Category Archives: Hanya ALKhamis

Women as stereotypes in media

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By HANYA ALKHAMIS

After studying for my test in CEM 102, I was amazed after I was struck with reality of how media presents stereotypes such as those about women.

Women are seen to be fragile and sensitive human beings, who are easily hurt. Reading about stereotypes, the book stated that women who are single are presented in movies and in TV shows to being superior, sexy and in control of any situation. While on the other hand, women who are mothers are seen to be nurturing and caring.

Why?

Why make women into a stereotype? We are presented in many shapes and figures and we grow to the realization that we are actually what the media wants us to be. Why are the women who are in a relationship always miserable and always in doubt? Why are women presented to be fragile and sensitive?

Independent Women

Independent Women

The media have all the power to shape our beliefs and values. We are always surrounded by messages by how we are supposed to look like and act.

As a teenager, I am always self-conscious about my body and my outer image. Why? Well because the media around me influence the way I see myself as a woman. If you are not skinny and tall you are not worthy of being a woman.

You are not fully beautiful without makeup on. You are not fully dressed until you put on that bright red lipstick. Why do media try to change our image? Are we not good enough? Should we all be models?

We are all strong women regardless of our social and economic status. We are all worthy of attention. Whether you are single and ready to mingle or married with five children we should all be seen the same way: strong and sexy. We should not allow the media to shape an ideal image of how a woman is supposed to look like and act. We are all beautiful in our own way.

Kuwait’s influencers have social impact

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By HANYA ALKHAMIS

In the past two years, Kuwait has been booming with influencers like Fouz ALFahad and Bibi Al Abdulmohsen, Hassan Al Mosawi and Yalda Golsharifi. These are all familiar names to Kuwaiti society. All of these people are part of a sensation, a social media sensation. Influencing people to buy things such as shoes, hair products, makeup and also visiting new restaurants.

Most of these people are all part of a worldwide known company called Ghalia Tech, which is a marketing agency founded and established, by Abdulrazaq Al Mutawa.

Influencers are used to help market a product or an event or even a restaurant and get the people’s interest. Keeping people up to date of what is hip and new and getting everyone interested to go and buy the product. To be an influencer, one has to give up his or her privacy. How so? Your Instagram should be public and everyone should have access to it. You would be able to market the product using your Instagram and tagging the product’s company into the image you are posting. Being an influencer does not only mean giving up your privacy but also giving up your time, to traveling, shopping and even going to more outings.

You don’t need to have studied a certain major to become an influencer, which is a great opportunity for people who have no job opportunities in the field they have studied. Being a journalism major, I have been worrying about what sort of work I will do once I graduate and this might be an option. I am also thinking of taking this summer as a great opportunity to work an internship at Ghalia Tech to practice my journalism skills and see what an influencer can and can’t do in depth.

Ultra gives attention to EDM performers

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By HANYA ALKHAMIS

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all about electronic music, lasers and smoke.

Ultra Music Festival took place this weekend at Bayside Park in downtown Miami where crowds of people gathered from all over the world to celebrate this music festival. For many, it was their first time and for others they have been coming to this festival for several years.

Girls and women wore revealing, colorful and fun outfits that looked very cool resembling the electronic energy of the festival. I was amazed by the amount of country flags I saw, as many attendees had their country flags covering their backs all the way from Brazil to Lebanon.

Despite the rainy weather on Friday, the crowd was not held back from celebrating and I could remember Afrojack exciting the crowd when he said “We do not give a **** about the rain!”

I was amazed to see that one single music festival excited the whole city of Miami.
Tickets were first sold on the Website in November at a very reasonable price of approximately $200 for all three days’ tickets. As the festival opening date approached, ticket prices went up for people who were trying to sell their tickets. And on the Website two weeks before the Event tickets were sold for $450 in total, leaving people to think twice before buying a three-day ticket and relying on single day tickets sold by individuals for a cheaper price.

As mentioned, I was amazed how the music festival excited the whole city. The city of Miami was full of advertisements for pool parties, nightclub events and other events happening all over Miami. As I stood outside on my balcony, I could see the little advertisement planes fly slowly all over the downtown and South Beach.

On Friday, the festival began at 4 p.m. with everyone gathered in the main stage area, where all the famous DJs played. As a journalist, I approached the Ultra Music Festival venue with all eyes and ears, observing everyone’s actions and seeing how they react to this type of loud electronic dance music. Despite the rainy and windy weather, people kept enjoying the show. People were jumping and dancing nonstop until 12 a.m., to the beat of the rhythm.

Saturday was filled of surprises; Usher appeared and shocked the whole audience with his energy. Saturday wasn’t the only day filled with surprises, though. Sunday’s night had Iggy Azalea and P. Diddy and even most importantly, Justin Bieber. Colorful and loud, fireworks filled the skies and people jumped around with all the energy they had left till Sunday 11 pm when the finale occurred. An end to an eventful weekend filled with loud electrical music, and exciting advertisements. Definitely a Festival to remember.

