The team members who worked on this podcast project are Mabelle Abdo and Lynn Fakhry.

https://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:819964834/sounds.rss

References:

TAM, Women  Media and Development  (2017). Media Monitoring of Palestinian women’s image and representation in news related to peace and security. Bethlehem, West Bank – Palestine. Retrieved from: http://cdn.agilitycms.com/who-makes-thenews/Reports/Palestinian%20women%20in%20peace%20news.pdf

Joseph Attieh. (2012, August 25). Joseph Attieh – Fare El Omor (Audio) / جوزيف عطيه – فرق العمر [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/YEYQbx8DbjM?list=RDYEYQbx8DbjM

Joseph Attieh. (2012, August 25). Joseph Attieh – Ya Kel El Deni (Audio) / جوزيف عطيه – يا كل الدني [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/0OHc-zIp0ek

Layal Abboud. (2017, July 16). Layal Abboud – Hader Ya Mister [ Music Video ] | ليال عبود – حاضر يا مستر [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/89RjGR1Ao4U

Majd Moussally. (2019, March 28). Majd Moussally-Sada2ti Halek / مجد موصللي-صدقتي حالك [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/hzkPZ5x4rM4

Mazzika. (2017, June 14). Al Ragel – Ramy Sabry الراجل – رامى صبرى [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/BBHAT0mewRE

Medhat Saleh. (2019, October 18). Medhat Saleh – Te’rafy Teskoty – Official Music Video | مدحت صالح – تعرفى تسكتى – الكليب الرسمى [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/JEN3zh1Tuw4

MelodyHDTV. (2009, October 11). Mohamed Eskandar – Ouly Behebny / محمد أسكندر – قولى بيحبنى [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/jX7-YPMIWWE

MelodyHDTV. (2010, July 8). Mohamed Eskandar – Joumhoureyet Alby / محمد إسكندر – جمهورية قلبي [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/LZ9NgJQD1uo

MelodyHDTV. (2013, July 21). Mohamed Eskandar – Wadda’ El Ozoubeya / محمد إسكندر – ودع العزوبية [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/jI03si3Yqbs

 Rabih Gemayel ربيع الجميل. (2017, September 5). Rabih Gemayel – Faw2 L3adi – Lyrical Video | ربيع الجميل – فوق العادي – فيديو كلمات [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/Uo0uuSWyVi8?list=RDUo0uuSWyVi8

Roznama Records. (2013, September 11). دنيا سمير غانم | اغنية واحدة تانيه خالص – Donia Samir Ghanem | Wa7da Tania 5ales [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/XBSTgQjI69M

Tamer Hosny. (2013, Ocotober 3). Si Al Sayed – Tamer Hosny ft Snoop Dogg /كليب سي السيد – تامر حسني و سنوب دوج [Video]. Youtube.https://youtu.be/-Urjas5Nt0I

The Arabnights. (2011, May 9). Naji El Osta – Fakarton Khelso 2011 (Exclusive 4 Arabnights) [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/FfzwOFNU3Fs

https://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:819964834/sounds.rss

Sound Map:

C : the workers talking

R : The passing cars,

U : maybe the sound of the curtain hitting the window

N : the wind hitting the curtain, the sound of birds

H : people talking

T : the sound of metal and working on cars since I live above a car tire shop

M: the cars moving

Close : the tire shop below me

Far : the cars across the streets and the sound of birds

Ambient Sound :

1. I was holding a mug while recording so after hearing the voice note I was not able to hear myself drinking and putting down the mug, plus there was not the sound of opening and closing the balcony door since it slides.
2. Not really because its only birds, cars and people talking.
3. The sound of crickets and the swallow birds
4. 8;30-1;10

In the past couple of years, the use of the internet and social media platforms has emerged in a very powerful way. The latter is a strong and free tool given to the people to share their voices and opinion upon multiple topics. For example, Palestinians were able to cope with their territorial fragmentation through the internet. The following was a way to communicate with others, share updates on political status and actions. What was really beneficial is that the use of the internet was a weapon to the people, Palestinians were able to gain their citizens’ attention by uploading what was really happening. Palestinian resistance remains a nationwide freedom movement demonstrated in various forms of political manners. These forms include both violent and nonviolent means of shaping global opinion as well as civil rebellion. While being faced with multiple limitations, Palestinians were able to face them, for example, there is widespread awareness among Palestinians that their internet use is under surveillance. Their eyes were always wide open, ready to post and share anything to show their people how badly they are mistreated. For example, by the platform of Youtube, they can share clips of soldiers’ mistreatment. Palestinians would create Facebook groups and Youtube posts that are related to their revolution, to motivate their people, show them that they all have something in common. One should never underestimate the power of media. How strongly it can affect someone. I will share a very simple example, a series called “La Casa de Papel” motivated many people to protest and make their voices heard, the series is an act of rebellion against a capitalist system. And lately in the most recent revolutions, one can see how people used costumes, music and labels from the series, media can really affect and motivate people. That is why Palestinians have used the internet, it is a fast and free way to share thoughts and let the news spread worldwide and might even reach for help and gain liberation. It could be from any sort of media form like podcasts, radio stations, posts, and images.

