No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Eye Opening and Actually Enjoyable: Using Online Newspapers to Teach Modern Middle Eastern History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2016
Abstract
Challenging students to identify and analyze diverse perspectives is a key objective in any Middle East studies course. This article describes an assignment used in a history course which asks students to compare and contrast articles from Middle Eastern online newspapers. Comparing multiple articles on the same topic exposes students to contrasting views on significant issues. The easy availability of online newspapers “de-centers” students’ perspectives by requiring use of materials from outside the United States. This assignment teaches specific analytical skills, such as finding relevant articles, reading them critically, writing effective summaries, and developing synthetic comparisons. Through an analysis of this assignment, this article discusses the advantages, as well as limitations, of this approach, using students’ own evaluations to assess the achievement of desired learning objectives.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 2012
References
End Notes
1 For the syllabus, follow the link to History 2346: Middle East, from the instructor’s website: www.history.vt.edu/ewing/teaching.html.
2 Said, Edward W., Covering Islam. How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (New York: Pantheon, 1981), 51Google Scholar.
3 Bernhardsson, Magnus T. and Charnow, Sally, “Teaching Middle Eastern History against the Headlines,” Radical History Review 86 (Spring 2003): 165–166Google Scholar.
4 Ibid., 165–166.
5 Online directories that list media by country include: http://www.kidon.com/media-link/index.php; onlinenewspapers.com; and world-newspapers.com. Unfortunately, many links are corrupted or dead, so it takes considerable trial and error to locate appropriate newspaper sites. An extensive list of Middle Eastern newspapers is available from: http://www.al-bab.com/media/newspapers.htm.
6 For the 32 newspapers, with links to the homepage of each newspaper, see the homepage for this assignment: www.history.vt.edu/Ewing/middleeastnewspapers_home.html.
7 See discussion of using online resources in the classroom in Brown, Linda K., “Strategies and Resources to Help Students Evaluate Web-Based Information,” Review of Middle East Studies 43, No. 1 (2010): 41–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The appendix for this article includes links to online newspapers, as well as other resources for teaching about the Middle East.
8 The parameters of this assignment exclude reputable media outlets such as the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, which defines itself as “the world’s premier pan-Arab daily newspaper”: http://www.aawsat.com/ and in English: http://www.asharq-e.com/. Sources of insightful “outside” perspectives include Middle East News and Information Project [www.merip.org] currently available only by subscription; Middle East Media Research Institute [www.memri.org], and Media Line [www.themedialine.org].
9 I realize these requirements run the risk of privileging a “native” point of view, which is an assumption long questioned by cultural theorists. To borrow from the influential views of one anthropologist, the goal of this assignment is not to claim some kind of “inner correspondence of spirit,” but rather to encourage the habits of “searching out and analyzing the symbolic forms—words, images, institutions, behaviors—in terms of which, in each place, people actually represent themselves to themselves and to one another.” Geertz, Clifford, ‘“From the Native’s Point of View’: On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding,” Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 28, No. 1 (October 1974): 29–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar. It is important to remind students that they are reading an Egyptian, Iranian, or Israeli perspective, not the perspective of a particular country, society, or religion.
10 Some of these newspapers have a long history: Al-Ahram was first published in Cairo, Egypt, in 1875; Ha’aretz was published initially by the British government in Palestine in 1918 and continued by Zionist settlers; the Jerusalem Post began publication in 1932; the Daily Star was founded in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1952; the Tehran Times began publication after the 1979 Iranian revolution; and several Gulf region newspapers (Arab News and Saudi Gazette in Saudi Arabia, Gulf Times in Qatar, and Times of Oman) first appeared in print during the 1970s. For a history of newspapers in the Middle East, see Amin, Hussein, “Mass Media in the Arab States between Diversification and Stagnation: An Overview,” in Hafez, , Mass Media, 24–28Google Scholar. For connections between old and new media, see Eickelman, Dale F. and Anderson, Jon W., “Redefining Muslim Publics,” in Eickelman, and Anderson, , eds., New Media in the Muslim World. The Emerging Public Sphere (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 1–18Google Scholar.
11 As is appropriate for the age of Web 2.0, many of these sites offer both video and text reports, but students are required to use written resources. Al-Jazeera, one of the most visible sources for video reporting, is included on the resource page because it also provides text reports. For blogs, FaceBook, and YouTube in Middle Eastern societies, see Anderson, John W., “Mediatized Islam, Cyberspace, and the Public Sphere” (Conference paper, George Washington University, February 2008): 5, available online http://faculty.cua.edu/anderson/mediatised%20islam3.pdfGoogle Scholar.
12 Hafez, Kai, “Introduction: Mass Media in the Middle East: Patterns of Political and Societal Change,” in Mass Media, Politics and Society in the Middle East (Cresskill: Hampton, 2001), 11Google Scholar.
13 Anderson, Jon W., “Transnational Civil Society, Institution-Building, and IT: Reflections from the Middle East,” Cyber Orient. Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East (July 4, 2007) www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=3696Google Scholar.
14 Eickelman, and Anderson, , “Redefining Muslim Publics,” 3Google Scholar.
15 For an argument that Middle Easterners are too dependent on Western news organizations for information about their own society, see Said, Covering Islam, 52.
16 Such identifications are easily accessible by looking at online guides: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haaretz and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ahram.
17 See discussions of this challenge in Massad, Joseph, “Statement in Response to the Intimidation of Columbia University, New York, 3 November 2004,” The Journal of Palestine Studies 34 (Winter 2005): 75–78;Google Scholar“Intimidation at Columbia,” The New York Times April 7, 2005Google Scholar; Finn, Robin, “At the Center of an Academic Storm, a Lesson in Calm,” New York Times, April 8, 2005, both online: www.nytimes.comGoogle Scholar.
18 For a different strategy, which seeks to engage students in debates as a way to question simplifications found in the media or in mainstream historical accounts, see Shakry, Omnia El, “Lessons from the Modern Middle East,” Perspectives on History 48, No. 5 (May 2010), 46–47Google Scholar; Bernhardsson, Magnus T. and Charnow, Sally, “Translating Ideas of Nationhood: A Case Study of Teaching Nationalism and National Identity in Middle Eastern History,” Radical History Review 86 (Spring 2003): 168–169Google Scholar; Massad, Joseph, “Statement to the Columbia University Ad Hoc Grievance Committee, New York, 14 March 2005 (Excerpts),” The Journal of Palestine Studies 34, No. 4 (Summer 2005): 76–90Google Scholar.
19 Bernhardsson, and Charnow, , “Translating Ideas of Nationhood,” 170–171Google Scholar. See also the reference to “the instructor’s weekly selection of news articles on the Middle East from the international press” in Hudson, Leila, “Beyond Culture: Teaching Histories of Islam,” Radical History Review 86 (Spring 2003): 178Google Scholar. For a critical view of the Internet’s implications for “knowing” the Middle East, see the following comment: “In the global internet, our students are technologically savvy but culturally fragmented and parochial.” Aksan, Virginia, “MESA 2009 Presidential Address: How Do We ‘Know’ the Middle East?” Review of Middle East Studies 44, No. 1 (Summer 2010): 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Eickelman, and Anderson, , “Redefining Muslim Publics,” 16Google Scholar.