People Like Us: Misrepresenting the Middle East
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.98 (695 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1593762569 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-09-07 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
A must read for journalists Very honest, very well written, very true, it hits you on the head. Lobewiper said People Like Us. This is one of the most important books about foreign policy, the middle east, and the limits of journalism (especially, as presented in the mass media) that I have ever read. This is not a chatty account of "How I learned to love Egyptian food when I lived in the Middle East." Instead, it is a highly readable but very powerful critique of modern journalism and how difficult it is for middle eastern correspondents to provide the. inside journalism The title of this excellent book is perhaps a little misleading; I think it is as much about the media and the constraints of "on the spot" reporting as about the Middle East. As the author gives us a glimpse into the reality of the basis for the articles we read in the newspaper, including his own reports, I wonder if he is writing for expiation as well as an expose'.It is well written as a first person narrative of his own exp
In People Like Us, which became a bestseller in Holland, Joris Luyendijk tells the story of his five years as a correspondent in the Middle East. As a correspondent, he was privy to a multitude of narratives with conflicting implications, and he saw over and over again that the media favored the stories that would be sure to confirm the popularly held, oversimplified beliefs of westerners. In People Like Us, Luyendijk deploys powerful examples, leavened with humor, to demonstrate the ways in which the media gives us a filtered, altered, and manipulated image of reality in the Middle East.. He chronicles first-hand experiences of dictatorship, occupation, terror, and war. His stories cast light on a number of major crises, from the Iraq War to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along with less-reported issues such as underage orphan trash-collectors in Cairo.The more he witnessed, the less he understood, and he became increasingly aware of the yawning gap between what he saw on the ground and what was later reported in the media. Extremely young for a correspondent but fluen
The author also weighs in on 9/11 and Saddam Hussein's regime, making this an eye-opening account with special relevance for American readers. He takes advantage of his outsider position to break down the myths of war journalism and the very real limitations reporters face outside the Western bubble of free speech. . In his commanding debut, Dutch journalist Luyendijk describes the curious five years he spent as a correspondent in the Middle East, stationed out of Cairo. Sent to the Middle East not for his journalism skills but for his ability to speak Arabic, Luyendijk had to learn on the job, an all-too-literal trial by fire. Sent traipsing around the Middle East, Luyendijk struggles to find newsworthy (and trustworthy) stories, usually involving bribery and less-than-honest people. Luyendijk also delivers example afte