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The view from here is that Iran is a closed society with no outside (aka Western) news, information, or entertainment slipping in. Is it true? Or, are Iranians offered a variety of global views via satellite television and the internet? As America’s diplomatic stalemate with Iran becomes increasingly prominent in the headlines, Bob asks Tehran-based Time reporter Azadeh Moaveni about the perceptions, and misperceptions, across the cultural divide.
American news audiences heard a lot about Iran this week, but what were Iranians hearing about the U.S.? Not much, at least if they were relying on first person accounts. There are currently only two Iranian correspondents officially based in the U.S. and neither is allowed to travel beyond a 25-mile radius from midtown Manhattan. Islamic Republic News Agency correspondent Maghsoud Amirian tells Bob what it’s like to cover the news from the end of a short leash.
When the New York Times ran a series this week about the dark corners of online child pornography, the paper made a point of telling readers that it alerted authorities to illegal websites Kurt Eichenwald discovered in the process of reporting. It wasn’t the first time a child porn story forced Eichenwald, and the paper, to re-examine traditional source-reporter guidelines. Bob talks to him about the ethics of journalistic intervention.
Our listeners weigh in on NSA wiretapping, upstanding small-town movie critics, and how to talk if you’re in the Northwest.
And we thought our jobs were safe. New technology has always made easier some of the more menial tasks of the journalist, especially those of market and wire reporters? But at Thomson Financial in New York, machines are now journalists, too. Bob speaks with Director of Content Development Andrew Meagher about the efficacy of computers that take the job into their own virtual hands.
It has often been the practice of market analysts to tie economic movement to the day’s news. But can the trading of billions of shares really be traced back to one driving agent – political, economic, or otherwise? Back in ’03, Bob took a long – and of course, skeptical – look at the business media’s tendency to boil down the complexities of the market to a single operative factor.
Highlights from Past ShowsWith a tentative ceasefire taking hold this week in Lebanon, Israel and Hezbollah were quick to blame the other side for the destruction, and disseminate propaganda to reinforce their claims. Their spinning reflected an anxiety that the first draft of history is often more than just a draft. Bob speaks with UC Irvine Middle East historian Mark LeVine about the lasting impacts of early media coverage
Connecticut Democrat Ned Lamont’s primary victory on Tuesday has been widely heralded as the first major win for the online liberal advocacy community. But how much credit do the so-called “net-roots” really deserve? Brooke speaks with Internet theorist and NYU telecom professor Clay Shirky about the political web in its age of adolescence.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
