Most people today understand that any type of media is easier to access than ever before. All that is needed is a smartphone or public wifi for laptops to connect to a world of information that is only one click away.
But what makes any of this accessibility to news meaningful? That is where prominent Arab and Muslim lecturer and blogger Mona Eltahawy enters the scene. She spoke Wednesday afternoon on Blogging for Social Justice to an audience including many women and gender studies and international studies students. Her aim was to show that that the masses of news availability today, including blogs, has the ability to be used for righting wrongs and reporting honest news.
If you don’t participate in social media, try it. Eltahawy sees the positive attributes of it, such as getting the newest news as fast as possible on Twitter. Try either writing a blog or reading other blogs for personal opinion sites about what is going on in the world around us.
She told a story of a 28-year-old man Khaled Said who posted a video in June of two police officers sharing profits of a drug bust. He died soon after the video was posted by allegedly swallowing a bad of drugs. But, social media, whether it was Facebook, Twitter or the blogs in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries began posting about the truth of his death. He was actually brutally beaten from two plain clothed police officers and social media brought this truth to light.
Eltahawy said that blogs and social media do what mainstream media has done less and less, and that is challenge the readers. More people now than ever before have blogs and are using that outlet to “say what they mean and actually mean something.” However, she mentioned that some of the setbacks to this more personal form of media are that mainstream media members do not understand social media’s significance.
Dorion
ReplyDeleteGood story, but remember to follow the five graph model. It is there to help you this semester organize the story and find the news.
For example, here you have buried the lead which is Mona talked to an OU audience. Also watch out for attributions. Eltahawy encouraged the audience to try social media - not you.
You can break out and be more conversational in other news formats - and even in other posts this semester. But for the ones that I grade you on, follow the 5 graph model.
On the plus side - kudos for linking to a source that added value to your story. Nice job. No one else had a link that supported the story as strongly as you did. Good job.
Julie