Via Mediashift – by Jaron Gilinsky
Jaron Gilinsky
Recently, MediaShift started running reports from correspondents and embeds around the world. This report comes from Jaron Gilinsky, a journalist and documentary filmmaker in Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM — Blogs exemplify the best and worst attributes of the Internet (and human nature). At their worst, blogs can be untruthful, bad sources of news and gossip. But without the profit motive, the need for immediacy, and the thirst for conflict, blogs can also help show a more complete picture of the Middle East. At their best, they can be a great source of anti-news and help demystify this murky region.
If you can find the good blogs, you will be exposed to a very real slice of Middle Eastern reality that wasn’t possible 10 years ago. And that slice of life is more than just suicide bombings, radicalism and ethnic strife — which most outsiders assume is what we encounter every day living here.
It’s always an enlightening experience leaving Jerusalem to visit my hometown of Miami, Florida. Based on numerous encounters with fellow Americans, I inevitably learn many new things that I never knew about the Middle East. I learn that there are bullets whizzing through the air at all times. I learn that there are bombs exploding in a crowded market right now as you read this. And I learn that I am totally insane for choosing, under my own free will, to live in the Middle East.
