VOA慢速英语2012 Technology Report - Syrian ‘Citizen Journalists’ Use Social Media to Spread News Restricted by

Technology Report - Syrian ‘Citizen Journalists’ Use Social Media to Spread News Restricted by

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

Social media networks have come to play an important part in the political unrest in Syria. The Syrian government barred most media from the country after the unrest began almost one year ago. But that has not stopped Syrians from getting out information to the rest of the world. Many Syrians have turned to social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to help spread reports about what is happening in the country.

(SOUND - EXPLOSIONS FROM VIDEO OF HOMS SHELLING)

That is the sound of explosions from a video on YouTube. The video is said to show shells falling on the city of Homs.

This is one of hundreds, possibly thousands of similar videos placed on social media websites in the past few weeks. With few foreign reporters in Syria, social media have become a major tool for telling the world what is happening. Many news organizations have had to depend on reports and videos from people they call citizen journalists.

Emanuelle Esposti has been studying the use of such videos by foreign media. She operates a blog and lives in Britain.

EMANUELLE ESPOSTI: “It’s very difficult to know where that video has actually come from, who’s behind it, why are they behind it… Because there’s nobody there on the ground, because there’s no reporter there that can say ‘oh yes, I’ve looked out of my window and I’ve seen this.’”

Last week, Syria’s deputy oil minister resigned his position to join the opposition¹. In a video on YouTube, Abdo Husameddine criticized the government of President Bashar al-Assad. He said the government had, in his words, “brought a year of sadness and misery² to those you claim to be your people.” He also said the government had deprived its people of basic needs and humanity and brought the country to the edge of disaster.

Abdo Husameddine is the highest official to leave the government since the unrest began. In his video, he urged other Syrian officials to resign.

Syrian opposition activist³ Abdi Hakim Ijburi also knows about the importance of social media. He used social media to contact other opponents of the government. He says many of them wanted to hold protests similar to earlier ones held in Egypt and Tunisia.

ABDI HAKIM IJBURI - IN ARABIC WITH ENGLISH: “At first, we started using Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to get a group of young people and activists⁴ together,” he says. “And from that group we started organizing. In Talkalakh where I come from, we started writing anti-government graffiti on walls.”

Abdi Hakim Ijburi says that, as the protests grew in strength, he was captured and tortured. Like thousands of Syrians, he escaped to Lebanon, where he continues to help organize the online opposition.

ABDI HAKIM IJBURI - IN ARABIC WITH ENGLISH: “There were lots of people in my hometown of Talkalakh that I didn’t even know were part of the opposition movement, or were sympathetic with the movement,” he says. “And if it hadn’t been for the social media we wouldn’t have become united.”

And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. I'm Steve Ember. 

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

3 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

4 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》