Al-Arabiya English. (2017, July 19). Lebanese Men Hitting and Tormenting Syrian Man. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1nz32dYZRc

Al-Jazeera English.( 2013, August 12). Lebanese Angry over Syrians Taking Jobs. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73AzU5fCmkk&t=4s

Al-Jazeera English. (2013. September, 4). Lebanon Anger Grows over Syrian Refugees. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUdcRCYPQWk

Al-Jazeera English. (2013, October, 18). Lebanon’s Economy Affected by Syrian Conflict. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIcNhnQigvU

UNICEF. (2012, April, 17). Help for Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJOgDM_b7gY

ThisisLebanon. (2019, July, 1). Laila Saliba Beats up Ethiopian Girl. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bG04-6gcWs&t=96s

Shankaboot. (2011, January, 5). A Domestic Worker in Lebanon. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YG71d2uXnQ

The France 24 Observers.( 2019, July, 9). Foreign Workers Abused in Lebanon. Retrieved from

RazanMn.(2016, December, 13). Maid in the Lebanese Media. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBpX31zkJt8&feature=youtu.be

Youtube Link to Our DS2

Sounds that I could not hear in the ambient sound recording:

– The wind

– My grandmother on a phone call near the kitchen

– The sound of leaves swaying in the wind

– The sound of the water faucet leaking in the kitchen

There are new sounds in the “Ambient Sound” that I did not pay attention to

– The sound of the wifi router clicking every couple of seconds

– The sound of the plastic pull rope hitting the window from the wind of the AC

– The sound of footsteps of my cousins running around

The old sounds from my childhood that disappeared from my sonic landscape today:

– My grandmother’s laughter

– The sound of the mousalsal starting

– The sound of a coffee cup hitting the table and the sound of the coffee being poured

The 2 minites of my ambient sound recording that had the most impact and was the loudest:

(4:35-5:35)

I could hear the cars rushing to get home because iftar time just hit

I can hear the adan because the mosque is right next to our house

I can hear the constant honking of cars

I could hear the moto screeching off the floor of concrete pavements

Fannon (1959) highlights the vitality of radio in the Algerian community. He proposes that there were new attitudes that were adopted by the Algerians when they were attempting to go through liberation, and this technical device aided them in doing so. Some Algerians were resistant to getting a radio and there was no clear reason as to why it acted as a form of disrespect. Although they believed that this device inherited a certain status for the people, that only ones who were at the top of the economical and societal hierarchy could get one. Although after the war, the revolutionary device was the radio and it established the identity of the nation and acted as a form of liberalism.

Tying in Anderson (2012) and Mumia Abu Jamal’s ideas of prison radio. The confinements of prisons always expose a limitation in broadcast media. They feel as though that the criminals who have been sentenced do not have freedom of liberty in expressing their sides of the story, but rather how the media portrays them. The concept of prison radio ties in that aspect and strengthens their connection to the outside world.

References

Anderson, H. (2013). Facilitating active citizenship: Participating in prisoners’ radio. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 30(4), 292-306.

Abu-Jamal, M. (2013). Media matters: Radio in prisons. http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/media-matters

This Is the Voice of Algeria

Fanon.F (1956).

This Is the Voice of Algeria. This Is the Voice of Algeria”

Oprah Winfrey was recently in the news for partaking in “sex-trafficking of young girls.” These fake news articles were widespread as a form of “misinformation” This article did not have physical evidence or any proof of sources that backed the statement. The content is considered to be c completely false and only applicable so that it would attract audience and viewers to click on the website More so considered to be a conspiracy theory, once the rumor broke out, many other publications took turn in spreading this falsified news. Moreover, this news also became so falsified, that some consumers believed that her house was raided as a cause of the corona virus, but Winfrey quickly put the rumor to rest through her social media platforms by announcing that all of the articles were spreading false news.

In aligning this article with Kumanyika’ speech, the methods that need to be implemented in order to stop spreading false news is generate laws and policies against this notion. Since our age is mostly digital, all forms of information is being believed and spread through these platforms. Social movements and regulations that forbid these actions are considered necessary. Since this world is filled with fake news and propaganda, we as journalists, must overcome this barrier in order to build literacy and safe spaces for objective news.

