AUC YouTube Video: How AlQaida Recruitment is Done
Our Cultural Interfaces class here at Stanford watched a YouTube video that Mahmoud from the American University in Cairo made as part of his research project (you can find the first of the three parts of the video online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5LlHUID_GI). It was an interesting film to watch, especially as it resonated in a way with our video conference discussion with AUC about Bridge to Baghdad a few weeks ago; getting international perspectives on the US-Iraq conflict was a great opportunity for us to move out of our own particular world view and gain a broader perspective on this highly politically charged issue. (For student reactions to that video conference and those discussions, go here, here, and here).
Our class discussion of this film touched on issues of delivery and content -- namely, given that here at Stanford students are asked to produce fairly formal research papers as well as oral/multimedia presentations, how does the idea of producing a video as the final product for a research project offer possibilities for learning? And, also, how did the content of the video reflect an awareness of audience? What was the argument put forth by the author of the video, and how did the composition of the video contribute to its overall persuasiveness?
We felt very fortunate that Mahmoud was willing to share his work with us -- it provided us with an additional model of research delivery as well as sharing with us a window into one perspective on bin Laden's role in creating the current highly combustible political international climate.