MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Israeli students to get $2,000 to spread state propaganda on Facebook
By A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 01/05/2012 - 3:04pm |The union is also partnering with Israel’s Jewish Agency to send Israeli students as missionaries to spread propaganda in other countries, for which they will also receive a stipend.
URL:
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/israeli-students-get-2000-spread-state-propaganda-facebook
- 661 reads
Comments
Looking at wikipedia's descriptions of both organizations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Union_of_Israeli_Students
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Agency_for_Israel
Sounds like what Josh Marshall called advocacy or activist journalism, rather than "astroturfing" where it is presumed the astroturfers are just doing it for some extra cash. They are going to be advocating what they believe in and getting a small amount of money to support the time spent on doing it. I imagine many of them are doing it already without being paid for it, it's just that now those who are really good at it might get some monetary help so they can spend more time on it.
Now don't get me wrong, personally don't like it. I want my journalism untainted by activism, used to agitate against Marshall about it in long ago days. But I was fighting a huge tide of advocate "journalists" called bloggers, and of social activists working social media to make certain memes go "viral". Welcome to the internet "revolution." Instead of suggesting something nefarious going on here, perhaps Palestinian activists should be doing the same.
by artappraiser on Thu, 01/05/2012 - 6:38pm
Thanks for exploring the organizations involved to inform your reaction. I did that just a little and took a different route.
I first saw a brief of the article at War in Context. That site has its definite areas of concern and a pretty clear bias in the views that it aggregates and links to but I have not seen any evidence [that is, evident to me] that they deliberately pass on unsupportable claims or over the top analysis. I have also not seen them attacked anywhere for doing so. These facts lead me to expect that a story there is well sourced. I expect to find something worth reading there.
Rather than link to War in Context directly I went to the original and saw where it was published. I googled the author and skimmed the first page of entries that came up looking for any attack on the article or the author or the blogspot. I then watched a video that included the author so as to get an impression of him.
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/watch-ali-abunimah-unrwa...
All that is hardly in-depth investigation on my part but it was also not a quick posting with zero effort to asses the credibility of the messenger.
I agree that many if not virtually all the students hired are tweeting messages and ideas that they believe in so I am not saying they are cynical, though I am by nature skeptical of those who thought up and instituted the program.
I have no problem with activism journalism, actually I think it is the most valuable kind as long as, and to the extent that, it is done honestly and the journalist does not in affect lie by pretending that he is completely impartial. I am, and have been as a blogger, an activist in passing on what I think is solid information that I hope will be noticed and reflected upon by anyone who happens to see it.
Thanks for your comment.
by A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 01/05/2012 - 7:27pm