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			<title>Twitter is the new newsroom: The changing face of journalism</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408709/twitter-is-the-new-newsroom-the-changing-face-of-journalism</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408709/twitter-is-the-new-newsroom-the-changing-face-of-journalism#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 15 Jul 12 21:44:17 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[sana.jafrani]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Speakers point out that media must work together.]]>
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				<![CDATA[At Saturday’s session on Twitter in the newsroom, a consensus seemed to emerge that social media cannot replace mainstream media, rather, they have to work in tandem to be effective.

The session was moderated by popular tweeter who goes by the handle @mightyobvious, Hassan Belal. The panel included Indian journalist Karuna John, journalist Mehmal Sarfraz, author and journalist Mohammed Hanif, security analyst and citizen journalist Norbert Almeida and Bilal Lakhani, publisher of The Express Tribune.

“Twitter is just a tool. The ethos of being a journalist cannot change on Twitter,” said John, adding that “not everybody is online.”

Author Mohammed Hanif was adamant in his opinion that nothing can replace journalists and real news. “If you want news, pick up a newspaper. If you want history, pick up a history book,” he said.  “Twitter is scary, I woke up two days ago and #Jinnah was trending. I was like, is he back?!”

So, can social media replace mainstream media?

“No, it can’t,” said Almeida, “I wouldn’t want it to, there’s an issue of credibility.” He said that Twitter supplements what you see on television or read in the news adding that he uses Twitter as a tool. The example he used was his tweets on violence around the city allowing people to find an alternative route home, or alerting his followers on other events. He said social media is about helping people and touching their lives.

“I had a need for information that was not there,” he said, adding that on Twitter, he is able to connect with people and get information “from Khyber down to Karachi.”

It was noted in the session that those who are active on social media like to think everyone who matters is on Twitter, but that is simply not the case. Karuna John said that there is a level of responsibility journalists have to uphold on Twitter. “Keep your trap a little moderated for yourself,” she said.

Mehmal Sarfraz said that social media has helped shed some light on issues that cannot be discussed openly in the mainstream media. She gave examples of minority or sectarian issues and Balochistan.

Belal concluded the session by pointing out that there is a definite disconnect between content in both mediums, with John adding that it would be helpful if the two were able to feed off each other instead.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Social Media Mela: Miscreants with a mouse</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408458/social-media-mela-miscreants-with-a-mouse</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408458/social-media-mela-miscreants-with-a-mouse#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 21:36:37 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[usman.liaquat]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Just had a bitter break-up? Scramble to protect your accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Gmail.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Just had a bitter break-up? Scramble to protect your accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Gmail. According to Sabbah Haji, an avid writer and director of Haji Public School, there are many whose private information on social networking sites has been misused by spiteful exes.


This was just one of the many horror stories discussed at a session on the second day of the Social Media Mela at which Haji and fellow panellists attempted to shed light on the dark side of the internet.

The virtual realm of Pakistan was projected as the digital equivalent of the Hobbesian state of nature where lawlessness reigns supreme and some teenagers are free to blackmail others or send rape threats to them. One of the panellists, Sana Saleem, who has given speeches to students of various educational institutions on cyber etiquette, said that most children feel it is ‘very cool’ to make fake Facebook profiles of their classmates and upload photos. “There are even children in the third grade who do this and they are simply unaware that this constitutes harassment,” she said.

Even schoolteachers are not spared. Panellist Nabiha Meher Shaikh, who introduced herself as a critical thinking teacher and part-time feminist, recounted how a bunch of students used social media to slander her. “They made a page on Orkut where they promoted me as a sex worker and put up my phone number and home address on it. I had to quit my job at the school, since the administration just wasn’t willing to take action,” she said, adding that she knows at least one other teacher at the school who had a similar experience.

Shaikh did acknowledge that it was difficult to curtail and control cyber-bullies, since teenagers often feel that asking them for their passwords is unfair and inevitably bring up the argument of free speech. But this hasn’t stopped schools from stepping up. The Karachi Grammar School reportedly browsed through students’ email accounts and pages on social networking sites. “The administration of the school demanded the passwords of a couple of students, who were eventually suspended for their misdeeds,” said Shaikh.

The session ended with the panellists agreeing that parents must play a proactive role in curbing bullies. They also agreed that they should closely monitor their childrens’ activities online.

It’s a jungle out there

Sabeen Mahmud, the organiser of the conference and director of PeaceNiche, who moderated the discussion, stressed the need for legislation to protect people who find themselves in trouble. She felt that the government’s e-crime bill, the Prevention of Electronic Crime Ordinance, only augments victims’ miseries. Fellow panellist Jehan Ara, whose organisation P@SHA has made an effort to work with the government on the ordinance, said that the civil society, lawyers and businessmen all protested when the bill was being passed since it had many loopholes. “For instance, the language of the bill is all wrong. Terms such as ‘spamming’ and ‘cyber-stalking’ were all defined very differently from how they are defined in any legislation abroad,” she said. After the protest, the mainstream media picked up the issue and the government finally started paying attention. “The prime minister proposed that the issue should be taken to a committee, but three years have elapsed and now the government is trying to push another bill.”

But there is help for people who have been bullied in the virtual world. Ara said that P@SHA was once approached by the family of a person whose account on a social networking site had been hacked. The culprit used Photoshop to defile the pictures that the victim had uploaded. “Our IT experts helped the family out of the situation step-by-step,” she said. Ara added that there should be support communities which victims can approach for support.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>How social media paved the way for discussing Saleem Shahzad</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408459/how-social-media-paved-the-way-for-discussing-saleem-shahzad</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408459/how-social-media-paved-the-way-for-discussing-saleem-shahzad#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 21:19:40 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[sana.jafrani]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=408459</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[“The human rights movement is built on the simple premise that information has power.”]]>
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				<![CDATA[Speaking at a session focused on the effect of social media on human rights, Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) lauded the ability of the social media to quickly disseminate information and record the atrocities world over. But he also highlighted the limitations of the medium.


