Archive for 'Media'
Facebook, Orkut and the Caste System
Posted on January 26, 2010, by Hanna Ingber Win, under India, International, Media.
India’s ancient custom of caste has made its way into the modern world of social media. Here is my GlobalPost article on how caste plays out on Orkut and Facebook.
MUMBAI, India — A man who goes by “hemant” types out a question: “Are you embarrassed that you are from the scheduled castes or scheduled tribes?”
One by one, members of the online community of SC and ST, which compose the lowest castes and groups in India, begin responding:
“Rajni”: “No my dear i never felt ashamed due to my caste.”
“Mr”: “When I was an innocent school-going boy, I feel embarrassed to reveal my caste due to discrimination and my helplessness, later during my college days I started coming out of the closet and was very aggressive to those who criticize me.”
An apparent outsider, “Arun,” responds: “You people cannot compete on your own. You people do not have strength of character, therefore you people are ready to bow your head down and beg. Beggars cannot be choosers. You are low caste because you people compromise on your self respect.”
Continue reading here.
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Fixer: Interview with Christian Parenti
Posted on August 22, 2009, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International, Media, Politics.
“Fixer: The Taking Of Ajmal Naqshbandi” is an incredibly powerful documentary that tells the story of the Afghan war through the relationship formed between an American journalist, Christian Parenti, and his Afghan fixer, Ajmal. Here is my Q&A with Christian. He talks about war reporting, Taliban “citizen journalism” propaganda, the Afghan election and why he thinks Obama’s Afghan policy is doomed to fail.
American journalist Christian Parenti and his Afghan interpreter travel to southern Afghanistan to conduct an important yet very dangerous interview with members of the Taliban. The moment comes when the men fear the interview may turn ugly, and they quickly grab their belongings, jump into their taxi and race off. In the car, Parenti asks his fixer, Ajmal Naqshbandi, if he will tell his fiance about the interview. Hell, no. The men laugh. Telling the fiance would be more dangerous than meeting with the Taliban.
In another scene, the documentary flashes forward six months, and the same fixer, Naqshbandi, stares into the camera but this time without the look of the jovial young man who was laughing in taxis and eating dinner with friends. Naqshbandi has been kidnapped, and his lighthearted expression has been replaced with one of fear. Sweat drips down his cheeks as he tries to reassure his family that everything will fine.
By juxtaposing scenes of laughter and friendship with video images of kidnappings and beheadings, HBO’s “Fixer: The Taking Of Ajmal Naqshbandi,” directed by Ian Olds, uses the relationship formed between an American journalist and his interpreter to tell the story of the war in Afghanistan.
The HuffPost sat down with Parenti to talk to him about the film, modern war reporting and why he thinks Obama’s current Afghan policy is bound to fail.
Continue reading here.
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International Reporting Award
Posted on June 4, 2009, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International, Media.
I won InterAction’s 2009 Award for Excellence in International Reporting in recognition of HuffPost World’s fabulous international coverage. Thank you and congrats to all the HuffPost World bloggers, reporters and photographers! Great work!!
Here is what the award letter says:
You have been selected to receive the award in recognition of your organization’s outstanding coverage of international news. Our members see The Huffington Post’s World News section as a true leader among the ever-growing list of online news outlets that cover international development and humanitarian action news.
As you probably know, InterAction is the largest alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working to overcome poverty, exclusion and suffering by advancing social justice and basic dignity for all. Last year’s Forum attracted leaders from member organizations, NGOs in the developing world, representatives from USAID, the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, World Bank and other international institutions.
Previous awardees include Femi Oke of WNYC Radio (formerly of CNN International), John Donnelly of The Boston Globe, and noted “solo journalist” Kevin Sites.
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Egan Award For Journalistic Excellence Coming Up
Posted on March 1, 2009, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International, Media.
I have been asked to be a judge for the 2009 Eileen Egan Award for Journalistic Excellence. The award is sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the world. From their website:
The Egan Award for Journalistic Excellence recognizes journalists who demonstrate excellence in reporting on humanitarian and social justice issues. The award was named after Eileen Egan, who devoted four decades of her life to assisting refugees and helping the poor.
If you write about humanitarian issues, take a moment to look at their submission guidelines. You could win a free trip overseas. Deadline is April 15th.
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HuffPost World Launched!
Posted on December 4, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International, Media.
We launched!! The Huffington Post has a new section dedicated to world news and opinion. We had our official launch today — check it out: www.huffingtonpost.com/world
Today we had opeds from Queen Noor of Jordan, Sen. John Kerry, Francisco Toro on Chavez, Virginia Moncrief on the Mumbai attacks, Andi Friedman on women’s equality in Rwanda, and many other fabulous writers based all over the world.
Plus, I did an interview with Christiane Amanpour on her genocide documentary (which airs tonight on CNN at 9PM), international reporting, and the role of new media and citizen journalists. She said this about bloggers:
Sometimes it is incredibly useful, for instance, in closed societies such as Burma. Some of the images, some of the stories that have come out have been by the Internet and by citizen journalists. And that has been indispensable in terms of knowing what is going on when journalists like myself and others cannot get visas to get in there and cannot operate. … In that regard I think the bloggers or the citizen journalists are very brave and very useful.
I think that in the West sometimes blogging is an excuse for sitting back and just commenting on life as it passes by and putting out your opinions on what is happening. Sometimes those are interesting, but not always. And the truth of the matter is I do not believe, no matter how sophisticated the delivery platform, I don’t think there is a substitute or should there be a substitute for professional journalism, which comes with training, with experience, with credibility, with developing trust based on the accuracy of your record in the field. I think that is an absolute must. That must stay with us so that people have an accurate and objective reference point for their information.
