Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist organization whose members makes up the majority of the Palestinian National Authority. The PNA governs the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On January 7, 2006, Hamas launched its own television network called Al-Aqsa TV.
The organization receives funding from Iran and private benefactors in Saudi Arabia and surrounding Arab nations. The experimental television station has grown over the past year and now dedicates an entire television show to children.
In 2004, Rim-Al-Riyashi, a Palestinian suicide bomber,blew herself up in an act of "martyrdom". Below is a video clip from an Al-Aqsa TV interview with her two children from March 8, 2007. They have been raised to believe her mother killed herself and is now in "Paradise". Memri.org translated and transcribed the vocies in the video, which can be found here.
The video shows the host pressuring the children to speak and recite the words they have been taught that justifies their mother's actions. The children, they appear to be no older than 8, were three years younger when her mother blew herself up. They have been taught to approve her actions and will most-likely follow in her path in the future.
The Middle-Eastern media is widespread and coverage like this is not only affecting the core of the disputes, but also people all around the world. Exploiting children in a way to condone a terrorist act is truly frightening. Peace in the Middle East will never be reached if Hamas, whose widespread hatred for the Israelis is communicated across airwaves all around the world.
Cell phone technology is truly remarkable. In fact, most cell phones are now personal data organizers, whether it is used to manage a person’s schedule, MP3s, videos and… oh yeah, phone numbers. Like a PDAs, many can now access the Internet with a press of a button, send emails and search websites. The Blackberry paved way for such a powerful communication tool but anticipation is in full swing for the upcoming iPhone from Apple.
Besides headlining business and technology sections of newspapers all across the world, cell phones and cell phone technology has been in thick controversy as of late. In Denver, Colorado students at Castle Rock Middle School used cell phone cameras to take photos and videos of their naked bodies, which were then spread to other students and posted online. A video (below) released by USA Today shows a man attacking store guards with a knife in a Los Angeles grocery store on March 6, 2007. Four people were wounded in the attack.
Capturing Death with a Camera phone
I posted the video below of a man being struck and killed by a falling pole earlier this week. It was captured using a cell phone in the streets of Egypt. In 2003, according to the United StatesNational Safety Council, the odds of being killed by a striking object are 1 in 4,633. This man was the unlucky 1.
Death strikes people in many ways. Accidental deaths are unique in that people are not used to seeing people die on a frequent basis by various occurrences. However, this is changing with widely available and searchable video on the Internet. Curiosity may urge someone to click on the video and watch it, even if they feel as if they should not.
On March 12, 2007, according to an article on Tasmania’s online newspaper Mercury, an Indonesian woman filmed the poisoning of her own children on her camera phone, and then committed suicide. She left behind a note saying she was taking them “to see heaven”. This news is quite disturbing and raises questions. Why kill your children? And why film your children dying? Hopefully this video is destroyed and never seen.
Saddam Hussein Execution
The recent execution of Saddam Hussein brought forward the popular cell phone video (see below) captured by an official witnessing the execution.
This video initiated many incidents that involved children trying to imitate the execution video as it played out on the television and computer screens before their eyes. Mubashar Ali, a 9-year-old boy from Pakistanhung himself from a ceiling fan, while Sergio Pelico, 10, from Webster, Texasdied after tying a noose around his neck with the rope attached to the top bunk of his bunk bed. These are two copycat instances that include many more where the children were mimicking the images they saw.
A video from a cellular camera had enough exposure to convince, or shall I say trick, these children into ending their own lives. All this permeating from a nation with a culture reliant on cell phones and not Internet access.
Texuality.org has a sub-site news blog on video phoning called picturephoning.com. This site provides links and content to all kinds of news about cell phone culture. It is from here that I learned the Iraqi population’s dependence on cell phones. On January 3, 2007 the BBC posted an article about the culture of cell phones in Iraq
Iraq is a country with 0.1% access to the web, but has full access to cell phones. According to the BBC article:
The day after Saddam Hussein execution video was released, a trader in Baghdad was selling the footage for less than 50 cents US. Other merchants had the video copied on DVDs, which was available to the public.
This triumphant moment of faith and unity for many Shiites in Iraq was not only the cause of many children dying around the world, but also the reason the owner of a corner mobile phone store in Iraq earned a few dinars. Even the little man will take the opportunity to profit off the execution of an evil tyrant.
Skimming the local television stations during the evening newscasts an interesting video was shown. A lost whale in the shallow waters of Uwajaima Bay, Japan was being video taped as sympathetic Japanese fishermen tried to rescue the whale and lead it back into the ocean.
One fisherman got too close and the whale, confused and scared, slammed his boat with it's gigantic tail. Noriyuki Yamamoto, 58, drowned and was pronounced dead later in a hospital near-by.
This video, and many like it, are showing new trends in how newscasts are covering international news. Traditional local news outlets would briefly cover the war efforts of other countries and the politics of these news-making countries. The online video sharing trend is finding its way into the news. An innocent animal lost its bearings and nervously defended his space when a boat got too close. Without the video, the news would have barely made the briefs in the newspaper.