“With the internet anybody can be a publisher. The press is no longer the sole medium for exposing government abuse,” he said.  “However, the press is still very important. There can be a lot of noise in social media but if the policy makers don’t listen it doesn’t matter.”

However, added Hasan, Twitter and Facebook were great tools for mobilising the public opinion but not so good to have an effect at policy change by governments.  When HRW tweets some information, he said, it is echoed in the social media, this making its way to the mainstream media. “In a sense, it makes our jobs easier.”

Using a sobering example of how far-reaching the social media can be, Hasan discussed the disappearance of the late journalist Saleem Shahzad.  “Because Shahzad had left me with information whereby I could make a credible claim that he had received threats from intelligence agencies, I felt that I could put that information in the public domain,” he said.

He continued to explain that the tweets about Shehzad enabled the Pakistani media to discuss the issue. “Because they could cite Human Rights Watch, it made it easier for them bring it into the public domain,” he said.  “The purpose was for the man to emerge alive and tragically he didn’t.  As a result, the story became even bigger.”

The local channels began running the story with Shahzad’s picture after the attention it got on Twitter. Hasan said that this information is what made it easier to identify his body when it was found and consequently resulted in a post-mortem which eventually revealed that he was tortured to death. Often, Hasan pointed out, bodies are found and never identified.

“It is no longer possible for governments to hide the atrocities that they commit because the information is now available in real time.”  Hasan gave the examples of the Holocaust, Khmer Rouge and crimes committed by Saddam Hussain in Iraq.

“The human rights movement is built on the simple premise that information has power,” Hasan said. “If you can reveal what a government is doing to abuse its people you can change that behaviour.  Every government hates to have its human rights abuses spotlighted.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Social Media Mela: Trolling 101</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408467/social-media-mela-trolling-101</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408467/social-media-mela-trolling-101#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 21:00:24 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[ali.mehdi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=408467</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[“The gali-mohalla culture has made its way to Twitter.”]]>
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				<![CDATA[If you have a strong opinion on the legal status of Ahmadis in Pakistan or are in favour of giving India the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ status or on Imran Khan or Zaid Hamid, there’s a fair chance you have either been a victim of ‘trolling’ online or have tormented others with your ‘trolling’.


On the last day of the Pakistan-India Social Media Mela, writers and bloggers Abdul Majeed, Bina Shah, Rub Nawaz, Raza Rumi and self-professed “publicity whore” Mohsin Sayeed laid bare the characteristics of the generic internet troll, much to the audience’s entertainment.

A troll, according to Shah, is a person who frequently engages in posting inflammatory, and often unnecessary, responses at online forums like Facebook and Twitter. Using foul language and sexual innuendos while trying to prove a point, as irrelevant as it may be, is one of the principal characteristics of an internet troll.

It was perhaps best that all the four panellists seemed to have had ample experience in dealing with such trolls. “People are dying in Kashmir while the liberal elites are gathering at a five-star hotel,” quoted Sayeed, referring to a blog post. “I mean, the two things do not go together.”

People take great comfort in the “power of the anonymous,” said Shah, while explaining the reason why someone might feel comfortable using uncouth language on Twitter, but not in front of an actual person. “[Anonymity] gives them a sense of safety.”

Another characteristic of the often-vile comment threads on Facebook, said Shah, is that individuals temporarily seem to exchange their individual identity with that of a “group identity.”

Rub Nawaz of Khudi PK, an organisation that “aims to be a platform whereby all avenues of education, media, civil action and arts and culture are employed to push back against…the poisonous rhetoric of extremists,” agreed with Shah and said that ‘organised trolls’ was one category where all such individuals would fit in.

All panellists acknowledged that trolls who support the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) as well as religious groups were among the best organised on the internet. Nawaz opined that the feeling of being part of a “revolution” was something that the ardent PTI fans and Islamists had in common.

Rumi, who was moderating the discussion, said on a more serious note that “perceptions matter [a lot] in Pakistan.” He went on to add that he had been labelled an agent of intelligence agencies of Pakistan, India and Israel. The snowballing effect of individual accusations “can get you killed.”

“The gali-mohalla culture has made its way to Twitter,” added Majeed.

Shah considered the issue to be more of a psychological one, however, and said that the level of discussions on internet forums like Twitter was actually a reflection of the society we live in. “The aggressiveness and people’s need to vent anger and frustration on social media reflects the current state of our society.”

Most of the panellists agreed upon the presence of a link between a person’s level of education and their behaviour on the internet. However, Sayeed named Maajid Nawaz as an example, who studied abroad but was also once a member of the Hizbut Tahrir.

When asked about the best way for columnists and bloggers to deal with the troll-ish behaviour, Shah said that she usually only responds to comments if they were really outrageous, but Sayeed works differently.  “I keep on commenting in order to better understand the other side,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Twitter scares me, says Taimur Rahman</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408405/twitter-scares-me-says-taimur-rahman</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408405/twitter-scares-me-says-taimur-rahman#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 20:53:01 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[yousuf..saifuddin]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=408405</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says social­ists like him need to adopt modern tools and the intern­et to promot­e rights of the lower class.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The idea of promoting the rights of the labour class through music at a top tier five-star hotel hosting a social media ‘mela’ might come across as an oxymoron, but Dr Taimur Rahman of Laal the band is quick to refute that notion in the same breath by adding that today’s socialists like him need to adopt modern tools and seemingly bourgeoisie inventions such as the internet to promote rights of the lower class.


