Taking a break from my criticism of American media, I have decided to discuss one of my favorite news sources for Middle Eastern politics. Linktv.org is a nonprofit news organization whose mission is to ‘provide powerful stories and unseen perspectives’ and to give ‘voice to people without and voice’. Their stories reflect their ideologies as their award winning programs, such as Mosaic News, which provides various perspectives on news stories from countries in the Middle East.
Comparing the Mosaic news representation of Islam versus the western media narratives provides an interesting insight into how western media choose to frame particular stories and groups of people. For example in the video, the program provides different Middle Eastern perspectives into the Israeli conflict over its decision to make Jerusalem its’ national priority implying it wants to expand its’ settlements within the city. What the video does well is it provides different points of view from inside Israel to the Palestinian Authority and BBC. By providing various viewpoints, Linktv.org gives voices to underrepresented people such as the Palestinians struggle to heard against the dominant pro-Israeli narrative in Western media sources.
Not only does the multi-perspective structure create a more credible news site, it also gives the people the power to represent themselves within conflicts. No longer are Muslims shown as violent mobs in news stories, rather, many of the videos show politicians in peaceful dialogues working in a parliamentary type setting much like showing US congress. It also interviews individuals in each country giving them a voice in the conflicts, which at the same time, combats the universalizing western conceptions of Muslims. Because of this, Linktv.org is an important news site in providing imperative Middle Eastern viewpoint on their own conflicts without the western orientalist lens obscuring the stories.
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