<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">peter waterman</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peterwaterman1936@gmail.com">peterwaterman1936@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Sat, Sep 27, 2014 at 4:20 PM<br>Subject: [Networkedlabour] Social Media as The Weapon of Choice for the Oppressed? The Gaza Case<br>To: <a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a><br><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"><div><div><div><div><div><div>
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<div><div><div><h1>Social Media: The weapon of choice in the Gaza-Israel Conflict</h1>
<span><a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/gazaunderattack" target="_blank">#GazaUnderAttack</a></span>
</div></div></div><div><div><div><p>Palestinians
using platforms like Facebook and Twitter counter the mainstream
narrative of the Gaza Crisis, reaching an astonishing number of people
around the world</p>
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<img src="http://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/main_image_article_page/public/main-images/Y.jpg?itok=pLLCdt77" width="620" height="429"> </div>
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An injured Palestinian child waits at Ben Gurion Airport to be airlifted to Turkey for treatments on 20 August (AA) </div>
<div><div><div><div><a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/users/yousef-al-helou" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_author/public/pictures/picture-2449-1408643406.jpg?itok=1WhusCmt" alt="Yousef al-Helou's picture" title="Yousef al-Helou's picture" width="34" height="34"></a></div></div></div><div><div><div><a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/users/yousef-al-helou" target="_blank">Yousef al-Helou</a></div></div></div><div><div><div>Thursday 21 August 2014 21:19 BST</div></div></div><div><div>Last update: </div><div><div>Thursday 25 September 2014 18:30 BST</div></div></div><div><div><div><div><span><span style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline-block"><span style="background-image:url("http://w.sharethis.com/images/twitter_32.png")"></span></span></span>
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</div></div><div><div><div>Topics: </div><div><div><div><a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/gazaunderattack" target="_blank">GazaUnderAttack</a></div></div></div></div><div><div>Tags: </div><div><div><div><a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/tags/gaza" target="_blank">gaza</a>, <a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/tags/social-media" target="_blank">Social media</a>, <a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/tags/twitter" target="_blank">Twitter</a></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/social-media-weapon-choice-gaza-israel-conflict-1807202428#comments" target="_blank">0 comments</a></div></div></div></div>
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<p>When 16-year old Palestinian, Farah Baker began tweeting about
the bombs falling around her, she could never have guessed that she
would rise to such prominence. But in the space of just a few weeks, her
followers on Twitter jumped from 800 to 207,000 with people hungry for a
first-hand, personal account of what was transpiring in Gaza. Baker is
just one of the few Palestinians turning to social media platforms such
as Facebook and Twitter to share photos of the destruction in the Gaza
Strip, disseminate information, updates, and posts.</p>
<p>Even when the power was out, citizen journalists managed to post
pictures of dead bodies, destroyed neighbourhoods and injured people to
the outside world. Photography has always been a powerful force, but the
Gaza conflict was one of the first wars to be photographed mainly by
amateurs and social media platforms, allowing those images to spread far
and wide at the click of a button, helping the people of Gaza win
hearts and minds, and subsequently causing unprecedented outrage against
Israel. In demonstrations around the world, such photos were enlarged
and carried by demonstrators, demanding that their respective
governments take action to halt Israel’s onslaught.</p>
<p>“I noticed that most of the Western media supports Israel, so also
some people abroad believe that we Palestinians are the murderers and
that it is us who started the attacks on Israel. This is not right. I
felt I had to do something to help Gaza. I used Twitter as a weapon to
share what exactly happen in Gaza by posting links of recorded clips of
bombs, photos of the smoke to make people who follow me feel as if they
are living in Gaza. to let them know we are the victims.” Farah Baker
said. </p>
<p>No doubt reporting in a war zone like Gaza is risky, even if you take
all required precautions. Of the 2016 Palestinians killed in the
current Israeli assault, 14 were journalists, including a foreign
reporter who worked for local and international media outlets.
Simultaneously, a number of buildings housing media offices and outlets
were attacked.</p>
<p>Israel is ranked 96<sup>th</sup> in the world on the “Press Freedom
Index” - a report compiled by Reporters without Borders - because of the
Israeli military's targeting of Palestinian journalists in the occupied
Palestinian territory. This ranking was published before the start of
Israel’s 3<sup>rd</sup> war on Gaza, called “Operation Protective Edge.”</p>
<p>“Since the start of the Gaza blockade in 2006, a new generation of
Palestinians have come to prominence in Gaza. Articulating their message
in fluent English through blogs and Twitter, they conveyed their
message to the world as a means to break their isolation, not only from
the outside world but also from the rest of the occupied territories in
the West Bank and the capital of East Jerusalem,” said Abed al-Nasser
Abu Oun, a TV correspondent and radio presenter at a local radio
station.</p>
<p>As the war progressed, it was an online battle of narratives -
between heavily funded Israeli state media outlets, represented by
Israeli spokespersons of the Israeli government and the army with
decades of experience - versus Palestinian citizen journalists who only
had their own laptops, smartphones and cameras.</p>
<p>Some citizen journalists from Gaza argue that they were even able
to win the cyber-war, and reach the public in the West by repackaging,
commenting on, and distributing content in innovative ways, tweeting
updates a lot faster than other media outlets.</p>
<p>“Most of the Western corporations and outlets are biased in favour of
Israel, so they totally mislead people by fabricating news, showing
Palestinians’ destroyed homes as Israeli ones. This attitude sparked
uproar and disgust toward those news channels - namely Fox News.