Rahman and his band mate Ammar Aziz, who also works for Laal Films, shared their views on using the power of the internet, social media and music videos to promote their movement or as Rahman put it, ‘modernise the way of conveying Marxism and its message’

The session titled ‘Music, Resistance and the Internet’ kicked off with an upbeat Dr Rahman speaking about his journey of promoting Marxism, starting off as a grassroots activist and interacting with members of the labour class at dhabas , organising protest marches and issuing pamphlets.

Rahman said that there was only so much he could do with traditional means and so decided to use his hobby of playing the guitar as a tool to promote the message, joking about it being a bourgeoisie invention that worked. He shunned the leftist perception that the internet was a bourgeoisie medium, and hence could not be used to promote their movement, adding that it was time for the ‘old progressive to meet the new progressive’, since combating capitalism was not only in the interest of the labour class but the entire society.

Rahman, who is the general secretary of the Mazdoor Kissan Party and also teaches at LUMS, spoke about how Laal the band began and forayed into music videos through a chance meeting with a British Pakistani filmmaker in England and how integration of music videos had helped take the band’s message all over the world via the internet, including India, where he had just returned from after a brief tour.

Rahman said that through their music videos on YouTube and engaging with like-minded activists on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, Laal was able to increase awareness about labour rights, exponentially, with almost 10,000 weekly interactions taking place on the band’s Facebook page. He says a message they share on the page reaches 100,000 people.

Rahman also credited the internet with helping the band promote its message, given that the surge in terrorist attacks meant it could no longer hold protest marches.

However he clarified that such social media analytics did not translate into building an ‘organisation’ and that he still used traditional grassroots mediums to spread awareness amongst the labour class.

When asked how the internet could spread awareness amongst people who don’t even have access to it, Rahman said that this was not completely true and that there was gradual internet penetration taking place. Inventions such as the television and telephone filtered down from the upper classes to the lower, he said. He also credited his band’s videos for helping create awareness about terrorism amongst people.

Although Rahman dominated the session, Aziz also had his moments and briefed the audience on his contribution to Laal’s cause as a filmmaker, singer and social media activist.

Responding to a question by popular RJ Kulsoom, on whether a rather politicised Twitter could be used to promote a positive image of Pakistan, he replied candidly that the micro-blogging site scared him, adding that it was just a very casual platform with ‘people dissing everyone and everything’, but acting the opposite in person.

The band also treated the audience to a little gig of sorts, performing songs including “Haq Kabhi Rehta Nahi Zair-e-Niqab” and “Utho Mere Dunya Ke Ghareebon”, accompanied by an impressive beatboxing performance by Khurram, a volunteer at the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Artists use comics to vent out frustrations</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408335/artists-use-comics-to-vent-out-frustrations</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408335/artists-use-comics-to-vent-out-frustrations#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 17:34:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Ema Anis]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=408335</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Digital artists agree that besides humour, comics reflect angry mindsets.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Comics are commonly known as tools of humour, but in Pakistan and India, artists have another reason for making comics: venting out their angst.


Ramish Safa from Kachee Goliyan, digital artist Babrus Khan, pioneer of online comics in Pakistan Jahanzaib Haque (Jay’s Toons), Adil Hussain from Alid Art and Jugal Mody from India all confessed that they need comics to vent out their feelings.

“The best part about comics is to get it out of your system,” said Hussain during the session titled “The Rise of Online Comics”, held on the second day of the Social Media Mela on Saturday.

“I was interested in politics, so I thought: If I can’t do anything about it, I might as well make fun of it,” Hussain added, referring to the political scenario of Pakistan.

Haque, commonly known as Jay, stated that he started making comics when former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer was shot down by his guard for allegedly committing blasphemy. “I’m a journalist. There’s so much that I can say in a column, but the comics helped me vent it out,” said Haque who is also the web editor at The Express Tribune.

The artists agreed that content of the comics is as relevant as the illustrations, if not more.

Survival

The problem comic artists face in Pakistan begin from the very fact that people are not aware of what comics actually are.

“They think it is something political or something that will make you laugh out loud. They need to know about graphic story-telling,” said Khan, who is a sci-fi comic artist with work based mostly on a post-apocalyptic scenario. He added that he has been looking for contractors for four years but no one wants to invest since people believe society is “not ready” yet.

Mody, coming from India – where many have begun to be acknowledged for their comics – is set to release his comic “Tok” this August. “It’s about stoners and zombies,” he said.

The lack of support usually makes it tough for artists to survive in a capitalist society where no one is willing to invest in them. Haque confessed that he has almost given up on comics since he got married, owing to all the social responsibilities.

The Kachee Goliyan team, however, knew right from the start they were in it for the long haul. “It is a business venture. We have now formed a team that does drawings and animations for us. We are in the process of forming a company,” said Safa.

Nuzhat Kidvai from PeaceNiche, who was present at the session, seemed worried about the survival of these artists. “Parents are very hesitant to let their children become artists. There’s also no platform for young kids to get their work across,” she told The Express Tribune.

Kidvai hopes the society learns about graphic story-telling and gives young artists a chance to flourish.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Social Media Mela: Memes and the #FAT phenomenon</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408332/social-media-mela-memes-and-the-fat-phenomenon</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408332/social-media-mela-memes-and-the-fat-phenomenon#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 17:30:24 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Atika.rehman]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=408332</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Attendees hoped to hear some funny quips and FAT-worthy stories, but were disappointed.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Before we get into what happened at the Social Media Summit session on Memes and the #FAT phenomenon, it is imperative to know what #FAT means. An acronym for Fashionistas Against Talibanisation, FAT is a satirical Facebook group that has gained popularity online for being a forum where members post news articles that talk about the fashion industry in Pakistan against the backdrop of terrorism. Its description reads that it is “committed to bringing social change out of the closet in Pakistan through fashion” and that “fashion is the answer to Pakistan’s many problems especially Talibanisation”. Some of the headlines posted on the forum read “In a Troubled Country, Still Time for High Society” and “Fashion event attempts to show Pakistan’s progressive side” – and comments posted below them mock the news articles as a “FAT win”.


