In The News

Multilingual Broadcasting Gives Support to All Disaster Survivors

Eriko Arita November 4, 2004
Local government authorities in northern Japan are rushing to minimize damage in the aftermath of last Thursday’s magnitude 5.7 earthquake. Easing recovery for Japanese residents is not their only concern: Multilingual broadcasting of emergency information is the latest development for accommodating a growing population of foreign residents. Particularly in metropolitan areas, new efforts...

Bin Laden Lauds Costs Of War to US

John Mintz November 2, 2004
In a full version of Osama bin Laden’s recent videotaped address, the al-Qaeda leader thanked current US president George W. Bush for helping him bankrupt America. “It has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the White House and we are playing as one team toward the economic goals of the United States, even if the intentions differ," he said. According to bin Laden, the US invasion...

The Fear That Chokes the Arab World

Youssef M. Ibrahim October 30, 2004
Since 9/11, Arab media outlets, such as Al-Jazeera, have appeared on the international news radar. However, the current Middle Eastern writers and pundits are not effectively performing their jobs, writes Youssef M. Ibrahim in this International Herald Tribune opinion. While quick to jump on inconsistencies and biases in the American media, they fail to scrutinize their own shortcomings....

Bloggers Cut Through Fog of War

Mark Glaser October 29, 2004
For up-to-the-minute, in-depth news coverage, people are increasingly turning to personal weblogs, or blogs. As Mark Glaser reports, the phenomenon of blogging has fundamentally altered the scope of communications, providing a global megaphone for otherwise marginalized voices. Maintaining live journals, US soldiers and civilians in Iraq circumvented traditional media outlets and exposed...

Globalization and Anti-Americanism

Joseph S. Nye October 21, 2004
As nations feel culturally threatened by globalization, anti-Americanism grows. Yet it is modernization - not Americanization - that is changing cultures, argues former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph Nye. Cultures are not stagnant, and the adaptation of Japan demonstrates that countries can modernize while remaining unique. Although t-shirt logos and soft drink brands may grow more...

"Copywood" No Longer

Christina Klein October 11, 2004
Shaking Hollywood's previous stranglehold, the South Korean film industry has evolved to become one of the world's most successful examples of domestic cinema. Media scholar Christina Klein charts the rise of Korean film as a unique response to specific political, economic, and social circumstances. Boasting qualities that are at once evocative of Western styles and yet unique to...

A Graphic Film of Protest, and Cries of Blasphemy

Marlise Simons September 27, 2004
The assimilation of Europe's many millions of Muslim immigrants dominates public discourse in the continent today. Many critics of Islam see Muslims as carrying a set of values at odds with the European identity, calling for internal reform within Muslim communities. Even some Muslims also approach the contentious issue from this angle. Ayaan Hirsa Ali, a Somalian-born refugee, now a member...