Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who owns and distributes Marketplace?
- Why is Marketplace reporting live from the Middle East?
- How did you select your theme and stories?
- How did you ensure balance in your story selection?
- Where did the funding come from?
- How did you pick your commentators and interviewees?
- I have a comment about the series—where can I send it?
Who owns and distributes Marketplace?
Marketplace is produced and distributed by American Public Media, the nation’s second-largest producer of public radio programs. More than 20 national programs and specials comprise the American Public Media portfolio. A complete list of stations, programs and additional services for the American Public Media national network can be obtained at Americanpublicmedia.org.
Why is Marketplace reporting live from the Middle East?
Everyday Marketplace brings you business news from across the world; occasionally we produce special reports around topics in the news. In 2006, Marketplace broadcast live from China for two weeks, looking at China’s emergence as an economic global force. After the China broadcast, we researched our next location, investigating factors such as newsworthiness and relevance to the public radio audience. And that is why we selected the Middle East.
No other region affects our pocketbooks or politics more.
This election year generates additional attention to America's political and financial role in the region, presenting an important opportunity to cover the Middle East from the Middle East. We could have simply aired stories from our reporters about the Middle East. But taking our programs to the region allows us to provide an immersion in a region critically important to Americans, but little understood.
How did you select your theme and stories?
Marketplace producers and editors spent more than a year planning this special series. Our aim is to broadcast a series that looks at the Middle East through the lenses of economics, business and money. We interviewed people with expertise, whether professional or personal, to research locations and stories. We traveled to the Middle East in 2007, scouting locations, developing sources, and developing story ideas.
The editorial staff held numerous meetings, hearing from Middle East experts of all perspectives, reviewing ideas, mapping out coverage plans, and assigning reporters. On the ground, our reporters worked with local journalists in each location to identify sources and investigate leads. Our coverage plan is the culmination of months of research, debate, reporting, and editing.
We chose the theme, “The Middle East at Work”, because it allows us an opportunity to report on the region on the macro level—labor policy, foreign aid, trade—as well as one the nuts and bolts of everyday life, the pocketbook issues facing people living in the Middle East &emdash; and how both of these affect Americans.
Coverage in the U.S. of the Middle East focuses on the Iraq War and the Israeli Palestinian conflict. While we are touching on these issues, we believe we can add more value to the public discourse by emphasizing other, less well covered and understood issues such as the development of the Gulf region and the role of entrepreneurship in the Middle East. Our goal is to provide original, in depth stories about why this area matters in the voices of people who live and work in the region.
How did you ensure balance in your story selection?
Marketplace’s approach is to cover topics from multiple perspectives over time. We understand that the Middle East is a sensitive region covered extensively in the media. We also understand that reporting about the Middle East can provoke strong reactions. So we took extra steps to insure that our coverage is balanced and fair.
We spent several months talking with scholars, academics and people with professional or personal expertise in the region. We vetted our editorial balance with journalists and media advisory groups inside and outside of the company, asking questions like: Are we missing a crucial story? Is there slant or bias in our coverage plans?
We check and re-check facts before stories go on air. And our pursuit of editorial balance and transparency doesn’t end when a story airs. We ask for feedback from our listeners and air comments in a letters segment. If you have a comment, please contact us. Or you can check out our staff blog for the special remote: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/middleeast/
Where did the funding come from?
Financial support for the Middle East broadcast is provided by Constellation Energy, Cleveland Clinic and American Public Media. That support was secured by APM’s underwriting department, which works independently from the editorial staff. American Public Media’s sources of revenue include underwriting, sponsorships, foundations, grants from endowments, other public support, support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and earned revenue.
None of American Public Media’s funders are permitted to influence content in any way.
How did you pick your commentators and interviewees?
As part of the series planning, we solicited feedback from institutions and individuals with personal experience and expertise in the Middle East. Our goal was to identify commentators and interviewees who could serve as sources and talk about stories across the region.
We also found new voices from the region itself, recruiting commentators and sources of varying expertise, ethnicities, faiths, political and economic persuasions, classes, and gender.
Our series website lists biographical information and institutional affiliations of our commentators and interviewees with links to other websites for more information. Visit Visit Marketplace.org.
And, for more information about our commentary policy, please click on this link: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/about/commentary.html.
Our commentary is clearly identified as opinion and a commentator’s key institutional affiliation is given.
I have a comment about the series, where can I send it?
We want to know what you think. If you want to comment on anything you have heard on air or seen on the website, please use this form.
Or you can visit our Middle East blog: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/middleeast/
We don’t give out the names or phone numbers of our listeners. And while we can’t respond individually to every comment we receive, but we value your insight.