With great expectations, listeners filed into the room to hear what the panelists had to say, hoping to hear some funny quips and FAT-worthy stories. The first speaker, Zakir Thaver, explained what memes are. While the screen behind him flashed funny internet memes, Thaver chose to talk about the more humourless subject of meme theory. He explained that the word meme is short for mimeme, “something imitated” and that it was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. While Thaver bored listeners with evolution, lawyer and talk show host Ayesha Tammy Haq got some to sit up in their seats as she spoke about how FAT evolved. In 2009, when the Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters was attacked by terrorists, Haq headed the Fashion Pakistan Council and organised a fashion week despite speculations that it would be cancelled. “It was widely reported by the international press,” said Haq with pride. “Journalists tied in the story (about fashion week) with their stories about the ongoing war,” she said, adding that people realised that Pakistan was a country that did not just represent bombs and burqas. At one point, Haq mentioned that designers are indeed fighting extremism by employing women from poor households, who earn enough money to send their children to schools instead of madrassas.

Strangely enough, what should have been a discussion on the virality of hilarious internet memes and the sarcasm-loaded FAT forum turned into a lacklustre convesration . At one point, fashion writer Mohsin Sayeed stood up and said: “You guys need to stop talking about yourselves! This is about memes – not me, me, me! Stop preaching.” Wearing a paper cone on his nose Sayeed said people should not take themselves so seriously.

Another journalist at the venue said, “I expected satire and wit — not boring technicalities.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Ali Aftab and Ali Gul Pir: Kings of sarcasm</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408330/ali-aftab-and-ali-gul-pir-kings-of-sarcasm</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408330/ali-aftab-and-ali-gul-pir-kings-of-sarcasm#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 17:25:13 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category><category><![CDATA[Music]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=408330</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Panelists Ali Aftab and Ali Gul Pir talk about videos spreading like wild fire online.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The Indo-Pak social media summit gathered well-known bloggers and tweeters from Pakistan and across the border on Friday evening. But it was young YouTube celebrities who started the show with a bang – Ali Aftab from Bayghairat Brigade and Ali Gul Pir who sang “Waderai Ka Beta”.


Cracking jokes about Sindhi conduct and behaviour, the two started off the session on viral videos moderated by none other than journalist and critic Nadeem Farooq Paracha.

Paracha said that the videos that go viral are either comical – such as Aftab’s “Aaloo Anday” or Pir’s “Waderai Ka Beta”— violent or those that have Aamir Liaquat in them. Aftab said “No matter how many hits our videos get, nothing can beat the Lahori girls caught on tape,” referring to an inappropriate video of two girls making out on YouTube.

Adding to the humour, Paracha threw a question at Aftab, “When Meezan cooking oil can take someone as controversial as Dr Aamir Liaquat in their commercial, then why not someone like you?” to which he humbly replied, “Because I don’t have a smile like his,” leaving the audience in fits of laughter.

Both “Waderai Ka Beta” and “Aaloo Anday” challenged the mainstream narrative, which resulted in the videos going viral so quickly. But “Waderai Ka Beta” was the one that really made the concept of Saeen penetrate popular culture.

“I had a class fellow at school whose guard had a separate Pajero for himself. We used to look at them and say ‘Saaen tau Saeen, Saeen ka kutta bhi Saaen’,” said Pir clearing the mystery behind the most prominent lyrics of the song.

However, when Aftab and Pir mocked Sindhi culture, a few people in the audience were offended and raised some questions.

“Anyone who thinks that the song is against Sindhis is ignorant,” Pir said, responding to one voice in the audience. “If Steve Job’s picture is being modified with a moustache and is being labeled as iSaeen and Einstein becomes Eintsaeen, then I don’t think I am harming Sindhi culture – I am actually serving it.”

Pir then went into a detailed explanation. He said that Sindhis shouldn’t be worried about their identity because Islam came to them through Sufism, so by their very roots they are peace-loving people. “Sindhis are fun-loving people, you will never find a suicide bomber by the name of Allah Dino or an Osama bin Chandio,” Pir said at the conference, leaving the hall echoing with laughter.

Both Aftab and Pir refrained from revealing much about their next projects but both assured their fans that they won’t have to wait much longer. “If I tell you something about the song, then it would never get released,” said Aftab. “Yeh tohfa hum aapko Ramazan may daingay (we will present this gift to you in Ramazan).”

At the end, the summit’s organiser Sabeen Mehmood joined Pir on stage for some freestyle dancing as “Waderai Ka Beta” played in the background.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>A disconnected Dutt and the curious case of the Indian delegates</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407901/a-disconnected-dutt-and-the-curious-case-of-the-indian-delegates</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407901/a-disconnected-dutt-and-the-curious-case-of-the-indian-delegates#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 07:38:43 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Hassaan Khan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Punjab]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=407901</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The ‘surprise’ to make up for Dutt’s absence was that she would address it through Skype.]]>
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				<![CDATA[“Barkha are you there … Barkha can you hear me?”


Prominent NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt never actually made it to Karachi to give her keynote speech at the ‘Pakistan-India Social Media Mela’. Despite her absence, she certainly drove the point home about the perils of social media.

The ‘surprise’ to make up for Dutt’s absence was that she would address it through Skype. But it soon turned into a nightmare when a minute into the interaction with her, the audio started breaking up. After trying to decipher her words and playing the ‘fill in the blanks’ game for another minute, Beena Sarwar decided to end everyone’s misery and give it another shot after a short interval.

