Journalists rely on people who are “on the ground” and familiar with the locale to add detail and at times break stories. Bloggers could be regarded as a new addition to the notion of stringers with their ability to communicate quickly around the world.
However as can be seen with the case of Tom McMaster, also known as Amina Abdullah, also known as the “Syrian lesbian blogger” (Ardley) it is not always apparent that bloggers are who they purport to be and this can adversely affect all journalists where this type of deception could, “undermine the credibility of the real Syrian bloggers and activists” who are “doing everything possible to keep informing their fellow citizens and the rest of the world.” (Reporters Without Borders, A)
However as can be seen with the case of Tom McMaster, also known as Amina Abdullah, also known as the “Syrian lesbian blogger” (Ardley) it is not always apparent that bloggers are who they purport to be and this can adversely affect all journalists where this type of deception could, “undermine the credibility of the real Syrian bloggers and activists” who are “doing everything possible to keep informing their fellow citizens and the rest of the world.” (Reporters Without Borders, A)
When utilising material produced by bloggers it is important to analyse the following key points – that bloggers are “The People formerly known as the audience” (Rosen); that major media companies have slashed budgets for foreign reporting with bureaux being closed worldwide; that countries such as Syria have a heavily controlled official media and accurate non-censored information is difficult to disseminate; and finally that the triangulating verification of information is vital to journalists.
In an article posted on Pressthink in June 2006 media commentator Jay Rosen analysed changes in journalism by mentioning ‘the people formerly known as the audience’. He was referring to the fact that while in the past there had been a clear distinction between those who produce news, the journalists, and those who receive news, the audience, the removal of barriers of entry to news production means this no longer applies. (Rosen)
Developments in technology – Wi-Fi enabled smartphones and tablets; camera phones; social media such as Twitter and Facebook – mean that it is possible to be a journalist with direct access to the audience bypassing established news production companies. (Rosen)
For those countries where official and internal censorship of media is commonplace the ability for individuals to report directly appears to be fortuitous, however the audience must now rely on the blogger to be journalist and editor, trusting them to exercise responsible reporting standards without official oversight. (Rosen)
In 2010 Colin McMahon was “International Content Editor” for the Chicago Tribune. He had a two decade career of foreign reporting behind him; bureau in Mexico City, Moscow and Baghdad; reporting conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. (Enda) In his present role he brings stories to readers in the Chicago metro area, America’s third largest city, but now he has no direct foreign correspondents, indeed the paper has none at all relying on staff from their sister paper the Los Angeles Times, whose stories are selected, edited and worked in with wire reports. (Enda)
The Tribune is not alone in this direction as The Boston Globe, Newsday, The Baltimore Sun and Philadelphia Inquirer also rely on outside sources. (Hamilton) Broadcast media in particular use “Parachute foreign correspondents” a pejorative for those reporters who are dispatched to wherever the big news story is to provide a familiar and trusted face for viewers, replacing the now closed or severely depleted permanent bureaux. (Hamilton)
Consequently there is an increased reliance on local sources and because of time constraints what could be deemed to be “citizen correspondents” particularly bloggers. As Hamilton observes when an armed attack was perpetrated on Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Hotel in 2009 eye witnesses took to Twitter with one message per second recorded which included the word Mumbai, however it is impossible to verify who was a genuine observer and who was not.
