An explosion in internet access and participation is offering unprecedented opportunities for citizen engagement in the Arab world. Maha Taki reports on how a unique web drama is tackling tough issues with and for young people in the region.
Recent events across the Arab world have demonstrated the unprecedented potential of the internet to shape opinion and encourage young people to access their democratic rights.
According to the 2011 Arab Social Media Report, Facebook accounts have grown by 78% in a year (up from 12 to 21 million), and the Arab uprising has witnessed a proliferation of new websites, blogs and social networking communities in the region.
At a recent conference in Cairo, Google executive Wael Ghoneim (credited with helping to inspire the Egyptian revolution) predicted that “social media and steadily increasing citizen engagement on the internet is expected to attract 100 million Arab users by 2015”.
Blocking development
However, the continued expansion of the internet is hampered by a number of factors; the blocking of sites, enduring problems with connectivity and an issue rarely reported in the media – negative attitudes to web-based content in some sectors of society.
Perhaps as a result of the widespread filtering and site-blocking by the authorities for political or religiously, culturally, or socially inappropriate content, Arab society is rife with perceptions that much internet content is harmful, particularly to women.
Media literacy is practically absent from school curricula, and certainly the educational potential of websites is often overlooked. Young people discover the internet from peers and it is generally seen as a source of entertainment rather than a space for developing opportunities.
The Shankaboot effect
Now in its fifth season, Shankaboot, the world’s first Arabic language web series, is providing both entertainment and a space for young people to actively discuss and engage with its storylines that capture the mood and spirit of the Arab youth.
Subjects that Shankaboot tackles are often ignored by the mainstream media for fear of controversy or censorship. These have included drug addiction, treatment of domestic workers, corruption, human trafficking and class inequalities.
Shankaboot’s efforts to shed light on common dilemmas have struck a chord and the episodes have continued to generate a high degree of discussion, both on special web forums www.shankaboot.com and on Facebook.
Getting Shankactive
A domestic workers storyline was particularly controversial with many viewers appalled to see the casual racism portrayed and expressing strong sympathy for the victims of abuse.
“I applaud Shankaboot for bringing this issue to light and sticking it right in our face!! We Lebanese have some real issues to deal with” said one of 14,000 comments on its Facebook page.
Over the last six months, Shankaboot has been running video production workshops for young bloggers, filmmakers and activists, using tools that are readily available to them (for example video on enhanced mobile phones).
Each workshop focuses on a particular theme from the series and participants are invited to explore different angles to the theme and turn it into an engaging film.
One of the videos produced, “Being a Domestic Worker: Sri Lankiete Libanieh” has been viewed over 44,000 times online and was screened at Lebanon’s 2011 Human Rights Film Festival. Other user-generated content inspired by Shankaboot is showcased on a new section of the site called “Shankactive”.
Shankaboot’s efforts in engaging its audience on the web was recognised when it won an 2011 International Digital Emmy®, beating off stiff competition from cutting-edge productions from the UK, the Netherlands and Brazil.
The production represents a collaboration between Batoota Films and the BBC World Service Trust, the BBC’s international development charity.
