Sawt Ashabab on Election Day!

Today, June 7th 2009, the minds of all Lebanese citizens are united.

Today, people from all corners of the nation are finding their way to poll stations to voice their opinion on candidates they think are adequate and capable of running one of the most politically divided countries of our world today.

Today is one of the most important days for the Lebanese, and the day’s outcome will determine the political stability of the country’s future.

While the older generations participate in voicing their political opinions, and while all media outlets tell their most compelling stories of events taking place on this date, the youth feels a need to include themselves in today’s excitement.

Being deprived of the right to vote until the age of 21, Sawt Ashabab – a group of students between the ages of 18-25 – are representing the youth and their role in this year’s Lebanese elections. Having already voiced the youth’s opinions in the newspaper published late last week with Al-Nahar and Al-Akhbar, the youth is also participating in reporting on-the-ground election stories.

With reporters located in poll stations all around Lebanon, Sawt Ashabab has created it’s own media outlet, reporting eye-witness events occurring all over the country, and combining information discovered by different sources to verify our own reports.

Follow us LIVE on www.sawtashabab.org

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sawt-Ashabab-/70659154425
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SawtAshabab
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sawt_ashabab/

Issue 0

This is an image that surely deserves to be on giant billboards all through Lebanon.. But what do you want me to say, we live in a not so fair world.. still, we're kind of working on it ;)
Thank you, each and everyone of you ;)

Dima

Mission YouthVoice

So not everyone wants to sacrifice precious Saturdays in hard labor, which is perfectly understandable. Many young people may question why anyone would do it ما بكفينا شغل الجامعة؟ What these people don’t know is that our labor is worth the fruit it will produce. We do it because we feel the opportunity is too great to miss, because it would be unreasonable not to venture ahead and because this is not coursework!

الجامعة شي واليوثفويس شي let’s make that distinction. This is more real than anything you will pick up in class, this is about what goes on in the streets, our streets and it doesn’t get rawer than that. YouthVoice is a rare chance to apply our passions, skills and talents to a cause with a platform. The exposure you get here goes far beyond cramped classrooms in which your assignments are forgotten the moment you receive the grade. There is no grade here but rather something more rewarding than that: recognition and the power to change.

This country has been stagnating for decades, that is not to say going backwards دق المي بتدلا مي and nothing ever changes. Lebanon is ailed with ancient convictions, the political scene is inherited from father to son, the story has been told a thousand times before by outdated minds that contradict the modern evolving word. YouthVoice is a fresh breath and it’s telling a different story by younger people with healthier views. To be part of that through contributing your voice in the form of an article is the definition of power.

When you’re young is when you are restless, when you’re always looking for adventure, whatever form it may come in. One of the greatest adventure one experiences in a life time is fighting for a cause they strongly believe in and I think it goes without saying that this country is a cause for anyone growing up here today. We are Lebanese and we wouldn’t call ourselves anything else, we are not driven by sectarian divisions and trivial labels, prove that through YouthVoice.

Sawt Ashabab - Code of Ethics

... as determined by the Sawt Ashabab Editorial Board, consisting of young people from six universities around Lebanon:

SAWT ASHABAB CODE OF ETHICS
• Honesty - no wrong info, at least 2 sources for info, no plagiarism
• Transparency
• Language - not too hard but not too simple
• Respect for candidates, politicians, readers
• Balance of opinions
• Pictures - high resolution, respect for copyrights
• Remain independent
• Don't go mock religious beliefs; no sectarian discrimination
• Everything you won't find in your average newspaper
• Consistency in spelling names, titles of persons
• Typo - spell check, proof-reading
• No defamation
• Reference page / sources on the web
• Enable comments on the web version; support reader feedback
• Balancing content (law-binding): if we write an article about the electoral campaign of x, need to write the same length about y
• Open source: collaborative work, everything is open for everyone to edit/work/write, etc....
• All of us are all the different ranks

(May 16, 2009 draft, in progress...)

تطلق صوت الشباب ROOTSPACE - by Fatima Farhat

عند المبنى المطل على ساحة الشهداء في بيروت، هناك التقينا. نحن هيئة التحرير، في مشروع يهدف الى رفع صوت الشباب عاليا، في خطوة هي الاولى من نوعها في لبنان. " صوت الشباب" مشروع يطمح الى انشاء منبر حر للشباب، بالتعاون مع منظمة .The Rootspace Organization

بدأنا هذا اللقاء بالتعرف إلى ديمة صابر، وهي من منسقي المشروع، وأستاذة إعلام في جامعة سيدة اللويزة، قد يلفتك فيها نشاطها الفائق وحماسها المتقد لانجاز المشروع، فقد ظهر أنها "الدينمو" الأساسي في خلق هذا المخطط، بالاضافة الى مساعديها الذي ما كلوا عن توضيح المشروع و مساعدتنا في تطوير الفكرة، وخلق الجو المناسب لبيئة خلاقة.

