By Jessica Reed
Browsing the blogosphere using a 'by country' filter may be more hazardous than reading newspapers or catching news reports on television to understand how a nation deals with news, but it provides a good insight on differing opinions and diverging perspectives within a national spectrum.
Global Voices just published a fantastic blog entry illustrating the 'Lusosphere's [read: Brazilian blogosphere] reactions to the world most blogged conflict' - after all, with more than 8 millions citizens of Lebanese desecent on its territory -more than the population of Lebanon itself and de facto home of the biggest Lebanese diaspora worldwide- Brazil must feel entitled to have its say on the matter.
With each major breaking news being covered by mainstream media outlets comes its own 'internet buzz', made of blog entries, chat sessions and debates hosted in online forums: the blogosphere exploded shortly after the events of 9/11, with more and more internet users wanting to have their say and share their opinions with one another. This interactive cyber-alternative is sometimes the perfect echo of the traditional press, but also finds itself mixing the political with the personal, like it is the case with those blog entries written by Lebanese-Brazilians.
From the Global Voices entry:
"There were some reports that called my attention, and it was not the ones about the burned baby victim of a Israeli attack in the arms of a soldier which was on the cover of the main newspapers. The interesting one was about the existence of young people from both sides reporting about their personal dramas in the worldwide computer network through blogs, which are then commented by other youths: Arabs, Syrians, Lebanese, Jews, Christians… [...] What these bloggers tell about the Middle East phenomenon puts us closer to them, in front of them, without exotic or folkloric labels. Blog yourself!"
Elsewhere: The Brazil-Arab News Agency's coverage of the 'Lebanese Migrants in Brazil' exhibition in Beirut + Wikipedia page for Immigration in Brazil + Lebanese immigration to Brazil began 125 years ago
