Social Media Story Pitch

For my social media story, I want to do an op-ed style piece that covers the development of the extremist group “Islamic State” known as ISIS and their Kurdish opposition.

In 2014 President Basher al-Assad attempts to cling to power in Syria after massive uprisings caused by the Arab spring. In the turmoil and violence of the civil war that arose set the stage for an extremist group to utilize the hopelessness and growing anti-western mentalities in the region to seize power in the region, brutally persecuting anyone who doesn’t share their extremist views. ISIS has continued to cause chaos to a point where Kurds relocated all over the world returns to the Kurdish region to fight, because the little systematic defense of these oppressed minorities has dwindled with time. I want to cover the struggle that now faces these people defending their homes.

The story will cover my old classmate, Saman Ali Beg’s return to Iraq to defend his country and people, leaving the safety of the welfare state of Norway into the lion’s den to help refugees and fight against ISIS. I will attempt to arrange an interview with Saman as my live event.

For the twitter portion, I will be able to utilize the accelerated sharing style to bring timely updates on the current situation in the region.

I want to experiment with making a story map that covers ISIS’ development and key locations to the Kurdish struggle.