UFOs in Jordan! speaking of irresponsible journalism
Yes, like most people I read the article about UFOs in Al Jaffar and yes like most of them I got excited about it. Maybe people took it with a grain of salt, but once I realized it was Alghad’s surprise for April’s fools day, I could not define it in any other way other than “irresponsible journalism.”
I read AlGhad’s scathing article a few week ago on online journalism, and it surprises me that it would stoop to the level of pulling that prank on its readers after writing that article. Worse yet is the excuse it used “ Alghad wanted to bring joy to people’s lives”… yeeeeeeeey!
I thought about why the whole thing rubbed me the wrong way and among other reasons I name the following:
1- How do we know that what AlGhad writes from this point on is true… what guarantees do we have that it is not pulling a prank on us? I feel that AlGhad has put its credibility in a bad spot.
2- April’s first tradition day has nothing to do with our culture. I am sick of people importing things from the west without critically examining them. Especially at this level.
3- Stories like this create panic, especially to the majority of people who don’t even know what April fool’s day is. I am wondering who was al Ghad thinking of when pulling this prank… West Ammanis?
4- I wonder when fabricating news and toying with people’s emotions became part of responsible journalism. Regardless of how many major news agencies around the world tried it before. I bet that if something like this happened in a country that has better journalism, people would have sued the newspaper.
5- Where is the line that separates yellow media from responsible media… for me this is sensationalism…
I asked a few people about the article and here are the responses
Ghada, 39, Project manager
“It must be some meteoroid, and people mistook them for UFOs”
Arrej, 19, student
“It is impossible, Alghad must be pulling a joke”
Mariam, 59, house wife
“look for them and you will realize that it is some spying tools but the Israelis
Mohammed, 27, IT
“It is the government trying to raise something’s price, so they pull that prank to sidetrack us”
Rami, 14
“It is exciting, I want to drive there and take pictures there.”
I conclude by saying: I am disappointed!
exactly what i wanted to write on my blog! ishi bikhzi
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OK…I have a few issues with your strong feelings against this “news story.” I am guessing that you really believed the story and got pissed because you were fooled. That goes a long way in proving that Jordanians have little or no sense of humor. So what if the paper wanted to introduce a little joy in the lives of المواطنين المسخمطين? Should they have continued with a 100%, 24/7 reporting of the إستقبل، ودّع، اكّد، و اشاد type of Jordanian journalism to be considered professional?
another thing, what do west Ammani people have to do with all this? كذبة نيسان has been around in Jordan for as long as I could remember. And, I was born in a tiny Jordanian village in the middle of nowhere!
getting all worked up because you didn’t get the obvious joke behind it is really not worth it. However, I am pissed at the apparent hypocrisy of Ammonnews. They have been in a feud with Al Ghad for the past couple of weeks. Ammonnews resorted to the expert opinion of a Geologist to discredit the story and preach of the “haramness” of lying, not to forget that Ammonnews ran an April Fools front page story last year (http://ammonnews.net/article.aspx?articleNO=36429)
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Madas Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:38
You are absolutely right, I wanted to blieve the article and was upset by it being not true.
I felt it was a bad taste joke that came out of nowhere. I am not sure why Jordanians must appreciate idiotic jokes in order to prove we have good sense of humour. Besides did they really bring any joy to the lives of the muateneen il msakhmateen…?
I read an article saying that jaffar people decided to sue the newspaper because they are amused.
As for Amoun news… i think they used this article to score a point.
As for West Amman.. you are right… they have nothing to do with anything… I am just not impressed that westernization has hit us so hard to a point that our main stream media would celebrate something like April fool day.
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mab3oos Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:11
most of our lives in the Arab world have become westernized. we’re blogging, commenting, and using social media portals in English, aren’t we? All are the product of western companies, cultures, and way of life. To use the argument that observing April Fools day is sign that Westernization has hit so hard is very unsubstantiated. We’ve been hit a long time ago and the effect is just becoming clear.
my take is that our own culture, or our understanding of it, is so weak that we feel so insecure the moment we get targeted by a western product.
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Dear Ghada,
I want to congratulate you on how clearly and greatly you put it down. Not only do I agree with you but I am so greatly at shock at the fact that such a previously great paper could allow itself to take such an irresponsible risk. To me the state of shock and dissappointment was so deep that even though I don’t usually involve myself with reactions to public issues; yesterday I could not stop myself from calling the paper and giving them a piece of my mind. The audacity and disrespect and undermining of the papers own readers is absolutely unacceptable, inexcusible, and unforgivable.
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Madas Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:39
Thank you abeer for your comment. My name is Mariam not Ghada
I am glad you did that. I hope enough people have done the same.
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and done http://saxogirl.blogspot.com/2010/04/seriously-al-ghad.html
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Madas Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:40
Good! I think enought of us should express our opinions on loical issues.
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Jordanians are always being accused of being so “dry” and finally when a local media cracks a joke, they’re accused of irresponsible journalism. I think this post was a little too extreme in opinion. Many global and respectable media have had fun with april fool’s day. i haven’t heard of any of them being sued for it because people laugh it off.. as they should. if we’re going to talk about importing western culture, there are much larger issues that deserve attention like the franchises that directly/indirectly donate money to israeli causes or all the christmas/valentines/mother’s day overpriced decorations and ceremonies among many. and i also think we give western amman a little too much credit. not everything good that happens in jordan is to please or to the credit of western ammanis. we eastern amman people appreciate april fools day too!
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Madas Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:48
LK,
Thank you for your comment, I think Jordanians accuse themsleves of being dry.. What I hear of Jordanians is that we are very kind and hospitable people.
