Using twitter to break news from Palestine in the UK

In Palestine, everyone is on Facebook and young people use it all the time to share news about Palestine and talk about political issues, as well as the usual personal updates.

But twitter is hardly used here despite the fact that it is a far more effective way (when used correctly) to tell a mass audience when something happens in Palestine that they want the UK to know about.

Did you know...?

-          230 million people are actively using twitter

-          40 million people signed up to twitter in 2013 alone

Not only are there are lot of people to reach on twitter, credible journalists in the UK use twitter to find stories. The Guardian has publicly stated that on average, one in 10 of the stories they report originate from twitter.

We discussed twitter, how it works, and how we could use it to tell journalists in the UK when something worth reporting has just happened in Palestine.

Working through a real life scenario

To understand how to use twitter to break news, we worked through a real life scenario of an incident that had happened a few weeks ago in Palestine. A 14 year old boy was killed just south of Hebron a few weeks ago when he was climbing the partition wall reportedly to collect herbs for his mother to cook with.

This story appeared nowhere in the UK but eventually ended up in an article by Press TV where they highlighted how terrible it is that this never made it into the UKmedia.

Of course there are issues of biased reporting, but we talked about how it is often the case that a story is not reported because the information, evidence and sourcing is simply not good enough for the journalist to feel confident about publishing the story. If that evidence does eventually come to light, time has passed and the news has moved on so the story gets lost.

Step 1:

BEFORE you tweet, get the vital information you need to make sure your contact with a journalist has the best chance of becoming a news story:

-          Location

-          Time

   -          What was he doing when he was shot? Was he armed (even with rocks)?

-          Confirm his age

-          Who told you and how do you know it is true?

  -     Was he with anyone and are there any eye witnesses who can talk about the incident            first hand?
   -          Do you have contact details for someone who knows him personally or was there at

      the time who can speak about him or what happened?

Other information it is good to have if possible:

-          Has anyone reported the story outside of the UK (e.g. local news site)?
-          What is his name? (not essential)
-     Are there any photos available? (if not it is ok, but good to know if there are any)

Step 2:

  Find the best person/people to tweet at:

-          Which journalists in major news outlets have written sympathetically about Palestine

        before?

-          Are there any advocacy groups that are really good at getting attention and can help

      promote your message?

Step 3:

Compose your tweet and do it quickly – the ‘newer’ the news the better:

-          If the ‘story’ happened more than 24 hours ago, and it isn’t in the news yet, the    

      chances are you are too late.

-          Get the attention grabbing information with key facts in the tweet and don’t worry           about the details

-          Use hashtags that help you appear when people are searching for information about

      Israel/Palestine

-          Use ‘@’ to directly get the attention of one or two key people

The tweet they composed

”14 yr old unarmed boy killed 2 hours ago in #Hebron#Palestine by #israel soldiers @BBCWorld @ [PressTVjournalistname] PM for details”

This tweet has all the key facts to get the attention of the journalist and by saying ‘PM me for details’ you are letting them know that you can back up your story with more information for them to report. The tweet uses @BBCWorld because the Middle East correspondent Kevin Connolly is not on twitter (ideally we would get his work email address and email him directly too!). By adding a Press TV journalist, we are more likely to get some coverage because they are very pro Palestine will go out of their way to build the story. From this, it may go on to get reported in the UK more widely.

 

Snow

 Hello London! This week, storm Alexa has hit the Middle East, bringing lots of rain... and snow! No public transport, floods, power cuts, and no school this week. All classes and exams at the university have been postponed!

Here are some pictures of Palestine in the snow.

An article in The Guardian talking about storm Alexa: http://www.theguardian.com/weather/2013/dec/13/middle-east-snow-storm-alexa

University Updates From London!

We have been very saddened to hear about the events at Al-Quds university, our hearts go out to all those affected by the horrible situation, and those that are still affected by the constant nature of such things. 

We have been doing our stalls in SOAS University and Kings University and trying to raise awareness of the situation and get people to sign the petition: http://www.petitions24.com/stop_shooting_students!

We have about 150 signatures on paper to add on to the 400 or so on the online petition above. We urge people to continue signing! We are going to give the petition to Frank Dobson, a local Labour Party MP tomorrow at CADFA's 10th anniversary of Camden Abu Dis links! 

We are still working on a regular set up in a University society to answer some of the questions you have posed on the blogs, I am very sorry that we haven't been able to get back to you in this regard. Everyone at Universities are very difficult to get a hold off for regular meetings and building twinning links, but I am having a meeting with some people from Goldsmiths tomorrow and hope to make our link stronger.

