196 alestineAugust 2014 In this issue I remember the first time I held a copy of This Week in Palestine more than 15 years ago. I felt a mysterious connection to this magazine as a teenager, but I never Social Media could have imagined that one day I’d join in to be the magazine’s content editor. in Palestine Greetings to all TWiP readers. My name is Ahmad Damen. In addition to being a passionate writer, I’m a soundtrack composer, oud 4 Would Social Media Bring Freedom to player, and musician. I’ve also been trained and worked in the film industry for six Palestine? years and directed two feature documentaries that enjoyed international success: 8 Tell Your Story Today! The Red Stone and Forbidden Pilgrimage. 14 Social Media, Cyberspace, and I’m happy to introduce this as my first issue as editor of This Week in Palestine. Palestinian Digital Identity Being a writer and media professional, I am constantly following developments 20 Why I Will Never Join Facebook in media. The emergence of “social media” changed everything. Nowadays, the have become ”ال�صباحية“ Whoever Said Social Media Is Low- morning ritual of the Palestinian housewives’ gatherings 24 Cost? back-and-forth discussions on a “wall”, birthday wishes constantly beep on 28 Social Media smartphones, and the (#) symbol has evolved to be much more than just a button on your mobile phone. 32 A Tool for Socialising or Advertising? This issue of TWiP includes a variety of academics, businessmen, activists, and users 36 A Social Media Battleground offering their views and opinions on social media in general, and in Palestine specifically. 40 Gaza is Trending Cover photo: A child from Gaza - While there are many Palestinians who are very enthusiastic about social media, 42 Facebook Branding: an Emerging Yet July 2014. Photo by Shareef Sarhan. there are some reasons to proceed with caution. A single “Tweet,” for example, may Critical Trend in Palestine become a decisive factor in job hiring or firing, or sparking a “revolution” or a “riot”. 46 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly We have seen some consequences in recent days in which Western journalists 52 Taghyeer for Social Media have been dismissed or reassigned to another country for Tweeting the true horror 54 In the Limelight they have witnessed in Gaza. 60 Reviews The theme for this issue was determined months in advance, long before the Telefax: +970/2 2-295 1262 current massacres in Gaza. It’s important to mention this so that our readers 64 Events e-mail: [email protected] understand that TWiP absolutely did NOT choose social media as a way to join the 66-84 Listings www.thisweekinpalestine.com spectators whose only expressions of resistance and empathy are clicking “Like” www.facebook.com/ 85-97 Maps and “Retweet”. The tragedy is beyond what we can imagine—and it overshadows ThisWeekInPalestine 98 The Last Word every page of this issue. We will continue publishing and spreading the word about Palestine no matter how Publisher: Sani P. Meo many times the Israeli soldiers raid on our small office. We will continue to be a Art Director: Taisir Masrieh magazine by Palestinians and for Palestine. Forthcoming Issues Graphic Designers: Shehadeh Louis May all the innocent victims rest in peace! September 2014 An Eye on Science Hassan Nasser Ahmad Damen October 2014 Habitat in Palestine Content Editor November 2014 Reviewing Printed by: Studio Alpha, Al-Ram, Jerusalem Education in Palestine Binding by: Al-Ebda’, Al-Ram, Jerusalem The views presented in the articles do not necessarily Maps: Courtesy of PalMap - GSE reflect the views of the publisher. Advisory Board Maps herein have been prepared solely for the Distribution in the West Bank: convenience of the reader; the designations and CityExpress Elias Anastas Raed Saadeh presentation of material do not imply any expression Architect, Bethlehem Activist and tourism expert, Jerusalem of opinion of This Week in Palestine, its publisher, editor, or its advisory board as to the legal status of Omar Barghouti Rawan Sharaf any country, territory, city, or area, or the authorities Human rights activist, Ramallah Director of Al Hoash, Jerusalem thereof, or as to the delimitation of boundaries or Yasmeen El Khoudary national affiliation. Diwan Ghazza, Gaza 2 3 Would Social Over the past decade, social media have experienced exponential global growth. Facebook has 1.28 billion users, each with an average of 338 Facebook friends.7-8 There are 255 million active Twitter users, Media Bring 9 who send 500 million tweets per day. More than a billion Internet users visit YouTube each month, where they watch six billion hours of Freedom to video monthly, and upload 100 hours of video every single minute.10 Palestinians have the opportunity to leverage social media in order to engage