As a college student, it is ultimately my, and my classmates, respsonbility to keep the spirit of democracy alive, because we are the “rebels”, who are certainly too young to know any better. Everyone knows the stereotype, the college student is the highest form of rebel, and we are truest to our beliefs. We haven’t been corrupted yet by the pressures of the real world, by jobs, by the pressure to pay our mortgages and taxes, or by the terrifying thought that conservatism comes with age. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve heard an older conservative family member say, “You don’t live in the real world yet, when you do, you’ll care more about where your taxes go”. Deep down I know he’s partially right, that’s why it is most important that college students hold on to their pure, untainted values for dear life, (even if those values are in the form of the GOP), and the best way to do this is to participate in democracy itself.

Classes such as this, Media Democracy, dig deep into the meaning of this stereo type, saying that as students we should be most qualified to keep the flame of democracy burning, even while the media and the current admistration try their bests to blow it out. This course not only taught me a lot about media, but also ignited in me strong feelings of resentment that our once healthy democratic system is being washed down the drain every day by those who have pledged to run our democracy in the place of the citizens themselves. Therefore, Media Democracy should not only be an American University class, but a movement throughout our society, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for its arrival, at least not in the next two years.

This course gave its students the opportunity to ponder and evaluate questions that truly affect every day life in the US, which gave it, in my mind, a greater importance than many other classes I’ve taken. As we read about these questions and problems, they were occurring right in front of our eyes, which made Media Democracy contempory in a way that most classes can only dream of being.

One of the main questions of this class was “Would Thomas Paine be a blogger”? Readings and evaluation proved that this answer was not simple in any way. Blogging has revolutionized the current media environment and given the average person their own personal soap box to preach from. In colonial America, Paine’s writings essentially did the exact same thing, and both phenomenons have had a deep impact on free speech and how it is used. But undoubtedly Paine would have found problems with the blogging system, and it would have been much less appealing than his colonial writings.

Paine produced pamphlets that circulated in the US, spreading his message far and wide. While blogs can reach much further than Paine could have ever imagined, I believe that he would have had much less success from behind a computer. Although blogs have the potential to be read by many, it is common for the average blogger’s view to fall through the cracks of the cyber world. Simply put, there are too many blogs, too many authors ranting, and too few opportunities to set yourself aside from the rest of the pack, and Paine would have been lost in the wide world of the web, leading him down another path, maybe as a writer for an independent newspaper? That is a whole different possibility to be pondered in the future.

Another important aspect of Media Democracy has been this section, the blogging curriculum. The world of blogging opens up a new found freedom of expression that our generation has been missing as our media outlets are minimized, along with the diversity of their coverage. The blogging world, which I was not apart of before my classes with Professor Walker, is an important factor in media democracy, because it is transforming journalism and eliminating the barriers that hold the average citizen back from the media world. Without a publisher or editor, it was once impossible to publish your views, but now it is as simple as logging-on and the world of journalism has been turned upside down, but where will it go from here?

The future of blogging is still unknown and highly debated, because blogging itself is in its infantancy. Dan Hunter, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says that blogging is “not a fade” but a phonemon that will be around for a long time to come. (CNETnews.com). He believes that blogging is the new form of resistance to the highly controlled and censored media, and I’d have to agree. College students may be the all time rebels, but bloggers are right behind them, showing that their words may in fact be mightier than the media professional’s corporate backed machine. According to Technorati.com a new blog is created every 7.4 seconds, so as the blogging community grows, so does the diversity of opinions that is noticeably lacking from the nation’s media.

Clearly, there is no question that bloggers are here to stay, but the important question is, what role will they play next to their journalist counterparts? Can professional journalism and blogging live side by side? It’s no secret that journalists have felt threatened by the blogger’s ability to take control of the news and give it a personal touch, in a way that many journalists probably wish they could. As Professor Kevin Werbach, also of the University of Pennsylvania, put it, blogs are not substitutes, but alternatives to traditional journalism. He believes that they can in fact work side by side and that news consumer will have everything to gain from their partnership.

