Syria and Social Justice with Digital Media

• Nonlinear parts: Home page of the Website with inside pages. I plan to use the website builder Wix to illustrate my digital story. The inside pages are: Background of Syria and the Digital Divide, My Story with Syria: The Lived Experiences and and Personal Feelings Participating in a Complex Technological Society, Arab Spring, How the People can Overcome Digital Divide, Importance of Digital Media to Help the People, The Knowledge to Use Digital Media in Syria, How Authorities Make it Impossible, My Call Against the Injustice, Personal Philosophy of Social Justice and Digital Media, Overall Understanding of the Research, and a Works Cited. •Video: Using a media tool such as Bubble Ply (www.bubbleply.com) to annotate videos of ongoing protests of the Arab Spring and injustices in Syria. Seeing the ongoing conflicts in Syria and the people trying to use digital media to enhance this revolution will show the power and dedication of the people that text and audio can’t do alone. Also, I plan to use a presentation through a slideshow of pictures such as pictures of the family in Syria with audio. This will show the joy as well as seriousness of my family as we try to stay hopeful in this time of chaos. •Audio: Presenting authority speeches by uploading them to Vuvox. Also, my voice using www.podcastpeople.com . As well, I will have select family members incorporate some words in a podcast they can send to me. Hearing voices from Syria will allow the intensity and personable aspect of the story to be incorporated. •Still photos: Photos uploaded to something such as Vuvox of my family in Syria, myself visiting in Syria, and people protesting.•Graphics: Using a map of Syria with annotations using maps.google.com. Also, I will have a timeline with my account in Syria with www.ourstory.com and statistics of internet usage in Syria. •Text: Annotations to certain multimedia but not all, such as the map of Syria and descriptions of family in photos. The majority of the text will be of my account of Syria, my family’s account of Syria, and my research such as the Arab Spring and background of Syria. •Online Forums and Chats: I will try and get a hold of a conversation from an online forum or chat that I can place in my story to show the reality of what is going on.

• Text• Dialogue• Narrator• Personal experience• Analysis• Sound Effects• Music

Home Page

Background photos of me in Syria and a picture of Syria.

Here I would have the Headline: Syria and Social Justice with Digital Media

I would have the links of: Background of Syria and the Digital Divide, My Story with Syria: The Lived Experiences and and Personal Feelings Participating in a Complex Technological Society, Arab Spring, How the People can Overcome Digital Divide, Importance of Digital Media to Help the People, The Knowledge to Use Digital Media in Syria, How Authorities Make it Impossible, My Call Against the Injustice, Personal Philosophy of Social Justice and Digital Media, Overall Understanding of the Research, and a Works Cited.

I will also explain the importance of this digital story. Briefly, this story accurately depicts my personal connection to Syria and the digital divide I have noticed. It was going on before and has only gotten worse with the current protesting in the region. My family in Syria still communicates with my family in the U.S., thus I will incorporate my first-hand accounts as well as the descriptions given to me by my family in Syria. My personal philosophy is that digital media helps enhance social justice in Syria, something I have witnessed, and that the injustices should be stopped with the universal efforts using digital media tools. The main people discussed within the story are myself, my cousins and aunt in Syria, and civilians protesting in Syria. There has always been a digital divide in Syria, however it has gotten worse with the Arab Spring. People are still able to break through to spread their powerful messages, however the authorities are doing their absolute best to ensure the civilians can’t break through. Civilians are even hurt or killed for their accounts on the Internet. It is up to the people of the world to stop this divide in order for the people to keep hope and ensure safety. I want the reader to see my digital story and feel my strong connection even if it does not apply to them. This is my overall goal, done through different multimedia applications.

I will have text discussing Syria and its history of having a digital divide. I will use my research to show the intensity of the Internet surveillance and how the Western ideals were not always allowed into the country. I will incorporate a map from map.google.com that will allow me to have annotations of places that relate to my story, mainly the capital Damascus, where the majority of my family is from. I also have family in the city of Homs. I also plan to have a graphic of the Internet usage in Syria.

