Monday, November 2, 2015

The Man Behind The Mosque

1.       Assume that the documentary, The Man Behind the Mosque, provided an accurate and research-based perspective on how the “Ground Zero Mosque” became a story. Based on what you saw there, what steps can you remember the cable-news media covering the story taking to investigate who was actually behind the Mosque in terms of mission, goals, and funding?
They went into why the estate was bought up and the different viewpoints of the owners. They dug into peoples backstories and made up different stories about their lives and carved them into an  image they saw fit.

2.       Who brought the story of the “Ground Zero Mosque” to Fox News, the station that broke the story and led coverage of the story?
The couple that was against the islamization of america.

3.       It can be argued that much of the cable news coverage of the story was just that – coverage of a “story,” and how people felt about this “story,” rather than actual reporting.  Explain how we can see this at work
They just involved people that were on polar sides of the issue and had them debate their respective parts, and from those they derived their twisted stories.

4.       The journalists of Frontline included coverage of and interviews with the staff of Park 51 (the NYU grad and a couple other part-timers).  Do these individuals appear ever to have been interviewed on cable-news?
No they did not appear to ever have been on television before.


5.       What sources did Cable news appear to rely on for knowledge and expertise about Islam?  How credible did you find these sources?  Why?
I forgot who they were but i remember thinking that their views were not totally unbiased.
6.       How relevant is the ownership of a media source for understanding its goals and how its goals may shape bias in its coverage?  
Very relevant as it wants to please its regular viewers with material they are sued to watching.

7.       Who was, at the time of the Ground Zero Mosque story, the second largest shareholder in the News Corp?
The Saudi arabian prince.

8.       If you bring up the topic of the Ground Zero mosque today, many people might say something like, “Oh yeah . . . What ever happened to that?”  Think about it:  Given the level of urgency that was attached to the story, why did cable news just stop covering the story of the Mosque at Ground Zero?
Since it was bringing too much real pressure on their networks. Also other news stories came up that made more sense for the channels to show to their viewer base.
9.       Read about what polls reveal about Americans and their views on Islam.

http://www.pewforum.org/2009/09/09/publicationpage-aspxid1398-3/




No comments:

Post a Comment