Muslims dissent across multiple cultures
Muslims countries around the world are practicing Islam as their independent religion. The residents are free to follow their religious activities, rituals and festivals both on individual or community level. But how Islam was introduced and embraced in South Korea and Muslim communities shaped there within a passage of time. This news feature highlights this story.
The Muslims of South Korea by Radu Diaconu & Athena Tacet published by Al Jazeera has adopted a different genre, photojournalism. The use of composition of theme related photos arranged in chronological order with description on each photo to ensure that reader is able to properly understand events as they unfold.
Starting with the photo of an Imam, portrays the character and its caption illustrate the setting of the story, emphasizing on history of Islam in South Korea,
How difficult it was to tell his friends that he could not meet for barbecue and drinks. “Back in the day, my friends didn’t understand my religion and forcibly asked me to drink,” he said. It took some time but today they understand me.”
Sharing Imam’s personal experience with his friends is a mimesis to show the difficulty of embracing Islam earlier.
This feature reflects the temporality from the Korean hostage crisis, which was a turning point of history of Islam and today when Muslims make up a tiny minority, 0.2 percent of South Korean society is the movement of the story.
This immersive long form feature follows the Martini glass structure. The beginning is a short inverted pyramid that quickly states the basic facts of the story.
Following paragraphs reveals, what Rick Bragg refers to as the boring but important information is presented in a sequence of events as South Korea is opening its doors to Muslim tourists, it increased to 33 percent and how the culture become Muslim friendly.
Contents should be “a series of connected events caused or experienced by actors presented in a specific manner.” (Mieke Bal,2009)
Then retelling the story in linear chronology by retracing the history of Islam in Korea through series of photos of Seoul Central Masjid, opened on May 21st, 1976 in Itaewon, its enlargement in December 1991 by presenting the images of residents going towards the mosque.
The next image represents two residents, Harun Kara working near the Seoul Central Masjid, told the history of the Turks soldiers efforts on the spread of Islam in the 20th century, They call Turks as their “blood brothers”. Safiya who works as accountant at Seoul Central Masjid, tells when she converted to Islam and the challenges she had to face.
Each pictures shows two characters, on left and right; the description of image starts with story of left character first and then the one on right.
Then at the end, he concluded with images of two young Korean Muslims who are trying to spread awareness on Islam in South Korea through social media is the kicker of the story.
Umar Choi who runs video series called “From Kebab to Kebab” on YouTube. Ola Bora Song stated, ‘over the 1,000 to 2,000 people attending her lectures.’ With more than 140,000 followers on Instagram, Bora has become a bit of an online sensation and inspirational figure for many Muslims across Asia.
The description of photo shows how young Koreans are disseminating Islam by use of social media and participating their role in flourish Muslim community is the coda of the story.
Tweet
“Twitter now ranking as the first place where journalists posts photos and blurbs about breaking news before posting them to the news paper’s website or writing for the print edition. This confirmed that journalists view Twitter as a mainstream publishing platform, not just another fad.” (Swasy, 2016: 08).
A tweet by The Associated Press about US recent statement on Rohingya Muslims used the word ‘BREAKING’ in block letters, that automatically grabs the attention of a reader, as AP was the first one to break the news. this tweet got the maximum likes of around 5k and re-tweeted around 4k times among all tweets on same news from other sources. Despite the fact, it did not stated ‘who’ has given the statement, instead they used ‘US declares’ seems to give an impression of a vague statement without complete information.
CNN has tweeted the same news within few hours, it has answered ‘who’ by stating, his position, Us Sec. of State, and his name Tillerson, gives more lucidity and authenticity of the news. Conveying the news in almost same format but added some remarks ‘shifts stance’ highlights the background of the news what has been happened in that past and what has changed now, added the interest element in the news.
CNN has rightly used the word ‘labels” to clarify the reader’s mind that US statement now condemns Myanmar government’s action against Rohingya Muslims. Despite giving complete information and clarity, this tweet does not receive much attention (118 likes, 67 re-tweets) as the news was already broke and there was nothing ‘new’ in it for the readers.
Both tweets followed intro and twist structure, mentioned in Narrative lecture, the first part answers who says, where and about what while second part unfolds the twist. Both tweets used the present tense throughout the news, used simple language easy to understand for layman and use quotes for a term ethnic cleansing to signify it.
AP did not use any image in the tweet, while CNN added the image of Rohingya Muslims ongoing condition. Both sources did not use any hash tag in their tweets making it less accessible for other looking for related news.
Suggestion
The tweet is introducing the announcer properly with his designation and name, by adding this statement in my tweet ‘after a careful and thorough analysis of available facts’ serves the purpose of being objective in reporting, proper use of hashtags. I commend, Intro and twist structure is appropriate choice for ongoing news and just to update when there is something new happened to it.
TV Show (yet to edit)
The intriguing concept, immersive program, exposure to different culture and getting mingle with another community to see from their perspective.
In my opinion, the most difficult part of producing this artifact would have been thinking the idea itself. “It’s funny that when you decide you want to do creative work — journalism or whatever — nobody tells you how much of your time you’ll be spending simply hunting for something worth writing about. I didn’t realize that searching around for stories was a big part of the job”. (Glass Ira. 2010:65)
Very impressive and bold approach by Fozia Khan.
