Summary Of People Like Us

In chapter two of the journalistic account People Like Us, international correspondent Joris Luyendijk cites personal encounters in countries such as Egypt and Syria and broad work experience in the news industry to effectively convey the argument to his Western readers that the Middle East is misrepresented to them in the media. People Like Us ,as a whole, documents Luyendijk’s journeys through the Middle East as he works as a journalist. He describes his encounters with people of all backgrounds, documenting their stories and unveiling facets of their lives not often covered by the news. Combining this with anecdotes about his own experiences in the Western news industry, where the absence of human interest stories about the

His background in the field establishes him as a near expert on Middle Eastern representation in the press as shown by the depth of his insight about the inner workings of the press. An example of this is an incident he describes in which a “distinguished” news official who requested that he cover a story in Turkey, assuming that his fluency in Arabic would enable him to be passably understood as he travelled through the country (41). Luyendijk explains his shock at the man’s assumption, and highlights the significant ignorance about the Arab World that exists even among journalism professionals, who are in fact responsible for representing the region to the Western world. This kind of “behind the scenes” insight establishes Luyendijk as a credible source and compels the reader to suspend their own beliefs about the Middle East in exchange for obtaining perhaps lesser known knowledge about an area of the world that plays a leading role on the world stage. Another example of this insight can be found in Luyendijk’s description of a typical protest in the Middle East that might be shown in the Western news, where “it might look like there was a crowd; but on the spot you saw that there was just a few angry men who only held up their lighters when the cameras were turning, and that they all went home for tea afterwards” (34). Here, Luyendijk

Documenting these social encounters help portray the inhabitants of the Middle East in a more humanistic light to readers. This, combined with his own confessed feelings of surprise at these experiences, helps solidify the notion that this side of Middle East is not often, or ever, portrayed in the press. Luyendijk describes an experience in a bathhouse with a man who expressed delight at his being from the Netherlands (‘Hulanda’ in Arabic) saying “’Aha! At last someone who can tell me why a country with so many good footballers has never been world champion’” (35). Luyendijk’s inclusion of this exchange demonstrates the integral nature of sports in Middle Eastern culture, an aspect that is present in our own, Western culture. By bringing up a subject such as sports, which can evoke a range of emotions, Luyendijk effectively appeals to what is familiar to Western readers, making them more amenable to understanding the Middle East and its