Al Jazeera English Chief Will Stebbins spoke at Knight Hall last night.
Recent demonstrations in the Middle East are challenging Americans’ perceptions of the world, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent who spoke on the campus last night about the importance of the media in creating dialogue among different nations.
Will Stebbins, the Washington bureau chief of Al Jazeera English, part of the larger Al Jazeera network — a international news organization that, according to its website, broadcasts to more than 220 million households in more than 100 countries — spoke to a crowd of about 20 faculty members and graduate students in Knight Hall last night.
Stebbins said conflicts in the Middle East among various groups are often split into two categories: “With us or against us.” Stebbins hopes Al Jazeera will challenge such notions by providing unbiased international world coverage on issues such as the recent protests and upheaval in Egypt and Libya.
“We are living in remarkable times, propelled by the incredible events in the Middle East,” Stebbins said. “What is clear is that the way we have thought about the world will have to change. The language that we will have used to describe it now appears to be inadequate to describe these remarkable events.”
Stebbins said extreme anxiety in a post-September 11 world created a vocabulary that inaccurately represents ever-evolving situations in the Middle East, noting the words “Islam” and “terrorism” seem to be closely linked.
“Everything we assumed we knew about the Middle East needed revision, notably the role of religion,” he said. “It is a dramatic moment we are living through right now. … There are serious competing ideas about what the world looks like.”
Ana Sebescen, a broadcast journalism graduate student who is interning at Al Jazeera, said a Muslim-American divide is often at the center of those competing ideas, noting Americans need to be more open to other cultures’ differences.
“America symbolizes the melting pot,” she said. “It should be the first to become more open to that.”
But throughout these conflicts, Stebbins and event attendees said the media has helped to further cross-cultural dialogue.
Communication professor Sahar Khamis, who vocally supported the recent protests in Egypt that eventually led to the resignation of former President Hosni Mubarak, said the Qatar based-Al Jazeera has played a key role in covering recent demonstrations in the Middle East.
“Even Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, gave credit for distinguished coverage of the Middle East lately,” she said.
Although Al Jazeera’s main Arabic channel has previously faced accusations of being anti-American and pro-terrorism, Stebbins said the news organization provides an arena in which free debate can take place like never before.
“It’s been an uphill struggle, but it looks like doors are opening now,” he said.
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