Have you ever heard of a "listening post"? During World War I, a listening post was a shallow, narrow trench or hole in advance of the front trench line of battle, placing the "listeners" dangerously close to the enemy so they could gather intelligence.
Today in our mass media class, we watched two outstanding magazine-style news programs from Listening Post, the weekly news roundup from Al Jazeera's English service. Hosted by Canadian Richard Gizbert, the show examines how news events are covered by news media throughout the world. The episodes for January 22nd and 29th covering the Revolution in Tunisia and the subsequent events in Egypt were penetrating and insightful coverage, and refreshing in that they provided a different view than what we have seen on American news programs.
These episodes (each about 25 minutes) are definitely worth watching by anyone who wants to gain insights into the role of media (and especially new media) in various parts of the world and in the Middle East in particular. As reported in Wikipedia, "Aaron Barnhart, TV writer for the Kansas City Star, wrote that The Listening Post 'might be the best media-critique program in English anywhere.' Stewart Purvis, former editor-in-chief and CEO of the Britain's ITN, said 'The Listening Post has delivered," and that its real value "is the breadth of its monitoring beyond the mainstream'."
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