Televising the Revolutions: The Role of the Media in the Arab Spring

12:00 NOON - Keynote - 
Televising the Revolutions: The Role of the Media in the Arab Spring
Speaker: Laila Al-Arian, Al Jazeera English
(About the Keynote speaker: Laila Al-Arian is a writer and producer for Al Jazeera English in Washington, D.C. Al-Arian holds a Master's Degree from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. Her work has appeared in The Nation, Alternet, Ther United Independent, The Guardian, The Australian, United Press International, and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Al-Arian is the author, with Chris Hedges, of Collateral Damage: America's War against Iraqi Civilians. The book is based on their 2007 Nation magazine investigative piece, "The Other War," which was selected as one of Project Censored's 25 most important undercovered news stories of 2008.)

She showed us a video clip of "The Arab Awakening," which I believe she said had aired on PBS and it featured places like Bahrain, Libya, and Syria. It showed the Desire For Freedom and the revolt against 3 different Arab Dictators. There were children, tear gas, blood, and police brutality involved.
* "Social media did not drive it, the people did. Social media assisted..."
* "One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter."

It showed, and slightly introduced, a 28-year-old (at the time) Libyan Civilian Journalist/Blogger who kept trying to keep the world up to date. On February 8th, he wrote, "I'm not afraid to die. I'm afraid of losing the battle." When he died in March, his wife vowed to continue his work, despite the death of 2 reporters on April 20th.

She also introduced us to "Shouting in the Dark," a YouTube Documentary by Al Jazeera English (AJE)

This post was written by: Korean Lovers

Korean Lovers is a professional blogger korean Addict, web designer and front end web developer. Follow him on Twitter