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Good Journalism

NAME: NOR SHAHIDA BT AZIZ ZUDDIN

STUDENT #: 997030252

ASSIGNMENT: ESSAY # 1

TA: Mr. Shaftolu Gulamadov

I grew up seeing innocent children on the other side of the world suffered from wars; Muslim children, the Palestinians. The images of tears running down their cheeks, fears in their eyes and darkness that surrounded them; hopeless, are still flashing clearly in front of my eyes. The image of Muslim I had in my head as a child was oppressed and dominated. That is how a narrow-minded, impeccable child thinks of the cruelty of wars and I learnt it from watching the news in television. It is indisputable that the influence of media is so powerful and compelling. Today, I could still see the same images in the news, it is like nothing has changed but the different is that when the word “Muslim” is mentioned now, 1001 things and images pop up into my head, both good and bad, but a few things remain the same; bloodshed, agony and tears. I wondered where my naïve images of Muslim had gone, but then I realized, that thought is not gone, it is just bewilder by politics, news, images and all sort of information about Muslim fed by the media, especially after the 9/11 tragic incident. Yes, media plays a vital role in society. Books are no longer the main source of information although it’s the most reliable. In the modern epoch of globalization, even a 6 years old child could learn a lot about Islam from magazines, newspaper, internet and radio, which are more convenient and preferable than books because everything is at the tips of your finger. Just click a button to watch CNN or type keywords in Google to find thousands hits, but that is exactly the problem. Media is bombarding the society with news and stories and society tends to accept everything they read and watch, both solid and shoddy reporting, without putting some analytical thinking about the matter. For example, one of the consequential issues being debated right now is the attack of Israel on...