135 killed in Yemen by ISIS attack

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By HANYA ALKHAMIS

It just keeps coming. You can never be sure when this Sunni terrorist group will strike again. ISIS was reported to be responsible for the Friday bombing attack that happened in two Shiite mosques in Yemen’s capital.

Killing 135 people and injuring 345, it was said to be the first large-scale attack, planned by ISIS in the Arabian Peninsula country.

Why is it that these types of news articles are not found significant to foreigners and only scare Arabs and get all the media attention from them? Snapchat now uses a CNN app that manages to report any news reports which has kept many people up to date with news, but why not report these types of articles on messages and on social media?

This worries me as an Arab because knowing this means ISIS may strike again, anywhere in the Arab world. Kuwait being a mostly Sunni country can be at risk.

Having to live in threat and not know what may occur is just scary. Reading about this new terrorist attack just raises questions about when will this stop. When will we live in peace in the Middle East?

What about the journalists who cover such stories and reports? What happens to them? Will I, as a future journalist, end up kidnapped and taken away by this group if I speak against their beliefs? What If I am set to report about an attack somewhere in the Middle East, will I be at risk and on the ISIS radar since ISIS is growing bigger than just a terrorist group? Will my career be at risk since journalism requires one to be a risk taker in covering stories like terrorist attacks in the Middle East like ISIS?

Covering Ultra will be a challenge

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By HANYA ALKHAMIS

The Ultra Music Festival is coming soon. From March 27-29 Miami will be drowning in electronic music and overjoyed youth. Taking place in Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami, Ultra is being anticipated by music lovers and journalists alike.

How does a journalist get a piece written about Ultra? Does he or she attend the festival? Or just cover it by what is posted on the Internet and social media? Personally, as a journalist, I would attend the music festival and talk to people attending. I would also keep a camera ready for pictures and to capture videos of any unusual and new activities taking place. I would even stay until the end of the music festival to get further interviews from the attendants, ssecurity and clean up crew.

I would attempt to talk to Ultra’s public relations team and get a press pass to talk to the musicians and DJ’s that will be playing.

As a journalist, there is no such thing as too much information. You need to get all the information needed, even if you don’t end up using everything you collect. Ultra would be a great opportunity to test my abilities as a journalist and see if I am ready to tackle a challenge that requires so much coverage.

Covering the color of that mystery dress

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By HANYA ALKHAMIS

It was on a Thursday night when everyone was on their phone and staring at a dress, which was either black and blue or white and gold, depending on the viewer.

Pathetic, it was just pathetic to view how people made a big deal over a worthless dress that had no significance what so ever. It was on all Web news sites. And it got considerable mainstream news media attention. Even the national TV networks gave it attention.

Everyone was all over the place about it and yet, if it were to be about the wars and political disputes happening in Arab world, no one would have cared.

The social media’s main topic on Thursday night and all of Friday was the dress and the color perceived by each and every person.

It is insane and foolish how everyone was on his or her phone Thursday night talking about this mysterious dress that was both black and blue or white and gold. Everyone spent an hour or two or even the whole day just to figure out the mystery and Googling the reason why they saw what they had seen.

The image contained a striped dress, a dress that was seen to be white and gold in my perspective. The controversy was all over how one perceives the dress color differently than another. Many argued it was white with gold stripes or blue with black stripes.

The mystery dress was a sight test to test how people view colors differently. The dress is actually known to be white and gold, but there is an explanation why some viewers, viewed the dress to being black and blue.

As some people go through hard negative events in their life they start to see colors a different way. This proves why many people believed that the dress was black and blue rather than white and gold.

Whatever color you saw depended on the emotion you were feeling and the type of mood you were in, and that is the primary reason why people argued about the actual color of this mystery dress.

‘Public’ varies from place to place

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By HANYA ALKHAMIS

There is a completely different understanding of public information of people’s private records in the U.S. and in Kuwait.

There is a different understanding of what privacy is in Kuwait. Kuwait is a conservative country that has a different idea of what information should be sent to the public and what is sent to designated parties: which include the private sector: ministry of the interior, lawyers, judges and police officers.

The law in Kuwait is French based and includes the Shareaa understanding. The American law is English-based but law of its own with separate ideals and beliefs.

It may be surprising to see and hear that, in the U.S., one can track and view any criminal reports about anyone online. Knowing this, it raised the question of whether or not this option and service is established in Kuwait.

Online information about crimes in Kuwait is not really accessible for the general public, but why not? Privacy is taken into consideration and one can’t view what he or she desires to know about someone. You might be able to have access to some private information if you have “Wasta,” which is an Arabic word that basically means using connections to get what you want, although it may be morally corrupt, it exists in there.

Double standards exist in coverage

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By HANYA ALKHAMIS

Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha, Razan Mohammed Abu-Salha, are you familiar with these names? Or are they names of random strangers to you?

These three “random” names were victims in a very strange and cruel racist act. They are three American Muslims who have been shot dead near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. By who and why? Their racist white neighbor shot these three Muslim students. The sister of one victim, Deah, stated that they have seen numerous acts of verbal harassment that have come from that very same neighbor. Sadly, the reason behind the shooting was a stupid parking spot.

