-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
By Isabelle Boucq
Paris
07 April 2006
Last November, as predominantly Muslim youths rioted in the suburbs of Paris, the media around the world struggled to find a way to tell the story. A Swiss magazine took the opportunity to try an approach to on-line journalism1 known as blogging.
-----------------------------------------------------
Antoine Menusier, left, and Titus Plattner, right, Swiss reporters from weekly L'Hebdo, exchange instructions in their office rented in Cite Blanqui in Bondy, north of Paris
As the Paris suburbs were erupting last November, a Swiss magazine, L'Hebdo, decided2 that its articles had not gone far enough in helping3 readers understand what was happening in France. To bring their readers closer to the story, the editors assigned reporters on rotations4 of seven to 10 days to the suburb of Bondy. Located about 15 minutes outside Paris, the southern part of Bondy is considered affluent5; the northern part, where rioting occurred, is much poorer.
This is the part where the Swiss journalists stayed. On a daily basis, the journalists, living in a cramped6 office rented from the local soccer team, filed stories about their daily encounters. By the end, their blog attracted up to 3,000 visitors a day from all over the world.
The experiment was the brainchild of the magazine's world affairs editor, Serge Michel, who recently left the publication.
"We thought we must do something more, something different to understand the deep roots of the problems in the suburbs," he explained. " So we thought immersion7.
To live somewhere, to wake up in the morning and see these areas really in front of our eyes was important."
Several young people in Bondy took the foreign journalists under their wing, giving them access to local life and protecting them from residents angered by the media coverage8 of the crisis.
Antoine Menusier, Swiss reporter from weekly L'Hebdo, left, talks with Mustapha Margoum
The Swiss journalists have now gone home, but the Bondy blog remains9 active, thanks to a group of local youths who, after being trained by the magazine in Switzerland, took it over.
"They were always asking us, the young people from the suburbs, 'You are here, that's nice. But what can you do for us? We need help, we need jobs,' explained Michel. "We thought, 'OK, that's the ideal solution.' We teach them how to blog, how to write. Instead of being victims, they would become actors of their own lives."
Sada, Hakim and Kamel are three of the main members of the team. Sada will graduate from high school in June. She just learned that she might be going to the International University of Political Studies next year. In her last year of high school, she joined a program aimed at allowing minority students from underprivileged areas to compete for entry in the prestigious10 school.
Hakim and Kamel are unemployed11 and bitter. They say Bondy's mayor failed to keep a promise to help them open a tearoom in their neighborhood.
In some suburbs, up to 30 percent of the population is unemployed. Young residents complain that they cannot get jobs even if they hold degrees.
Chaouki, one of the bloggers, completed four years of university but the only job he can get is as a cleaning man in the metro12.
On a recent afternoon, three of the bloggers spent time at a local high school where a group of students was planning a one-week visit to Bondy for
10 Algerian high-school students. They interviewed the students, took photos and recorded sound bites for the blog.
Later in the afternoon they met with Serge Michel in a local café to prepare for an interview with Gilbert Roger, the Socialist13 mayor of Bondy. Editor Michel was back in town for the launch of "Bondy Blog," a book which presents selected blog entries and commentaries left by visitors.
The book launch was held at the Bondy library. After the official speeches were over, the Bondy bloggers confronted the mayor over the lack of action since the November riots. The interview was immediately published on their blog.
Bondy Blogger Hakim is convinced the blog is an important outlet14.
It changes the city, we give a voice to those who have never been heard. We are on the ground, we can get information other journalists would not get, he says.
René Connat is a retiree and a long-time resident of Bondy. He says that the blog opened his eyes to injustices15 he was not aware of. He hopes it will foster dialogue between the underprivileged northern part of town and the more affluent southern section.
1 journalism | |
n.新闻工作,报业 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 rotations | |
旋转( rotation的名词复数 ); 转动; 轮流; 轮换 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 affluent | |
adj.富裕的,富有的,丰富的,富饶的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 cramped | |
a.狭窄的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 immersion | |
n.沉浸;专心 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 coverage | |
n.报导,保险范围,保险额,范围,覆盖 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 prestigious | |
adj.有威望的,有声望的,受尊敬的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 unemployed | |
adj.失业的,没有工作的;未动用的,闲置的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 metro | |
n.地铁;adj.大都市的;(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国,主要经营零售) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 socialist | |
n.社会主义者;adj.社会主义的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 outlet | |
n.出口/路;销路;批发商店;通风口;发泄 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 injustices | |
不公平( injustice的名词复数 ); 非正义; 待…不公正; 冤枉 | |
参考例句: |
|
|