I wish I could say that Twitter is providing useful, on-the-ground, independent reports of the Israeli military action in Gaza and the Hamas bombing of southern Israel. But all I have found there so far — in English, from individual tweeters (not news organizations, some of which are using Twitter in their Gaza coverage) — is heated rhetoric from non-Gazans and international observers. The Israeli side is more ideological than reportorial at this stage, as well.
Twitter searches for Gaza and #Gaza revealed a plethora of postings, but a dearth of newsy content. The blogosphere, as well, is dominated by supporters and detractors of the two sides. Many of the pro-Gaza (I won’t say pro-Hamas) bloggers and tweeters critical of the Israeli action there are situated elsewhere — such as From Gaza, With Love, by Mona El-Farra, a Gaza physician who currently is in the U.K.
The Israeli mainstream media (in English and Hebrew) are of course giving the events blanket coverage. Their stories include a wide variety of Israeli opinion and worldwide Jewish opinion — from extremely supportive to extremely critical. Arab satellite TV and media also are giving the Gaza story blanket coverage. And since last weekend Gaza has been the lead story on major news sites around the world.
I’m intrigued by the contrast in Twitter/blog coverage between the current Gaza conflict and November’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai. During the Mumbai attacks, Twitter and blogs seemed more useful, in the sense of providing up-to-the-minute independent reports of specific details of specific events. This contrast suggests to me that:
- The situation in Gaza is too technically primitive and politically controlled to permit independent, journalistic blogging.
- The extreme politicization of the situation here has blinded bloggers and Twitterers to the value of straightforward news reporting.
The Guardian, which is not normally sympathetic to Israel, blames the paucity of blogging from Gaza on the region’s lack of electricity. (There are both practical and political reasons for this that I won’t get into now.)
But there are some bright spots, where people on the ground are providing original news and information from Gaza.
For instance, that Guardian story also highlighted a Mideast Youth podcast interview with Ramzy, “a young teacher in Gaza.” Also, Bahraini blogger Esra’a is providing some on-the-ground information and, interestingly, a plea for Hamas to rein itself in.
Huffington Post blogger Jillian York posted a good guide to the Twitter discussion on Gaza. She essentially supports my thesis — that most of tweets are commentary and (sometimes) angry discussion, and that many of those in the “convo” are from outside Gaza and Israel.
Yesterday, BoingBoing published an amazing post on the conflict — noting a Second Life protest of the attacks and that the Israeli Consulate in New York launched two Twitter accounts (israelconsulate and DavidSaranga). (Hat tip to fellow Tidbits contributor Maryn McKenna for the BoingBoing and HuffPo posts.)
In fact, today the Israeli consulate held a Twitter press conference. It was extremely lively. At one point the consulate’s Twitterers asked for patience as they were swamped with questions. The briefers were extremely well-informed and kept peppering their answers with links to online content that backed up their positions. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that any positions were changed through this direct contact. Still, this approach to getting the message out is definitely forward-thinking.
This Tweetgrid shows the Twitter press conference proceedings (Hat tip to Jill Miller Zimon).
I think the Twitter press conference was a potentially brilliant idea. (There are always risks with unscripted events, of course.) But it is clear the Israeli government has “gotten” social media. On a related note, The Jerusalem Post seems to think the Israeli government is patting itself on the back for (finally) coordinating its war spin and PR.
Also today, The Jerusalem Post noted that the Israel Defense Forces has launched its own YouTube channel. That story quoted IDF Foreign Press branch head Major Avital Leibovich as saying: “The blogosphere and new media are another war zone. We have to be relevant there.”
My fellow Tidbits contributor Tish Grier suggests that the international blog aggregator Global Voices Online (which offers reports from Israel and Palestine, as well as many other countries in the region) may be a better resource than Twitter for independent blogging about Gaza. “Their editors know that the Gaza-based bloggers they’re republishing are real people, not just PR flacks or others who want to spin the story. Twitter is still a U.S.-centric (even Silicon Valley-centric) early-adopter technology,” Grier says.
Another Tidbits contributor, Kim Pearson, covered this conflict in a Dec. 28 Blogher post. She linked to Global Voices coverage, as well as a blog by a Palestinian mother, Ali Abunimah, and Jerusalem Post blogger Petra Marquardt-Bigman. Pearson observes that the comments on her post indicate “it’s challenging to get the conversation to progress beyond the ideological predispositions of individual respondents.”