Reporters without Borders advised in March 2011 that in Syria, “although internet access has expanded considerably in the last decade”, slow connection speed, outages and limited downloads hamper the active use of the internet particularly where, as with journalism, ability to respond in a timely, manner is vital. In addition internet control in Syria is managed by two government agencies, the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE) and the Syrian Information Organisation (SIO), which routinely monitor websites and filter content by identifying “banned” words. (Reports Without Boarders, C)
As of March 2011 it was reported that 240 website had been blocked in Syria, with content that involved religious matters, political criticism and obscenity. In addition sites based in Israel and those referring to the Kurdish minority are also routinely blocked, with Syrian authorities citing the prevention of, “denominational unrest” and exclusion of Israeli influence as reason for the censorship. (Reporters Without Borders, C)
By July 2011 Reporters Without Borders gave an update on the tightening of media control in Syria. Anas Al-Marawi had been arrested in southern Damascus, editor of a technology blog nothing had been heard of his whereabouts. There was also no news of Omar Al-Assad, an occasional Al-Jazeera journalist arrested at a demonstrator’s funeral, while Aquiba Al-Batah, a reporter for the Egyptian newspaper Al-Hadath had been charged with collaborating with foreign entities following a demonstration. (Reporters Without Borders, B)
Between the March and July 2011 reports of a worrying story was emerging from Syria. The blog, ”A Gay Girl in Damascus” was actively read and reported on by a number of western publications including the Guardian in London and the Washington Post. Its author was described as “Female, gay and half-American, Amina Abdullah is capturing the imagination of the Syrian opposition”. (Marsh) It was observed that the blog took-off when the author movingly told of her father standing up to two security guards who had come to arrest her as a foreign agent. (Marsh)
The problem was that Amina was not a Syrian lesbian in danger but an American graduate student based in Edinburgh, and male. The real author, Tom McMasters, (Addley), used his adopted persona to vividly describe how, “Teargas was lobbed at us, my eyes burned”, “It’s tough being a lesbian in Syria” adding “Others can take my example and join the movement.” (Addley, Hassan)
By 7 June 2011 it was reported that Amina was missing, reported by her “family” has having been kidnaped by the Syrian security services. The Guardian’s report continued that, “According to Amnesty International at least 750 people had been killed by the security services and 10,000 had been arrested. Campaigns were launched on Facebook for her release and Syrian activists tweeted quotes from her blog, while it was reported that her cousin Rania Ismail stated that “We do not know who took her so we do not know who to ask to get her back.” (Addley, Hassan)
A follow up report run on 13 June 2011 quoted McMasters as admitting to being “the sole author of all posts on this blog”, adding “I never expected this attention.” (Addley) But Reporters Without Borders countered that the Syrian government was using this apparent deception to undermine the credibility of all information posted by opposition supporters about the regime’s violent crackdown. (Reporters Without Borders, A)
In the aftermath of the unmasking of McMaster there has been a need to reflect on the impact of bogus bloggers, however well intentioned. Chris Elliot in the Guardian highlighted the benefit of anonymity that the internet bestows on a blogger so that they can report of dangerous and politically sensitive stories, with Salam Pax, the Baghdad blogger, as a prime example. (Elliott) This blog, which covered the situation in Baghdad during the build up to the Iraq War in 2003, contained sufficient information regarding places and people which established it to be verifiable without compromising the identity of the author. (Pax)
Verifying the identity of Amina Abdallah proved difficult. Attempts to arrange a meeting with her failed, explained as interference from the Syrian security police, although a photograph purporting to be her was supplied, and it was this that threw the story wide open.
Elliott tells of an emotional telephone call from a woman called Jelena Lecic, who works in London for the Royal College of Physicians, claiming that the photograph circulated as part of the campaign to free Amina was in fact herself. After intervention by the PCC the photograph was removed and grave doubts were raised regarding the authenticity of “A Gay in Damascus” blog.
