Online Journalism ReviewPalestinian Internet users have had many choices when it came to staying up with the conflict with Israel on Arab-language news sites. Now there are a growing number of English-language sites that emphasize the Palestinian position, and are carrying that position to a far wider audience.
Online-only news sites such as the Palestine Chronicle and Palestine Monitor provide eyewitness accounts to flare-ups throughout the region. And these news sites give mainly volunteer contributors space for their photos and diaries of events as they unfold. Then there are news portals such as Electronic Intifada that provide even more depth by pointing to a variety of sources online -- combining original commentaries and news with views from other outlets.
Ali Abunimah is a co-founder of Electronic Intifada and vice president of the Arab-American Action Network. He e-mailed me about the genesis of the EI site. "EI was the culmination of several years experience of using the Internet as a means of disseminating supplementary and alternative news," he said. "We felt that a professionally produced, attractive, independent and edgy news site would greatly increase the opportunities for Palestinians to be heard. Our 'Live from Palestine' diaries provided a direct window into what was happening to Palestinians at the time of the March-April, 2002, Israeli Operation Defensive Shield."
"The Internet is important because it enables people on the ground to relay directly and unfiltered, and in real time, what is taking place on the ground," said Ahmed Bouzid, an Algerian activist writer and software developer in Philadelphia who founded PMWatch. "It is almost impossible, for instance, to establish an organization such as PMWatch, built on volunteers doing media monitoring and relaying their findings and organizing action, without the Internet."
(snipped the rest)
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