Interestingly, the organisers found the time to cut the government some slack – twice within a span of 30 minutes. Rehman Malik was given an honorary mention and applauded for pulling off a last-minute magic trick to get the paperwork and visas ready to go for the Indian delegates, while a few minutes later our national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines was also given a shout out for being the only South Asian airline that services all capitals in the region.

But the agony didn’t look like it was about to end for the organisers or the attendees. In an effort to break the ice and kick things off, minus US Consul General William Martin’s short and candid introduction to the event, the Indian participants were asked to come on stage and offer brief introductions.

The handful of Indians who did catch a flight may not have been frustrated with the usual delays, but they must have brooded over whether they were attending a visa regime change conference between the arch-rivals or a Social Media Mela.

Nevertheless, the introductions were amusing to say the least. One of the introductions went something along the lines: “I’m Sanjay … I don’t work”. The same Sanjay later went on to disclose his mundane conversation with journalist Mohsin Sayeed about a show he wanted to start, called “What’s with Indian women?”

Still, Mumbai columnist Venkat Ananth took the cake cake when, unintentionally it seemed, he decided to divulge into the details of how long it took to travel from Mumbai to Karachi by boat – eight hours just in case you were wondering. It all made sense now: the visa regime, the Mumbai attacks, Rehman Malik and PIA – the biggest obstacles and promoters of social media interaction between India and Pakistan.

‘Have we got Barkha back?’

When the Skype conversation with Dutt finally resumed – the only thing that was brought to the forefront were the trials and tribulations faced by the everyday Pakistani internet user. After yet another botched attempt, Dutt got back to Tweeting and the Social Media Mela was able to pick up the pieces and carry on with the show.

Beena Sarwar, who somehow managed to decipher the gist of Dutt’s broken message, ‘basically’ gathered that social media had broken barriers in connecting people across the border.

If anything, the promise of social media is evident: connectivity – depending on your internet service provider. But the peril has to be the lack of uniformity in organisation and action, specifically when it comes down to the two arch-rivals.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Clicks don’t equal change; one must get garmi mai kharab</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407898/clicks-don%e2%80%99t-equal-change-one-must-get-garmi-mai-kharab</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407898/clicks-don%e2%80%99t-equal-change-one-must-get-garmi-mai-kharab#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 07:37:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=407898</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA['Change through the digital route begins with ‘clicktivism’'.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[ While many may downplay the importance of social media, two teachers who run a school in a rural area of Jarkhand, India would vehemently beg to differ. Thanks to the power of digital activism, they finally got paid a salary, which had been due to them for four years. 


Raheel Khursheed, who works as the director of communications at Change.org, a social action platform in India, spoke at the Social Media Mela on the degree of digital activism’s potency in inducing a beneficial change. But he said that there were a lot of challenges in using this medium, one of which includes the novelty of social media. “We are trying to bring about change in a new space – it is still evolving and practitioners of digital activism are at a loss in terms of what it means and entails,” Khursheed said.

He said that change through the digital route begins with ‘clicktivism’, where a number of people who care about a particular social issue are brought together online and consolidate pressure on important societal actors. “But this is the only the very first step,” he warned. “You have to follow this up by going out of your home. That is how to bring about a change. Garmi mein kharab honay ki fiqaar na karain (Don’t worry about being affected by the heat),” he said, referring to the infamous dialogue by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf supporter Zohair Toru.

Khursheed also offered examples closer to home. He recounted the episode of a boy in rural Uttar Pradesh who went to acquire a driving licence, but was asked by the officials to pay a bribe. After the boy refused to do so, he was beaten up. Fortunately, he had his mobile phone on him and was able to record the entire ordeal. He promptly went home and started an online petition to draw attention to his ordeal.

“Following this the district magistrate got around 80 phone calls pertaining to the case and this jolted him into action,” said Khursheed. Officials were suspended, a support centre for bribe complaints was established and signs were put up around the office, encouraging people not to give in to corrupt officials’ demands. In another instance, around 12,000 people signed a petition for the restructuring of a dog pound in a neighbourhood in India. This too, was successful.

Khursheed was also asked by an audience member if creating an online petition against President Asif Ali Zardari would make him step down. To that, Khursheed could only smile and say, “Good luck.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>What you posted in the past can come to haunt you in the future</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407877/what-you-posted-in-the-past-can-come-to-haunt-you-in-the-future</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407877/what-you-posted-in-the-past-can-come-to-haunt-you-in-the-future#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 07:21:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[gibran.ashraf]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=407877</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA['A young woman who going to be engaged asked me remove a comment she had left on an old post'.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[For many of us, posting comments or pictures on the internet does not even merit a second thought. We do it instinctively - almost as part of our every day routine. But what we don’t often realise is that every word or a picture posted online stays there forever. It can be regurgitated a simple Google search and can cost you a part of your present life.


“A young woman who going to be engaged asked me remove a comment she had left on an old post,” shared educationist and blogger Nabiha Meher Shaikh, while speaking at session ‘Haunted: What you post online never goes away.’ “She feared that her to-be in laws will google her and find out about the comment.”

Jehan Ara, the head of P@sha (Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITES), agreed. “Women and children were at risk,” she said. “Sometimes a post put up in the past can be held against you at a later stage in life.”

She also pointed out that some Pakistani companies did monitor the online activities of their employees. “But the companies should tell their employees about it beforehand.”

Imtiaz Noor, a researcher who scrutinises words and numbers for a living, said that the matter was even more riskier for politicians where rivals leave no stone unturned to wash their opponent’s dirty laundry in public. What he found surprising was that companies were willing to forego personal opinions but were more interested in past criminal records.

Someone from the audience shared that when a colleague left the company he wished her good luck on twitter. This sat ill with the human resource department. “They called me in, showed me the tweet and said that my colleague had chosen to leave the company and asked me to delete the tweet.”

