Online media has established itself as an increasingly important medium for discussion about political, religious and cultural issues, particularly in regards to “hot topics” such as war in the Middle East.
Within this context conversations tend to emerge around individual events such as the invasion of Iraq, September 11 or, for an up-to-date example, the capture of al-Qaeda in Iraq’s deputy leader “Abu Ayyub Al-Masri”. The advent of blogging and the sub sequential emergence of the Iraqi blogosphere have challenged the traditional western-lead course of online discussion.
The success of the Iraqi blogosphere in becoming the leading forum from which online discussions about Iraq emerge, inevitably lead to the development of strong blogging communities amongst other Middle Eastern cultures. During the recent invasion of Lebanon by the Israeli Defense Force, online discussion regarding Israel and Lebanon was hugely influenced by the two countries respective blogospheres.
Traditional media were even caught by bloggers printing falsified information and images as the situation unfolded. (See these: 1, 2, 3, 4). Continue reading Online Media and the Blogosphere