Map of key protests in Syria

Protests across Syria

Graphic courtesy of The New York Times.

The New York Times produces many interesting and informative interactive graphics and multimedia. This is no different for the recent 2011 protests across the Middle East. The Times has several graphics for each country that protets have occurred.

Protests in Syria began in March. For Syria, the Times has a clear, concise image of the country with points labeling key cities where protests occurred. There are varying sizes of red circles on the cities that indicate the number of days of reported protests, in the last 30 days. Under the map, there is a timeline from March 21 to April 22 of key events and protests.

Blogger writes about, shows video of Egyptian, Syrian revolutions

Syrian Revolution: The first million man protest Friday ‘Graphic’

Photo courtesy of Egyptian Chronicles.

Egyptian Chronicles is a blog is following and posting about the several protests across many Arab countries this year. The posts are fairly regular, with at least one post or more a day.

This particular post has many videos from protests in different cities in Syria.

The blog also has a section titled “Change the World.” There are places to donate,
food donations and other causes.

The blog lists out several news blogs to follow for updates on the Middle East.

Note: Some of the videos on the website may contain graphic content.

Social media used in protests in Syria

Syria’s spontaneously organized protests

This BBC article describes the Syrian protests and how social media was involved.

Social media has been extremely important in these recent protests. The Facebook page of ‘Syrian Revolution 2011’, asked people to take to the streets for Friday protests. The group has 120,000 followers.

Many people also used Twitter to spread news of protests, locations and slogans to use during protests. The account of @SyRevoSlogans offered slogans for people to use during demonstrations.

Documenting the protests: Photos help visualize a movement

Photos of the protests

Protesters stand in front of the Syrian embassy in Cairo with flags and posters. Photo courtesy of Purephoto and Hossam el-Hamalawy.

Purephoto is a website that allows users to showcase and share their photos. Photographer Hossam el-Hamalawy has been documenting and sharing the protests in Syria. He also has several photo collections on the site from Tahrir Square and the protests in Egypt.

el-Hamalawy is a journalist, blogger and photographer based in Cairo.

Egyptians join Syrians to protest

Egypt: Protesting for Syria

This blog post from Global Voices is by Amira Al Hussaini, a blogger and journalist in Bahrain. Hussaini writes about Egyptians who are joining Syrians in their protest. She includes photos, videos and tweets by protesters.

This is a tweet from Lilian Wagdy, who attended the protests:

Global Voices is an international community of bloggers. Blog posts vary in topic, from social media, citizen media and other news from around the world.

You can read blog posts in several languages.

View Tweets about Middle East protests on one website

Twitter network of Arab and Middle East protests

The Guardian provides a great resource to follow Tweets about the Middle East protests in one place. The Tweets are from a network of Guardian journalists, bloggers and experts.

The Tweets are shown under the map in real-time, updating every few minutes. The time or date of Tweet and person is listed.

You can choose to view Tweets from all locations or click on specific countries in the area for more region-specific Tweets.

Book about non-violence inspires strategy for Egyptian protests

A book that has shown many how to protest peacefully

Gene Sharp's book "From Dictatorship to Democracy" has inspired many non-violent protests, including the recent Egyptian protests. Photo courtesy of BBC News.

The blog ascendingearthbeings.wordpress.com curated an article about a book by Gene Sharp. He has been credited as the author of the non-violent revolution rulebook and the strategy behind toppling the Egyptian government.

His book is called “From Dictatorship to Democracy.” It has been passed around the protesters and kept from the police and military. It has also been used in several other protests. In the book, Sharp provides a list of 198 non-violent techniques, ranging from the use of colors and symbols to mock funerals and boycotts.

Sharp is an expert on non-violent revolution and practices non-violence himself.

See the original article on BBC News.

Book on Egyptian revolutions describes protests as butterfly flutter

Egyptian revolution book review series: Kefaya – laying the foundations for the 25 January revolution

This article from Ahram Online is a book review that describes the 2005 protests in Egypt, called Kefaya or Enough, and how they influenced the January 25 protests this year. The Egyptian protest “butterfly effect” is also described.

Graphic by Marlena Chertock.

The flutter of a few protests “turned into massive demonstrations and peaceful protests in many Egyptian cities, and even in other Arab countries.”

Former Egyptian president Muburak and sons in prison, investigation pending

Egypt detains Mubarak and sons

Mubarak's sons Alaa, left, and Gamal are in prison pending an investigation. Photo courtesy of english.aljazeera.net.

According to this Al Jazeera article, the ex-leader and his two sons will be held for 15 days pending a probe into an abuse of authority.

The ongoing investigation will look into allegations of corruption, the wasting of public money and the abuse of position for personal gain.

There is a video clip on the website.

Updates from Cote dIvoire

Cote dIvoire — Ivory Coast

allAfrica.com has an interactive map that shows disturbances and places of violence in Cote dIvoire. Photo courtesy of allAfrica.com.

allAfrica.com has a comprehensive site with updates from Cote dIvoire, a country in Western Africa. The country is involved in a civil war. There have been recent bombings and shootings in the area.

There is a live Twitter feed on the page. Top headlines about Cote dIvoire are also on the top of the page. There’s a topical focus with different articles about the country, photos and videos as well.

There is a Google interactive map that shows areas of crisis.

There are also sponsor wires further down the page, with press releases or articles from IFJ, the International Federation of Journalists, RFI Radio France International and other wires.

At the bottom of the page there is a discussion board, where people can interact and comment with other site visitors.