The future of blogging has also been secured by its ability to produce news in a way that the mainstream media cannot, immediately. In the recent events of 9/11 and the Tsunami particularly, blogging has shown that it does have an edge on the normal media because in the blog world material can be published right away, getting to their readers faster than any other news outlet. It also provides the publisher with a way to actually interact with their reader, in an intimate way that has been almost completely wiped out of the current media system. As the letters to the editor sections of newspapers are quickly wiped out, the blog has jumped in to replace them, and improve on the concept in many ways.

In the end, the mainstream media will remain the dominant force in news because not everyone in the world is online, and not everyone is willing to break their old habits. On the other screen, the computer screen that is, blogging’s popularity will continue to grow as our generation and the hip baby boomers above us, log on to find new and exciting ways to view the world of news.

This online course, Media Democracy, was a course that represented the blogging world itself: new, unique, and still developing. It provided me with an opportunity to learn beyond the traditional boarders of a classroom, about a very un-traditional topic, so it is only fitting that the topic of an online course was as revolutionary as the course itself. In the future, it will be interesting to see how AU’s communication department continues to develop and change as the communications industry is, in order to accommodate the new and changing media landscape. Can the curriculum and the industry itself keep up? Only time will tell.

I recently attended the Newport Film Festival in Newport, Rhode Island to view the Swiss film- A Crude Awakening- The Oil Crash. This documentary about the connection between the US oil needs and the wars of the Middle East shed light on many issues the American media typically ignores, due to their connection to the Bush admistration and its pressure on the industry, or just plain ignorance. The film explored many issues, mainly the enormous amount of oil that the US consumes, and the scramble to secure adequate oil resources in the Middle East and Africa.

I arrived at the movie unaware of what I was about to view. Would it be heavily anti-American? Of course I thought so, because currently the anti-American attitude has overran Europe, which made living there this year for six months difficult and stressful on many occasions. The film itself was quick to attack American oil policies and the connection of these policies and needs to the war in Iraq, but it never truly attacked Americans themselves, which is common in Europe currently. As the movie progressed, it was hard not to wonder why it hadn’t attacked the US citizens themselves for the major role we play in our gigantic oil consumption habits, and the strain it puts on the world’s quickly draining oil supply.

According to the Natural Resource Defense Center, America consumes 25% of the world’s oil, but has less than 3% of the oil reserves. With our country so highly dependent on importing oil, it is obvious why we are so interested in the Middle East and the security of the oil supply there. The film was quick to make the clear connection that many Americans want to ignore: Iraq is about oil, whether we want to admit it or not.
I remember before the war started. As a high school senior I was greatly in favor of military action, even if there weren’t any weapons of mass destruction. I stood up in front of my debate class arguing that it was time to end Hussein’s reign of terror, and that the US should be the ones to do it. Deep down I truly believed in it as a humanitarian mission, not because the media was preaching and pushing it, or because Bush was attempting to make a truly ridiculous connection between Al-Qaeda and Hussein, but for the sake of the Iraqi people. I thought they needed our help, but that is the curse that faces America, we’re assholes if we sit back and watch destruction and murder unfold without intervention, or we’re the devil when we do attempt to get involved in overseas problems, criticized for not minding our own business. This country can’t win either way.

Now three years into the war, I’ve greatly changed my position. Yes, I’m thrilled that Hussein is now unable to continue to torture, rape, and murder his own citizens, but the US government’s policy for the war lacks any true direction or plan for the future. They have shown they don’t know how to handle the insurgency, they can’t control the sectarian violence plaguing the country, and they have failed to provide essential social services for the Iraqi population. Overall, at this point I would say the war went from a success to failure, after the “Mission Accomplished” banner was flown.

Also with time, I’ve come to accept that yes, the war is about oil. This movie hammers this message home, and warns that the future for the US and other large oil consuming countries is bleak unless we change our ways. A Crude Awakening explained a concept I was unaware of previously: countries are allotted the amount of oil they can produce based on how much they have in their reserve. Therefore, almost every oil-producing nation exaggerates the amount of oil they actually have to raise their production quota. The end result: the oil reserves of the world have been greatly over-estimated, and an oil crisis is closer than ever before.
This pending oil crisis has left the American government, according to the film, scrambling to “secure” the Middle East. The underlying message is that without democracy and allies in the area, the US will quickly face sky-rocketing oil prices, and a shortage so great it would change every aspect of American culture. But now you ask, how is this connected to my topic of sectarian violence and every day life in Iraq? The answer lies in the insurgency members flowing into Iraq from other Middle Eastern countries, fueled by their hate for American greed and dominance in the world.

