Twitter allows us to find information quickly and catch up with the latest news, innovative developments and (mass) opinion. I use it as a search engine, especially if I don’t want to be searching through links from 2006 or before. Nothing can be more frustrating than entering ‘(comedian’s name)’ or ‘(conference name)’ for information on (tour) dates, to then get a link from three years ago.
However, the convenience of fast searches and scrolling through tweets, FB posts etc quickly can obstruct deeper learning if we don’t engage with what we see. True, this costs time and we’re all busy. But take this photograph. It was on Twitter and links to an exhibition on bottled water. The image is shocking in terms of poverty. But it’s also a warning about the mountain of plastic bottles we’re accumulating. Finally, could it be used as an extreme example of innovation to wake up a student audience sliding into a slumber?
Similarly but different, the journalist Mikey Kay has been criticised for the lack of professionalism when reporting on Syria (review in Dutch but tweets in English to get a flavour). Kay is accused of being a caricature of the journalism profession in his report on the Mid East. Indeed, Kay’s tweets hover between James Bond wannabe and genuine observations. So we could put the video aside as inadequate.
But reports on the Mid East, critiqued by journo/anthropologist Luyendijk in his book People Like Us, are perhaps a little one sided. After having watched the video and as someone who has visited Beirut several times, I think that ‘serious’ journalism doesn’t always have to be morose. This video by the former military pilot may be a poor attempt at highlighting that the situation in Syria is serious but, actually, it also functions as an insight into Beirut’s nightlife thus lifting the veil on the usual stereotypical perceptions Lebanese people have to deal with on a day to day basis. It could make some who viewed it reconsider the entire Mid East as a deserted war zone. I mean, who knew that they celebrated Halloween in Damascus? The Syrians remember, and if we empathise, hopefully their world can get back to normal.
