Global Citizenship Through Social Media 1

Writing to Inform: Community or Individual Profile

Global Citizenship Through Social Media

Yasmeen Luqman
Dr. Dev Bose

Global Citizenship Through Social Media 2

The rise of the technological era has initiated innovations from around the world. The crown of
this revolution is social media, which has become the platform that could potentially go down in
history. In 2013, there was an earthquake in Sichuan, China, and the first to break the news was
Twitter. There were live videos, pictures, and a constant stream of updates from the people in
Sichuan to the world through Twitter. The southern California wildfires in 2007 destroyed more
than 1000 homes in Santa Barbara County and San Diego County, and the 20 forest fires were
reported via Twitter. Residents were roaming the streets, offering help and posting updates for
friends, family, and other followers. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Periscope, YouTube, and
Instagram are among the many applications that have started an age of citizen journalism in
which anyone with a smart device can take part. Has social media influenced global citizenship?
Dr. Maha Nassar is a professor of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, who pursued her
masters in Middle Eastern Studies and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the
University of Chicago. I am particularly interested in discussing popular topics that have been
trending in the Middle East and the influence of social media on them.

It is shameful that one cannot fully rely on local newspapers to grasp the many opinions on local
issues. According to an article by Marc Gunther, due to the competition between news channels,
journalists, and news anchors are paid more when they dramatize a story to make the product
more entertaining. On August 9th, 2014, Ferguson, Missouri, caught media attention through
protests and unrest that broadcasted worldwide. The outrage within the community, which then
spread globally, was a call for justice for Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was
shot by a police officer. 7000 miles away, Palestinians were one of the first to express solidarity
with the people of Ferguson through social media platforms. They resorted to social media to

Global Citizenship Through Social Media 3

give advice to protesters, for riot control methods used by the police such as gas inhalation and
tear gas. A tweet from the user Mariam Barghouti, who lives in the West Bank says: Always
make sure to run against the wind/to keep calm when youre teargassed, the pain will pass, dont
rub your eyes! #FergusonSolidarity. Other issues that were also battled through social media is
the Syrian Refugee Crisis and the teenager Ahmed Mohamed, who was arrested for making a
clock.

On October 12th, 2015, an unarmed Palestinian teenage boy was shot ten times for putting his
hands in his pockets to keep warm by an Israeli police officer who thought he was armed. The
article drew me to relate the incident to the Michael Brown case. Dr. Maha Nassar was already
up to date with the news about the unarmed Palestinian boy, and we continued to discuss the 24
students who were shot and hospitalized for protesting the incident later that day, as well as the
200 arrests of Palestinian supporters that were rounded up by Israeli soldiers. This brought me to
ask how these cases were relatable. She proceeded to explain how there are similarities, both
regarding the particular circumstances laid out and also concerning the broader issue of the use
of force, often lethal force, against unarmed demonstrators. Dr. Maha Nassar confirms, In fact,
the Michael Brown case is particularly relevant because when the protests in Ferguson happened,
the first group of supporters with hashtags and other social media devices were the Palestinians.
She then discussed the growing awareness of the parallels that African Americans and
Palestinians face concerning the police, both regarding the militarization of the police.

We submerged into the conversation of the militarization of the American police as opposed to
civilian style policing; her education and awareness of the subject intrigued me. What I found

Global Citizenship Through Social Media 4

particularly interesting was the outcome of the social media support; Nassar revealed that over
the summer, around 1000 African American intellectuals from America went to Palestine. The
trip was a tour to see how the same structure of racism and oppression that they deal with in
America, how they are manifested in Palestine, and at the end of their trip, they wrote a report
about it. She passionately said, They changed the conversation, the fact that we can talk about
#BlackLivesMatter, the fact that we can talk about the parallels between Palestinians and African
Americans, these have been around for decades, but nobody really talked about them until
recently. The movement initiated the call for supporters of communities worldwide to take
action, such as the BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) movement.

On September 16th, 2015, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was arrested at his Dallas high school
for bringing a homemade alarm clock to show his engineering teacher. Facebook as well as other
social media platforms flooded with pictures of Ahmed in handcuffs as he was escorted out of
school, stirring up the question of Islamophobia and a wave of #IStandWithAhmed throughout
the internet. Will this encourage young American Muslims to innovate and invent, or would they
rather avoid being in the situation and trauma? A lot of American Muslims saw this case as being
an example of an apparent anti-Muslim bias and really focused on Ahmed being a victim of overzealous and racist school officials. Dr. Maha Nassar said: I would actually focus more on the
aftermath where the whole country said, 'This is ridiculous!' President Obama even tweeted
'Hey! Cool clock! Come to the White House and show it.' What this case actually shows is that
we are turning a corner in America where Muslims are no longer vilified and allowed to get
away with it without push back, in particular from social media. She then discussed how it also
addresses school police systems and their zero-tolerance policies at schools in general regardless

Global Citizenship Through Social Media 5

of the students' ethnicity. MIT, Reddit, Twitter and Facebook have offered scholarships to Ahmed
Mohamed; Hilary Clinton praised the teen's invention, and even the NASA American systems
engineer, Bobak Ferdowsi, wrote, Hey Ahmed, give me a call in a couple years. We could
always use smart, curious and creative people.

