E-Media Tidbits
Follow Bhutto Assassination News via Blogs, TwitterBy
Amy Gahran
As I was making tea this morning, I heard on NPR that Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister
Benazir Bhutto had just been assassinated at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Immediately I jumped on my laptop. Of course,
Google News already offers a slew of mainstream news coverage of the assassination -- based almost entirely on reporting done outside Pakistan, since tight restrictions on journalists remain in force in Pakistan even though President
Pervez Musharraf lifted six weeks of emergency rule on Dec. 15. (More on that country's press restrictions from the
International Federation of Journalists and the
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.)
Given the current dearth of available professional journalism from within Pakistan, the country's lively blogosphere -- much of it in English -- has become a key source of original and diverse news, analysis, commentary, and context from around that troubled nation. Today especially would be a good time for journalists around the world to start paying close attention to Pakistani blogs.
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One of the easiest ways to get started is at a blog aggregator with the unlikely name of
Teeth Maestro, run by
Dr. Awab Alvi (a Pakistani dentist practicing in Karachi). This site offers an
RSS feed and e-mail alerts -- but for a couple of months now I've been following alerts from this site
via Twitter.
In fact, I would recommend that if you're skeptical of the value of microblogging services like Twitter, you should definitely sign up for Twitter today (if you haven't already) and start following Teeth there. The key value to keep in mind about Twitter: Since it's mobile-friendly for posting and receiving, and since it just works, it's proven exceptionally useful during crises.
Since the Twitter site is rather a blunt instrument for using the service, you might want to download and install Snitter -- a slick third-party Twitter interface based on the Adobe Air platform, for Windows or Mac. Snitter offers many nice interface options, include optional pop-up/fade-out mini-window notifications of new "tweets." There are many Twitter applications to suit various devices and needs, including various mobile interfaces. You can find a fairly comprehensive list on the Twitter fan wiki.
Another great resource for following Pakistani blogs today is the Pakistan section of Global Voices Online, a popular blog aggregator that syndicates blogs from over 100 countries. As a matter of fact, GVO editor Georgia Poppelwell tipped me off about Teeth on Twitter at a November conference in Catalonia, and I've been following both Teeth and the GVO Pakistan section ever since. (Thanks, Georgia!)
If you're using Pakistani blogs to aid your understanding of today's tragic events or of the region, remember to give credit -- and links -- where due. Too often mainstream news organizations fail to appropriately attribute information they gather from blogs. Under ordinary circumstances that's merely disrespectful and annoying to bloggers. But given that Pakistani bloggers are doing dangerous work which journalists have been blocked from doing, I'd venture to say that neglecting to credit them under these circumstances would be downright unethical.
Al's Morning Meeting
Blogs, Video and Background on Pakistanis in the U.S.By
Al TompkinsPakistani bloggers are actively posting updates on the country's escalating tensions after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
You can check out the
official Bhutto website, but the site has been down a lot on Thursday. Here is Google's
cached version.
Video
- Truveo is one way to see many sources of video on the story.
- You can get more video coverage from Pakistani TV at Pakistan Politics.com.
The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) has a collection of resources -- news, blogs and video -- to help you cover the fallout after Bhutto's killing. The association also has a list of
freelancers available in Pakistan.
From the SAJA site:
Latest on Pakistan news:
Blog coverage:
How many Pakistanis live in the United States? In 2006,
The New York Times reported:
Hard numbers on how many people of Pakistani descent live in the United States do not exist, but a forthcoming book from Harvard University Press on charitable donations among Pakistani-Americans, "Portrait of a Giving Community," puts the number around 500,000, with some 35 percent or more of them in the New York metropolitan area. Chicago has fewer than 100,000, while other significant clusters exist in California, Texas and Washington, D.C.
Pakistani immigration to the United States surged after laws in the 1960s made it easier for Asians to enter the country. Most were drawn by jobs in academia, medicine and engineering. It was only in the late 1980s and 90s that Pakistanis arrived to work blue-collar jobs as taxi drivers or shopkeepers, said Adil Najam, the author of the book on donations and an international relations professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
