Journalists: Shapers of Perceptions

The Pope hates condoms and Muslims are terrorists. Right? Check the Internet or read the headlines before answering.

These concepts are less about truth and more about perceptions. These perceptions, in a way, are shaped by the media and consequently shape the public. Many of the problems between the Middle East and the West are (in part) perceived to be based on religious or cultural clashes. West v. East. Christian v. Muslim. White v. Brown.

Remedying these perceptions was the topic of “Us and They: Public Perceptions and How to Change Them” held Sunday, the second day of the Cairo Global Leadership Conference. Here, the speakers pointed to the media as both the cause and the cure for the status quo.

Roland Schatz, co-founder of Media Tenor International, and his colleagues pointed to the media’s “if it bleeds, it leads” news coverage, its culturally uniformed reporting and its reinforcement of stereotypes as furthering the gap between the West and East.

To counter this, the C-1 World Dialogue developed a strategy similar to a public relations campaign, only for cultures. Schatz, one of the co-founders of the C-1 dialogue, said to get positive news of interfaith relations above cultural clashes is possible by having larger and more newsworthy events for journalists to report on. When clashes occur, he proposed having mechanisms in place for the media, such as reliable sources available, to provide context to the situation.

There was some defense of the media by journalists present at the Sunday round table session.

“I feel very strongly that one has to be very cautious on relying on just the media to change perceptions,” said Jill Porter. “The press, in this part of the world anyway, often relies on opinion rather than facts and reliable opinion and this in turn reinforces stereotypes. I would suggest, to some extent, moving away from the focus on the media to shift the focus on education.”

Schatz also argued that cultures and religions need to educate their journalists, which the C-1 World Dialogue has begun to provide via seminars in Europe, Africa and the United States.

This discussion carried over into Monday morning’s press conference for the debut of the C-1 Annual Dialogue Report, which chronicles how trends in the media correlate to a society’s willingness to engage in interfaith and intercultural dialogue. The Reverend Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff, director general of the C-1 World Dialogue and Abdallah Schleifer, AUC Journalism professor and a prominent member of the Middle East media, returned with Schatz to lead the press conference.

They were briefly joined by H.E. Ali Gomaa the Grand Mufti of Egypt, co-chair of the C-1 World Dialogue. Who had little time to chat with reporters from the AUC Journalism Bootcamp.

“We need profound change … to move religious discourse from aggressive and negative attitudes towards other religions, to the spirit of tolerance and co-existence,” Gomaa said in response to data in the report showing that 45 percent of Egyptians have negative perceptions of Christians.

Whirling toward peace

The drumbeat began to slow. Men in white ringed the stage and turned back and forth to the beat, banging on large tambourines in time with the music. In the center, green shirt drenched in sweat, quilt-like skirt flying, one arm reached toward the sky and the other toward earth, the dervish was whirling.

As a kid, I used to stand in one spot in the kitchen and turn around endlessly. I would practice my spotting – a technique used in dance to avoid dizziness. Faster and faster I would spin, whipping my head around and around, transfixed by the same spot on the wall. I could last maybe five or ten minutes.

Last night I watched a man spin around for nearly forty-five minutes. He wasn’t spotting. Somehow, he managed to walk off the stage upright. To me it was remarkable. To him it was meditation.



The Mevlevi order of Sufis believes that whirling can bring one to a state of nirvana, the kemal. By spinning for long periods of time and focusing on the music and God, the semazen can abandon his ego and desires. It’s a way to grow closer to God and embrace God’s presence. The religious experience can last hours, so apparently forty-five minutes is the shortened, tourist-friendly version.

Sufis are generally characterized as the mystical sect of Islam. As my Muslim roommate Yasmin says, “Sufis are so chill.” They certainly seemed to be. The show started with dancing, music, and many smiles; as it progressed most of the dancers seemed to be elsewhere; their body was moving through the steps but their faces were deep in meditation, focused on some thing no one in the audience could see. The peace that came over them was far away from the cacophony of noises outside.

Cairo is a place of never-ending noise. There is always a car honking its horn. There are always shopkeepers in the market shouting things like “Welcome to Alaska!” and “Do you want to spend more money? I can help!” As I sit here, in our hotel lobby, I can hear silverware clanging, a phone ringing, and the low hum of what might be an air conditioner.

Last night we left the noise behind. That is, after five of us bargained for a cab, piled into the hunk of junk that emitted less than comforting noises, exited on a noisy street and got a little lost, and entered the standing-room-only courtyard thirty minutes before the free 8:30 p.m. performance. The crowd noise finally died down once the noise of singing, drums, and flutes began. Even the colors of the skirts seemed to contribute to the noise of the night. But looking up at the semazen, eyes closed, arms outstretched, I saw silence.

Somehow I doubt spinning in my hotel room will have the same effect.