people in online interaction that will lead to empathy and Palestine? support for ending the Occupation. Saleem Alhabash, Ph.D. and does not remove physical and for self-determination and an end to the Assistant Professor of Public Relations and Social mental borders among nations. Social Israeli occupation? It will not be easy. To Media media are still very segregated. We master this art, we need to understand Michigan State University interact with people who are like us, how people use social media and the despite the possibility of having diverse resulting effects. But first, we need to online networks. It becomes difficult, understand human nature. then, to infiltrate people’s networks with content that is incongruent with am a social scientist who is enthusiastic about the social media Return to Basics their values and norms. Even when it phenomenon and how it affects our lives. I use lab and field happens, the chances of them engaging As humans, we respond to everything experiments to test what motivates people to share, like, and comment with such content are slim. Taking into in our environment in one of two basic on social media posts and how engagement with social media can consideration negative stereotypes ways: we either approach stimuli or lead to offline behaviours. Applying my research to my homeland, I of Palestinians, pro-Palestinian social we avoid stimuli. Our central nervous argue that interaction on social media related to the Palestine question media content is deemed incongruent, system is guided by the appetitive could potentially lead to changes in attitudes and behaviours toward thus leading us to a case of “preaching motivational system, which drives us Palestine and the Palestinians. to the choir,” instead of changing how to seek out pleasurable stimuli such others perceive us as a nation and as as food and sex, and the aversive Social Media: A Global Village? a cause. motivational system that drives us to In the mid-1960s, Canadian scholar Marshall McLuhan1 talked about How do we move from “preaching avoid negative stimuli, such as danger technology as a force unifying the world into a global village, where to the choir” to communication so that we run away from a roaring people communicate freely and things that happen in one part of the with a wider audience that leads to lion. Understanding this trait of human world are seen or heard in another. However, the fact that people are more understanding, empathy, and nature is essential to realizing why on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram does not make them connected behaviours in concert with our plight people click on a link, hit the “like” 4 5 button, share a post, or comment on study, American college students that not only grabs people’s attention, to everyone, where everyone can fulfil something someone else has said on played the roles of the Palestinian but also engages them. To engage his/her responsibility to champion our social media. When communicating President or the Israeli Prime Minister in people and motivate them to take rights and induce change, even if it’s with others, the key is making it PeaceMaker, a video-game simulation action, we need to tell a story, to put just one person at a time. This is the relevant enough to activate their of the conflict. Results from two a human face on our just cause, to time when one person could make a approach motivation, which guides studies showed that playing the role generate empathy (bloody and gory difference. The world awaits our call both online and offline behaviours. of the Palestinian President for only pictures don’t generate empathy; they to action! A study in 20122 found that positive 20 minutes led to positive changes create anger and push people away). articles in the New York Times were in attitudes and stereotypes toward Above all we must remain authentic. Saleem Alhabash is an assistant shared more often than negative ones. Palestinians. We need to provide a call to action professor of public relations and social media at Michigan State University’s My own research showed that college A sceptic might very well say that beyond sheer awareness-raising. It’s students were more willing to like, not about telling people what to do; it’s Department of Advertising + Public these interactions are meaningless, Relations and Department of Media and comment, and share anti-cyberbullying considering the complexity of the about offering mechanisms for them posts if they had a positive rather than to act upon their online engagement. Information. He completed his B.A. in conflict. That might be true in some Journalism and Political Science from a negative tone.3 This is precisely why cases, yet additional studies I’ve To answer the question I posed in the Birzeit University, and his M.A.