Posting coming to a close- What's Next?

This is a post to remind you that the END of the posting period is quickly coming! So get your posts in!!! 3 original posts and 3 comments. That's the basics- do them well, contribute to the conversation, and be willing to go outside your comfort zone (in the media or your analysis of them) and the points will rack up. There IS one more piece to this however, THE WRITE UP!

So what to do?

The write up is intended to be a place where you can reflect on the blog as a whole (not just your piece of it) in an essay 3-5 pages long (double spaced)and consists of:

1.  an intro,
2.  a discussion of 2-3 'themes' you identified across the posts (use examples from the blog!)
3. a summary/conclusion. 

see you in class!

The Arab Spring's Casscading Effects

This article talks about how the social media has played a huge role in the Arab Spring. Not only are many people blogging, tweeting, and using facebook to get people to help the cause, they are able to tell their stories and experiences with others who are also being effected or with people want to know about what's going on in the Middle East. They use these sites to set up protests, to coordinate events and to tell the world about it.
It has also been a suggested use to resign from positions.
Many of these sites cover topics about the Arab Spring so that people stay informed, but there are also the people who are actually putting their lives on the line to support the cause. Keeping up with this information through the social media is why things are being done to end the Arab Spring. If these connections weren't possible, I don't think there would be as much accomplished as there has been, but there also has to be the people who want to stand up and take action too.
http://www.miller-mccune.com/politics/the-cascading-effects-of-the-arab-spring-28575/

The Arab Spring/ The Nation

So I found this article that I thought was very interesting because it is very true. There are so many misconceptions about the Middle East that we forget to actually get the facts about what is really going on. When we think of the Middle Eastern countries we think of the people who rule it, terrorism and what a bad place it is, but there is much more to it than that. The social media has given us those opinions. They like to show only certain aspects of what's really going on. In the article it says "how there are the unions, those with a commitment to the rule of law, the tech-savvy young people, the feminists, the artists and intellectuals, those with a reasonable knowledge of Western culture and values, the ordinary people who simply want decent opportunities and a voice in how they are governed." Americans don't really think of them that way though because of what they show us on TV. There are also places that have made a lot of progress, but to me, I would have disagreed if I didn't read this article.
 http://www.thenation.com/article/158991/arab-spring

Women in the Revolution

http://vimeo.com/40413965

I saw that there was a post on children in the revolution, and thought I should post this video. This video presents a clear view of how women are treated in these regions. Obviously, social media played a huge role in promoting this video of this particular woman. Its just really sad to see how these women are being treated just because they are standing up to what they believe in. Human rights for women are still comprised all throughout the world, and like the one girl said, basic respect would definitely would be a nice start to women's rights movement. Young girls as little as the in the video, risk their lives everyday in these revolutions. My favorite quote in this video is:
"The girls of Egypt are here"
This is such a strong movement especially dealing with women's rights and just respect in general.

The Power of Social Media

The public was never more aware of the true power of social media until they realized the role it played in the Arab Spring. Facebook and Twitter played a crucial role in coordinating protests and keep those outside the country up-to-date on the atrocities being committed by the Government. In this interview, conducted by Mark Colvin, BBC World News correspondent Mishal Husain talked about how social media played such a large role in the situation in the Middle East, "You can certainly point to distinct uses both in Egypt and Tunisia where Facebook played a really defining role." Atrocities previously kept quiet by notoriously private governments were soon being viewed by millions around the world. Governments found themselves scrambling to contain the information that never before had been spilled from their borders. Social media, combined with old media (i.e. pictures and videos), became the way of the people to expose how far their governments would go to suppress the uprisings. Social media allowed the people to become stronger than the government, a feat never before seen. While the early happiness and joy over their newfound power has slowly decreased, many are still looking at social media as way to save the people in Syria and other countries from their dictators.

Children of the Revolution

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/31/children_of_the_revolution#1


Children of the Revolution

In the uprisings across the Arab world, protesters are finding that revolution is sometimes child's play.

By: BY SUZANNE MERKELSON, AYLIN ZAFAR

This particular article is set up differently then any other article. Mainly because the article is a series of pictures with short paragraphs describing each one. But, these pictures are showing the children of the revolution. Children are a huge part of the revolution and some forget that they are involved. They are using their bodies to stand on the line and fight for what their parents and what they believe in.

When I first came across the site, I realized that pictures really do speak louder then words. When your just reading something you can't really picture the full events or picture children actually having to go through some of these things. But, when the evidence is being shown and you see what's truly going on your heart begins to break a little bit for those innocent children who are just following their loved ones.

A few of the photos shown are of children in a mob of people holding signs and embracing their countries colors, there are children in uniform holding or being near weapons, there are children that were hurt and you can see their wounds. There are also photos of children and their families, one particular one is a Egyptian solider holding his daughter and kissing her cheek, because he was celebrating the fact that the Egyptian president stepped down. But, my question is why would you want your child amidst all of that violence?

 The children are the world's future, let's just hope they aren't effected too much by the violence being shown today.

Signal is the latest citizen journalist application from the Middle East

The Lebanese entrepreneur, Mark Malkoun, invented an application for phones called Signal. He said he was insprired to create the app Signal “ by the Arab Spring, and more precisely from a personal desire to get a simple way of seeing what’s happening around you straight from the people. Users are already using their cell phones to take pictures of interesting things they encounter and posting them to social networks, or sending them to traditional news corporation like CNN iReport.” It is reported that the app is going to be for iPhone users in Lebanon this month and later for Andriod users. This app will eventually expand to other countries and other languages as time goes on. One thing I like about this app is that people get to vote on what things they think are important or interesting. This makes the top stories come up first and the least relevant stories won't be shown. I feel like this app is going to be very sucessful and people are going to be using it a lot. The only thing I fear is that people might not be getting the correct information all the time. People need to think and not just believe everything they read. I also think this is something good that came out of the Arab Spring. People now are more united and get a chance of reporting what they think is news worthy. I think in the future we might not have real news reporters on the scene anymore because anyone can upload pictures and videos. The future of how we recieve our media is changing and this is just the start of it!

Read the article!