بعدها، بدأ كل منا بالتعريف عن نفسه واختصاصه الجامعي، وقد بدا ان ما يجمعنا هو اختصاصنا الجامعي في حقل الاعلام. فنحن قدمنا من مختلف الجامعات: اللبنانية والجامعة الأميركية و البلمند و AUST واللبنانية الأميركية.

ثم قسمنا الى قسمين: فريق الصحافة المكتوبة والاخر الصحافة المرئية والمسموعة. فريق الصحافة المكتوبة، و هو المؤلف من هيئة التحرير، بقي في نفس الغرفة ذات الطاولة المربعة للتناقش في المخطط للجريدة.

ومن ثم بدأنا في العمل واستخلاص الأفكار،بالتحدث عن المبادئ الرئيسة في كتابة المقالة. بعدها قسمنا الى ثلاث مجموعات من خلال قرعة تضمن اختلاطنا فيما بيننا و اندماجنا في فرق جديدة.

كان على كل قسم التفكير مليا في الأفكار التي قد يطرحها في الجريدة كالكلمات المتقاطعة والأحوال الجوية والأبراج والمعلومات العامة والتحقيقات والاراء الخاصة، بالأضافة الى مواضيع أخرى، التي قد تعطي انطباعا مختلفا عن الجريدة، هو أقرب الى الفئات العمرية الشابة. بالأضافة الى ذلك حدد كل منا الخطوط العامة في الميثاق الأخلاقي التي ستتبعه الجريدة.

ثم جاء وقت الغداء، فكانت الشرفة هي غرفة طعامنا، فتشاطرنا البيتزا وبعضا من أطراف الحديث. بعضنا فضل عدم تناول الطعام، لاتباعه حمية غذائية، علما أن البيتزا كانت ذات رائحة وصورة مغرية يصعب مقاومتها.

ثم بعدها اكملنا العمل، باشراف ديمة، فكشف كل فريق عن أفكاره والمواضيع التي قد نطرحها، في جعل الجريدة شبابية و شفافة الى حد بعيد. تناقشنا في عدد الصفحات وما قد تتضمنه من مواضيع تهم المجتمع. ولعل من جملة ما برز نوع من الأفكار الرائعة، فبعضهم فضل القاء الضوء على خفايا عن سياسيين يجهل الرأي العام حقائقهم، والاخر رأى في جمع الفن والسياسة معا، أمرا قد يراه الشباب مسليا من زاوية مختلفة عند الرأي العام.

ثم جاء دور الصفحة الأولى، وهي التي قد تقرر حجم نجاحنا في استقطاب الشباب، و لا أخفي أن كما هائلا من الأفكار الرائعة قد تجلى، في خلق صفحة تشد القراء، من مختلف الأعمار.

في صوت الشباب، تعرفنا على أشخاص قد نختلف معهم في السياسة أوالدين أو الأفكار الخاصة في نظرتنا الى المجتمع ومفهومنا الى الحياة، لكن حتما هم زملاؤنا في العمل، الذين سنتشاطر معهم خبرات و مواقف جميلة. على امتداد شهر ونصف، سوف يجمعنا يوم السبت من كل أسبوع للقاء نتشاور فيه ونتعارك لاصدار الأفضل فيما يتعلق بالشباب اللبناني من هموم معيشية و حكايا، قد تثيرك اشمئزازا أو ترقصك فرحا.

على أمل أن نلقاكم في عددنا الأول الصادر مع جريدتي النهار والأخبار في آخر خميس من هذا الشهر.

Introducing Youth Voice to the Civil Society by Nadine Ghaith

Young people in Lebanon seldom have a say when it comes to politics. It seems almost an unwritten rule that they should be steered away from the political stage and unengaged in general public opinion. All this however, is about to change thanks to YouthVoice. If you haven’t heard yet, YouthVoice is a project launched by RootSpace in which a news supplement will be written and produced entirely by the Lebanese youth and will be released one week before the elections. The project will also include a website (http://www.sawtashabab.org) on which content will be published starting this week and until Election night.

Students from all different universities in Lebanon have been encouraged to submit material regarding the elections taking place on the 7th of June. Under that one subject, they may explore, comment, investigate and reflect on any aspect they want. Within the boundaries of the law of publication in Lebanon, young people are free to say what they want without their voices being muffled. They will be able to exercise that which Lebanon is famous for among the rest of the Arabic countries: freedom of speech.

