Introduction
Verbal and visual communication abilities, skills, and techniques are highly important in the media because they determine how the presented material will be perceived and interpreted by the readers. This paper offers an overview of different articles from seven sources.
HAARETZ
The article titled “Abbas: Ready to Meet Netanyahu under Trump’s Patronage in Washington” found on HAARETZ has a clear title and contains a large image depicting the meeting of Abbas (the president of Palestine) and Greenblatt (peace process envoy from the US) (Ravid et al.). The title communicates the position of Abbas about an audience with Netanyahu; further, in the article, the important statements are highlighted for the readers’ convenience and clarity. Overall, the text is comprehensive and the facts are presented objectively.
Alice Walker Blog
Right after the article title “Blessed Unhingedness and the Struggle to Free Palestine”, Walker added a picture of Martin Luther King writing something at his home. The article begins with the reference to Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail as Walker reviews a piece of writing by another author promoting peace and equality (Walker). The main subject is the relationship between Israel and Palestine. The author uses to appeal to emotion making her text descriptive and filled with feelings and sentiment. In addition to heart-felt emotions, the author refers to many historic situations supporting her argument and validating her position.
RAWA
“RAWA Commemorates the 29th Martyrdom Anniversary of Meena in Kabul” is the article whose title is very telling of its contents. It is supported with a banner image. Further, a brief and concise description of the event is followed by several pictures demonstrating some of its significant moments that are accompanied by elaborations on what is depicted. The article is documentation of an event serving to inform the public about its significance and meaning and paying respect to the content of the event in a culturally-sensitive manner.
Qatar Digital Library
The article titled “Robots, Musicians and Monsters: The World’s Most Fantastic Clocks” presents an explorative and educational piece of writing with multiple illustrations of the discussed objects (Hallum). The text is divided into many subtopics and supported the descriptions of clock mechanisms with dates to add reliability to the communicated information.
Alexandria Library
The article “Arab Culture: Fundamentals of an Uncertain Future” Conference Inauguration” is another documentation of an event; it contains a small image – the only illustration to the writing that is rather modest. The text itself is a brief description of the event covering its main subjects and aspects.
Scholarly Article
“Social Media and The Social Movements In The Middle East And North Africa: A Critical Discourse Analysis” by Shirazi is a scholarly article without any images. For better clarity – the major ideas, objectives, and findings are presented in the abstract. It emphasizes the cultural value of communication via social media and the validation it offers to marginalized communities (43).
Al-Jazeera International (Turkey)
“CHP blasts election board after referendum result” is a news article that presents a discussion of the political situation around the recent referendum in Turkey. It is supported with images depicting the people’s reaction to the results and the opinion of the opposition. Direct quotes are used to communicate the stands of different political leaders for better objectivity and significance.
Insights
Each of the reviewed texts was culturally-specific and used a direct reference to the representatives and symbols of the cultures it discussed (people, flags, political leaders). Also, the cultures under discussion were always mentioned in the title. Press and scholarly texts were objective and factual whereas the blog entry stood out due to using an image of Martin Luther King while speaking about the Palestine-Israeli conflict and using emotional and descriptive language alongside the facts.
Works Cited
“”Arab Culture: Fundamentals of an Uncertain Future” Conference Inauguration.”Bibliotheca Alexandria. 2015, Web.
“CHP Blasts Election Board After Referendum Result.”Aljazeera. 2017, Web.
Hallum, Bink. “Robots, Musicians and Monsters: The World’s Most Fantastic Clocks.”Qatar Digital Library, 2017, Web.
Ravid, Barak, et al. “Abbas: Ready to Meet Netanyahu under Trump’s Patronage in Washington.”HAARETZ. 2017, Web.
“RAWA Commemorates the 29th Martyrdom Anniversary of Meena in Kabul.”RAWA, 2016, Web.
Shirazi, Farid. “Social media and the social movements in the Middle East and North Africa: A critical discourse analysis.” Information Technology & People, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 28-49.
Walker, Alice. “Blessed Unhingedness and the Struggle to Free Palestine.”Alice Walker Blog, 2017, Web.