Free radio is known to be an act of a collective expression of the entire community that is most of the time dealing with social and political issues. Also, since the whole society is dealing with discrimination or any other form of injustice, they would stand together and share their voices through “free radio”. Full cooperation by the community is the heart of the radio station, it is what keeps it stronger and able to fight back. For example, the Algerians were able to fight for their liberation through free radio, they found themselves having to oppose the enemy’s news with their own.
Another type of radio was created which is the “prisoner’s radio”. The latter created a connection between the external world and inside the prisoner’s bars. Prisoners are known to be one of the most closed, silent institutions in the justice system, also they are temporarily removed from a specific society that they belong to. The point is to give them a chance to speak because very few have thought of an idea like this, people tend to forget that some are behind bars by mistake, they spend their whole life in that cage because of a misunderstanding.
There are two types of prisoner’s radio programs, first of all, there’s the one that focuses mainly on providing information about prison issues. And second of all, there is one that accepts requests. For example, the latter accepts songs requests from or to prisoners, their families, and even friends. Sometimes the radio shares personal messages, news stories, documentaries and other information that relates to prison and justice issues.

The information that I have chosen below falls into the category of Misinformation which is very high and common in the media. One can see after reading the article posted about how the coronavirus could be found in toilet paper, that there may be a mix of factual or partly false content. Sometimes the writer’s intentions are only to inform the readers without being aware the report is incorrect. But still, it is being published and shared with many which can cause discomfort and anxiety since the virus is extremely contagious and is transmitted through anything such as toilet paper. But finally, people took action and informed viewers that it was false information.

• 

Many actions can be done to move away from the misinformation environment that we’ve been living in for a while now, for example, increase in a society critical media and digital literacy skills, journalists need to be aware and sure of what they are writing.
Also, there have to be some media practices within central media organizations and create strong social movements that would offer critiques to the higher and dominant society. Plus, try and formulate a diverse media ecology that includes subaltern media organizations and cultural productions.
People and especially journalist should focus on creating a safe environment that allows communities to share the right information with others.

Plenty of media forms have taken over to spread the word and news like channels and others. But some have taken a different path like journalists and writers who created their own platforms to be more independent and tackle topics that could be more controversial. There are independent and alternative forms of media like channels on Youtube, radio channels and others, but the one that I have chosen to talk about is a podcast titled “A Better Beirut” created by Nicolas Dahan. It is a podcast that features people who try to make Lebanon a better place to live. The podcast posts every other Monday and each time invites different guests which empowers the idea of bias-free content. This act attempts to include people of all ethnicities, gender identities, religious affiliations, and others. To assure that this example is an alternative and independent form of journalism one can reflect on some of Forde’s concepts. The podcast tackles topics such as politics and social movements, for example, there was an episode on “A history of corruption”, “voices of the people” and many more. Also, it shows how there are different points of view and alternative perspectives since it invites different people or speakers every time.

After knowing how much most of the social platforms have control over their users’ persona, valuable information, and data, some are still using these platforms in unlimited ways. For example, through a specific website, one can see how many posts, information are being uploaded to the internet such as emails, Instagram and Facebook posts, tweets and all. For example, while I am writing this blog post, 2,460,237,290 users are active on Facebook.
After reading an article written by Isobel Cockerell about how Instagram shuts down every Iranian account after Soleiman’s death. It recalls how when each person would post something related to Soleiman’s death, the user’s account and all posts got deleted immediately. Even all the journalists’ accounts have been taken now, which means Iranians freedom of speech has been taken away from them.
A video by the NBC news was posted on youtube back in 2018 that talks about how Facebook helped Trump in winning the elections by collecting data from their users so they can know to whom they might vote. This happened without the consent of the users, so what we, the people, can do for a change is to demand a right of data protection such as Europe where if the government requires data they will have to ask for the user’s consent. The change begins with the people, al;l we need to do is speak up and demand our privacy and freedom of speech. And maybe find an alternative applications to use other than Facebook or Whatsapp Or Instagram since the last two are owned by Facebook.

References:

Internet Live Stats – Internet Usage & Social Media Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.internetlivestats.com/

Instagram shuts down Iranian accounts after Soleimani’s death. (2020, January 18). Retrieved from https://www.codastory.com/authoritarian-tech/instagram-iran-soleimani/

In an article written by Vaidhyanathan, the latter explains how surveillance from the social application of Facebook on users comes in three different forms. As it was mentioned, Facebook tracks all the connections and interactions that a user makes, it even predicts future connections and interests just by collecting basic information about users (Vaidhyanathan, 2018). Now the three present forms of surveillance by Facebook are, 1- The commercial surveillance, it is all about the advertisement so when users share their interests and information, Facebook holds and shares those data with companies so that they know who they should target the most. That is why certain products and types of posts would appear on the user’s page because the network already knows what would attract people.
Also, there is 2-peers surveillance, since most of the people’s information is online, others tend to take control, users would tag others are pictures they don’t want to be tagged in or get cyberbullied or harassed just by the data they have on others.
Finally, the last surveillance is the one by the state, one can see that companies can now about their workers just bu accessing their social accounts, they would gather valuable information that sometimes the government would ask for if someone acts suspicious.

Another article was written about surveillance and it tackles the topic of how till now Palestinian women and young girls’ ways of communication are impacted by patriarchy and the Israeli occupation through a “surveillance tower” (Odeh, 2018). The surveillance tower holds both family and social monitoring, there is even a “Family Tracker” that would allow members of the family to monitor their daughter’s or wife’s calls and social media interactions. There is a difference between protecting others and spying on them, even though the country’s freedom of speech has increased, many female members are being watched, silenced and harassed through social media.

References:

Vaidhyanathan, S. (n.d.). Anti Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy. Retrieved from https://archive.indianculturalforum.in/2018/08/18/anti-social-media-how-facebook-disconnects-us-and-undermines-democracy/

Vaidhyanathan, S. (n.d.). Anti Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy. Retrieved from https://archive.indianculturalforum.in/2018/08/18/anti-social-media-how-facebook-disconnects-us-and-undermines-democracy/