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As much as images of violence, civil war, and sectarian strife become
prominent in the media narrative of the Syrian uprising, little gems of
innovative cultural production, artistic resistance, and creative
disobedience continue to sprout across the virtual alleys of the
Internet. These creative gems are also the germs of a viral
peer-production process at work at a grassroots level in the new Syrian
public sphere. Such acts of creativity - mash-ups, cartoons, slogans,
jokes, songs, and web series - are probably too small and inconsistent
in impact compared to the horrific magnificence that shelling, bombing,
sniping, and killing scenes that provide daily fodder to global
television viewers. It is also challenging to discover them; in fact, as
remarked by Tunisian blogger Sami ben Gharbia at the Arab Bloggers
meeting in Tunis (3-6 October 2011), Facebook is not the most suitable
platform for activists to store, archive, tag, search for content, and
give it a context.
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