Maroon Magazine 2018_266

June 2018
Charles Town Maroon International Conference Magazine
Practices of citizen media – such as the work of
artists, activists and commentators who produce from
a community perspective and are dedicated to
resisting injustice – raise critical questions about the
disregard, dismissal and divestment experienced by
Syrian grassroots initiatives.
In addition to state violence, citizen media practitioners
must also struggle against silencing strategies
and systemic problems associated with prominent and
influential media organisations and social networks.
Countless examples of citizen media are being disregarded
by the international media and social media
platforms; countless citizen media practitioners are
being dismissed in their efforts to contribute to epistemologies
of resistance and to transform their lived
realities; and divestment from their projects and
struggles occurs due to the way structural and institutional
mechanisms function to exclude submissions
and nominations from intellectuals, artists and
activists. Instead of investing and engaging with
citizen media many in positions of authority and
influence have constructed knowledge ecologies
mainly built on power, privilege, status and reference.
Disregard, dismissal and divestment operate as a
weapon against Syrian people suppressed in their
homeland, those displaced and exiled to neighbouring
countries, and those seeking safety and freedom in
many different countries.
Deeper questions need to be pursued as a result of the
systematic exclusion and intellectual undermining of
citizen media projects: What impact does disregard,
dismissal and divestment have on knowledge landscapes?
How are advocacy programs and media organisations
complicit in marginalisation and suppression?
And what kinds of collaboration and consultation are
necessary when developing strategies for empowerment
and liberation of Syrian people, both at home
and in diaspora?
If these concerns are not addressed with urgency, then
issues such as disregard, dismissal and divestment of
citizen media projects can be weaponised and function
to weaken voices that speak to power.
As citizen media practitioners, Quasay and
Muhammad are making a vital contribution to documenting
the struggle of Syrian people and expanding
our understanding of resistance and knowledge
production. We need to be doing all we can to be sure
their work is widely known.
____________________
Omid Tofighian's current roles include
Assistant Professor in Philosophy,
American University in Cairo;
Honorary Research Associate for the
Department of Philosophy, University
of Sydney; faculty at Iran Academia;
and campaign manager for Why Is My
Curriculum White? - Australasia. He
is author of Myth and Philosophy in
Platonic Dialogues(Palgrave Macmillan 2016) and translator of
Behhouz Boochani's book No Friend But The Mountains: Writing
From Manus Prison (Pan Macmillan- Picador 2018).
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