The third social issue I wished to discuss was the effect social media has had on the Syrian
Refugee Crisis. To some people, switching to a news channel is the last option when watching
television, especially among the millennial generation. Social media, however, is the perfect way
to grab someones attention simply by scrolling down on Facebook or Twitter. I decided to refer
this subject to an article I recently read about a Syrian refugee, a father of two daughters in
Lebanon who was photographed selling pens while cradling his sleeping daughter. An article by
CNN states, The social media campaign immediately made good on its promise to help Abdul,
who fled from his home in Yarmouk, one of the most beleaguered places in Syria. Through
social media, the crowd funding page, which was set up by CNN reporter Gissur Simonarson,
was able to reach its goal within 30 minutes. The article reported that in nearly 24 hours, the fund
was able to raise $80,000.

Dr. Maha Nassar expressed how moving it was that he was able to grab the attention of
approximately 6000 followers on social media, in particular, the CNN reporter Gissur
Simonarson who traveled to Lebanon to find this man. I believe the article stated that Abdul is
one of the 4 million registered refugees struggling to survive in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon.
Dr. Maha Nassar is a follower of Gissur Simonarson on Twitter and followed this story eagerly.
In the history of refugee dilemmas, theres always been a kind of double-standard where we feel

Global Citizenship Through Social Media 6

sympathy for the refugees but we dont want them coming to us, due to economic reasons, but
social media has challenged that. I couldnt help but ask about why refugees are considered a
burden and whether social media has helped mitigate that opinion. Her response combined an
intellectual and political view intertwined with modern-day social media. The world stood by
and watched the Syrian civil war unfold and was unable to come together to find a way to stop
it." She then explained how the Syrian war is now increasingly becoming a proxy war between
the US and Russia, as well as the responsibility they share in helping alleviate the suffering of
the refugees themselves and not see them as a burden or a threat. She then refers to the
discussion of social media, "However, social media has given every individual the ability to
impose ideas on political figures that are responsible; that pressure is what puts freedom of
speech into action. "
After losing track of time, I decided to conclude the interview and thank Dr. Maha Nassar
for her time. Social media has battled through dilemmas such as racism, lack of awareness and
misinformation. However, the cons of social media go down a darker path. There are
conversations of the increase of online bullying, online predators and false information circling
the Internet. What I learnt from Dr Maha Nassar was that there is a constant battle on social
media regarding social issues, based on the information each person is getting and their
upbringing. However, this fight does not necessarily mean that there is a good side and bad side,
we must argue to intrigue each others mind- its healthy! The Ego is the dangerous part because
one must be willing to accept opinions and find a common ground for solutions. This is what
social media created, distance is no longer an excuse to stay quiet. Global citizenship has started
a generation of people who feel the need to defend a child, educate a boy and praise a woman for
accomplishments whether they are in the next town or thousands of miles away.

Global Citizenship Through Social Media 7

References

Abdulaziz, S. (2015, August 31). Social media saves a Syrian refugee - CNN.com. Retrieved
October 31, 2015.

Alfred, C. (n.d.). Protesters Say Ferguson Feels Like Gaza, Palestinians Tweet ... Retrieved
October 31, 2015.

Barhoum, N. (n.d.). Rhetoric of racism, from Ferguson to Palestine | Berkeley ... Retrieved
October 31, 2015.

Breaking News: Social Media Takes Over. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2015, from
http://sites.duke.edu/socialmediacoverage/events/

Fernandez, M., & Hauser, C. (2015, September 16). Handcuffed for Making Clock, Ahmed
Mohamed, 14, Wins Time With Obama. Retrieved October 31, 2015.

Garzia, A. (2015, September 17). Teen clockmaker Ahmed Mohamed gets offers from all
corners. Retrieved October 31, 2015.

Moore, M. (n.d.). China earthquake brings out citizen journalists. Retrieved October 31, 2015.

Global Citizenship Through Social Media 8

Tamari, S. (n.d.). From Ferguson to Palestine, We See Us. Retrieved October 31, 2015.

The Transformation of Network News. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2015, from
http://niemanreports.org/articles/the-transformation-of-network-news/