviously that question wasn’t answered.
I enjoyed the part of the conversation I stayed for, but I felt bad that we kept them waiting for an hour!