LANGUAGE VERSIONS

 

 

ARABIC

 
ERNEST HEMINGWAY: GRACE UNDER PRESSURE
VCR No. 2664-H, 1982, 55 mins.
Arabic version only

Narrated by Anthony Burgess, this film uses photographs and newsreel footage to reconstruct Ernest Hemingway's life and work.

 

THE 52ND PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION: AN AMERICAN REUNION.
VCR No. 3441-H, 1993, 60 mins.
VCR No. 3440-H - English version

A special Worldnet broadcast of the inauguration ceremony of William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd President of the United States, on Wednesday, January 20, 1993.

 

NEWSCASTING
VCR No. 3496-H, 1992, 41 mins.
English

This fast-moving review of the production of television broadcast news in the U.S. gives a valuable opportunity to survey journalists in their actual work environment, and to get a realistic view of what it is like to work in the broadcast media in America. The program looks at what happens behind the scenes at a small American television station in Minnesota, gives examples of news stories, and shows how one news story appears shot from four different approaches.

 

THE PRESIDENCY, THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE
VCR No. 3415-H, 1990, 113 mins. Arabic Subtitles
VCR No. 3305-H – English version

Veteran TV journalist John Chancellor moderates this discussion with former press secretaries from the Kennedy to the Reagan Administrations. Using a wealth of examples, they examine the significance of the public relations/policy function of the presidential press spokesman.

 

THOMAS JEFFERSON: THE PURSUIT OF LIBERTY
VCR No. 3487-H, 1991, 39.20 mins.
VCR No. 3463-H – English version

Produced for the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, this program features scenes of important Jefferson locales, such as the University of Virginia and his innovative plantation, Monticello, interspersed with the art and architecture of Jefferson's time. Narrated by Edward Herrman, this program also offers Jefferson's achievements by former President Jimmy Carter, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, media pundit George Will and Jefferson scholar Merrill D. Peterson.

 

DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA
VCRs No. 4161 - 4168, 2003, 15 pts. on 8 cassettes, 30 mins. each pts.                                          With Arabic Subtitles

Democracy in America, a video course for high school civics teachers covers topics of civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions recommended by The Civics Framework for the National Assessment of Educational Progress developed by the U.S. Department of Education. The 15 half-hour video programs, hosted by national television correspondent Renée Poussaint, and related print and Web site materials provide inservice and preservice teachers with both cognitive and experiential learning in civics education. Web site available at: http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/democracyinamerica/

Pt. 1 and 2, VCR No. 4161

1. Citizenship: Making Government Work
This program introduces basic concepts of government, politics, and citizenship. It explores the tension between maintaining order and preserving freedoms, the essential role of politics in addressing the will of the people, and the need for citizens to participate in order to make democracy work.

2. The Constitution: Fixed or Flexible?
This program examines the search for balance between the original Constitution and the need to interpret and adjust it to meet the needs of changing times. It explains the original Jeffersonian-Madisonian debate, the concept of checks and balances, and the stringent procedures for amending the Constitution.

Pt. 3 and 4, VCR No. 4162

3. Federalism: U.S. v. the States
This program explores federalism as a Constitutional compromise, especially in terms of present-day conflicts between people who believe that power should reside primarily in the national government and those who want government authority retained within the states.

4. Civil Liberties: Safeguarding the Individual
This program examines the First, Fourth, and Sixth Constitutional Amendments to show how the Bill of Rights protects individual citizens from excessive or arbitrary government interference, yet, contrary to the belief of many Americans, does not grant unlimited rights.

Pt. 5 and 6, VCR No. 4163

5. Civil Rights: Demanding Equality
This program looks at the nature of the guarantees of political and social equality, and the roles that individuals and government have played in expanding these guarantees to less-protected segments of society, such as African Americans, women, and the disabled.

6. Legislatures: Laying Down the Law
This program explores the idea that legislatures, although contentious bodies, are institutions composed of men and women who make representative democracy work by reflecting and reconciling the wide diversity of views held by Americans.

Pt. 7 and 8, VCR No. 4164

7. The Modern Presidency: Tools of Power
This program shows that the American Presidency has been transformed since the 1930s. Today, presidents are overtly active in the legislative process: they use the media to appeal directly to the people and they exercise leadership over an "institutional presidency" with thousands of aides.

8. Bureaucracy: A Controversial Necessity
This program reveals how the American bureaucracy delivers significant services directly to the people, how it has expanded in response to citizen demands for increased government services, and how bureaucrats sometimes face contradictory expectations that are difficult to satisfy.

Pt. 9 and 10, VCR No. 4165

9. The Courts: Our Rule of Law
This program examines the role of courts as institutions dedicated to conflict resolution, with the power both to apply and to interpret the meaning of law in trial and appeal courts. It shows the increased power of the Supreme Court through its use of judicial review and the difficulty of creating a judiciary that is independent of politics.

10. The Media: Inside Story
This program explores the media as an integral part of American democracy, highlighting the scrutiny they impose on the performance of public officials, the interdependence of politics and the media, and the power the media wields in selecting the news.

Pt. 11 and 12, VCR No. 4166

11. Public Opinion: Voice of the People
This program examines the power of public opinion to influence government policy, the increasing tendency of public officials to rely on polls, and the need to use many forms of feedback to get an accurate measure of public opinion.

12. Political Parties: Mobilizing Agents
This program shows how political parties perform important functions that link the public to the institutions of American government. Parties create coalitions of citizens who share political goals, elect candidates to public office to achieve those goals, and organize the legislative and executive branches of government.

Pt. 13 and 14, VCR No. 4167

13. Elections: The Maintenance of Democracy
This program explores the crucial role of strategy in the two-stage electoral campaign system; the opportunities for citizens to choose, organize, and elect candidates who will pursue policies they favor; and the need for campaigns to increase voter turnout by educating citizens about the importance and influence of their vote.

14. Interest Groups: Organizing To Influence
This program shows how America’s large number of corporate, citizen-action, and grass-roots interest groups enhance our representative process by giving citizens a role in shaping policy agendas.

Pt. 15, VCR No. 4168

15. Global Politics: U.S.A. and the World
This program examines the need for the United States to use the tools of foreign policy in ways that recognize the growing interdependence of nations — implementing both traditional and new forms of military, trade, and diplomatic strategies to promote benefits for America and the world as a whole.

 

Updated: February 2008