DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 12 — Al Jazeera, the Arab news channel that began a decade ago as an upstart, has became a thorn in the side of every dictator in the region as well as of the Bush administration.
Critics call it radical; its admirers lionize it. And the network continues to battle accusations that it is sympathetic to Al Qaeda and other extremists.
Several of its reporters have been jailed — one is in prison in Spain for ties to Al Qaeda — and its offices have been shut in almost every major Arab country at some point, and bombed by American aircraft in two wars.
Now, Al Jazeera’s journalists are working to transform the channel into a conglomerate with global reach. . . . . . .
Read the whole thing.
2 comments:
i have been reading your blog and your students' blogs, and also linked to the "reluctant cyberprof" who described your classroom blog project. Am wondering: what sort of rubric do you use to grade the students' blogs? what do you look for?
Thanks!
Welcome! I look for a few things: first, have they responded to the assignment (most posts are in response to requests from me to focus on particular topics in particular ways); have they made some effort to incorporate the class readings into their thinking, taking some of the more abstract and theoretical material we discuss in class and trying to apply it to real world media in real time; are they trying hard to be intellectually honest, setting aside their own biases or predilictions to try to make sense of the media world; and are their postings crisp and clear, and moving beyond mere description toward some synthesis or analysis. I'm pleased to report that most everyone on most days fulfills most of these expectations -- as I hope is clear from their own blogs. All in all, I've been very impressed with their work, and hope they are proud of what they've done. Last, I'm especially pleased when students find the time (not always easy) to read their colleagues' blogs and comments on them, perhaps even starting dialogues among themselves. . .
Post a Comment