In this article by the New York Post, a line read, "Dramatic video of the attack made its way around the Internet yesterday and became one of the most watched clips on YouTube."
Death videos = views on YouTube. This video has over 64,000 views.
In December 2006, two former world leaders lost their lives. On December 26, 2006 former President of the United States of America, Gerald R. Ford, passed gracefully at his home in Rancho Mirage, California at the age of 93. Three days later, the other was tied up and lead to the gallows by a group of masked men.
The grainy video below of Saddam Hussein being lead to the darkened chamber was sent to television stations all over the world. Before the execution video was sent, CNN’s Anderson Cooper warned of an interjection of any programming or commercial if the news came. On December 30, 2006 at 6 a.m. local time (around 10 p.m. EST) and for his crimes against humanity, Saddam Hussein was executed. This is the same day the Sunnis begin to celebrate Eid ul-Adha.
The execution video made its way around news stations and simultaneously around online video upload sites online. Users recorded the reports off of US networks such as CNN, ABC, CBS, as well as stations all across the world and posted them up on sites such as YouTube. Below is the clip showing the coverage of the execution on Brazilian TV.
Gerald Ford’s death on December 26 followed many months of frequent hospital visits after suffering a stroke in 2000. Ford became the longest-living US president in November of 2006, passing Ronald Regan’s age of 93 years and 120 days.
This is the last known public photo of a living Gerald Ford. He stands with his wife Betty and President George W. Bush.
Two Men, One World
Ford’s coffin layed in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol for public viewing on the same day Hussein was executed. As Ford’s coffin lied in state, people could show their respects over two days December 31, 2006 and January 1, 2007. This video posted by The Washington Post’s website shows people visiting the coffin. It wasn’t until January 2, 2007 (three days later) that he was interred in his Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In comparison, President Ronald Reagan laid in state a total of one full day in which about 105,000 people paid their respects, before his remains were flown back to California to be interred on June 11, 2004.
Why would a legendary President such as Ronald Reagan spend less time lying in state at the Rotunda in the Capitol building?
Ford’s death did come at the end of the year. The public viewing occurred on the same two days in which people celebrate the New Year. However, I believe this staggered delay before the televised state ceremony occurred was to allow the overwhelming coverage of the Saddam Hussein execution to die down. Three days into the New Year, and 5 days after Saddam’s execution, Gerald Ford’s state funeral was broadcasted across national and international airwaves.
Saddam’s execution struck more people’s interest around the world and even at home. Google Trends comparison charts that track Google searches show the difference in this plot graph between the searches for Saddam Hussein and Gerald Ford. The number of searches for Saddam Hussein around the time of both deaths exceeds the searches for Gerald Ford by around 800%. Even in this chart, which breaks down the searches from IP’s from US computers, the difference is quite significant.
Saddam Hussein’s execution was also more popular on online video sharing sites than the death of the former president. A search on YouTube for “Saddam Hussein's death” results in 686 individual posted videos while a search for “Gerald Ford’s death” results in only 43 videos.
The real heat in the execution video race came after a second uncut version (below) was leaked online. This video was taken with a cell phone camera by a witness at the execution. According to The Observer on January 7, 2007, “debate over what should and should not be shown has been made all-but irrelevant in the age of mobile phones and YouTube.” Four days before, on January 3, 2007 the official who was believed to have videotaped the execution was arrested. Without media controlling the public domain, the world is now open to an unfiltered view of reality and brutality.
Taking Advantage Users who post videos want hits and a higher number of responses, especially on websites like MetaCafe, which provides cash rewards for users whose videos reach 20,000 views. The video below is a simple capture off a web browser on Google Earth that shows a close up of a Shiite temple in Kazimain, where the execution supposedly took place. For this short 30 second video, mistermojo2006 is close to the 20,000 view mark in which he will receive $100.
Now that is incentive. Incentive to take worldwide news and profit off it.
Welcome to Dead Sea Media, a video commentary blog. My name is Michael Ciuffini and I have decided to follow the patterns of various online video portals. The topic of choice for this particular blog is Death.
Posting video clips online is now the norm across the globe. Computers all across the world are capable of uploading and downloading video created from virtually anywhere. Popular video clips can be posted by any user on any of the most popular video sharing websites on the web (see link list to the left).
Although many video clips are created for kicks, many companies, aspiring filmmakers and trend makers are leaving their mark in the online world. Visuals that appeal to the Internet audience are being intertwined with marketing messages, selling concepts, products and brands.
Where the line seems to be crossed time and time again is in the coverage of death. Death is an intriguing part of life. It is where emotion collides with curiosity.
My project will analyze and conceptualize the coverage of death, and the issues surrounding it, in contemporary media. Over the next month, I will be embedding videos on the Dead Sea Media blog from various online portals to emphasize arguments and back-up opinions posted by DSM.
Videos may show graphic content, viewer discretion is advised.
