What was the nature and purpose of Athenian drama as it developed in the “Age of Pericles?

Athenian drama in the Age of Pericles (461-429) had a characteristic of examining fundamental questions such as the rights of the individual, the demands of the society upon the individual and the nature of good and evil. Athenian artists and dramatists with the aid of colorful attires dramatized plays centered on governance, impartiality and the obligations owed to the deities. It was an obligation of the wealthy citizens to bear the cost for the production of plays. The dramatists in this age wrote plays in the form of tragedy and comedy.

During this period, Athenians had three outstanding dramatists who wrote tragedies. They included Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. A tragedy was a play focusing on shared subjects such as love, animosity, warfare and treachery. These tragedies had a characteristic of a main character also seen as a tragic hero. The main character often had extraordinary skills and they were important people in the society. An error in judgment or defect in personality resulted into a tragic flaw hence the downfall of the hero. A comedy had a characteristic of slapstick situations and crude humor. Being satirical, the comedians made fun of customs, politics, ideas of that time and respected persons.

Comedies like Lysistrata depicted women coercing their men to end the Peloponnesian War. Aristophanes, through his comedies, dramatized his thoughts on the right demeanor of citizens and the significance of peace within the polis.
The fact that the government in this period could listen to reproach of themselves in the tragedies and comedies, indicated freedom and sincerity of public discussions in Athenian democracy. During the Peloponnesian War, dramatists such as Aristophanes advocated for peace as a derisible value. 

Bibliography
Head, Lucida. Democracy and Greece’s Golden Age, 122-123, 2010. retrieved on 28 June 2013
from http://liveoakhs.lpsb.org/morris/greecesec3.pdf
Freeman, Charles. Egypt, Greece, and Rome: civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 250-255, 2004.

 Freeman, Charles. 2004. Egypt, Greece, and Rome: civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 250-255.
 Head, Lucida. 2010. Democracy and Greece’s Golden Age, 122-123

 Head, Lucida. 2010. Democracy and Greece’s Golden Age, 122-123

2

Media and Biases

Differences in American Media and Middle East Media

In the contemporary world, there have been a number of similarities between the Western media and the Arab media. In terms of technology, the Middle East media cannot be said to be remarkably different from the United States. This can be attributed to the verity that the world has been afforded an improved transfer of technology around the world. There have been the establishment of media houses, that are highly developed and that use the most sophisticated, and state of the art technology in Middle East. However, there are a number of differences that can be drawn out of the comparison between the American media and media in Middle East. These differences arise from the concepts of impartiality, impact, and freedom between the two media cultures (Whitaker).

One critical factor to put into consideration is the goodness of media and the badness of media. Good media are described as having the facets of truth, clear language, honest intent and effect, proper contextual setting, interesting, informative, reliable, and intelligent. On the other hand, wayward media refer to the services offered by journalists who are quick to judge rather than find the story. These journalists are bent on indulging themselves rather than the viewer or the reader of the news. There are various factors between the two media cultures. The Middle East middle has been rightly accused of biases. A telling example is when Al Jazeera, a leading Arabic media reported that, in December 2006, a conflict between Lebanon and Israel had resulted in the deaths of 42 Lebanese. However, it turned out that only one Lebanese had been killed. Media experts expressed their shock for the organization’s lack of professionalism. They termed the behavior as being worse than bias. They were of the view that Al Jazeera was promoting terrorism through propaganda. This shows that one of the principal dissimilarities is that the Middle East media has been favoring sides (Whitaker).

Another difference can be accrued from the fact that most media houses in Middle East do not have the freedom necessary to make the ideal impact on the viewers, listeners, and readers. Lack of this freedom can also be partially blamed for the impartiality of the media organizations of Middle East. Most of the governments in the region are known to have a hatred of the western countries and the ideals that are advocated for. This encompasses the liberty of the press. On the other hand, American media have been recognized for their impartiality. This indicates that the American media has been afforded all critical media freedom. This also makes certain that the media and the press in the United States has a constructive effect on society (Streissguth 29).

Media and Biasness

The influence from the government and extremist groups, media in Middle East tend to be biased. This can be attested by the verity that the principal media corporations in the region have portrayed Israel in a bad light. This has extremely negative effects on society, and it instigates unnecessary conflicts. These conflicts have been immensely destructive and have claimed lives. It is in this respect that media organizations should ensure that they are impartial in their reporting. Failure to do this means that the media will lose its credibility. However, before the media has lost its credibility, there is the chance that the organizations will have caused a lot of harm and instigated many conflicts. Biases are not an ethical practice for the media organizations (Streissguth 48).

Works Cited

Streissguth, Thomas. Media Bias. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2006. 

Whittaker, Andrew C. The Interesting Difference between Arabic Media and Western Media. Media Ethics, 3(6), 2010. Retrieved on September 25, 2012 from http://acwhittaker.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/the-interesting-difference-between-arabic-and-western-media/.