When war turns Palestinian citizens into journalists

Ayman AlHassi 36 was a freelance photographer before catastrophe struck on October 7 2023 when Israel launched a fullblown attack on the Gaza Strip as a retaliation to the attacks carried out by Hamas a day beforeArmed with his expertise in photography and a SIM card from the UAE that was still receiving signal in the warstruck territory he decided to take to social media to put out content about the strife Instagram was his first choicemdashan app he had been using for yearsEight months on Ayman has garnered over 77000 followers on Instagram He makes reels of himself doing relief work such as bringing food to people and sometimes even cooking for them as rockets and missiles continue to land around himBut he and the people he is helping remain unfazed by the attacksSubramaniam Vincent Director of Journalism and Media Ethics right Influencer and cook TanzinAyman is just one among hundreds of young Palestinian individuals who have refused to leave the war zone choosing instead to serve their people by recording their struggle in the war and taking these stories to the rest of the world Today they arenrsquot just social media influencersmdashthey are a new breed of storytellers that has emerged from this war zone With smartphones and social media as their only tools they have doubled down as citizen journalistsToday the world knows the plight of Gaza where even the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders cannot operate are operating under extreme restrictions And the credit goes to the incredible efforts of these influencers They are perhaps one of the most vulnerable groups of people in the world but unlike international reporters they have the advantage of being on the ground as well as their comfort with the local languageCitizen journalists have become the primary sources of graphic and often horrific war news that mainstream media censors Their unfiltered glimpses into their world are reshaping the narrative around the conflict They are also responsible for garnering support from the international community as they document reality from the wartorn region every dayldquoMy Instagram reels are not just updates from Ground Zerordquo Ayman says ldquoThe relief work we do soothes the wounds of those facing the brunt of what is now being called lsquogenocidersquordquoPainter and illustrator Yassin posing with his artwork PicInstagramAyman and his peers are not just witnessesmdashtheyrsquove also sustained injuries while filming their postsThe 36yearold young and with his entire life ahead of him could have crossed the border to a safe zone Yet he stays put ldquoI want the world to understand and know that the people in Gaza love life and freedom and strive for it These people are living in very difficult conditions digging into rubble to get food and water dailyrdquo he saysThe lensman says that while not all succeed in monetising their social media posts most gain thousands of followers and succeed in garnering global sympathy In addition Aymanrsquos and his peersrsquo videos have become a source for news organisations tooldquoThe Israeli Army does not distinguish between journalists civilians or even healthcare workersrdquo Ayman explains ldquoBut it is my homeland And I strive to capture the beautiful as wellmdashthe smiles of children the energy of youth and the rehabilitation campaigns carried out by volunteersrdquoShahd Safi and her familySo far over 37000 people have died in the IsraelHamas war that began last October Despite the presence of traditional media on the ground it is the citizen journalistsrsquo voices from Palestine that are sharing harrowing stories from the war with the rest of the world especially the Gen Z demographic which are the biggest content consumers on Instagram and Facebook Ayman says these ldquocitizen journalistsrdquo are doing what traditional journalists often cannot do due to the risks involvedShahd Safi a 23yearold Gaza native found a lifeline in social media after crowdfunding helped escape to Cairo Egypt along with her family on March 3 this yearShahdmdashwho wears multiple hats as a human rights activist an Arabic teacher and a journalistmdashemphasised the importance of English and social media skills for Palestinians ldquoI grew up in Gaza One of the most important skills one could have there is to know English and social media Those who speak English are more successful both on social media and in general Palestinians have been vocal about their struggle and plight but many do not have the right terminology to communicate with the rest of the worldrdquo she saysLike many others Shahd has faced content restrictions ldquoMost of the social media is owned by proZionist groups and the algorithms are not supportive of the content people post Most of it is automatically suppressedrdquo she explains Despite these challenges those who follow and support Palestinian accounts continue to receive crucial information that mainstream media canrsquot provideShahd started a social media campaign to gather funds for her familyrsquos escape from the wartorn regionShahd also shed light on the surveillance by the Israeli government on Palestiniansrsquo phones ldquoThe amount of penetration the Israeli government has on our phones is beyond onersquos imagination Even if our phones are switched off before bombings they start getting warning alarms to vacate the area Sometimes these warnings are fake too to keep Palestinians anxious and on edgerdquo she claimsAlso in Cairo painter and illustrator Yassin remains vocal about the Palestinian struggle Surrounded by Gazan refugees Yassin channels his anger and frustration into his art He shares his illustrations with over 46000 followers on Instagram transforming horrific scenes from Gaza and the West Bank into powerful symbolic artworkldquoI regularly see horrific scenes from Gaza on local WhatsApp groups and in the news Instead of sharing the graphic images I turn the peoplersquos plight into art and share them on my Instagram feedrdquo Yassin explainsYassinrsquos friend Mohamed Yehia who visited Gaza nearly 5 years ago adds ldquoIt Gaza is like a prison It was one of the saddest places even before the latest war The atrocities on people who live there are terrible so it is important to pay attention to the content coming out of that place Social media has been very helpful in recent years when it comes to educating the rest of the world about PalestinerdquoCitizen journalism is not without its pitfalls though with credibility remaining a major concern ldquoSocial media is a crucial source of information but it comes with risks For example relying on a lsquoblue tickrsquo for authenticity can be precariousrdquo says Dhiman Chattopadhyay former journalist and currently an associate professor of journalism