New media project: PULSE

Dear friends,

Recognizing the potential of Web 2.0 to level the playing field in countering the propaganda disseminated by the mainstream media, I am pleased to announce P U L S E, a new joint media project which will provide in depth coverage of issues related to the Israeli assault on Gaza (besides much more). The website is updated several times daily and mixes original content with articles collected from a variety of media sources. These are chosen based on their merits or shortcomings with introductory comments to point either out. The aim of the website is also to furnish readers with the arguments and facts necessary to counter Israel's well-oiled propaganda machine (which is shamefully being assisted by much of the mainstream media).

The initiative was started by myself and Ann el-Khoury, a Lebanese-Australian scholar who runs the popular blog Peoples Geography. We have since been joined by Robin Yassin-Kassab, a veteran journalist whose first novel The Road From Damascus was recently published by Penguin; Middle East scholar Franklin Lamb; and Dundee based activist and A/V-extraordinaire Dave Thomson. We thought a joint site would be a great way to combine our efforts and achieve greater efficacy in cyberactivism for justice.

Ann and I had hoped that we would postponed the project until we had finished our respective doctorates, but given the crisis in Gaza and the execrable coverage on mainstream media, we concluded that we would be remiss in our duties if we did not intervene.

I would highly appreciate it if you could forward this announcement to your respective mailing lists and consider adding our new site to your links and feeds and daily web-stops.

Look forward to seeing you over there!

In solidarity,  Muhammad Idrees Ahmad