The story had its intended effect and caught the 40-something audience by surprise. Noor commented, “It was a sign of progress that an HR department in Pakistan was on twitter.”

Journalist Imran Shirvanee talked about how people spread rumours online. He gave the example of the recently leaked list of 19 prominent journalists and the bribes they had taken from a business tycoon, Malik Riaz.

Although everyone, especially blogger Dr Awab Alvi, lamented that the anonymity provided by the internet encouraged ‘trolling’ – abusing fellow social media users from anonymous accounts had become extremely common, but some also advocated the advantages of the blanket of anonymity. Shaikh admitted that she herself used to write blogs anonymously till she started to believe otherwise. However she said that the world is not sympathetic to those who write about sensitive topics under their real name.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>‘Social Media is going to have a huge impact in rural areas’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407899/%e2%80%98social-media-is-going-to-have-a-huge-impact-in-rural-areas%e2%80%99</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407899/%e2%80%98social-media-is-going-to-have-a-huge-impact-in-rural-areas%e2%80%99#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 07:18:14 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[usman.liaquat]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=407899</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Nothing more important than people of US, Pak getting to know each other to dispel myths and misgivings, says Martin.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The two-day Social Media Mela kicked off Friday at Avari Towers, the second such international social media conference to be held in the country. Jointly organised by PeaceNiche and the United States consulates in Lahore and Islamabad, the event aims to foster dialogue between journalists, entrepreneurs, activists and writers of India and Pakistan. Nine people have flown in from India to participate. The conference discusses the utility of social media as a means to by-pass the imposition of rigid state control on person-to-person contact.


US Consul General to Karachi William Martin inaugurated the event. “We wanted to focus on what we think is one of the most energetic and important relationships – the one between the bloggers of India and Pakistan.” He said that there was nothing more important than people of two countries getting to know and talk to each other to dispel myths and misgivings. “I pick up the newspapers every day and I get the impression that Pakistanis don’t care for the United States. Yet my experience here is that over two years, I have never met one Pakistani that has been anything but warm, welcoming and friendly.” He added that Pakistanis may disagree with him on policy but he always has a positive experience with them on an individual level. “I think social media is going to have a huge impact in rural areas that can really use both attention and information. It is people like you in this room that are going to have an incredible impact in changing the conditions of millions of people.”

Now you see me, now you don’t

Unfortunately, Murphy’s Law seemed to manifest itself in the earlier half of the event, which started an hour after the scheduled time. Some participants wondered whether they had walked into the wrong hall as they listened to some of The Beatles’ classic tunes, which the organisers played on the sound system to make the wait a more tolerable. The people at the event were hit by a double whammy when it was announced that Barkha Dutt, the managing editor of NDTV 24/7, would not be at the event since she could not get a visa on time. The rest of the event went on much more smoothly and participants were treated to some very informative sessions, including one on viral videos and the use of social media in the classroom. All was well for organiser Sabeen Mahmud as well, who got to shake the stress away on stage by dancing with none other than the “Wadera ka Beta” himself, Ali Pir Gul.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Can’t find teachers in your area?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407900/can%e2%80%99t-find-teachers-in-your-area</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407900/can%e2%80%99t-find-teachers-in-your-area#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 07:16:51 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[noman.ahmed]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=407900</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA['Pakistanis had also shown interest in volunteering but political situation unfortunately could not make this happen.']]>
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				<![CDATA[While the debate surrounding social media as a learning tool is unlikely to abate any time soon, a 30-year-old school teacher from Kashmir, Sabbah Haji, strongly believes that if there were no social media, she would not be able to receive the ‘kindness of strangers’ for running a school located at the remote and inaccessible Breswana village up there in the mountains of Doda in Jammu and Kashmir.   


Haji was residing in Bangalore but she jumped off the corporate bandwagon when a news story about violence in her hometown made her to return back to the ancestral village in 2008. What struck her was the prevailing illiteracy in almost two generations of villagers due to the apathetic attitude of successive governments. “The teachers fail to show up at the government schools while there is no accountability, especially in remote areas,” she added.

The village is about a one-and-a-half-hour trek up from the last point where a vehicle could reach, after an eight-hour drive from Srinagar. After setting up a kindergarten – Haji Public School – in May 2009, she had to face the truth that she couldn’t do it without teachers. “But since the school location was a day’s visit away, I had no other way but to introduce the world with the unheard-of place and my endeavour through social media,” said Haji. “The prime motive was to use social media to find the right teachers for the school by making use of a 2G mobile network in the absence of broadband internet access.”

Her plan was to find creative ways to draw attention to the area’s educational needs along with the promotion of classroom activities primarily through Facebook, Twitter and blogs. “That worked and volunteers started to arrive with textbooks and other educational material mostly from different Indian states and other parts of the world too,” she told The Express Tribune on the sidelines of the event. “A number of Pakistanis had also shown their keen interest in volunteering but the political situation unfortunately could not make this happen.”

Of all the social mediums available, Haji finds the Facebook most effective in her specific case.

But even Twitter serves the purpose well. “Recently, I just sent a tweet that the school requires a projector and within 15 minutes I received a pledge through a gentleman I did not even know about,” said Haji, who now has more than 9,500 followers on Twitter. Her handle is @imsabbah.

Then a video, a hilarious yet adorable rendition of Shakira’s Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) and Adele’s Rolling in the Deep performed by the school’s students at an annual day performance went viral when one of her Twitter followers from Pakistan, @KhizM, posted it. From there the American news website The Huffington Post picked it up, followed by the Indian press.

For the training of her locally hired young staff, the school also brings into play the users’ uploaded teacher training material on YouTube.