I am not sure why we should do like what other media outlets do in some things and not follow what they do in other things… this is another case of us immitating the west blindly…
I disagree that people should laugh these jokes off… some people would and others would not… I hearthat Al Jaffar people did not enjoy the joke.
I agree with you, we have bigger issues to worry about when it comes to importing western culture, so maybe we should not add to the list.
Yeah you are probably right good things don’t always happen to appease west Ammanis… but maybe people should drive to other parts of Amman to see what kind of issues people have… and no i don’t think this joke could be described as good!
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abeer raad Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 16:23
Excuse me but Christmas is not a Western celebration!!!It is A Christian Religious celebration. And in case you did not know there are Christians living in the Middle East.
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I see your point about credibility, and that’s a whole different blog convo I suppose. AlGhad and others have been doing the April 1st joke for years. Other media in Jo do it, so do many around the world. Some put serious effort into their pranks. The best are the ones that are kind of believable. I think for this one day, it’s OK to take it with a pinch of salt and accept the prank/fun/exaggeration. You may not wish to be part of the play and of course you’re free to choose, but for those who do, maybe it’s OK to tolerate for a day.
Your journalism point is better argued if you grabbed any other article and questioned credibility/sources, etc – and they are abundant, daily.
كذبة نيسان / كذبة ابريل is totally not West Ammani oriented. Over the years I’ve experienced a couple pranks from a group of bedu in Petra, and a couple years ago in Ashrafiyeh. Some were fun, some silly. The giggles were cool.
Playful minds are everywhere, and fun traditions that click just travel irrespective of their cultural origins/relevance. Thankfully
Is adapting to April Fools’ Day bad for us? Probably not.
Would not engaging with it contribute to promoting/strengthening our own cultural/social id? Probably not.
What we ought to do is celebrate our own more and in evolving creative ways, with pride. When that happens, the few who do choose to go along with something like April Fools’ Day will be a minority and it will not bother the rest so much since you’ll already be feeling good/fulfilled/rich culturally through your own. And perhaps having a richness of our own that engages our diverse population will one day push into oblivion the ‘borrowed’ from others
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Alghad Newspaper is great, And i loved there idea for the April’s fool prank, I’m sorry to say but it’s obvious that the news isn’t true, Are we that lame to actually believe that ?, So what if they want to Joke, There is no law against that.
This is the type of journalism i like, The not too serious one, They’re serious 356 days, Why not make one day to joke around ?
Again, I loved what they did, It’s all up to us to either get upset or take it in a good and nice way.
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HAHAHAHA! Look at the answers of ur people, wtf?!! Full of paranoia and stupidity! Israel?
Btw, Al’3ad did this before, gene pet, bullshits, u name it! Responsible journalism? Are we living in the same part of the world?!!!
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Madas Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 13:22
Akh Haitham,
I am not sure where to start… poeple are full of paranoia and conspiracy theory. Al ghad seems to think it is funny… but for me it is simply not credible!
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They made me look like a fool after telling all my friends about the news, i didn’t get the chance to tell them its a joke
i bet today after they realize its a joke that they are going to make fun of me hah
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Madas Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 13:20
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Naa..ur being a bit rigid Madas..when I saw the paper I didn’t even bother to read the whole thing,definitely did not believe it and it drew a shallow smile on my face..is it silly? yes! but what’s wrong with being silly once a year?
April’s fool has been in our culture for as long as I remember,despite where it originates from or if our media is imitating western media in adopting it,and despite the fact that most of the population don’t care or can’t relate to it..or to UFOs for that matter! I think Alghad has pulled it off “correctly” and in their own original way on this matter.
Also,being a sci-fi fan myself,I liked the fact that they mentioned Alien visitors with a bit of imagination, the whole topic of of Aliens and space is completely off our Realistic/Imagination charts, as if george lucas imprinted the galaxy imagination potentials to be totally his, and the west’s…if we don’t have potentials to go to space,then there is no harm in some space fiction!
“
that’s why I didn’t like what caught my eye at the end of the article “calling NASA to investigate the incident”…I hope when real aliens decide to land in Jordan,we’d meet and deal with them on our own..because we’re capable of that! and they chose our land!
“hmmm gotta get myself a foil suit
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I totally agree on number 2and 5!
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Maybe they were just rendition planes routed to al-jafar by the CIA?how about that for UFOs?
On a side note: I agree with mab3oos
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Madas Reply:
April 3rd, 2010 at 19:22
it is ok
I agree with him too 
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[...] House of Curiousity and My World wrote about the blunder in Al Ghad today, which gave me fodder for my second poem for the month of April, Poetry Month. Thank you gals, I didn’t have a clue what to write about. Today’s poem uses the theme of Shape poetry, an inventive form of poetry where the poem is to take on the shape of the subject. Look up in the sky, it’s a UFO! If my poem doesn’t fit your criteria for shape poetry, check out this example: I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Intercultural MarriageSponsored Articles, Videos and ConversationPoor Arabic journalism and its effects [...]
السؤال الذي اثار فضولي بعد خفة الدم من صحيفة الغد
هل اصبحت الجرائد غير واثقة بأخبارها لكي تبيع
ام اصبحنا روشييين زيادة عن اللزوم
وعجبي!!!!
من الصحافة التي تريد أن تصبح روشة
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Do you, or anyone else, have a scan of the front page of that UFO April 1st prank edition of the newspaper?
Just wondering if they had a “photo” that went along with the headline and article.
Thanks in advance.
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madas Reply:
April 7th, 2010 at 16:12
Yes actually they did, it was an illustration of UFOs
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http://urdunmubdi3.ning.com/video/al-jafr-gets-worldwide?xg_source=activity
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