Within the countries we traveled to as a class (Egypt, Turkey and Greece) I learned that their newspaper system are much different than that of Americas; Turkey and Egypt especially, since they do not have much freedom of speech.
Journalists in the states are given the first Amendment right of Freedom of Speech and to Seek the Truth and Report It. However, Turkey and Egypt are not given this right. Egypt has newspapers that are government owned, controlled and run. The editors and staff of most all Egyptian newspapers are chosen by the President of the country.
With the government control over most newspapers and sources of information it can be said that the citizens of Egypt do not truly know what is going on within a larger aspect of society and that they are only getting fed propaganda. The overall concept of journalism within America is to have unbiased information and let the reader form their own opinions but in Egypt it seems that the opinions are already being formed by the government and the citizens do not get that right.
In Turkey there are many newspaper and these newspapers are not allowed to display violent images. In America journalism students are brought up on the phrase, “if it bleeds, it leads,” this is clearly not the case in Turkey. They like to display what they call “happy images” throughout their newspapers.
Greece is the only country the has somewhat of unbiased form of reporting and shows a form of real news, not propaganda, within their media system.
When referring back to the idea of media literacy I wonder if the people in Egypt believe all the articles they are reading in the newspapers to be true. These newspapers as a whole are clearly unbiased and do not let the reader form their own opinions on topics as articles do in America. If the readers are truly media literate then they would know that what they are reading is not to be considered actual “news” but more so a form of propaganda.
My personal assumption after visiting these areas of the world is that the citizens of Turkey and Egypt are not as media literate as they should be and may believe what is being portrayed as news in their media systems.
Nicholas Vitukevich, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Arrow Blogger
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