On June 12th, the Washington Post published an article about the high amount of Lebanese citizens who are leaving their nation to fight against the US troops in Iraq. The article focuses on the city of Tripoli, which is in the north of Lebanon, and is the second largest city in the country. I was just there at the beginning of June when I was visiting my boyfriend, who was studying in Beirut for the semester. The article painted a picture of Tripoli as a growing fundamentalist Muslim stronghold, filled with jihad banners, celebrating the insurgency.

For the most part, the journalist, Anthony Shadid, portrayed the city accurately. The majority of the women were dressed in traditional Muslim clothing, and it was clear that many residents were fundamentalists. Although this was the case, I was surprised to hear just how brutally the Lebanese men spoke of the violence they have committed against Americans, as well as what they’d like to do. My boyfriend and I, as well as one other friend were only in Tripoli briefly that day, but in the past both of them had spent a great deal of time visiting a local family in the city. They were as shocked as I was after reading this article, since while we were in Tripoli, we never truly felt discriminated against or in danger.

These Lebanese men, and others from neighboring countries in the area, such as Yemen, as described in the article, and Saudi Arabia, as described in the movie, are so passionate about fighting the West that they are willing to give their lives in a foreign land for the cause. It is these men, and others who are sneaking into Iraq, committing sectarian attacks, and reeking havoc on the average Iraqi. This of course is not to say that American forces are angels, or that the Iraqis themselves are not involved in the violence as well, but the point is that the US has angered more than just the Iraqis, they have angered an entire very large and important area of the world, and their backlash, whether through violence or oil restrictions is likely to cause Americans problems for decades to come.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, even though it scared the hell out of me. Our oil resources are fading fast and the American government’s response to the looming crisis is to find allies in the Middle East by instituting democracy. We’ve all seen how well that’s worked. Instead we’ve started two wars, angered the rest of the surrounding area, endangered our relations with old allies, and have led our troops into a war that has no apparent end. The film’s message was simple: Oil keeps the US going, and the only place to truly get it is in the Middle East. We will face violence from their citizens who are sick of seeing us occupy their fellow nations, leading to more violence, more resources wars, and overall destruction.

You can find the Washington Post article "Smoke of Iraq War Drifting over Lebanon" at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/11/AR2006061100599_4.html?referrer=emailarticle

You can find A Crude Awakening-The Oil Crash's website at: http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/film.html

You can find the Natural Resources Defense Council's website at: http://www.nrdc.org

Sects and the City: Sectarian Violence and Life in Iraq

The war in Iraq has quietly faded into the background of American conscience. Across the world its easy to move on with life, while the war we rage is killing thousands of Iraqis every year. Americans have perfected the art of closing their eyes and ears to the destruction around them in order to block out reality, but it doesn’t stop it from existing. The sobering truth is that millions of Iraqis have been killed or forced from their homes, not only by military violence, but by fighting within the different sects of Muslims. Since the bombing of the Al-Ashkari Shrine in Samarra in February thousands of Iraqis have been forced to leave their hometowns amid kidnappings, death threats, bombings and torture. Now the real problem for coalition forces lies not only within pacifying the violence of the nation, but also stablizazing relations between the Iraqis themselves.

The sectarian violence of Iraq has its citizens on edge, afraid to leave their homes to venture outside. As one Iraqi woman said, they are no longer sure who to trust, when even men in army uniforms are kidnapping individuals off the streets and from inside homes. As the violence continues the body count has been rapidly expanding, as high as dozens found dead on numerous days. The bodies found are typically young men, who show signs of torture and are then executed. In a recent San Francisco Chronicle Article one Iraqi man described when his two nephews failed to return home after their family had received death threats by phone. Khadel al-Shimeri of said that a man called using one of the boys phones, and told him to pick up a delivery in Zeiden, when he arrived he found the two eighteen year olds dead, tortured, and thrown among fifty other bodies. He said they had been burned, shot in the head, and their knees had been drilled through. Violence of this nature has become more of a threat to everyday life than military violence, and is more upsetting to the Iraqis because it is by their own people, not a foreign occupier.

