Rick Steves: Iran, Yesterday And Today

On the whole I enjoyed this video, Rick Steves's "Iran, Yesterday And Today." It does much to discuss misconceptions about Iran and it touches on some of Iran's history. I know there was some talk in class about the frequent comparison between what Steves expects and what he finds ("Though most people think this, in reality, Iran is like this"), but I think that that commentary was done consciously and purposefully. To a person who knows nothing about Iran or its customs, a person who may have a relatively stereotypical view of Iran (of the Middle East), having those contrasts between reality and perception specifically pointed out can do some good. I think this may be Steves's way of pointing out and shedding misconceptions while offering new facts to replace the misconceptions. It sounds like something we do with students, but when you're trying to reach a mass audience and you're not able to go terribly in depth with your topic I think you need to be more explicit.

One particular issue I had arose in part 5 when Steves was discussing with his guide the differences and strife between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. At one point, Steves asks why the two groups have been fighting for so long. He asks about the Iraqi Sunnis and the Iranian Shiites and their battles. After the guide explains that those conflicts are national ones (Iraq vs. Iran) and not religious ones (Sunni vs. Shiite), implying (I think) that Sunni and Shiite are just terms reporters use (somewhat improperly) to differentiate between two groups (perhaps to imply a religious conflict that is not an issue, perhaps out of ignorance of the meaning of the words) but that news editorialization does not represent the conflict, Steves still, in his narration, compares the Sunni and Shiite "conflict" to the Protestant and Catholic conflict in the West. While the guide says that a good way to describe the issue is to look at relations between England and Ireland, Steves lends his own spin. I feel as if he wasn't really listening to the guide.

I wish Steves had been able to go more in depth, but for what it is and how long it is, I think the video is a good introduction to Iran. Additionally, we must remember while watching that, as mentioned in the beginning of the video, Steves traveled with a guide. His questions were censored, what his crew was allowed to film was censored, even where he was allowed to go was up to his guide (a government employee in charge of enforcing the provisions that allow Steves and his crew to film in Iran at all). So perhaps some of our questions or the problems we see derive from censorship and not totally from bad "reporting."