I am the editor of the section and will always be looking for great writers who want to contribute interesting, insightful commentaries on important global issues. Get in touch with me at hingber@huffingtonpost.com.
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Blogger Detained at JFK
Posted on November 16, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Immigration, International, Media.
Three Egyptian bloggers spent a week with us at the HuffPost’s OffTheBus. One of them, Ahmad, got detained at JFK airport as he tried to leave New York for his next stop in Austin. He did nothing wrong, other than have an Arabic name. Once the U.S. officials freed him, and he bought a new plane ticket with his own money since he missed his flight, he wrote about the experience:
The place perfectly resembled any Egyptian police station, except for the picture of Mr. George Bush handing on the wall in place of Mubarak’s, and that the officers’ clothes were blue rather than white. The American officers had the same cold, dumb faces of their Egyptian counterparts. I told the officer at the beginning about my flight leaving in two hours, but he told me to sit waiting until they called my name.
Continue reading here.
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Powell Takes a Stand Against Anti-Muslim Bigotry
Posted on October 19, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Media, Religion.
Colin Powell devoted almost two minutes of his seven-minute explanation for why he has endorsed Barack Obama to denouncing leaders in the Republican party and others who have spewed anti-Muslim hate speech throughout this campaign.
It’s a shame that it has taken this long for such a prominent Republican politician to weigh in on this issue. For about two years now, we have been hearing the word Muslim used as if it were a slur or accusation. Obama has been labeled a Muslim by his critics, who operate on the assumption that Muslim Americans have no right to run for the presidency of the United States. I blogged about this issue last Saturday, and all week other commentators have discussed the issue. And now a man in power (well, a man who used to be in power) has spoken up. As Mr. Powell made clear, the line has been drawn in the sand: Enough!
Good work, Mr. Powell. That was one large step toward redeeming yourself.
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OffTheBus — Palin Did Not Implode
Posted on October 4, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Media, Politics.
I have been working at the Huffington Post’s OffTheBus section for the past month. We cover the U.S. presidential campaign by enlisting citizen journalists, professional journalists, students, professors, doctors, teachers, and just about everyone else to write ground-level reports on the campaign.
Yesterday, OffTheBus writers from across the country (and a couple in Canada) went to VP Debate Watch Parties and contributed stories on how the audience reacted to the candidates. Check out the stories featured on our page today. OffTheBus members also contributed reports on how their local media covered the debate.
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Oped in Hartford Courant
Posted on August 26, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Culture, Media, Politics, Religion.
Check out my personal essay in the Hartford Courant this Wednesday. It’s about driving cross country and learning about the presidential campaign and American culture from the radio shows along the way. It was on the Los Angeles Times/ Washington Post wire and also ran in the Chicago Tribune.
My husband and I just finished driving from our home in Los Angeles to my parents’ in upstate New York because I will be taking a job on the East Coast. The trip was a great success: We slept in a budget hotel each night and never got bed bugs — just one night with a spider — and we made it to New York without crashing or getting a speeding ticket. More important, we learned about this country we live in, yet know so little about.
Neither of us had ever been to most of the places we visited along the way. My husband was born and raised in Burma, and I have never traveled in the South or much of the Midwest. We got to check out the vistas in the Grand Canyon, art galleries and jewelry shops in Santa Fe, beautiful brick mansions in Tulsa, Cardinal fans in St. Louis and cornfields in Illinois. But what was most interesting to us about our trip was listening to the radio.
Throughout the entire country — between Los Angeles and New York — we couldn’t flip through the radio stations without finding multiple shows dedicated to people talking about Jesus. Some were singing songs about him; most were discussing how their lives had changed since they had accepted the Lord into their heart. On one station a host was interviewing a child about which Biblical verse was her favorite.
Read more.
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Saving Face, Not Lives
Posted on May 21, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International, Media.
The Burmese junta continues to be more concerned about its image than about the safety of roughly 2.5 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis.
Homeless people and beggars have been kicked off the streets in preparation for visits to cyclone-hit areas by the dictator, Sen. Gen. Than Shwe.
The Irrawaddy reports that soldiers arrested eight Burmese journalists Monday night for trying to cover the disaster in Laputta Township in the Irrawaddy delta. The soldiers arrested the journalists at their hotel and interrogated them all night. They released them the following morning, but only after the reporters signed an agreement that they wouldn’t return to cyclone-affected areas without permission.
A source in Rangoon also told the Irrawaddy that the junta has stepped up its strict censorship policies.
Only positive stories are allowed. Photos about refugees, victims and children are always rejected..The censorship board will only allow propaganda stories and photos, such as reconstruction projects, to be published.
The censorship has led to the growth of “cyclone DVDs,” which show images of dead bodies and destroyed villages - scenes the government has tried to control.
This is reminiscent of last fall when the junta tried to control news on the nation-wide protests and subsequent military crackdown on democracy demonstrators. Then people also responded to the censorship by producing illegal DVDs featuring the protests and ones showing monks - symbols of resistance - giving sermons.
The difference between last fall and now is that this time there are 2.5 million people in need of food, water, housing and medicine. Thousands of corpses remain in the delta water. Save the Children warns that thousands of children could starve to death in the next two to three weeks if they don’t receive aid. People in Western Burma were safe from the cyclone but now struggle to pay for basic food that has tripled in price because the storm destroyed rice fields and killed livestock and farmers.
The junta should be coordinating aid and relief, not arresting beggars or looking for sneaky reporters.
