Hi everyone, my name is Omar and I come from a different part of the World where multimedia was the main reason of exposing all governments’ corruption and the main reason that started all revolutions.
I’m Middle Eastern, From Kuwait particularly and in the past three years I either witnessed or had a friend or a family member who witnessed the whole Arab Spring thing. This whole thing started with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The governments were the same before all these multimedia platforms come out, but people didn’t have a voice because their only option was to listen to the State T.V. or big networks that are allied with the governments. The outcome was journalism full of lies and nothing under the table was neither told nor investigated. Therefore, as soon as people and specially journalists had access to transfer news to everybody and advocate for actions without permission from their governments, all revolutions started.
Now, all new elected governments act accordingly on how people react on Twitter and other multimedia sources. They are now too careful that something might be leaked and delivered to the public and make breaking news at any second. In other words Multimedia forced democracy in my part of the world.
In this course I want to learn the skills and techniques that can make my work very interesting and compelling in these platforms in order to inform and affect the public. Yet, I want to remain unbiased and journalistic. I believe this will ultimately make my work distinguished and trusted by the public.
Hi Omar,
Thanks for sharing your experience regarding the Arab Spring. I remember watching it unfold on the news and just being totally amazed by how Twitter (especially) was being used as a tool for action. I also wondered how multimedia will be used (or not) in future political arenas, and if other countries will or will not follow suit. Such as China, who is known to have tight lock-downs with social media apps and communication channels.
So cool! I remember hearing a lot about how Egypt organized via Facebook groups. I think it will hopefully help other nations shape their own destiny as well, with multimedia as the tool for the people to make their voices heard. I agree with J in that it would be disappointing to see other countries go the same route as China, though maybe even in China we will see an overhaul of their multimedia use at some point due to younger generations striving for change, similar to the Arab Spring.
Thanks for sharing Omar, I think you bring such an interesting perspective to social media and it’s use for instigating social change. I had a hard time understanding the value of Twitter; I have to admit I just can’t get excited about every new social media platform but I remember that the Arab Spring was when I discovered that social media has the power to create social change. It will indeed be interesting to see how these emerging platforms are put to use for what I consider to be real value.
Embrace this learning journey, Omar! Your dedication to creating distinguished and trusted work will undoubtedly contribute to shaping narratives and fostering informed public discourse. Best of luck on this exciting endeavor! 🌟🎥