In geographical areas with heavy censorship and limited independent journalistic oversight there is a need to rely on bloggers who know and understand the world on which they report, and in these cases the standard triangular verification used to authenticate sources is not always possible. Daniel Bennett notes that it can be difficult to access a literate, personal point of view that modern journalism demands and the internet, particularly blogs can facilitate. (Bennett, p 188)
While blogs are a valuable asset, to fill a void in modern journalism they should be handled with care. The present procedures for verifying sources are inadequate when dealing with the deliberate anonymity available via the internet. (Bennett, p 190) It took a co-ordinated approach to unmask McMasters, with both the Guardian and Washington Post investigating issues which did not ring true. (Bennett, p 192)
Bennett also highlights that The Electronic Intifada website published a compilation of information available on the internet which identified McMasters as the author of the supposed Syrian blog, and maintains that “the rapid accumulation of evidence from several interconnected investigations and dozens of sources led to the detection of his [McMasters] hoax.” He suggests that in an internet dominated world of journalism where “people publish and share first, then gather, filter and verify” this approach of trawling the internet for numerous unconnected sources is the modern version of triangulating verification of sources, as traditional journalist practice would not be sufficient. (Bennett p 192 -193)
Justin Webb contends in his foreword to Mirage in the Desert? – Reporting the ‘Arab Spring’, that the role of a journalist is crucial and that, “Social media outlets are vital and very obviously played a huge role in the Arab world in recent days.” (Webb, p 2) As with all sources verification and context is everything.
References
Abunumah, A. 2011. New evidence about Amina, the “Gay Girl in Damascus” hoax, The Electronic Intifada. 12 June 2011 http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/new-evidence-about-amina-gay-girl-damascus-hoax accessed 25 November 2011
Addley, E. 2011. Syrian lesbian blogger is revealed conclusively to be married man, newspaper, The Guardian. 13 June 2011. Available through http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/syrian-lesbian-blogger-tom-macmaster accessed 25 November 2011
Addley,E. and Hassan, N. 2011. Gay Girl in Damascus blogger joins ranks of Syria’s detained, newspaper, The Guardian. 7 June 2011. Available through http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/07/damascus-blogger-syria-detained accessed 29 November 2011
Bennett, D. A ‘Gay Girl in Damascus’, the Mirage of the “Authentic Voice”- and the Future of Journalism, In Mair, J. and Keeble, R L. eds. 2011. Mirage in the Desert? – Reporting the ‘Arab Spring’. Bury St Edmonds: Abramis.
Elliott, C. 2011. Open door: The authentication of anonymous bloggers, The Guardian. 13 June 2011 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/13/open-door-ananymous-blogger accessed 29 November 2011
Enda, J. 2011. Retreating From the World, American Journalism Review, journal, Vol 32.4. Available at http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4985 accessed 30 November 2011
Hamilton, J M. 2009. In the foothills of change: foreign coverage seems doomed, but it’s only just begun, Columbia Journalism Review, journal, Vol 47.6, Available at http://www.cjr.org/essay/in_the_foothills_of_change_1.php?page=all accessed 29 November 2011
Marsh, K. 2011. A Gay Girl in Damascus becomes a heroine of the Syrian revolt, newspaper, The Guardian. 6 May 2011. Available through http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/06/gay-girl-damascus-syria-blog accessed 29 November 2011
Pax, S. 2003. ‘I became the profane pervert Arab blogger’, The Guardian. 9 September 2003 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/sep/09/iraq.biography/print accessed 29 November 2011
Reporters Without Borders. 2011, A. Keep supporting the real Syrian bloggers, who are taking real risks to inform, 14 June 2011. http://en.rsf.org/syrie-keep-supporting-the-real-syrian-14-06-2011,40447.html accessed 25 November 2011
Reporters Without Borders. 2011, B. Regime steps up information war, 12 July 2011. http://en.rsf.org/syria-regime-steps-up-information-war-12-07-2011,40630.html accessed 25 November 2011
Reporters Without Borders. 2011, C. Syria, 11 March 2011. http://en.rsf.org/syria-syria-11-03-2011,39779.html accessed 25 November 2011
Rosen, J. 2006. The People Formerly Known as the Audience, Pressthink. 27 June 2006. Available through http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27ppl_frmr.html accessed 29 November 2011
Webb, J. Foreword, In Mair, J. and Keeble, R L. eds. 2011. Mirage in the Desert? – Reporting the ’Arab Spring’. Bury St Edmonds: Abramis.
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