{"id":177,"date":"2013-08-27T00:05:55","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T00:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/foreign-news-and-perspectives"},"modified":"2019-08-28T09:05:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T09:05:14","slug":"foreign-news-and-perspectives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/08\/27\/foreign-news-and-perspectives\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign news and perspectives"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve rediscovered the value of local news channels. Via\u00a0the Egyptian Ahram Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In its capacity as a “local news channel” that I seek, I am looking for it to present its particular brand of foreignness (the type which knows that everyone else is foreign). Ahram Online achieves this via three means, each of which may be contrasted (partly for amusement’s sake) with Australian commercial television news.<\/p>\n

First, it demonstrates an inevitable obsession with anything occurring within its nation’s borders. (Cf. The horrendous special interest, “local area man” style stories, all the worse when they are included while real<\/em>\u00a0[international] news is not).<\/p>\n

Second, it sees the world from its nation’s own region, in this case, a curious combination of North Africa, the Middle East, and the Islamic and Arabic worlds. (Cf. Australia which only sort-of sees south-east Asia as the centre of the world. The partiality is likely related to the historical idealized segregation between white, European Australia and Asians, but is confounded by contemporary and practical relations within the region. Australia also gathers its perspectives from England and the United States).<\/p>\n

And thirdly, its perspective onto the rest of the world is always a consideration seen from within itself. It does these things in the most obvious way by the “news” it selects to present, i.e. in the act of selection. (Cf. Australia seems to generally – and as more countries are it seems – follow the United State’s media’s lead in deciding what is newsworthy).\u00a0But in addition to pure news, there is value also – and this is a mode that should not be dismissed – in the opinion editorials. These are important too because they articulate (hopefully the range of) the population’s opinions, and also what are the various (local) concerns about news event x. Consider the same event x might be reported identically when done so in a minimalistic news-speak, but that it might have a unique set of opinions when dissected by the different populations.<\/p>\n

So to conclude by recapping: I was seeking a somehow\u00a0better\u00a0<\/em>coverage of events currently occurring<\/a> in Egypt and revolving around their civil strife and uncertain government, and among the site found was one called Ahram Online (based on the newspaper Al-Ahram<\/a>). I was impressed by this site’s quality of its news coverage and (or\u00a0including<\/em>) opinion\/editorial pieces. In reading this news site – and not limiting my reading to my initial interest (regarding the protests) but even reading about focuses outside Egypt – I gained benefits that are common to truly\u00a0local <\/em>news\u00a0channels, and in doing so was reminded of the manner in which these benefits are in fact\u00a0common <\/em>to all local news media<\/em>. Above I had summarised those benefits into a rough trilogy, and I repeat them here in brief; local news media offer certain advantages: they focus on a locality that is otherwise foreign; they measure the world and estimates differently what it considers to be regions of importance in a manner that is foreign; and thirdly, all\u00a0international\u00a0<\/em>news is perceived through spectacles in a shade of its own locality and based on an interest that depends and is construed depending on the locality’s identity and all that is inherent within that identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve rediscovered the value of local news channels. Via\u00a0the Egyptian Ahram Online. In its capacity as a “local news channel” that I seek, I am looking for it to present its particular brand of foreignness (the type which knows that everyone else is foreign). Ahram Online achieves this via three means, each of which may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,90,128,75,79,77],"tags":[],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-blog-posts","category-journal","category-meanwhileii","category-news","category-perspective"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2497,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/08\/16\/friday-august-16-2013-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":177,"position":0},"title":"Friday August 16, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"August 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This is the\u00a0first of 51 Evernote entries titled according to the date on which they were written, making this a personal, chronological journal of observations, lessons learned and conclusions, together with an element of diary writing. Synopsis: Today I discover a foreign news service, muse about its benefits,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2816,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/11\/23\/saturday-november-23-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":177,"position":1},"title":"Saturday November 23, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"November 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's start by recording what is\/was done today (by cross-referencing the \"To-do\" items listed in the \"meta\" notebook via Evernote. Continuing read Hamilton's Judas Unchained. Up-to-date on 750word transmutation to Evernote. Started a review of my sources for news. Continued my Notes on Wolff. 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There are a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2513,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/04\/11\/science-news-pseudoenzymes\/","url_meta":{"origin":177,"position":3},"title":"Science Review: Pseudoenzymes","author":"Pala","date":"April 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Concepts: Psudeoenzymes Source: A News Focus\u00a0piece in Science\u00a0(April 5, 2013). History: A 2002 study found that of 518 human protein kinases encoded in the DNA, about 10% lack at least one of three amino acids necessary for phosphate transfer. This was the first time the magnitude of the phenomenon was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2478,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/04\/21\/lucretius-the-nature-of-things-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":177,"position":4},"title":"Science Review: Saturn’s magnetic ring rain","author":"Pala","date":"April 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Concept: Saturn's magnetic ring rain. Source: Nature News and Views, based on an original research Letter\u00a0(April 11, 2013). Background: Rings made up of water ice, most of which can be described by Newtonian forces, but those small enough require an explanation of the Lorentz force. 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