“As of 2012, we have gone up to grade 4, with more than 150 students and a teaching staff of 15,” she said. “The plan is to continually train and recruit more staff and resources and eventually take the institution up to high school level.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>A call for media ethics</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407903/a-call-for-media-ethics</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407903/a-call-for-media-ethics#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 07:01:26 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[zahra.peer.mohammed]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=407903</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA['There is no editorial policy in place and so many things are aired that should not be allowed.']]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[It wasn’t Maya Khan that was being attacked – it was the mindset behind what she did. Activist and journalist Beena Sarwar opened the talk on the ‘Maya Khan Takedown’ at the Social Media Mela and set the tone for the session. The speakers, including activist Marvi Sirmed and blogger Mehreen Kasana agreed that hatred toward Maya Khan alone was unreasonable.


“The point wasn’t to get her fired; it is to change the policy of the organisation,” Sarwar said at the jam-packed discussion.

According to the speakers, social media can only go so far in making a change. Television anchors, they said, have a lot more power than Twitter users who have access to just a few thousand people versus the millions TV channels can reach. Sirmed pointed out that Pakistani media is in dire need of universal media ethics. She stated that there is no editorial policy in place and so many things are aired that should not be allowed.

“The usual standard operating procedures are not being followed by our media,” she reiterated.

However, Sirmed agreed that with the Maya Khan takedown, producers were being a lot more careful.

News anchors also came in for a great deal of criticism, as well as the fact that Aamir Liaquat and Maya Khan were on air again.

Sarwar pointed out that people take up issues that are close to their hearts. Parks are relevant to everyone; the Ghalib film isn’t – a joke that had the whole room in fits.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Rehman Malik swoops in to save the day</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407902/rehman-malik-swoops-in-to-save-the-day</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407902/rehman-malik-swoops-in-to-save-the-day#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 06:57:50 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[usman.liaquat]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=407902</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Rehman Malik, after being assured no military personnel were invited, signed the documents.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Users of social media in Pakistan are well aware of the fact that Rehman Malik, adviser to the prime minister on interior affairs, is often ridiculed online. But if he hadn’t swooped in to save the day, the Indians from across the border wouldn’t have been able to make it to the ‘Pakistan-India Social Media Mela’, said Sabeen Mahmud, the managing director of PeaceNiche, a not-for-profit organisation responsible for the content of the conference.


“Just a couple of days before the event, I was told that the visas were sorted out and all the Indians needed to do was to have their passports stamped,” she said. “But on July 10, after speaking to the Intelligence Bureau all day, I realised that the event would simply not happen.” It was then that someone suggested that she contact Malik, who eventually signed the required documents. “He took me aside and asked me if we had invited any military personnel. We assured him that only bloggers would be attending, to which he said ‘all these people on Facebook and Twitter make so much fun of me.’”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Social Media Mela: Justice Javed Iqbal told me to ‘tweet on’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407878/justice-javed-iqbal-told-me-to-%e2%80%98tweet-on%e2%80%99</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407878/justice-javed-iqbal-told-me-to-%e2%80%98tweet-on%e2%80%99#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jul 12 06:56:47 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[tehmina.qureshi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=407878</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[I just happened to be there when it happened, says the man who live tweeted the bin Laden raid.]]>
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			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Sohaib Athar – who turned into a celebrity overnight after he inadvertently live tweeted the entire May 2 raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad – had an air of nonchalance about the impact of his tweets.


But perhaps the audience at the Social Media Mela had been expecting some insight, a little snippet of the myriad conspiracies they had heard or at least something a little juicier than usual to tweet about. What they found, on the contrary, was that Athar was just a regular Joe who just happened to be awake when US Seal Team Six came thundering down into Abbottabad to pick up Bin Laden.

He was asked whether he was harassed by the ‘agencies’ or the army. “No,” said Athar. “It was actually the media which kept harassing me for an exclusive story. One channel even brought the local police with them and waited around the area of my coffee shop to try and catch me.” He said that all the journalists were after him for an exclusive story. “After a while I compiled all the FAQs (frequently asked questions) and put them online for everyone to see,” he said with a wide grin.

Athar, the audience realised, is just a person who works at night, sleeps after his son goes to school in the morning and likes to drink coffee. The reason why he opened a coffee shop was that he couldn’t find good coffee anywhere in Abbottabad. A software consultant by profession, he moved to Abbottabad around three years ago from Lahore. I just happened to be there when it happened, he said, as just another matter-of-fact thing.

Has the raid affected his coffee business was a matter of great fascination for the audience and the moderator, Ayesha Tammy Haq. “Why don’t you name it Coffee bin Laden?” said Haq. “Yes I have had that suggestion before,” Athar replied. “Name it Caffe bin Latte!” quipped someone from the audience.

Athar was absolutely unfazed by people’s fascination with him and seemed bored that he was being asked to repeat what everyone already knew. Haq asked him about the spike in his Twitter followers since the raid and he replied that it went from 700 to 800 followers to around 105,000 within only a week. “But I didn’t pay that much attention to it,” he said. “After the raid was over I went and read a book or something.”

Speaking about how life in Abbottabad had changed since the raid, Athar stated as a matter of fact that it was still the same. “Life returned to normal there in two days,” he said. “There aren’t even any check posts in the city like there are now in Lahore.” Athar also denied that he is keeping a low profile because he is wanted by the ‘agencies’. He said that he had expected to be hunted down by the Inter-Services Intelligence or the police. “But no such thing happened,” he said with a smile. “I was only questioned by the Abbottabad Commission and they were ‘interesting fellows’. Justice Javed Iqbal told me to ‘tweet on’ after we were done.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2012.

