Blogging for Social Change

Award winning New York commentator and columnist Mona Elthaway spoke at the seminar “Blogging for Social Change” on Wednesday September fifteenth in the Board of Regents room at the Oklahoma Memorial Union. She emphasizes the importance of blogs and social media to countries in the Middle East struggling for human rights. Elthaway asserts that blogs and social network sites are integral for highlighting injustices in the Middle East when the government violates civil liberties.
Without blogging and social network sites, Elthaway claims, many who live in the Middle East that are usually silenced by the government would not have an outlet for their concerns about their rights and their nation. To spotlight this point, Elthaway gave an example of a young man named Ali in Bahrain who was beaten to death by police after he was discovered videotaping them sharing the benefits of a drug bust. A picture of Ali’s mutilated corpse surfaced in the media and began to cycle through various media channels, like blogs and facebook, enraging many who opposed the lack of government reprimand for the police involved in Ali’s death. When the anger of the citizens reached a maximum level, protests began in the streets of Bahrain for the violation of Ali’s rights. In response to the demonstrations, the government gave the officers involved a harsher punishment for their crime; however, the officers are still employed by the country as police. Elthaway attributes the more severe chastisement of the officers to the fact that blogs and social networks were used to spread the information of Ali’s untimely death.
Many news outlets today are wrought with stories and videos of police brutality in the Middle East. Citizens of these countries post videos or information about injustices on social networks like facebook, or twitter to expose the world to the dangerous plights people living in these countries face, while most in America use the social networks for an alternative purpose. If this trend of citizen journalists continues in the Middle East, perhaps the governments located there will reform their human rights laws and the people will be able to live in peace and protection.
Elthaway recounted many times when a Middle Easterner would contact her through social networks to expose a social injustice that occurred. “I would do everything I could to help those that reached out to me,” Elthaway said. She admits to using those who contact her through social networks as sources and leads for her stories. “Without some of these people who write on my facebook wall, or tweet me, I wouldn’t have such in depth and personal stories,” Elthaway says.
Elthaway teaches a course at the university titled “Women and Media in New East.” She will continue teaching this course at the university through September and remain a supporter of human rights. Elthaway plans to continue her blogging and social networking to improve her work as a journalist.