:: LNR Journalism ::

Bahrain: Activist Nabeel Rajab jailed for Twitter post

Reuters | New York Times :: A central figure in Bahrain’s protest movement, Nabeel Rajab, was sentenced to three months in prison on Monday over a Twitter post about the prime minister that the court said insulted Bahrainis, Mr. Rajab’s lawyer said.

A report by Reuters, www.nytimes.com

Led by emerging markets Middle East, Africe, Global ad spend up 3.1pc

Nielsen Wire :: After a strong finish to 2011, global ad spend continued to rise in the beginning of 2012: up 3.1% compared to the same period (Q1) last year. According to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report, emerging markets like the Middle East and Africa saw double-digit increases while North America and Asia Pacific saw modest more gains of 2.1 and 1.7%, respectively. Overall global ad spend in Q1 2012 was $128 billion USD.

Continue to read blog.nielsen.com

Saudi Arabia and UAE: Interactive and social media news in the Middle East

Interactiveme.com :: A white paper conducted 2011 by Omnicom Media Group (OMG) showcases social media habits of users in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The whitepaper has some very interesting insights as to the differences in how users from the different countries use and view social networks. The results were collected after conducting face to face interviews with 600 online users per country all from different nationalities and aged between 15 – 60.

Continue to read Tariq Seksek, interactiveme.com (available as PDF)

How the Internet has transformed news of Gaza and beyond

Guardian :: How do news events make us see others and understand the world? The answer is often distressingly one-dimensional: rockets in the Middle East, famine in Africa, factories in China, royalty in Britain, debt in Greece. We all suffer at distance from a lack of nuance and context in the eyes of the rest of the world.

The web ecosystem is feeding a different parallel narrative. The voices and personalities of bloggers and individuals who tweet or update their Facebook status from within conflict zones or areas suffering other forms of humanitarian crisis give a perspective and continuity that international news outlets cannot replicate.

Continue to read Emily Bell, www.guardian.co.uk

Lebanon and the dark side of the Twitter revolution

Guardian :: This weekend in Tripoli (Lebanon's second largest city), some of the worst fighting the country has seen for several years took place. During the night there were no updates from any of Lebanon's major news outlets, and frustrated citizens turned to social media to share what they were experiencing.

Media – old and new, foreign and local – have continued to be pessimistic in interpreting the meaning of the current events for Lebanon's future. Each incident has brought new headlines, blogposts, status updates and tweets proclaiming that Lebanon is unavoidably slipping into Syria's conflict. This was typified by the frankly histrionic twitter hashtag trending at the time of the Beirut clashes: #LebanonOnFire.

[Rohan Talbot:] Lebanon is not on fire, though a battle for the narrative is in full swing.

Continue to read Rohan Talbot, www.guardian.co.uk

Flame: “Incredibly sophisticated” cyber war tool unveiled today, hitting the Middle East

Venture Beat :: An extremely complex virus infecting computers in the Middle East called Flame was made public today, and is likened to the Stuxnet virus, which attacked Iranian nuclear systems in 2010. “Flame can easily be described as one of the most complex threats ever discovered. It’s big and incredibly sophisticated,” said Alexander Gostev, Kaspersky Lab’s head of global research and analysis in a blog post. “It pretty much redefines the notion of cyberwar and cyberespionage.”

Continue to read Meghan Kelly, venturebeat.com

Egypt and Middle East startup scene: Google awards $200,000 in seed capital

The Next Web :: Announced last September, the ‘Start with Google’ competition has finally come to a close with Egyptian traffic app Bey2ollak walking away with the grand prize of $200,000 in seed capital. The ‘Start with Google’ (or Ebda2 in Arabic) team and judges have been hard at work over the past nine months, first narrowing down the 4,000 entries to 200 semi-finalists, and then bringing them down to the final 50, with mentoring thrown into the mix for the finalists.

Egypt, and the Middle East: "A still-maturing startup scene" - Continue to read Nancy Messieh, thenextweb.com

Al Monitor translates Middle East news into English

Tablet Magazine :: Over the past couple months, Al Monitor has been punching above its weight in reporting from and about the Middle East. In has hosted original reporting and commentary by authors like Laura Rozen (a Tablet Magazine contributor), Barbara Slavin, and Bruce Riedel. Yet perhaps its most unique aspect is its partnerships with more than a dozen outlets from several countries in the region—including Turkey, Egypt, and Israel—whose work it translates. Its Israeli partners include Yediot Ahronoth and Maariv. The overall result is reporting on the region in English that pointedly doesn’t travel through a Western prism.

HT: Nieman Lab, here:

Good morning! New site translates Middle East news into English nie.mn/K9BHUL

— Nieman Lab (@NiemanLab) May 14, 2012

Continue to read www.tabletmag.com

Middle East coverage is full of lies

Foreign Policy :: It has not been a banner week for media coverage of the Arab world. Blame it on journalists unfamiliar with their subject matter, the demands of an ever-quicker news cycle, or simply salacious stories that were "too good to check" -- a number of stories that have made it into major media outlets recently are simply not true, or omit essential details of the tale.

HT: Mark Little, Storyful here:

Middle East Coverage is Full of Lies - Foreign Policy blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/04/…

— mark little (@marklittlenews) April 27, 2012

Continue to read DAvid Kenner, blog.foreignpolicy.com

Latest citizen journalist app: Signal created by Mark Malkoun, Lebanese entrepreneur

The Next Web :: It is only fitting that the latest citizen journalist app, Signal, is coming right out of the Middle East, courtesy of Lebanese entrepreneur, Mark Malkoun. No area in the world has highlighted the effect of citizen journalism more effectively, this past year, than this region. In Syria, Bambuser videos were a source of footage for mainstream media including the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera, leading to the app being blocked in the country, and in Egypt, Twitter was used to disseminate information from the heart of Tahrir Square at the height of the uprising. Events in the region were part of Mark’s drive to create the app.

Continue to read Nancy Messieh, thenextweb.com