It is even more depressing to know that the media did not give them the attention that was deserved. Being shot dead for no legitimate and lawful reason is not a merciful act. And what is even more disturbing is that this crime was not discussed. The social media platform, Twitter, had a famous hashtag that went viral in all of social media for #jesuisCharlie, which was a massacre in which 12 people were killed at the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper, Charlie Hebdo.

Media did not direct the attention to this vicious crime, a crime that is so pathetic and hateful that it revealed racism towards the Muslim society in America. Within two days of the Charlie Hebdo attack the #jesuisCharlie slogan had become one of the most popular news hashtags in Twitter history. Unlike the Chapel Hill shooting, which gained recognition throughout social media only, however not even close to the Charlie Hebdo shooting. This reveals the racism towards the Muslim community as opposed to what would happen if the victims were of another religion.

Coverage of ISIS crisis varies by nation

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By HANYA ALKHAMIS

As I was browsing Tumblr, I came upon a post about ISIS and an argument about why the news media only focus on certain topics more than others. We only read what the media wants us to read.

Muath ALKaseasbeh was burned to death and no attention was given to that horrible news. This left me very irritated and astonished. Not enough coverage was made to report the story. No attention was given to this disgusting act of human torturing! Burning someone to death while they are still alive is brutal, cruel and inhumane. Why do so? Why? Do they want to prove a point? Do they have a certain goal? This is not proper Islam. And the act scene in a video does not represent me as a Muslim.

Terrorism is and will never be connected to Islam; Islam is a religion that is specifically known for its generosity and mercy amongst people. Islam was never set to be this way. No religion or belief strives to kill people and torture them brutally.

CNN only presented the main idea of the story but did not specify what really happened and why. Muath ALKaseasbeh is a Jordanian pilot in the Jordanian Air Force who was held hostage by the ISIS group and killed after his plane was crashed due to unknown reasons in Northern Syria.

The crash determined his fate. He was captured and held hostage at the ISIS headquarters till Tuesday where he was filmed to be inside a cage wearing an orange prisoner’s suit. Burned and tortured to death, Muath suffered a painful end and the American media did not do its job to show their interest and concern about this tragedy, as did the Arab world.

This is just one of many stories and news reports the American media kept quiet about and did not raise any concern and awareness. This should not be the case. All news reports should be vital no matter what the subject was. And since there are many Arabic and Middle Eastern tourists and students the media should also require and include Middle Eastern concerns. The media should also include the difference between actual Muslims and terrorists, because ISIS as an Islamic Organization does not represent me as a Muslim nor as an Arab.

Kuwaiti journalists often restricted

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By HANYA ALKHAMIS

As my father once said “Where will studying journalism take you? What will your job be, once you graduate?” “Kuwait and the Middle East don’t appreciate journalists the way the West does!”

Being a journalist in Kuwait means including yourself in a narrow tunnel that is suppressed by the government. It is a tunnel surrounded by rules and regulations of do’s and don’ts. One would just have the chance to work in newspaper or magazines since we don’t have a wide range of media genres in my country. This leaves our society to be private and secretive.

Reporting should be part of freedom of speech and expression. Media surround our lives everyday, from listening to the radio to viewing one’s Snapchat. This media outburst weakened the power of breaking news and announcements. Snapchat now can help someone to enjoy news in a different manner. Journalism and broadcasting organizations should also take into consideration these changes and allow news to appear more often onto these popular apps that are constantly used and abused by millions.

From Snapchat to Instagram and to Twitter, one must be up to date with all of these media products to view what people enjoy and take in. Just so, journalism is now revolving around and transforming to become part of these products, new and up to date.

Being brought up into a closed-minded society, journalism, reporting and broadcasting are monitored by the government leaving the people wondering whether what was said was true or false.

Censorship shouldn’t be included in Kuwait’s media and maybe this may change in time, but one shouldn’t be watched and judged for what he or she may have to say. What’s the point of journalism when there’s false news behind the screen? Why does media in Kuwait feel the need to sensor? Is it because to hide the shameful news. Is the media being bias and choosing a side or is it because they the want to not cause any conflicts? Falsely reporting may cause a larger conflict, instead.

I believe people in Kuwait should have the right have to follow up with media and journalism one should have the right to view what is exactly happening at any given event.

Citizens in nations become clueless and naïve due to the rules enforced by the government that control what to say or report. Because of my Islamic country, some issues, such as the “Charlie Hebdo” images, are extremely sensitive and delicate. Insulting and disrespectful, we believe that some journalists and columnists should take into consideration the respect of religion and drawing the line between news and disrespect.

Drawing the lines in journalism may be hard to do since each and every person may have a different opinion of what is right and what is inappropriate and wrong. Media should always take into consideration all the different opinions and beliefs of all the different kinds of people around it. Having to be filtered and clarified; is okay but, it does not mean to leave out what is vital and important.