International News

Al Jazeera-After watching their news, I was quite impressed. They didn't seem biased much, compared to what I was expecting. There was news about riots in Australia, United States and Palistinean successful talks, and the US journalists captured in North Korea. As for those journalists, they even state they "allegedly" illegally crossed the border. For an anti-US market, I would expect them not say allegedly, but in fact DID cross illegally.

Russia Today- The Russian news station was more of an upbeat national news station. Most stations for this assigment do a lot of international stories or conflict reports from within their countries. Russia did stories about little kids who want to be scientists and the importance of the periodic table, another story on the Russian soccer team, and one on a lady who likes knitting really neat and beautiful patterns. The news wasn't negative, and showed the better side of the Russian people.

BBC- The BBC to me was kind of in the middle of their own policies and the murrow paradigm. None of the news they read was opinionated, but the stories were different than most news sources. They did a lot of reporting on torture, misconduct, and foul play of minorities and other groups around the world. There wasn't much world news that is "exciting", but more politics and other bland news. Plus the reporters talked slow and monotone, making the stories less exciting than what they should be.

Press TV- This news station is based out of Iran, and I knew from the beginning that their news would be much different. The stories I listened to actually had a lot to do with conflicts within Iran, rather than international news. There was a lot about the economy there and voting and polling for leaders. The few international stories I heard were mainly about America and our fight in the Middle East. The news slammed us in their stories, particularly about an air raid that killed "dozens of civilians, including 7 children." Even Al Jazeera seemed in support or didn't have an opinion about the American journalists in North Korea. Iran's news doesn't seem that they would read positive United States stories.


Al Jazeera part 2.-
1- The internet is great for reaching out to groups of people to spread your product, but they need to advertise a lot if they want to expand. It's great that they are online, but how would people know that? They need to extend efforts to show their news is out there and free to watch for all with a computer.

2- After watching the news, Al Jazeera wasn't too negative towards America and had a good variety of world news. Their stories were exciting and not just politics and other bland topics. I would not be offended having their news on the US market. Out of these four news sources we watched, this one was actually the most entertaining. With that said, it means I would rather have Al Jazeera on my TV than BBC. I think people like the more exciting news and with their news not slamming the US, I would assume Americans wouldn't mind the news.

3-Their approach to the news was not much different compared to American news. They talked about a market bombing the killed a lot of people, riots in Australia, and the journalists captured in North Korea. All these stories would be top priorities in America, too. I know Al Jazeera gets a bad rap, but after watching their news for a good hour or so, I saw nothing negative about them. They were very similar in chosing their top stories, and didn't show as much bias as most people would expect.

4- Their ethics were followed completely in their news. They read the basic news, didn't have an opinion, and didn't hide the truth. Most would think they would target the United States for bad news stories. But they were well balanced, and just read the biggest stories of the day, despite where they take place. Their style of news is the style I like. I want the facts and no edited or biased stories.