The Arab American Mirror http://www.alif.com/mirror
Then came the affordable typewriter and the dependable whiteout. Few solar seconds later, the personal computer and the word processor arrived at the scene to save you and I from the drudgery of pens and typewriters. Timing was perfect.
Goodbye old eraser and whiteout. Hello BACKSPACE and DEL. Throw in the online thesaurus and spell checker and the sky’s the limit. Well, not exactly. The price of postage was enough gravity to preclude flight, as well as the manual labor involved in sending fair quantities of letters. But by God, fewer and fewer transgressors escaped our scathing reprimands. And more and more proponents heard our praise. Still, that was not enough and the barriers to mass communications persisted until…
Just when you thought we have witnessed enough political, social, and technological revolutions in our times, enter the Internet to rock our world. And that it did. Old paradigms of mass communications crumbled before our very own eyes. Mass media monopolies were loosened overnight. Ironically, it was the US Department of Defense which has given the world this precious gift of mass communications for the masses.
Now any Joe or Mary with few bucks to spare and the patience to read few pages of Web for Dummies can achieve instant visibility to tens of millions of web surfers, if they chose to stop by the website that is. Another equally powerful internet innovation is the electronic mail. Goodbye stamp licking, envelop stuffing, and bulk-mail zip code sorting. Hello unbridled mass communications. No one can hide the truth anymore short of jamming the internet.
The laws of unintended consequences never fail. Even the dynamics of Arab American grassroots activism could not escape intact. The web was a shot in the arm of an ailing grassroots.
The web is Darwinist by design. Even the big boys of mass media had to compete for viewers' attention with a new breed of mass media outlets and content provider on the web. It was cyberdog eat cyberdog. The situation was not different for the world of Arab American grassroots activism. For aspiring opinion leaders, the web is baptism by fire in full view of hundreds or thousands of cyber onlookers. Many contenders have survived with flying colors.
Traditionally, only organizations with deep pockets issued periodic newsletters and other periodic correspondence to thousands of members around the nation. The political world of an activist was defined by the national organizations. If a tree fell in LA and a national organization was not on the scene to issue an action alert, it did not really fall.
Imagine this. An activist in Bethlehem, PA picks up the local paper and discovers much to his to her disappointment an inflammatory or inaccurate reportage worthy of a letter to the editor. When no correction is issued and no apology mentioned, the activist then logs on to the internet, and with a press of a button floods the web waves with calls for action. That’s how a web chain action reaction is started today.
The cycle of grassroots action has been shortened from days to hours, thanks to the affordable and accessible mass communications medium of the internet. Even the frequency of calls for action has increased. This is not to say there has been a rise in defamation. But the web afforded us a vast panoramic view of the real world beyond our TV sets and the occasional action alert and newsletter. The web is about the active quest for knowledge, not passive and filtered consumption of information.
Since the dawn of the internet, web activists owned the day. The almost sudden decentralization of grassroots activism gave rise to a new genre of grassroots leaders. The traditional gatekeepers of national media and national organizations have been bypassed. With that came the pleasant discovery that the world of Arab American activism is much larger than once thought. In it, talent abounds.
A while ago, at the request and advice of a friend, I joined an activists distribution list on the internet. Not long after, correspondence from unfamiliar names started landing in my inbox. After discarding most names as information middlemen, few ones deserved a follow up.
They were a cut above the rest. Many of their correspondences were so impressive in form and substance I often collected some as mementos and reference material. I decided to join as many of theses lists as possible hoping to meet the talent at large. Was I pleasantly surprised. On the web, I have discovered an impressive orchestra of activists. They do it all in the spirit of dedication and volunteerism and the almost genetic predisposition to stand up to injustice and falsehood. If this is the new Arab American generation, I shall retire in peace.
Another beauty of this New World Wide Web Order is in the implied demographics of the average users. They are young, have access to enough money for a computer and internet connection, somewhat technically inclined, can read and wright, and boast an appetite for knowledge and discovery. They simply wana know. But most of all, they can be anywhere. The Web International has arrived.
When AOL removed an offensive site to Muslims few months ago, it was a reaction to worldwide condemnation. Emails poured in from around the globe from as far as Malaysia, Pakistan, and Germany. Many of the protesters were AOL subscribers themselves. Fearing the loss of a potential market share, AOL shuts the site down. Call it hard-earned victory or overreaction, the lessons learned are simple. You now have a friend in Kuala Lumpur.
In the absence of gatekeepers on the web, the power of global networking is now possible. One no longer needs the annual conventions and conferences to link up with activists. The web has revolutionized networking altogether. Even outside our community, we have discovered friends who are as dedicated in their support of our issues as we are. The web helped us become truly color-blind and issue-focused.
Many of us who would balk at the thought of meeting the Dark Side on a personal level, find the web a convenient transition. Peace activists of various groups on both sides of the proverbial dividing line often join forces on issues of common interest. When Newt Gingrich made his infamous trip to Jerusalem and threatened actions that were deemed irresponsible by many Arabs and Jews, a massive uncoordinated email campaign was launched by many American and progressive Jewish organizations and activists demanding Gingrich refrain from further irresponsible actions.
Action alerts and correspondence from groups found their way to the inboxes of members of another. All were calling for the same action: Say No To Newt. When flare-ups occur in the occupied territories, news updates arrive on the web from Israeli peace groups before national media catches on. Debates are triggered and all sides to the issue participate. When discussions turned nasty, it was nothing personal, just digital
And when it's time to draft that killer letter to turn the tide of the battle, there is no news like real news to reference. Want fresh off the wire AP, Reuters, UPI, and CNN? You got it, and free of charge. There is nothing more persuasive than to reference an American news source when corresponding with an American official. Who cares what the Al-Hakeekah Al-Murrah paper said yesterday. Need reference material to validate those pesky dates and casualty figures, the web is your one-stop shop. Have the urge to see what the Dark Side is up to, they too have web sites of their own while keeping an eye on yours.
This free-news explosion founded a niche for news middlemen on the web. These are Arab American internet news junkies who sift through the latest news websites. Upon encountering something of interest, it is immediately forwarded to friends and activists. These are the news anchormen and anchorwomen of the world wide web. They don’t read you the news, they make sure you read it.
The free access to myriad internet news sources and reference material have created what amounts to a sensory explosion. News, news, and more news. To me, the only value of a printed US paper is keeping with tradition of coffee and paper in the morning. Why put up with the arbitrary 24 hours news blackout of a printed paper as if the world comes to a halt until the presses move. Hit that dial button on your PC and click on Yahoo.com for the latest. Read something you like or don’t like, fire up an email. Express yourself.
With the internet, the landscape has irreversibly changed for Arab American activism. Centralization is out, gatekeepers are lining up at the unemployment office, and mass media is truly for the masses. In this new world order, our organizations have been truly liberated to add value beyond information collection and dissemination. We now have been truly empowered to know and to do. No filters, no holds barred, and no excuses. None what so ever. Call it virtual or digital, the results so far have been very tangible.
