ihath

Several months ago a young woman named Hajera Rostam contacted me asking me if I would be willing to be interviewed for her masters thesis. She was working on the theme of how the reporting of the American led war on Iraq in 2003 was effecting Iraqis living in Canada. Recently she sent me her thesis which I found very interesting to read. I am posting it here after getting her permission. The document is a bit lengthy, but if you skip the parts about setting up academic paradigm and reviewing other reading material into the findings section around page 55, you will find very interesting stories and perspectives from a diverse groups of Iraqis about how watching the news on a daily basis has effected their lives. I found myself crying on several occasions while reading it. Each participant is given a code name different from their real name to hide their identity. The researcher has chosen the name Hadiya for myself, which means gift in arabic.

THE IRAQI EXPATRIATES’ EXPERIENCE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA
COVERAGE OF IRAQ

by HAJERA ROSTAM
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
in
THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
(Counselling Psychology)


Here is a short qoute

One major theme that three participants emphasized was, the way that North
American media was portraying the war as an “infomercial, ” “play-by-play update of a
game like football,” or a “commercial.” They felt that this reflected insensitivity on the part of the journalists as well as a trivialization of the crisis in the region.

It is like, there is this total insensitivity to the culture, so you are seeing it through the eyes of what they want you to see Iraq as. As (inaudible) as evil guy as
Saddam is, we are just gonna go in, and just take him, and it is this simple, and
we will just put our tanks in. And that is not the full story. So you are just gonna
get a snapshot of the story. Cause they, it was like a sales job, it is like watching a, what do you call those, infomercials. You are sold an infomercial on how, this was the only way to get rid of Saddam, and look we are doing it and you are soldon it, and they keep getting reinforced by the messages. (Rajab)

Others used terms such as “game,” “lottery,” “brainwash,” “ a lie,” or “skewed”
to describe the North American media. Terms such as “morons” or “idiots” were used to
describe journalists, and finally terms such as “sensationalization, ” “magnifica tion,” “shallow,” “crappy,” or “exaggeration” to describe the overall portrayal of the war inIraq.

There is a way between voice and presence where information flows. In disciplined silence it opens. With wandering talk it closes. .... Rumi