Many Iraqi families are now struggling with a choice, leave their homes or face loosing their loved ones to Muslim sect militias. For al-Shimeri, the murder of his two nephews was enough to bear, he gathered everything he could take, and left with most of his extended family. Immigration officials in Iraq estimate that over 100,000 citizens have their left homes in search of safer areas, particularly in the countryside. Both Sunnis and Shiites are being targeted, and those who have the money are choosing to leave Iraq all together to move abroad. The poor are forced to stay, live in tents, or squat abandoned buildings, still vulnerable to the attacks, while their government struggles to stay intact and find a way to stop the attacks.

So why are the Iraqis themselves sparking violence? Coming from a Western point of view it’s hard to understand the complexities that lie within the Muslim religion, and the differences between Sunnis and Shiites. The political power struggle that is now playing out in Iraq’s government also includes the Kurds, who under Hussein’s regime were continually targeted and mistreated. Sectatarian violence is no new trend in Iraq, and Hussein is currently on trial for just one of his many crimes against humanity, specifically for the execution of 143 Shia men in 1982 after a suspected assignation of the dictator. Cleary the independent militias who are carrying out these attacks are attempting to undermine the authority and control of the coalition forces, and to only worsen the living situation of the average Iraqis who now live in fear from bombings, raids, and torture.

There’s no doubt that the sectarian violence is attempting disturb the peace process, but the question is how to stop it. As the newly formed Iraqi government struggles to even keep its members alive even, a solution seems distant. In an effort to provide their own solution, Iraqi citizens in the North have banded together forming organizations aimed at ending the violence. These groups include Kurds, Turcomans and Christians. Right now their main weapon against the violence is through the youth of the nation. They are currently educating school children about unity, human rights, and coexistence. It’s a small step, but an important one, in a nation where violence maims every day, and the children are some of the hardest affected. Numerous Iraqi politicians have also publicly urged the halt of sectarian violence, but their pleas have been ignored. As the problem grows larger, it is hard to believe there is a solution or an end in sight; because many believe that without the coalition troops the country would truly erupt into a civil war. From many accounts, it appears that it is already in the midst of one.

Although the sectarian violence is a disturbing trend, there are other scandals emerging from the Iraq conflict. The most alarming story as of late has accused American marines of attacking civilians and killing up to thirty Iraqis in cold blood in Haditha. Eyewitnesses such as a ten year old girl said that Marines went into private homes and shot her family members and other neighbors, including many children, the youngest aged two years old. The Marines originally said that civilians were injured by the roadside bomb that also killed one of their fellow Marines, but later changed the story and said they were killed in the proceeding fire fight. As surviving witnesses come forward, many at home are calling for a more in-dept investigation into the killings, and are accounting for the murders by saying that the Marines must have snapped after their fellow soldier was killed, but it seems to be a much different story. News stories describing the event said that the killings were spread out over many hours, which would not account for soldiers temporary loosing their composures. If these allegations are true, then Iraqis are justified for attacking back and taking revenge for the murders of innocent civilians. Today President Bush spoke out against the attacks, and said that Marines will be undergoing new moral and ethic training in Iraq to prevent these situations from occurring again.

As I think about Iraq and hear people debate the Iraq reactions to occupation, there is only one thought that comes to mind, that Americans do not understand what war really means. We are completely isolated and untouched; we’ve never woken up to find out homes destroyed by bombs or our family members dead. The only comparable experiences we have are Pearl Harbor and September 11^th, and neither comes anywhere close to the destruction that American forces have produced in wars throughout history. If the US had a war on its soil would it be less likely to enter into future wars? If for once we felt the heartache of loosing everything or watching our families be kidnapped and tortured would we support the amount of military action we currently impose on other nations? I doubt it, and for this reason as an American I truly do not understand life in Iraq, but I’m shameful for the American ignorance that keeps Americans in the dark about the reality of life in a war zone.