Finally we are working on our next student visit in late January to February - The Winter Olympics! We are reaching out to Universities to get involved and are currently working on plans with Bradford, Manchester, Goldsmiths, Brunel and Kings. More to come! And we will start working on specific details and dates very soon. 

We hope everyone is well in Palestine and send our love :) 

Harres

Clashes at the university today!!

Clashes today in Abu Dis. Students from the Abu Dis Boys School were sent home early as Israeli soldiers were throwing tear gas inside the school. The army surrounded the school and later the university (which has been closed for the day as well) and the sound of tear gas and sound bombs, as well as live ammunition could be heard all around Abu Dis. 40 people were injured.

Here are some pictures, which show the tear gas inside and around the university and the damage to its building. Unfortunately, this didn't just happen today, but happens repeatedly in Abu Dis.

http://www.imcpal.ps/news/?p=35741

An article in English about what happened today:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=648111

*** PETITION: Call for the right to study WITHOUT violence!! Tell the UK government to take action!! http://www.petitions24.com/stop_shooting_students  

Pictures of Al Quds university

Some pictures from Al Quds university, in Abu Dis.

The Abu Jihad prisoners' museum at the university, with incredible works made by the detainees while in prison.

A poster for the memorial of Arafat's death, which took place last Tuesday (12/11) with music and speakers at the university.

A picture of the separation wall, which can be seen from the university campus. Recently, a house under construction on the university street was demolished by the Israeli army because it was 'too close to the wall'. The army also dug the road by the wall, so that the street is lower and the wall higher. The university often has to be closed because of the army's incursions in the town and soldiers throwing tear gas inside the campus.

FIRST STUDENT MEETING AT AL-QUDS UNIVERSITY

Today the first group met at Al-Quds University to learn about the twinning project and practice their English. The students study various subjects including archaeology, electrical engineering, and English literature. It was a great opportunity to speak English in an informal environment as well as share cultural differences and ask questions about life in the UK.

The students have many things they want to mention regarding life in Palestine. Firstly the occupation is making the country suffer on a daily basis and they want liberty and freedom. Despite this suffering the people live normal lives and they are proud of the way family and friends take care of each other and have good friendships. There is also a vibrant social life. The education system is also very good and it’s a good place to study. One student wanted to say that there are many interesting archaeological sites here in Palestine, particularly Sabastia near Nablus.

When the students were asked if things are getting better or worse, the students generally agreed that the situation is getting worse. They said the peace process is not working and Israel is being more aggressive to towns and villages and taking more land. At the same time the media is not reliable, so don’t believe what the media tells you! Instead they said it’s better to add Palestinian friends on Facebook so that you hear the real news for yourselves.

General questions that the students have for groups in London include:
·       What is the difference between being ‘English’ and being ‘British’?
·       What is the economic situation for people in Britain? Is there a divide between the rich and the poor?
·       What is the relationship between NATO and Britain?
·       How do you feel about Britain being responsible for creating the state of Israel?

Getting student links moving again!

Today I met with Suzan, Tarik and Safia, we spent the morning talking about student links: What they are and how to improve our efficiency at student links. The talk was brilliant, everyone had great ideas and was very involved, Safia wanted to put forward specialist twinning within departments so that law students (for example) would be twinned with law students in the partner university. This is in order for the exchange of ideas and communication to be more relevant. A great idea!

We later set up our stall outside and started many conversations with passer-bys. One person who worked for RSPB (a bird charity) was shocked by the situation and compared it to apartheid South Africa. Many more wandering strangers were curious to know more and one bought a CADFA dvd. We came across a wonderful mixture of people, some who had been to Palestine and were eager to donate money and others who didn't even know where it was on a map but were then equally eager to learn more and buy some products. (The olive oil was a favourite!)

Myself and Tarik went to get a lebanese wrap from a nearby cafe/supermarket called Phoenicia, we both got a lamb kofta, it was lovely but there was so much salad packed into the wrap that it was spilling over. Perhaps they need to invest in bigger wraps...

We then talked with Nandita as a group about the practicality of how to get things in motion and we are all optimistic about what we can do and how we will do it in the coming week. It was mostly lovely to just meet and talk with a great bunch of people who I really look forward to spending time with over the next few months! Hopefully the wheels have been set in motion and there will be more to come soon!

Watch this space!

Harres