Article 1: Benghazi assassinations stun residents amid Libya’s turmoil  By: The Washington Post

Article 2: Spring Awakening; How an Egyptian Revolution Began on Facebook By: The New York Times

Before U.S. had become involved in the revolution, many western news media had portrayed the revolution as something extraordinary, revitalizing, and something that was long due. While many news media were sympathetic and  seemed to show its support for the revolution, others had condescending views. In a news article by The Washington Post, written by Ms. Cunningham of the revolts in Libya, she described the events in details and remarked that the ‘city [was] plagued by lawlessness” (Cunningham). Such accounts portrayed the western media’s attitude of superiority over the Middle East. I found these accounts to be rather disturbing. However, I was equally relieved and proud where there were other media (such as social media) that showed support for the revolution and were truly sympathetic towards the people of Arab Spring. Such cases were presented on Facebook where the youth of the western world started to create awareness by sharing pictures and posts of the true accounts of Arab Spring revolutionaries.

However, after U.S. became involved in the ISIS conflict, there was a drastic change in how western media portrayed the revolution. While President Obama vowed to destroy Islamist terrorist in Syria and Iraq and he repeatedly stated that the United States would not get involved in a direct combat in Middle East, many news media criticized Obama’s decision for getting involved (Shear, The New York Times). Suddenly, there was an elevation in the usage of words such as “those people” and “their war.” No longer were there words of sympathy and kindness. Suddenly, the views of cosmopolitanism that some news media had originally shown, had transformed into views of political realism. The focus from the revolution of the Middle East had suddenly shifted to U.S. again. “What is United States going to do now?”; “What does it mean for the safety of United States?”; “Will United States go into another war?” This was something I found interesting and somewhat supporting the hypothesis that I had.