Note: A shorter version of the story appeared in print. Some points have been added in the web version for clarity.]]>
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			<title>Twitter is great, but stick to facts, cross check sources: Tehelka editor</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408118/twitter-is-great-but-stick-to-facts-cross-check-sources-tehelka-editor</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/408118/twitter-is-great-but-stick-to-facts-cross-check-sources-tehelka-editor#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jul 12 19:51:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Salman Siddiqui]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=408118</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Journalists should avoid adding exaggerated, sensationalist headlines to their stories for twitter to get followers.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Twitter seems to have gained prominence for journalists who find that they can get some information on incidents quicker where the news wire services are slow to report. But Indian news site Tehelka.com’s associate editor warned that the media, in its race to be first, should be very careful to rely on the information on the social media service.

Senior Indian journalist Karuna John, who currently serves as the Associate Editor at Tehelka.com and has served on the reporting and editorial teams of leading publications, warned the gathered crowd at the Pakistan-India Social Media Mela 2012 that over reliance on the social media platform could land them in trouble.

John, who has reported from Jammu to the Andamans, covering issues ranging from the price of dried apples to Tsunami rescue operations during her career recalled the exposé that got Tehelka its first taste of online success of going viral in the very limited internet world in 2001.

A sting operation using a spy cam revealed the corruption of the then BJP leader Bangaru Laxman accepting bribe from journalists pretending to be defence contractors.

“This was a time when we actually discovered what the term viral meant,” she said.

However, the sting operation, daring as it was, did not come without consequence. “The BJP which was in power back then made sure we suffered,” she said, cutting off key funds for the news website.

On Twitter she said it was a great tool for journalists and Tehelka makes generous use of it. But for those following in their footsteps, she advised caution.

John believes despite the speed demonstrated by the social media service, often beating the more established wire services to news, they still needed to be verified and cross-checked, as is customary for the reporter  to do for each story. Although it’s great that one can get to know about an incident much before the story lands on professional news wire service, but the journalist shouldn’t file a story just on the basis of that alone.

“The journalist must stick to reporting facts and cross check details with his sources,” she said blaming the social media sites for making reporters lazy.

“Twitter has in  a way contributed to the concept of lazy journalism,” she said.

John, who focused on the topic of 'Ethical Reporting' during her brief talk, said the need for media ethics especially comes to fore during breaking news.

Comparing the trends of breaking news alerts on TV and social media, John said on TV there is 'breaking' news almost every hour. “There is a lot of drama in the TV breaking news. Questions like when will Rahul Gandhi get married will be asked with special effects,” she said.

However on social media outlets like Twitter, readers are spared such drama.

She said that newspapers need to be very careful when quoting a known personality from his Twitter handle. She recalled that recently in India a leading paper quoted a famous personality using Twitter which later turned out to be fake ID used for parody.

Also, she pointed out bad practices adopted by present day journalists who deliberately tweet stories with exaggerated titles just so that they can get popular in the social media. For example, a journalist may know that the interview he has just conducted didn’t have much meat in it, but he/she may tweet something like Mr X politician said Pakistan is a sad state, knowing well that such a controversial statement will get him a huge following online. “We should avoid doing that as journalists,” she warned.]]>
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			<title>Social Media Mela: Should brands build or buy blogger loyalty?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407868/social-media-mela-should-brands-build-or-buy-corporate-loyalty</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407868/social-media-mela-should-brands-build-or-buy-corporate-loyalty#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jul 12 15:26:42 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[erum.shaikh]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=407868</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Bloggers insist that lack of restrictions, editorial control on them gives their opinions more value than journalists.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Do bloggers have more freedom as compared to journalists when it comes to writing about brands? And is that freedom necessarily a good thing?

A debate revolving around this question and more was held between those from the corporate world and bloggers at a session titled “Corporate Blogger Meetups: Building or Buying Loyalty?” on the first day of the Pakistan-India Social Media Mela on Friday.

During the session, bloggers insisted that the lack of restrictions and editorial control on bloggers gave their opinions greater value for corporations.

“News stories are regulated and managed by editors to make sure the content does not come off as too promotional, whereas bloggers are bound by no such restrictions and are able to promote or discredit a certain product as they feel is justified,” said Shoaib Taimur, a panellist and regular blogger.

“The beauty and risk of blogs is that they lack objectivity,” said Taimur.

“Corporations cannot dictate content to bloggers, as they do in press releases,” added Faisal Kapadia, a renowned blogger.

But the speakers admitted there were certain drawbacks that came with such freedom.

Bloggers who have written negative reviews of products, or have not covered certain events are not invited to future events by the same corporation, said Aly Balagamwala, commonly known as DiscoMolvi on social media. Dr Awab Alvi, another blogger, added to this, stating that he was aware of many bloggers, including himself, who had not been re-invited to certain events due to the critiques published on their blogs.

Discouraging negative press through freebies?

Many of the bloggers stated that bribing them with ‘freebies’ challenged the integrity of the blogger and the content could be compromised. They reiterated that negative as well as positive feedback should both be taken with a pinch of salt.

Raheel Khursheed, a panellist and director communications at Change.org, responded: “Social media takes up a lot of space, as far as mind space is concerned, so the gift tends to determine the outcome of what a blogger writes.”

Samra Muslim, another panellist from the corporate world clarified that there was no agreement signed between corporations and bloggers to write a good or a bad review. She explained that the intention of the corporation is “not to buy the bloggers loyalty but build it based on experience”. She went on to state that fashioning an opinion is not the intention of the corporation, but trying to get someone to advocate their product is.

The general view of the panellists highlighted that if a blog was reflective of any influence from a firm, corporation or brand it would lose its credibility with its audience.

Issue of reach
“Why would corporations be willing to pay bloggers to write about them when total reach is of a few thousand people?”
Responding to this question posed by the audience, Muslim giving an example of the number of attendees at the Social Media Mela, said that social media was now a forum that was big enough to demand attention and “corporations could not ignore social media” any longer.

The verdict? The need to blog, tweet and have a piece of the social media pie is felt by corporations, which are now trying to cope with the alacrity of change in social media trends.]]>
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