To launch the project, an editorial board of twelve members (all under the age of 25) was selected by YouthVoice. The first editorial meeting was held in RootSpace’s offices in Saifi on Saturday May 16, 2009 and focused on concluding the format of the paper and subheadings in which all content will be divided. The paper will be 8 pages long and will be published along with the two leading news papers in the country, An-Nahar and Al-Akhbar, on the 27th of May. On top of that, 5,000 copies will be distributed among various universities and an online website will be available to target a much larger audience.

The Board divided the paper into six sections with intermixed Arabic and English content. Among the sections: News, which will include all investigations about voting minorities, women’s involvement in elections, reflections of the common people in the streets and any controversial issue that needs looking into as well as coverage of what’s going on. The second section is the youth section and will be the largest as it will include all opinion pieces and editorials as well as a “did you know” section and youth quotes; basically anything young people want to say about the elections. Another section will be the media/arts/fashion which will explore the biases of media in covering the elections and take a deeper look at how traditional (newspapers, radio, TV) and Web 2.0 media (websites of candidates, blogs, facebook, youtube) are covering the elections. It will also include a subsection on Lebanese artists’ involvement in the elections. A section on foreign reactions to the election will be dubbed Lebanese elections and the world. This section will look into foreign involvement in the elections and what foreign students in Lebanon make of it. A section on corruption and economy will explore election costs, campaign funds, bribing voters and environmental issues. Finally the entertainment section will feature a health section, funny horoscopes that target politicians, crossword puzzles, political jokes and more.

Young people can contribute to any of these subheadings in Arabic and English or come up with others on their own as long as the topic is relevant. Content submitted before May 22 will be reviewed by the board and selected for the print edition and the home page of the website. However, we will be expecting submissions until Election night, and hopefully beyond. This is a stepping stone for young journalists and citizens everywhere in Lebanon. We aspire for it to grow.

Sawt Ashabab - Presentation

Sawt Ashabab is an exciting project which aims at engaging young people (age 18-25) from different universities, groups, regions, etc on a collaborative media project, to report, monitor, and act as 'citizen journalists' for critical issues in Lebanon.

We are developing and launching this project now related to the upcoming elections, but we are working to develop this into an ongoing effort engaging young people around Lebanon in regular media production and information & media literacy projects.

The immediate goal is to produce a newspaper (online and in print) completely written and edited by Lebanese students, in both English and Arabic. It would be published as a supplement by both An-Nahar and Al-Akhbar one week before the elections.

It is important to note that this effort is the first time in Lebanon that two newspapers, of different political tendencies, cooperate to co-publish content that fosters critical thinking and breaks down unhealthy barriers within Lebanese society.

There are three main outputs to this current effort:
1. A printed newspaper published as a supplement to partner media outlets (An-Nahar and Al-Akhbar) and distributed as a stand-alone paper on campuses and other youth gathering points (cafes, etc), including text articles, editorial cartoons, crossword puzzles or other games, graphics/images/drawings/photographs, etc;

2. Web content carried on our own website (http://www.sawtashabab.org) and in sections of partner online media outlets (including Al-Akhbar, An-Nahar, Jaridtak, Menassat, and UPI), including text articles, editorial cartoons, crossword puzzles or other games, graphics/images/drawings/photographs, etc (as above), and could also include audio/radio pieces, etc; and

3. Video pieces of 3-4 minutes about critical issues of concern to young people, and produced in a creative and original manner, for showing online and possibly through other media outlets.

The web content will be online starting next week and the printed newspaper will be distributed during the last week of May. We are also recruiting a team of students to send us reports live on the day of the elections. Students will be on the ground gathering interviews and reports and producing audiovisual content (videos and podcasts) that will all be published on the website of Sawt Ashabab as well as other web outlets.

We are already working with many universities such as Balamand, AUB, UL, AUST, USJ etc. and we hope to engage as many students and youth as possible because we believe that diversity is one of the primary conditions for the success of this project, so we want students from different universities to work together, think together and of course DO together!!

Initial information is now on our website (http://www.sawtashabab.org), though we will be developing additional content and a main entry portal for this project in the coming days. Once finalized, we will also display the logos of our media and organizational partners.

We believe that being able to participate in the creation of an alternative-citizen newspaper is a unique opportunity that every journalism and humanities student (indeed, youth and students of all interests) should seize and we hope to engage as many young people as possible for this could be an excellent way to create for these students an unbiased platform where they could make their voice heard.