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FACDIS Twenty-Fourth Annual Workshops

How the Media View the World

November 11-12, 2004
Lakeview Resort & Conference Center
Morgantown, West Virginia

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Final Program

Thursday, November 11

9:30 AM - 1:00 PM

Registration: Library
Book Display: University Hall

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING: Stewart Room

11:45 AM - 1:15 PM

LUNCH: Chestnut 1 & 2
WELCOME: Jack Hammersmith, Director, FACDIS
LUNCHEON PRESENTATION: Asra Q. Nomani

1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

OPENING PANEL DISCUSSION WITH PRESENTERS: University Hall
A Middle-East Perspective: Professor Mohammed El-Nawawy, Georgia State University
Media and Public Policy in the Age of Terrorism: Professor Susan Moeller, University of Maryland
A Reporter's View from Vietnam to Ground Zero: Richard Pyle, Veteran Associated Press reporter and bureau chief
What We Get from 'The News': A Broadcast Journalist's Perspective: Ralph Begleiter, Former CNN correspondent

3:00 PM - 3:15 PM

BREAK

3:15 PM - 4:45 PM

First Set of Concurrent Sessions
Topic 1. A Middle-East Perspective: Chestnut Room 1

Consultant: Professor Mohammed El-Nawawy, Georgia State University
Session I: The Government-Media Relationship in the Middle East
Session will discuss the nature of the relationship between the government and the press with a focus on the Middle East. Within this framework, two studies will be presented. The first will be a survey of Western correspondents in Egypt and Israel and how they deal with government PR officials in both countries in their coverage of the Middle East conflict. The second study will be a critical analysis of the Al-Jazeera satellite network's role in creating a public sphere in the Middle East; how it has changed the way Arab governments deal with regional media; and how the U.S. administration can use Al-Jazeera as a media diplomacy tool to bridge the gap between the East and the West.

Topic 2. Media and Public Policy in the Age of Terrorism: Chestnut Room 2

Consultant: Professor Susan Moeller, University of Maryland
Session I: Media Coverage of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Story
Major media outlets in the U.S. and Great Britain inadequately reported the lead-up to the war with Iraq by failing to challenge the merging by the Bush administration of the campaign against Iraq and the issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction into a single War on Terror. Alternative perspectives and critical analyses, where found, tended to be buried. Journalistic conventions also favored the White House perspective, especially the "inverted pyramid" style of news writing (ironically considered an impartial way of transmitting news), which meant that breaking news stories tended to lead with the administration's message.

Topic 3. A Reporter's View from Vietnam to Ground Zero: Training Room 1

Consultant: Richard Pyle, Veteran Associated Press reporter and bureau chief
Session I: The Evolution of Military Reporting from the Civil War to Iraq
In a democratic system that draws its strength from First Amendment guarantees, the media have spent much time and effort covering the military, the one major institution that is not democratic and yet the one which conducts the vital function of war. This session will examine how the military-media relationship has developed historically and how information actually reaches the breakfast table from the battlefield. How does the basic tenet of a free press in an open society accommodate itself to a hierarchical, closed institution like the military? How does the military accommodate itself to the open society's requirements for public disclosure? Pyle's personal experiences will emphasize how Vietnam basically redefined the media-military relationship and led to a mutual alienation that continues to persist.

Topic 4. What We Get from 'The News': A Broadcast Journalist's Perspective: Training Room 4

Consultant: Ralph Begleiter, Former CNN correspondent
Session I: Global Media & the Power of Images, or What They Think of Us and Why it Matters
American news consumers often seem to have a different view of world events from the one held by others abroad. Why is this the case? Why does it matter? What role do the news media play? What effect does it have on understanding and preparedness when it comes to international events?

