Sitting at my desk this morning at work, I heard the a sound bite the seemed worth its decibels among what might as well be satic on one of those "entermation channels." I looked up over my shoulder to see clips of 20-something Iraqis talk to low quality cameras. The the news-- I mean entermation--casters put on the spin. "It's MTV meets the war zone." "This is real reality TV." I say to myself, "great, consumer media has even made its way to the embattled streets of Baghdad."
But, I listened a bit. Appearance, the team of producers of Hometown Baghdad, wanted to do something consumer news has not been willing to do: Tell people's story. They look into the lives of college students and recent graduates who just want to live. Small camera crews follow the subjects around to get good footage from meager equipment. The raw material is sent to the New York production firm to be edited into 2-3 min. clip, easy sizes to be digested by new media consumers.
After watching one show, you will be hooked. Or at least, I was. I have yet to see anything out there like this. Most news shows don't even feature Iragis in speaking roles, let alone really consider the content of their lives. Had they from the beginning, I don't think as many Americans would have supported the war of profit in Iraq. But, maybe that is just the naive part of me.
Do the world a favor and watch.
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