References

Evon, D., & Evon, D. (n.d.). Was Oprah’s Home Raided in a Sex-Trafficking Sting? Retrieved from https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oprah-sex-trafficking/

Kumanyika, C. (2018). Pour en finir avec les fausses nouvelles. Retrieved from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t10ErbfwG14&feature=youtu.be

My personal example of independent media is Wuora. Quora is a website where questions and answers are posted about absolutely any topic the user desires to ask. Moreover, the website also allows users to edit their posts on the basis of either opinion format or factual format. (Ford) characterizes alternative media as “worldwide emergence of all kinds of community, alternative, oppositional, participatory and collaborative media practices.” This exposes how it becomes a different space than traditional media as it allows different information contexts and practices that are relevant to this day and age. Additionally, ownership of alternative media differs greatly as it contains private individuals with private companies and operators that specify on issues that are related to a specific community. For example a website that speaks o n the issues of black women’s struggles would be specific to that minority and community. These media outlets are governed under nations and are spefici broadcast areas for communities. Additionally, no government has any form of control on alternative media, usually they remain unconfined and non-contained.

References

You did not place Ford’s first name or the date that the book was published and I could not find it online! I”m sorry I did quote what I utilized from the excerpt, I usually always cite!

 According to (Vaidhyanathan, 2018), there consists of three major forms of surveillance:

1. Commercial and political entity exploitation through advertisements: Based on what we reveal on our FB profiles, different companies are able to track our behaviors and purchases through search engines and recommend us products listed through ads on the side of screens. Additionally, governments and political figures could also dissect our Facebook profiles to assess the demographics and psychographics of each citizen, so they are able to promote candidate compaigns strategically
2. FB tracking profiles/ Social Graph: FB tracks different biographical data, chats with friends and family members, saves locations, photos, videos, posts and has complete control over user content. All of user interests and behaviors are utilized by FB to predict popular segments, points of interest, etc.. and base it off other people’s similar interests and behaviors.
3. Open Graph: gathering different services such as WhatsApp, messenger and Instagram to all connect to one single service (Open Graph) which stores all information regarding habits, music preferences, interactions.. Therefore even if people hardly log into FB anymore, this device collects all the information from social media platform you are active through cookies and allows for user personal insight and data collection.

Odeh says the online communication of Palestinian women and girls is impacted by patriarchy and the Israeli occupation through a “surveillance tower.” This exposes how violence is a large factor that influences Palestinian women digitally and visually. Patriarchy rules over on virtual platforms as well where they are able to harass women verbally. Some still maintain a submissive position as they are in constant fear, as well as having limited freedom of expression and creative expression to post anything they desire. Additionally, “surveillance tower”is the “familial and social surveillance that monitors [and intervene in] their moves online, resulting in increased pressure to censor themselves” (Odeh, 2018). This social surveillance monitor reveals the amount of sexual and violent harassment present within Palestinian women (results revealed over 60%)

References

Odeh, S. (2018, November 1). A violent network: Gender-based violence against Palestinian women in virtual space. Retrieved from https://www.apc.org/en/pubs/violent-network-gender-based-violence-against-palestinian-women-virtual-space

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/

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As a cause of losing my phone last month, I had to completely delete all histories on social media platforms, photos, etc.. therefore it was more of a fresh start. I did however notice the amount of surveillance on my last phone. As we are constantly on our phones and our social media platforms become intertwined, I have noticed all the information that my phone tracks. Wether I would be searching a specific thing on google and find a sponsorship ad on a website or Instagram the next day, it has somewhat become “normalized” to see. On the other hand, what I had not noticed until much later, is how my phone would track the exact locations. Sitting in a restaurant with my s/o last January in Achrafieh, I had noticed how my phone asked me “did you enjoy your stay at pepper tree.” Although we had not utilized google maps to reach the destination, it tracked my location and the time of my stay at the restaurant. Moreover, I noticed how these notifications tend to pop up significantly more if you are visiting a foreign city. As I went to visit my mother in London last year, I noticed that my phone would send push notifications through GoogleMaps after every location I had been in. I find it quite strange as to why they seem so beyond interested to record every minor detail in our lives, especially how capitalistic this feature has become, as companies are more intrigued in consumer behavior, they tend to create certain products on the market based on interest, actions, or behavior. This is ultimately, a violation of my privacy, and I never condoned or accepted certain terms or agreements on the stalking of my phone; it’s immoral and disgusting.