6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

SOCIAL HOUR (cash bar): University Hall

7:00 PM

BANQUET: University Hall
FILM: Sound the Drum: The Making of Duara, Daniel Boyd, West Virginia State University

Friday, November 14

7:00 AM

INSTITUTIONAL REPRESENTATIVES BREAKFAST: Ward Christopher Room

7:30 AM

GENERAL BREAKFAST: University Hall

8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Second Set of Concurrent Sessions.
Participants will stay in same track as Thursday afternoon (3:15 pm-4:45 pm)

Topic 1. A Middle-East Perspective: Chestnut Room 1

Consultant: Professor Mohammed El-Nawawy, Georgia State University
Session II: Arab Media Coverage of 'Terrorism'
Session will discuss how the "global war on terror" that has been launched by the US administration in the aftermath of the September 11 events has sparked a major debate over the definition of terror, its social and political probes, and how far news coverage can meet journalistic standards of balance, truth, and objectivity, especially in cases of extreme political conflict. At the heart of this debate is the role played by the Arab media in covering "terrorism" inside and outside the Middle East. The presentation will analyze the Arab media coverage of Al-Qaeda, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the war in Iraq.

Topic 2. Media and Public Policy in the Age of Terrorism: Chestnut Room 2

Consultant: Professor Susan Moeller, University of Maryland
Session II: The Role Images Have Played in the War on Terror
Facts are often difficult to discern during wartime. Imagines, by contrast, give an emotional immediacy to the struggle, indicating not simply the progress made but the distance yet to be traveled. In Iraq, these imagines have quickly become a measure of who is winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. This session will examine the war for public opinion which has increasingly been played out through stark media images: bombs bursting over Baghdad, tanks mired in red sandstorms, scared and battered POWs, a "Top Gun" president striding tall, and a bedraggled former Iraqi leader submitting to a medical exam.

Topic 3. A Report's View from Vietnam to Ground Zero: Training Room 1

Consultant: Richard Pyle, Veteran Associated Press reporter and bureau chief
Session II: Reporting at Home on a Global Theme: The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks
Based in New York City at the time of the terrorist attacks in 2001, Pyle found himself in a "crisis climate" that resembled in many respects locations in which he had done past reporting, starting with Vietnam in 1968. This session will focus on his observations and experiences covering the terrorist attacks and lessons derived from that experience.

Topic 4. What We Get from 'The News': A Broadcast Journalist's Perspective: Training Room 4

Consultant: Ralph Begleiter, former CNN correspondent
Session II: Disappearing Act: How U.S. News Made the World Disappear
Changes in American journalism, both print and broadcast, contributed to the virtual disappearance of international politics during the 1990s, a trend which persists even in the years after the 9/11 attacks. These changes have a profound effect on our futurre, and puzzle citizens in other countries who can scarcely imagine how the media of a global superpower can seem so insular.

10:00 AM - 10:30 AM

COFFEE BREAK

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

CLOSING PANEL DISCUSSION WITH PRESENTERS: University Hall

Noon

WORKSHOPS ADJOURN

WORKSHOP LEADERS

MOHAMMED EL-NAWAWY, Georgia State University

Mohamad El-Nawawy was born, raised, and educated in Egypt with B.A. and M.A. degrees in mass communications from the American University in Cairo and a Ph.D. in journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. His experience includes working for the Associated Press in Cairo, the Middle East Agency, and the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Process in the Reporting of Western Journalists (Westport, CT, 2002) and co-author of Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network That Is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism (Cambridge, MA, 2003). Having served on the faculties of the University of West Florida and Stonehill College, he now teaches at Georgia State College in Atlanta, where he began his assignment this fall.

SUSAN MOELLER, University of Maryland

Susan Moeller earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1987. Following three years with the Department of History at Princeton, she won two Fulbright lectureships: in Islamabad, Pakistan (1990-91), and in Bangkok, Thailand (1991). Once back in the U.S., she directed the journalism program at Brandeis University for eight years before successive fellowships at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and as senior fellow in the international security program of the Belfer Center, both at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is currently on the journalism faculty at the University of Maryland. Her publications include Shooting War: Photography and American Experience of Combat (New York, 1989) and Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War, and Death (New York, 1999). She also authored a study entitled "Media Coverage of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)." Released in the spring of 2004, it examined media coverage of WMDs in 1998, 2002, and 2003, in the U.S. and Great Britain.

