Blogging from the Middle East

Jaron Gilinsky, a Jerusalem-based video journalist and editor Falafel TV, guests on Mark Glaser’s MediaShift blog this week. He discusses how blogs are helping humanize conflict in the Middle East,

If you can find the good blogs, you will be exposed to a very real slice of Middle Eastern reality that wasn’t possible 10 years ago. And that slice of life is more than just suicide bombings, radicalism and ethnic strife — which most outsiders assume is what we encounter every day living here…
I actually feel quite safe living in the city of Jerusalem. Yes, there is tension and ethnic strife. And yes, there is violence here, but it is rare and isolated. It is really no different than living in Miami, where incidentally I have been held up at gunpoint, knifepoint, and have been beaten up by thugs…
Why is the average American’s perception of the Middle East so negative? Well, the answer is obvious. The media is to blame. If you’ve never visited a place, and don’t know anyone who has, then your perception of that place comes solely from the media. And the media seems obsessed with violence, not just in the Middle East, but wherever it may rear its ugly head. link

It’s a good read from someone who has lived and worked in the region for seven years. Jaron goes on to list a number of blogs he believes offer a slice of life not seen in much of western media. His claims about negative reporting would seem to be valid if the recent Screening the World report is anything to go by.