Freedom of speech and freedom of protest

On the 30^th of September 2005, the Danish newspaper "Jyllands-Posten" had published a caricature which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad with a bomb on his head. About five months later this caricature and many more led to Islamic protest across the Muslim world as well as in Europe especially in Denmark (the origin of this crisis). Those protest escalated into violence with instances of firing on crowds of protestors resulting in a total of more than thousand casualties, including bombing Danish embassies in various countries all over the world.

The famous caricature:

This video shows the consequences of this event:

You probably ask yourself what is my point in this case. This is an example that shows the powerful role that media has to influence on a particular community in the world.

The Muslim world went mad! And for what?! For a cartoon that have been published on a Danish newspaper, which criticize the Islamic world a little bit.

Don't get me wrong! I agree with the Muslim world and their protest against the caricatures that maybe had crossed the lines, but there is a right way to protest without the use of violence and to threat on those who published and create the caricatures. Everyone has the right to protest, and yet everyone has also the right to have freedom of speech and expression.

 Flemming Rose, "Jyllands-Posten's" culture editor explains:

"The cartoonists treated Islam the same way they treat Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions. And by treating Muslims in Denmark as equals they made a point: We are integrating you into the Danish tradition of satire because you are part of our society, not strangers. The cartoons are including, rather than excluding, Muslims."

But on the other hand, The Muslim World especially the Arab media is not so innocent. They like to interpret Judaism in caricatures as the filthiest religious in the whole world. And the big question is "Have you ever seen a mob of Jews protest violently and threat on anyone?" I don’t think you'll see something like that.     

  

This caricature shows the hypocrisy of the Muslim and Arab world: 

http://img2.moonbuggy.org/imgstore/do-you-have-any-idea-how-offensive-that-is.jpg

I am not religious person but if I had known there is serious harm to my reputation or my people and it will carry a social protest, I'll join in the protest as long it takes in a quiet and peaceful way.

Although we can use our body as offensive tool, I believe that we shouldn't do it. The best way to settle disputes is by freedom of speech without cursing and swearing.

As a human being we have the power and the ability with the right communication and with the assistant of the worldwide media, to bring PEACE to the world.  

The 'Muhammad caricature' is examples how people can interpret wrong the meaning that the author wanted to bring out to the public.

There is the famous phrase that says: "A picture is worth a thousand words" – in this case "caricature was worth a thousand casualties".

I hope it is the last time that caricatures will cause undermining the stability of the world.

see you soon again

Ben

The Truth Behind The Photos

A super interesting video about an Italian photographer's take on the role of the media and photographers in the  Israeli-Palestinian conflict (or conflict documentation in general). I am not a photojournalist but this was still very educational!

http://vimeo.com/29280708

.if you have some problems with the video, copy the URL to your browser.

Why Like? ( The power of "Like")

Communication is a wide world of many definitions that is said to have mysterious aspects, which behind them stand theories 

based on theories based on theories.

During my academic studies, I became acquainted with the matter "Definition and Characteristics of Influence".

In this essay I will describe briefly three major influence processes I've learned:

Compliance is a process in which an individual agrees to adopt the recommendations or requirements of an "Influence Agent", hoping to receive positive feedback.

The power of the "Influence Agent" lies in his ability to provide "rewards" and "punishments" according to his own personal requirements.

For example, the relationship between a captive and his captors; the captor will cooperate with his captors, so they are pleased with him and therefore reward him by improving his living conditions in captivity (more food, more sleep, etc).

Another example is an employer-employee relationship; A junior employee will try to please his boss, so that one day he might promote him.

  

Identification is when an individual adapts the attitude and behavior of the "Influence Agent", which is derived by wishing to be like him.

Unlike in the process of compliance, the "Influence Agent" doesn't have the ability to reward the "Affected Individual", for good or bad behavior, but he does have the power to gain his affection and admiration.

The identification helps the individual define his identity and align himself with the desired social group.

An example of this process can be best seen among teenagers, who idolize a certain person, so they imitate their style of dress and behavior, hoping to be like them.

  

Internalization happens when an individual agrees to take a point of view introduced to him, since it matches his perception of reality or finds it compatible to his moral system.

In this process, a person accepts the idea only after examining and judging the message logically and understanding its relevance in solving the problem on the matter.

Contrasting the previous processes, in this process the individual is not affected by the power of the "Influence Agent".

Taking a specialist's recommendation is a good way to demonstrate internalization.

If a person takes the doctor's advice to practice more sports, it is because he understands, logically, that it is good for his health. 

After examining the Influence Processes, I began to wonder about the meaning of various actions all of us with an active profile do on the social network – Facebook.

Do we click "Like" on another person's update because we want to please him so he might "Like" us back? Was the "Like" meant for us to let another person know how much we admire them? Maybe the "Like" button is because we internalize and empathize with the content of the updates or displayed image?

Even though clicking "Like" is a very basic action in social networking, it might have great significance in this world.

The influence processes I mentioned earlier apply to any action we take in the social network, from a happy birthday or good luck wish or commenting on a status update to an article or picture on your profile page after seeing it on someone else's profile.

Until now, I haven't really thought about the things I do when I'm exposed to certain content and respond to 

them.

Now, before your finger hits "Like" or before you respond to something or share content that someone else introduced to you - think to yourself, on which level were YOU affected when you saw the content?

:Just for fun

.feel free to comment and upload songs with "I like it" in them 

 !And stay tuned for more

Ben

Second Life Begins!

If you read this title of post, and thought to yourself that i'm going to talk about the online virtual world - Second Life , you are totally wrong, but also right. I will explain later.

First, I want to apologize, because my writing skills in English is not so good and I will appreciate and  be thankful if you will comment and correct me if it is necessary.

Let's start! :~)

Hello!

My name is Ben Bondy and I am a first year student (freshman) at Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya – Israel.

As part of the studies we have been asked (actually forced - I know that my lecturer will read this :)), to open a blog and do whatever we like. In other words, to discuss about something that we find interesting.

So I decided that the guideline of my blog will be all the things that I care and find interesting about the media and my communication studies.

I predict that I will share with you all my knowledge and thoughts about the media, especially the knowledge that I will learn in my studies at the IDC and stuff that will be relate to the new media.   

Now after you read my introduction, I hope you will enjoy my thoughts

So stay tuned! :~)