at the Shippensburg University of PennsylvaniaAt the same time therersquos no denying the power that such raw reportage holds ldquoIn modern times even trained journalists often turn to citizen journalists for information as traditional scribes may not be able to provide as authentic content due to political and ownership diktats that bind them to certain narratives Citizen journalists are unbound by these constraints and hence can offer raw and genuine content In cases like Ukraine and Gaza citizen journalists and content creators are often present at the spots when many mainstream journalists may be absent These individuals provide firsthand informationrdquo he saysThere is another advantage to unfiltered content too ldquoThere may be an inherent bias in organisations where content undergoes multiple layers of checks In contrast social media content creation relies solely on the creatorrsquos conscience as the checkrdquo says ChattopadhyayWhen asked how content creation on social media and citizen journalism are different in warhit Palestine and Ukraine from the rest of the world Dhiman said ldquoPeople in Palestine and Ukraine are fighting for their lives and what they are doing is remarkably admirable They are accomplishing what traditional journalists cannot due to the risks involved Some organisations refuse to send reporters because of life threats but these content creators who are now serving as citizen journalists are driven by patriotism and strive to improve their countriesrsquo situationsrdquoHe also added ldquoWhile content creators in Ukraine may focus on Russian aggression and the ones in Gaza on Israeli bombings they also address local issues related to health and sanitation This amounts to reportage These citizens may have biases but that does not diminish the authenticity of their reportsrdquoldquoAs a trained journalist sometimes one might have to see through some of the information that may stem from personal grief and trauma which is often the case in war zones A trained journalist might tone things down but the raw reports from these areas are lsquoinvaluablersquo If there were a Pulitzer Prize for citizen journalism these individuals collectively deserve itrdquo says DhimanThe Arab Spring movement is largely held to be the first revolution in which social media played a huge role Facebook Twitter and YouTube were instrumental in organising protests sharing realtime updates and broadcasting footage from the ground during the Arab Spring Movement that began in 2010 Citizens across Tunisia Egypt Libya Syria and other countries used social media platforms to document and spread awareness about their uprisings against authoritarian regimesldquoThe Arab Spring is a great example in which citizen journalists played an important role Although not led by social media the Arab Spring was significantly spread through it It was one of the first movements where social media and content creation played a major rolerdquo says DhimanSubramaniam Vincent cofounder of civic media platform Citizen Matters and director of journalism and media ethics at Santa Clara University in the US says ldquoThe footage that came out of the Arab Spring in the early wave in Tunisia Egypt etc had journalistic value as they were posting directly what they were seeing But this was before the era of deepfakes and AI Now we have additional concerns about them being fake But back in 2008 and till 2017 these issues were not a major concernrdquoSiddhant Pratap a Germanybased computer engineer says ldquoDeepfake and AI will make citizen journalism tricky as the tech is so advanced in 2024 that soon professional tools will be needed to detect the use of AI in videos Also data rates are cheap in India as compared to the rest of the world India also has the highest number of smartphone users Some deepfake apps are already available for Android smartphones This will make the fake news problem worse in futurerdquoIndia has a vast number of social media influencers yet despite the countryrsquos size diversity and myriad issues there are very few influencers who intersect with citizen journalismYawar Rashid a Kashmirbased journalist says ldquoContent creation and citizen journalism are nearly absent in Kashmir due to the regionrsquos complex issues and stringent laws Kashmiris often compare their struggles to those in Palestine The JampK Public Safety Act has instilled fear in the citizens as even a simple Facebook lsquolikersquo on a post not aligned with the governmentrsquos views can result in imprisonment Hence content creation for awareness reporting civic issues and citizen journalism in Kashmir is still quite farfetchedrdquoOn the other hand India has organisations like the Peoplersquos Archive of Rural India which reports stories of 833 million rural Indians But there are hardly any famous social media influencers who double down as citizen journalistsldquoDhruv Rathi YouTuber is one of the examples of a content creator who is doing a form of journalism called interpretative journalism whether or not he calls himself a journalist or a citizen journalist says SubramaniamAustralian social media influencer and cook Tanzinmdashwhose family survived the Bangladeshrsquos liberation war in 1971 and is now based in Sydneymdashsays that kind of trauma trickles down through generationsBorn and raised in Australia Tanzin too carries the generational trauma of her family Her grandfather Serajul Haque Khan an intellectual was among the three million people killed in the genocide ldquoI come from a family that has seen genocide firsthand I grew up with my mother often talking about her trauma She was 11 when she saw her father being taken away by the authorities It was the last time she saw him Seven months later his remains were found in a pitrdquoTanzin who has over 20000 followers on Instagram is vocal about Palestine and often attends protests in Sydney ldquoApart from the trauma of genocide that I grew up with I am a follower of Islam so it is natural for me to be drawn to the cause of Palestinerdquo she sharesldquoBut there is no backlash from the government when we attend peaceful protests in Australiardquo she saysmdasha stark contrast to the treatment of Indian protestors showing solidarity with Palestine Reports state that Indian protestors are often detained even for peaceful demonstrations in metro cities with the latest instance involving dozens of protestors detained in BengaluruAlthough Tanzin does not consider herself an activist her influence and reach make her and other influencers like her significant voices against oppression Content creators like her have stepped up into roles that traditional media cannot fill77000The number of followers that photographer Ayman AlHassi has garnered after eight months of posting about the Gaza conflict on social media