Ball and Snider define the surveillance-industrial complex in terms of the heightened usefulness of them ever since they were emerged from military priorities. As they say, it highlights ” race the connections between the massive multinational conglomerates that manufacture, distribute and promote technologies of ‘surveillance’, and the institutions of social control and civil society.” (Ball& Snider). This entails the idea that it is related to political economy, and it exposes and analyzes the intersections between the capital and liberals, where the growth of importance of the surveillance society has been heightened, but as a cause of that, it has serious dangerous consequences. Although it emerged from military and war surveillance, and into social space. This action has changed overtime in the twentieth century, marking two dominant players in society- the state and the corporate.

Hache and Jansen say surveillance is an important matter as the “content is created by you and others actively publishing information, which includes what you write, publish and share, as well as content that other people create about you. Content can be scanned for key words which are considered harmful to the status quo, identifying whoever created the content as a human rights defender”(Hache &Jansen, 2018). Therefore,surveillance according to (Hache &Jansen, 2018) promotes the idea that there are two different parties considered to be importance and that is you and the people who share your information. You have power in what content you provide and share, but you do not necessarily control the content that is crated about you.

Moreover, metadata- “which is created so that the basic infrastructure of our digital systems, including the Internet and our mobile phone networks, can work properly. For example, the metadata of an email contains the sender, recipient, time and date, sometimes the IP address and subject line. Metadata enables your email to be delivered correctly, your files to be found on your computer, and your smartphone to receive text messages and phone calls from around the world almost instantaneously” (Hache& Jansen, 2018). This reveals that different platforms as well as the utilization of phone decides, can track different information that you might consider as “private” to your friends and family, but in other light is considered to be public for the people who are using surveillance to track you. An example of this, is the interconnectedness between different social platforms that allows the access of information of your age, photos, likings, websites that you have visited. In turn, you could see that by the different promotional ads that take place on the sides of your screens or through sponsorship advertisements on your social media. This could be seen as very dangerous and harmful, as nothing is private anymore, and could be easily accessed through others, promoting political economy.

References

Ball, K., & Snider, L. (2013). The surveillance-industrial complex: a political economy of surveillance. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Privacy, Surveillance and Data Tracking: Why Does it Matter for Human Rights Defenders? (2018). Retrieved from https://www.ritimo.org/Privacy-Surveillance-and-Data-Tracking-Why-Does-it-Matter-for-Human-Rights

Militainment calls for the integration of two words- military and entertainment. This notion refers to how and where the military is celebrated and commemorated; Usually through the medium of news, video games, pop culture, entertainment, militainment is not strictly limited into one box, but can rather branch out intimacy different subcategories. “In terms of news, “since World War I, the U.S. military has woven media manipulation strategies into war’s planning, execution and aftermath, combining a mix of propaganda and censorship to sell war by engineering public consent to war policy and stifling dissent” (Andersen&Mirrlees, 2014). This entails the idea that the news partake in celebrating the military through the use of propaganda and subjective planning in order to win the war. Additionally, Militainment is strongly relevant in video games and pop culture. In terms of video games (CSGO and APEX legends), graphics play a strong role in determining the power of the military, and revealing different military training and tactics, ultimately celebrating the U.S military after the 9/11 incident, Militainment definitively heightened in both video games and pop culture. Many blockbuster movies that center military and the power and celebrations of the military are usually reserved for action movies, and depicting the hardships and unity of the U.S military against foreign forces such as the Middle East (usually Iraq). An example of this would be the movie Fargo, where Ben Affleck leads the military to the “successful” defeat against the Middle East. Another example consist of Zero Dark Thirty, where the U.S military is celebrated by finding and killing Usama bin Laden. There are multiple ways where military is celebrated, but in true to nature, the U.S military is mostly celebrated and commemorated by proving different mediums (social media, pop cuclture, video games, as well as news).

References

Introduction: Media, Technology, and the Culture of Militarism: Watching, Playing and Resisting the War Society. (2014). Democratic Communiqué , 2.