Alternatively, Palestinian activists firmly focus in revealing the
reality through social media tools,” said Maram Humaid, social media
activist.</p>
<p>The use of social media also forged connections with international
media organizations, who contacted Gaza residents and citizen
journalists with questions and interview requests.</p>
<p>Twitter became a platform for tens of thousands of regular people who
have an opinion to share, for those who wish to challenge someone
else's point of view, or those who simply want to share updates and
their own personal feelings on the human cost of Israel’s war. Many of
these messages can be viewed under the hashtags #GazaUnderAttack and <span dir="RTL">#</span>PrayforGaza.</p>
<p>“Many people - young and old alike - are using social media to report
on their immediate circumstances in ways that the mainstream media
cannot. We see this shifting coverage and understanding of events from
Gaza to Ferguson. In both places, tweets from local residents have
offered immediate news to those watching from elsewhere. In some cases,
citizen journalists have greatly challenged the narratives of more
established sources,” said Joe Catron, an American pro-Palestine
activist in Gaza.</p>
<p>Citizen journalists can publish their own work, analysis and breaking
news in a free, un-censored and un-filtered way, unlike professional
reporters of the mainstream media who have to stick to their
corporations' editorial policy and guidelines. </p>
<p>One of the motivating factors that drive more citizen journalists to
volunteer dismantling information is due to what they said about the
unfair media coverage of the Palestinian narrative.</p>
<p>“The rise of the internet has helped to reconstruct the fragmentation
of Palestine, as it is a way for Palestinians to reconnect and break
their isolation. I think the effect of the social media boom among young
Palestinian social media activists somehow succeeded in changing public
perception of the Palestinian in the West,” said Majed Shuplaq, a
Palestinian journalist.</p>
<p>Citizen journalism from Palestine is especially valuable for those
who are looking for information which has not been filtered through a
Western agenda. Social media has definitely weakened the Israeli
narrative, as Palestinians are able to connect directly with overseas
audiences and tell the stories that they feel are important.</p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of tweets exchanged reports, opinions, and
challenges to mainstream news reports and to each other. There were of
course, many other tags that hosted additional discussions. In
hindsight, it seems that Twitter hosted the most open and democratic
discussions, compared with other social media venues.</p>
<p>“Twitter is the fastest social media tool in disseminating
information, so I found it suitable to publish my tweets about the
situation in Gaza as attacks and developments happen around me. People
from other countries always believe such reports coming from
eyewitnesses, from people who live on the ground. Before the recent
Israeli aggression on Gaza, I used to receive between 20-50 retweets on
my Twitter account. But during the aggression, the number of retweets
increased rapidly to reach over 1,000 retweets for each tweet I post.
That has encouraged me to divide my tweets into three major categories:
breaking news, full stories, and the massacre,” said Khaled Safi,
blogger and social media activist.</p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
- See more at:
<a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/social-media-weapon-choice-gaza-israel-conflict-1807202428#sthash.eZQnVN2U.dpuf" target="_blank">http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/social-media-weapon-choice-gaza-israel-conflict-1807202428#sthash.eZQnVN2U.dpuf</a></div></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><ol><li><b><font><span></span><font size="1"><span><span>EBook, November 2012:</span> <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/recovering_internationalism/" target="_blank">Recovering
Internationalism</a>. </span><span><font color="#ff0000">[A compilation of papers from the new millenium. Now free in two download formats]</font></span><span><span><a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/" target="_blank"></span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span></a></span></span><span><span><a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/" target="_blank"></span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span></a></span></span></font></font></b></li><li><b><font size="1"><span><span>EBook (co-editor), February 2013: World Social Forum: Critical Explorations <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/" target="_blank"></font>http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/<font color="#ff0000"> </a></span></span><span><span><br></span></span></font></b></li><li><b><font size="1"><span>Interface
Journal<span> Special (co-editor), November 2012:</span> </span><span style="font-weight:normal"><a href="http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/" target="_blank">For the Global Emancipation of Labour</a></span></font></b>
</li><li><b><font size="1"><span lang="NL">Blog:</span><span lang="NL"> <a href="http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman." target="_blank">http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman.</a>
</span></font></b></li><li><b><font size="1">Interface Journal Special (Co-Editor) Social Movement Internationalisms. <a href="http://www.interfacejournal.net/" target="_blank">See Call for Papers</a>, <font color="#ff0000">(Deadline: May 1, 2014). </font></font></b></li><li><b><font size="1"><font color="#ff0000"><a href="http://interfacejournal.nuim.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Interface-1-2-pp255-262-Waterman.pdf" target="_blank"></font></font></span></font><font color="#000000">Needed: a Global Labour Charter Movement<span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#000000"> <font color="#ff0000">(2005-Now!)<br></a></font></font></b></li><li><b><font size="1"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/" target="_blank"><font color="red"><b>MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "www.into-ebooks.com" claiming to be</b></font> Under, Against, Beyond: Labour and Social Movements Confront a Globalised, Informatised Capitalism </a>(2011) <font color="#ff0000">Almost 1,000 pages of Working Papers, free, from the <a href="tel:1980" value="+661980" target="_blank">1980</a>'s-90's</font>.</font></font></font></b></li><li><b><font size="1"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000">Google Scholar Citation Index:</font></font></font></b><br><span style="display:block"> <b><font size="1"><a href="http://scholar.google.com.pe/citations?user=e0e6Qa4AAAAJ" target="_blank">http://scholar.google.com.pe/citations?user=e0e6Qa4AAAAJ</a> </font></b><br></span></li></ol><ul><li><table cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr></tr></tbody></table></li></ul><font size="1">
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