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The New Media Environment: Paths to Understanding
March 26-28, 2008
Dead Sea, Jordan
New media have, without doubt, revolutionized the ways in which people communicate worldwide. From blogs to streaming video, constantly advancing technology is allowing more people to express themselves and respond to others in new ways, and each year promises to make this dialogue faster and more inclusive.
Some things have not changed with the technology, however; despite our increased access to diverse ideas and ability to share our own, the gaps in understanding between the Arab and American worlds have not disappeared. Fear and anger still color much of each side’s coverage of the other. The simple, technical possibility of exchanging more information more quickly has not cured ignorance and misunderstanding that have appeared in media in both regions.
In this changing and often frustrating new-media landscape, however, there are hopeful signs. Citizen journalists are using the Internet to uncover injustices and report on stories missed by the mainstream media. Social networking sites connect people who, due to geographic and cultural barriers, would not have realized their common interests and goals five years ago. Newspapers and other traditional media are inviting their readers to talk back, starting conversations and building communities online.
The 2008 Aspen Institute Arab-U.S. Media Forum brings together a diverse group of participants in order to analyze what challenges to inter-cultural understanding new media present and also to outline creative and effective means of encouraging the positive trends that have appeared.
The goal of this conference is three-fold: (1) to convene leaders in Arab and American media to address new media’s potential to bridge gaps in cultural understanding; (2) to identify key elements of the enabling environment for the growth of socially beneficial media; and (3) to identify the roles that media owners, publishers, journalists, technology companies, and societal institutions can play in building that enabling environment and expanding the influence of culturally positive online projects.
 Framing the Other: Bias or Imbalance?
December 2-5, 2005
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
June 7-9, 2006
Queenstown, Maryland
Throughout history, groups have discriminated against other ethnic and religious groups by, among other tactics, stereotyping, demonizing, distorting and disparaging them. While journalists have the opportunity to ameliorate the problem and build understanding and acceptance among peoples, sometimes they do the opposite, fueling misconceptions and prejudices. These issues have arisen in recent years in both American and Arab press organizations.
In December 2005 the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, with grants from the Ford Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, convened its third semi-annual Arab-US Media Forum in Dubai, UAE. The Forum entitled “Covering the Other: Intolerance and Bigotry in the American and Arab Media” met to identify and address the difficult issues of tolerance and discrimination.
In Dubai, journalists, editors, columnists and publishers from the US and the Arab world engaged in a constructive dialogue on the ways that media in each region cover “the other,” meaning ethnic and religious minorities and people of other nationalities. Two concrete results of the meeting are David Ignatius’ “Courage in their Coverage” column in the December 7, 2005 issue of the Washington Post and Kevin Sites’ blog entry on his experience at the meeting in Kevin Sites in the Hotzone on Yahoo!.
The Arab-US Media Forum reconvened in the Spring of 2006 to continue the discussion begun in Dubai.
Framing the Other: Bias or Imbalance? includes insightful essays and commentary by Arab and U.S. journalists present at the forum about bias in the media and recommendations towards better, more balanced coverage.
Through the Looking Glass: American and Arab Media
March 14-16, 2004
Luxor, Egypt
and
June 9-11, 2004
Maryland, United States
 Journalism, under any conditions, is a difficult and controversial, yet immensely influential craft. This is certainly the case in the two regions of the world with which we are particularly concerned, the Arab Middle-East and the United States. For a variety of reasons, many leaders and journalists in the one region believe that their culture or country is not adequately depicted in the other.
In a time of great mistrust within and between these two regions, it is incumbent upon the journalistic institutions to foster greater knowledge and understanding of the others culture. Yet in each region journalists find themselves facing barriers to achieve this objective, whether pressures of patriotism from within or outside the organization, issues of ownership and the marketplace, or general (mis)perception of the underlying truth of another culture.
To address these concerns and improve understanding across cultures and regions, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, in cooperation with the Ford Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, convened the Aspen Institute Arab-US Media Forum. These roundtable meetings brought together two dozen leading journalists and experts from the Arab Middle East and the United States to explore fundamental media values and approaches, enabling each group to appreciate and understand the similarities and differences among their professional journalistic issues and practices.
Through the Looking Glass: Arab and American Media Leaders Debate, Dialogue and Rededicate offers commentary, data and reflection on the topics discussed at the Forum. The primary pieces were written by WorldPaper founder, Crocker Snow, Jr. and our moderator, Arab journalist Hisham Melham.
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