{"id":3399,"date":"2015-11-21T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2015-11-21T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thediplomaticenvoy.com\/?p=3399"},"modified":"2021-01-22T18:19:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T23:19:29","slug":"misconceptions-about-the-syrian-crisis-and-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2015\/11\/21\/misconceptions-about-the-syrian-crisis-and-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus on Clicktivism: Misconceptions About the Syrian Crisis and Refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Luis Sosa Santiago<\/a><\/strong>
\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The crisis in Syria has been covered extensively by\u00a0international news outlets\u00a0since the\u00a0summer\u00a0as well as talked about extensively on social media.\u00a0As public opinion about Syria grows,\u00a0one\u00a0of\u00a0the questions\u00a0gaining\u00a0relevance\u00a0is how accurately\u00a0the news\u00a0depicted\u00a0the situation\u00a0and\u00a0how people are reacting to the refugee crisis online.\u00a0On\u00a0October 29, Seton Hall\u2019s\u00a0Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) hosted a panel discussion aimed at dissecting the happenings in Syria. Part of the\u00a0concern\u00a0that\u00a0motivated\u00a0the\u00a0creation\u00a0of the event was precisely\u00a0the\u00a0lack of\u00a0(or poor)\u00a0awareness by mainstream society. Panelists Edina\u00a0Skalijc, who was a refugee from the Bosnian genocide and one of the leaders of the I Am Also a Refugee campaign,\u00a0and Qutaiba\u00a0Bakeer\u00a0Agha, who was in Damascus when Arab Spring broke out,\u00a0sat\u00a0with The\u00a0Diplomatic\u00a0Envoy and shared their views on the issue of awareness\u00a0and\u00a0issues they saw with how the refugee crisis is being presented by the media and on social media.<\/p>\n

\"tweet8\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Skalijc, there are several reasons why most Americans may be misinformed about what is\u00a0actually\u00a0happening in Syria.\u00a0The main reason is that\u00a0American news consumers\u00a0just\u00a0began\u00a0paying\u00a0attention to\u00a0Syria\u00a0despite the fact that the events that led to the current situation started nearly five years ago. \u201cPeople just started tuning in.\u00a0They\u2019re coming late into the game and not doing the research in terms of how all this started.\u00a0Major media outlets\u00a0basically\u00a0presenting information as if this conflict started\u00a0just\u00a0when\u00a0the\u00a0refugees started coming to Europe, which is completely false.\u201d\u00a0Co-panelist Bakeer Agha further explained that the amount of coverage the news has received is equally important. He pointed to the fact that the coverage that has been given to the situation has not covered \u201cmore than 9 or 10 percent of what is really happening on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another\u00a0important reason\u00a0that adds to\u00a0why so\u00a0many Americans\u00a0are confused about the Syrian crisis\u00a0is the way ISIS is factored into\u00a0it.\u00a0Attacks made by\u00a0ISIS\u00a0are\u00a0taking the spotlight that\u00a0the deaths of the\u00a0Syrian\u00a0people and American soldiers\u00a0in Syria\u00a0should be occupying, and obscuring some people’s\u00a0perception\u00a0of the crisis and its sources.\u00a0Bakeer\u00a0Agha pointed that \u201cthere is less coverage on Assad\u2019s crimes.\u201d He\u00a0explained that, as a Syrian, he does not see what is happening fully represented\u00a0in the media, and that the coverage that has been given to the crisis is the equivalent of treating cancer with aspirin.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0integral\u00a0element\u00a0of the misrepresentation\u00a0of\u00a0the situation\u00a0has\u00a0to do with\u00a0its\u00a0naming. In international relations, it is the norm that\u00a0once states have identified a crisis or\u00a0a\u00a0conflict, they are compelled to take action against it. The same concept\u00a0holds\u00a0in the Syrian\u00a0case. If a state acknowledges people as refugees,\u00a0it has a responsibility to treat them\u00a0as such, for the term implies\u00a0an imminent threat to life\u00a0generally\u00a0caused by war. Therefore, the media has been inconsistent in how it discusses the refugees only serving to confuse the public further.<\/p>\n

\"tweet9\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite the misrepresentation and lack of accurate information, both panelists\u00a0stressed\u00a0that things can get better. They urged the\u00a0attendees\u00a0to become involved with local organizations that support the Syrian cause.\u00a0Referencing\u00a0her own experience as a refugee,\u00a0Skalijc\u00a0highlighted the importance of staying actively engaged and helping\u00a0so\u00a0people in need know\u00a0that\u00a0someone cares. Referring to a picture,\u00a0she noted that\u00a0as a child in a refugee camp she received a\u00a0red sweater that made her incredibly happy\u00a0because it was the only new thing\u00a0she\u00a0had gotten since\u00a0she and her family had\u00a0escaped\u00a0from Bosnia.\u00a0The sweater came from charity\u00a0and,\u00a0though she didn\u2019t\u00a0know where it came from,\u00a0it\u00a0meant a lot to her\u00a0as\u00a0it meant that someone, somewhere\u00a0understood she was there.<\/p>\n

Also reminiscing on his own experience as an Assad prisoner, Bakeer Agha highlighted the importance of being a voice for those that cannot speak up. He mentioned how often times freedom of speech is taken for granted in the U.S. For him, it was growing up in a society where such right is not necessarily respected which\u00a0made him become an advocate for the cause. Despite\u00a0their ups and downs, both\u00a0Skalijc\u00a0and\u00a0Bakeer\u00a0Agha\u00a0agree that we can all do something to help the\u00a0Syrian\u00a0situation get better, even if it is just speaking about it and raising\u00a0awareness\u00a0for\u00a0what is going on using social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Luis Sosa Santiago Staff Writer The crisis in Syria has been covered extensively by\u00a0international news outlets\u00a0since the\u00a0summer\u00a0as well as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3027,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[604,5,1095],"tags":[480,494,496,632],"class_list":["post-3399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-november2015","category-focus","category-1095","tag-syria","tag-refugees","tag-social-media","tag-clicktivism"],"yoast_head":"\nFocus on Clicktivism: Misconceptions About the Syrian Crisis and Refugees - The Diplomatic Envoy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2015\/11\/21\/misconceptions-about-the-syrian-crisis-and-refugees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Focus on Clicktivism: Misconceptions About the Syrian Crisis and Refugees - 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