Background of Syria and Digital Divide

I will share my account through text and still photos of me and my family in Syria, with photo captions. I may choose to say something through a podcast, as well as include something from my cousins that they can send to me through the Internet. Last of all, I plan to use a timeline to show the advancement of Syria and its technological usage.

Here I will include my research on the current Arab Spring and how the people have revived it with digital media. Therefore through videos of going protests and injustices, one can see how digital media helps establish the idea of social justice and the necessity of it for all. Also, I will include still photos of people protesting in Syria. I wish to utilize audio with authority speeches as well as the voices of people who have been able to post podcasts.

I wish to include a slideshow of still photos of people working against the digital divide before and after the Arab Spring. I wish to use audio that would fit appropriately with these photos, such as a song emphasizing empowerment such as “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield.

I will also include some text from my research, such as how people have overcome this divide by still uploading information through videos and posts. The power of the people is imminent and can overcome injustices! I believe this is possible with my personal experiences in Syria and what my family members tell me.

I will show how digital media has helped to unify the people and spread their message universally through videos of the protesting. A video will show the intensity of the people coming together with live footage. I will also include video captions to describe what is taking place.

I hope to include a sample of a current online chat room or forum discussing the injustices.

In text I will describe the lack of awareness for a lot of people of older generations of using the digital media to help gain the social justice they deserve. I will include a podcast of my voice saying how strongly I urge the people of the world to help those in Syria.

I will also include still photos of the civilians trying to work with the digital media in Syria. The government has many limitations over the people and this is wrong.

I will include text from news articles stating how the authorities block the usage of digital media and try and use it to provide propaganda. They try and steer the people away from protesting, saying it is not the government who is harming the people.

I will also use podcasts of the authorities stating their beliefs on what they think is actually happening.

Through text, I will proudly state my disbelief of the government and how I do not tolerate what is taking place for the people in Syria. No one of any area of the globe should be denied to the digital realm and should be treated according to what social justice means, which is equality and freedom for all.

I will also use a video of the injustice to show the passion and greatness of this moment in history for the Syrian people.

I will incorporate audio deemed appropriate for this personal and meaningful claim I wish to address.

My personal philosophy is that digital media helps enhance social justice in Syria, something I have witnessed, and that the injustices should be stopped with universal efforts using digital media tools.

I will demonstrate this through large text and a presentation of still photos showing the connection between social justice and digital media with my digital story of Syria. I will greatly enforce how it is our time to step up, that we are all capable of making great changes in the world. We need to raise our voices. What we do not realize is that we do not need to raise it that loudly; we can make a podcast in seconds on the Internet to upload on a personal blog or Facebook page about how we feel. One post, one tweet can be reached by billions and this is the beauty of digital media and the capabilities we have to change the world in society today.

I may wish to include audio of a strong message with lyrics showing the importance of empowerment of the people.

Through a graphic of a statistic in Syria and still photos with captions, I will show what I have obtained in my research of Syria. It is more than just my personal account, but what other Syrians are experiencing with the digital divide and the brutal injustices that have come about due to usage of digital media. I will use text to show data and what I have learned through my sources. My story is powerful and meant to show the reality of what is presented in my sources.

Here I will have all of my sources listed that was used to help illustrate my digital story. I will have the sources I deem are best to enhance my understanding and exemplify my great interest in my homeland through this digital story. So far, my sources have been:

Goodman, J. David. "Syrians Abroad Report Harassment and Intimidation." The New York Times 3 Oct. 2011. The Lede. 3 Oct. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.

Iltan, Cigdem. “Moving Targets.” Maclean’s 5 Sept. 2011: 63. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.

"Red Lines that Cannot be Crossed." Economist 388.8590 26 July. 2008: 59. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.

Steavenson, Wendell. “Roads to Freedom.” New Yorker 29 Aug. 2011: 26-32. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.

Vallance, Karla. “The Power of Social Media.” Christian Science Monitor 5 July 2011: n. pag. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.

Worth, Robert F. "Web Tastes Freedom Inside Syria, and It's Bitter." The New York Times 30 Sept. 2010: A6. The New York Times. 29 Sept. 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.