“I wanted the new show to bring to a wide audience the harsh realities of what was happening. We wanted to do something bold and experimental to achieve this. Often, when making documentaries, you feel you are preaching to the converted. I was determined to make something that would reach people who wouldn’t normally watch a program about Muslims.”
My Week as a Muslim is a Channel 4 documentary in which a white woman is given the appearance of a Pakistani Muslim in order to experience public attitudes and Islam. She had to spend a week with a Muslim family of Saima Alvi who is British born Pakistani Muslim living in Manchester.
The documentary starts introducing the main characters and their demographics. Katie freeman, healthcare assistant in the NHS, living with her family, shows their daily lifestyle and the area she lives in Winsford, Cheshire is the whitish area where she rarely confronts people of other ethnicity. Then introducing Saima Alvi, a teacher, shows her house, her kids in their day-to-day routine.
We hear the voice over of the narrator through out the documentary to introduce characters and different situations. Shot interviews of main characters time to time, Saima, sharing her thoughts and experiences and Katie expressing her feeling, how her views are gradually changing with each experience.
Makeup artists darkened the skin of Katie Freeman and gave her a prosthetic nose. She was dressed in traditional Muslim clothing, including a hijab. She went out undercover with Saima to experience what life was like in Manchester’s Muslim community.
As fate would have it that was the night the Manchester Arena was targeted by a suicide bomber, killing 22 concertgoers and injuring 250.
Understandably, Katie had severe doubts about continuing, but Saima convinced her that, because of the tragedy, this time more than any other would give her a sense of what it was really like to be a British Muslim. When the backlash and suspicion was at its height.
She came across with some ladies, after prayers at mosque, sharing how difficult it has become from them and their kids to go out in public.
Towards the end, Katie decided to went to her hometown in same get up to surprise her family creates the jeopardy. As she pass by a pub in her neighborhood area, she got attacked by some white people comments make her furious and ashamed, she realized, she used to be one of them.
Her mother got surprise watching her in Muslim get up and Katie shared her experience with them, making them realize how ignorant and prejudiced they were, she would have never understood this without experiencing it herself.
In the end, Katie’s discovery was what everyone in this country should know to be true anyway. But played out against the tragedy at the Manchester Arena it had added urgency and impact, and heavily underscored this film’s central point: that ignorance really is the breeding ground of prejudice and hate.
References
1. Bal M. (2009) Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. [e-book] 3rd edn. Toronto Buffalo London, University of Toronto Press. Available through: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rB1FRhzvGrwC&pg=PT35&lpg=PT35&dq=Mieke+Bal [Accessed 19 November 2017].
2. Bradshaw,P. (2017) Narrative structure, short forms. [PowerPoint presentation] MED7334 Narrative from Media to Interactive Medi. Faculty of Art, Design and Media, Birmingham City University. Available through:https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTgBvaAHDlgt0eVL9cvHFFl- [Accessed at 23 November, 2017].
3. Channel3232. (2017) My week as a Muslim [video] Available at: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6667zd [Accessed 26 November, 2017].
4. CNN. (2017) Rohingya Muslims. Twitter, 22 November. Available at: https://twitter.com/CNN/status/933394392378986501[Accessed 26 November, 2017].
5. Diaconu R. & Tacet A.(2017) The Muslims of South Korea. Aljazeera, 15 November. Available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2017/11/Muslims-south-korea-171114104611451.html [Accessed on 26 November,2017].
6. Glass, Ira. ‘Harnessing luck as an industrial product’. In Biewen. J. and Smith S. (2010). Reality Radio. [e-book] The Centre for Documentary Studies: Duke University Press, Page 65. Available through: http://moodle.bcu.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1323891/mod_resource/content/2/Week%207%20-%20Ira%20Glass%20-%20Harnessing%20luck.pdf [Accessed on 26 November,2017].
7. Khan F. (2017) I produced My Week As a Muslim. Its intention was to educate, not offend. The Guardian, 23 October. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/23/producer-my-week-as-a-muslim-brownface-documentary [Accessed 26 November, 2017].
8. Sherwood H. (2017) My Week as a Muslim documentary sparks racism row. The Guardian, 19 October. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/oct/19/my-week-as-a-muslim-documentary-sparks-racism-row [Accessed 26 November, 2017].
9. Swasy, A.(2016) How Journalists Use Twitter: The Changing Landscape of U.S. Newsrooms.[e-book]Maryland: Lexington Books. Available through: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6b3VDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Twitter+journalism&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjW29enkNPXAhWI5xoKHTF7B5cQ6AEIPjAE#v=onepage&q=blurbs&f=false [Accessed 22 November 2017].
10. The Associated Press (2017) Rohingya Muslims. Twitter, 22 November. Available at: https://mobile.twitter.com/AP/status/933320977404059648 [Accessed 26 November, 2017].
11. O’Donovan G. (2017) My Week as a Muslim was a privileged insight into what it’s like being Muslim in Britain today, review. The Telegraph, 23 October. Available at:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/week-muslim-privileged-insight-like-muslim-britain-today-review/[Accessed 26 November, 2017].