RICHARD PYLE, Veteran Associated Press Reporter and Bureau Chief

Richard Pyle represents a professional lifetime with the Associated Press (AP), having obtained his B.A. in journalism from Wayne State University. Of his more than three decades with AP, nearly twenty years have been as a foreign correspondent in Asia and the Middle East. Not only did he serve as Saigon bureau chief from 1970-73, he covered the 1973 Arab-Israeli War from Cairo, the Lebanon Civil War in 1976, the Iran-Iraq "Tanker War" in 1987-88, and the Gulf War in 1990-91. From 1979-87 he served as Tokyo-based Asia news editor, followed by a Cairo-based assignment covering the Middle East. Among his books is Lost Over Laos: The True Story of Tragedy, Mystery and Friendship (Cambridge, MA, 2003) concerning the lives and deaths of four top combat photographers who were shot down over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in 1971.

RALPH BEGLEITER, Former CNN Correspondent Currently the University of Delaware's "Distinguished Journalist in Residence,"

Ralph Begleiter has had more than 30 years in broadcast journalism. With degrees from Brown (honors in political science) and Columbia (journalism), Begleiter joined CNN in 1981. As State Department correspondent for nearly two decades, he became CNN's most widely-traveled reporter, logging almost two million miles and visiting 88 countries. Among his special projects have been the weekly "Global View" and "Cold War Postscript," both broadcast internationally, and the Foreign Policy Association's TV series, "Great Decisions 2001." He also co-anchored CNN's "International Hour" from 1994-1995, aired daily in prime time in Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East, and the U.S. Among his many awards has been the National Press Club's Hood Citation for Diplomatic Correspondence.

FACDIS ORGANIZATION

FACDIS Director:

Jack L. Hammersmith, Dept. of History, WVU, (304) 293-2421 x 5235, jhammer@wvu.edu

FACDIS Assistant Director:

Gretchen Peterec, Dept. of Political Science, WVU, (304) 293-7140, gretchen.peterec@mail.wvu.edu

Administrative Secretary:

Sharon Nestor, Dept. of Political Science, WVU, (304) 293-7140, snestor@wvu.edu

FACDIS Founding Director (1980-1997):

Sophia Peterson, Professor Emerita, Dept. of Political Science, WVU, (304) 293-7140

Institutional Representatives, Study Abroad Advisers, and Steering Committee (2004)

*INSTITUTION*	*INSTITUTIONAL REPRESENTATIVE*	*STUDY ABROAD* *ADVISER*
Alderson-Broaddus College	Ken Yount	Jim Daddysman
Bethany College	John Lozier	Pauline Nelson
Bluefield State College	Patricia Mulvey	John White
Concord University	Carmen Durrani	David Bard
Davis & Elkins College	David Turner	Barbara Fulks
Fairmont State University	Patricia Ryan	Patricia Ryan
Glenville State College	R. Michael Smith*	C.E. Wood
Marshall University	Charles Gruber	Maria Carmen Riddel
Potomac State College	Jack Reynolds	Jack Reynolds
Salem International University	Larry Zbach*	Larry Zbach
Shepherd University	Roland Bergman**	Linda Kinney
University of Charleston	Sarah Adams*	Sarah Adams
West Liberty State College	James Forrester**	Michael Strada
WV Northern Comm. College	Denny Roth	Denny Roth
WV State University	James Natsis	James Natsis
West Virginia University	Michael Lastinger	Tara George-Jones
WVU - Institute of Technology	Jan Rezek	Jan Rezek
WVU - Parkersburg	Emily Lamb	Emily Lamb
West Virginia Wesleyan College	Kwame Boateng	Kwame Boateng
Wheeling Jesuit University	Joe Laker**	David Kilroy

* Institutions whose Institutional Representative serves on the Steering Committee until November 30, 2004.

** Institutions whose Institutional Representative serves on the Steering Committee until November 30, 2005.