Jessica Birthisel | March 26, 2011
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| Photo by Ryan Dorgan |
| Junior Patrick Rollings was one of several journalism students who presented work at the Re-scripting Islam conference last week. His research was based on work in a class last fall. |
Four School of Journalism undergraduates presented papers during a panel session Thursday morning at the conference, which was co-organized by doctoral student and conference presenter Rosemary Pennington. All four projects originated in doctoral candidate Ammina Kothari’s J460 Muslims in the Media class last fall. Kothari was a panelist on the first day of the conference and also moderated her students’ panel.
Junior Patrick Rollings shared his analysis of Islamic references in hip hop. Sharing videos from BET Music Awards cyphers, which feature freestyle rapping by various artists, he found that nearly 30 percent of the rappers made some mention of Islam in their raps. He said that future research could consider Christian references in hip hop and rappers’ views on 9/11.
Junior Kevin Memolo studied media coverage of athletes who fast during Ramadan. He analyzed domestic and international news coverage of both professional and amateur Muslim athletes.
“Amateur athlete coverage was almost entirely health-related,” said Memolo, adding that American coverage in general was more likely to cover health issues than performance issues.
In contrast, international coverage and coverage of fasting professional athletes focused on the practice’s impact on physical performance.
“The nature of professional sports is more conducive to performance criticism,” he said.
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| Photo by Ryan Dorgan |
| Junior Alisa Wiersema's presentation explored Saudi Arabian female journalists. “Online communication complicates traditional regulation of communication between genders,” she said. |
She also found that with regards to Jordan’s role as a mediator, the articles were more likely to refer to the country as diplomatic, not humanitarian. Finally, she found that there was generally negative perception of the 2010 peace talks while they were happening, but the post-talk tone was more positive.
From her analysis, Kastner concluded that Jordan “wants to remain a very separate identity from Palestine.” Looking forward, she thinks it would be beneficial to analyze media coverage of Jordan’s role in the recent uprisings in the Middle East.
Junior Alisa Wiersema’s project explored Saudi Arabian female journalists and the unique challenges they face in the region.
“Online communication complicates traditional regulation of communication between genders,” Wiersema explained. Looking at English-language blogs by Saudi Arabian female writers Sabria Jawhar, Samar al Mogren and Nadine al Bedair, she found common obstacles facing the women’s work included mobility, a lack of educational opportunities and workplace discrimination.
Following the presentation, presenters heard questions and comments. Audience member Salih Altoma, professor emeritus in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, gave the journalism student panel his approval.
“If I were still active as a faculty member, I would give every paper an A or A+,” said Altoma.
Later in the day Thursday, School of Journalism professor emerita Chris Ogan moderated a panel on Muslim women in the media. Doctoral candidate Manaf Bashir moderated the final panel of the conference entitled “Crafting Counter-Narratives.”
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