A Snapshot in Time

I really enjoy Hannah Allam's Middle East Diary as it captures the feeling of an incident from the ground up. It offers a snapshot in time of people in the battlefields instead of focusing on the military efforts.

Many of the blogs on this page offer a relatable human angle. The post on April 18 analyzes the work of a local stringer in Baghdad. Allam takes time to explain the importance of the photo, an opportunity often lost on the tight restrictions of other mediums. There is space on a blog to dedicate information about the newsgathering process.

This picture shows the devastation of war through faces. Grief is not a character that can be easily hidden and this is why I think this photo is more relatable to people than footage of fighter planes.

I also found it fascinating to learn the dangers local stringers are putting themselves under in the name of journalism. Fear of prosecution does not even put some of these people off and I think that is very courageous.

Blogging gives a voice to these people in a way not possible before. Although kidnapping of US journalists may be given air time, an Afghani journalist would probably not make the cut. But here I was able to read about these brave journalists living in another continent.

In my opinion, this is the best feature blogging can offer to journalism.

Picture by: McClatchy