My dataset compiled many tweets on Syria, many of which have to do with the current refugee issue.
I hope to see the trends through various media platforms (particularly twitter) to understand what is going on in the minds of the people about the Syrian Refugees. This hashtag also interests me because it comprises what is the most popular and controversial topic of the year. The new president (Donald Trump) has created controversy with his executive order to deny the entry of Refugees from various other countries, into the United States. With this executive order, and other decisions the president has made early in his term at office, the results done nothing more than create a social media backlash at the presidency. I feel these tags will be the most interesting right now.
When I first looked at the archived tweets in the Google spreadsheet, I expected to see a lot of peoples opinions–particularly angry ones. While there are a handful of those, the most popular thing people tweeted about were other news articles or current events, more or less using twitter to keep people informed about the situation. The search also scraped many tweets in other languages so it is difficult to put an overall label on the tweets returned in my search.
Staff, Times Of Israel, Raoul Wootliff and Judah Ari Gross, Marissa Newman, Joshua Davidovich and Times of Israel Staff, Cathryn J. Prince, AFP and Times of Israel Staff, Afp, Eric Cortellessa, AP and Times of Israel Staff, Raoul Wootliff, Times of Israel Staff and Agencies, Agencies and Times of Israel Staff, Stuart Winer, Times of Israel Staff and AP, Tamar Pileggi, and David Horovitz. “Israel Said Readying to Take in 100 Orphaned Syrian Refugees.” The Times of Israel. N.p., 25 Jan. 2017. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.
“Protests As Travellers Detained At US Airports, Including 50 In Dallas.” Pedestrian.TV. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.
As of this week, #Syria is a very hefty topic in the mainstream media. As of this week Israel will allow immigration of 100 Syrian refugee orphan children into the country, providing temporary homes and food for the children, along with any close relatives to the children. In other news, protests erupted at airports across the country as travelers coming from certain countries were detained upon arrival in the States. Dallas Fort-Worth Airport detained at least 50 people attempting to enter the country; one family was from Syria.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/world/middleeast/syria-hospital-airstrike-doctors-without-borders.html?_r=0
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/saudi-arabia-and-turkey-rolling-back-on-rhetoric-to-send-troops-into-syria/2016/02/15/574edfd4-85cc-4ce2-bf18-4a70bea0fc7d_story.html?utm_term=.11cdc682e485
In 2006, Syria was a war zone. Kurdish militias fought Turkey who wanted to clear their expansion into the area by setting out on multiple attacks over the course of a few days. The hospitals became overflown with the sick and injured including many men women and children. The doctors without borders hospitals become a very hectic and dangerous place during the conflict. Rockets and explosives were directed at clinics leaving as many as 10 people dead. Also, about 500,000 Lebanese Refugees continuously entered Syria after Israeli Airstrikes drove them from their homes.
CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2017.
Through this assignment I feel that I am collecting live data. Because of how sensitive and unfortunate the issues surrounding my hashtag topic are, I cannot possibly fathom what those directly affected are going through. I am merely scraping data and interpreting it to yield information on the subject. By using these tools and compiling the archived tweets I can see exactly how this is playing out, for others.
I thought it was interesting that you found that the most popular thing people tweeted about were other news articles or current events to keep people informed. I think it would be fascinating to further explore what other languages are being used to tweet about Syria. I wasn’t surprised that #Syria is a main topic in the news this past week. I think it is an interesting point that Israel is allowing the immigration of 100 Syrian refugee orphans into the country while America is doing the opposite in relation to my hashtag which is #muslimban. I also find it interesting that Syria was very much present in the news in 2006 and that during this time thousands of refugees were trying to flee in Syria. As I further look at my data I am now going to see if people are tweeting about #Syria in relation to #muslimban.
I found your post to be very interesting, and it seems to have a similar sentiment to mine. As I’ve researched #ISIS, I have seen a lot of what you’re describing in your post. I thought your description of what was happening with Syria in 2006 was particularly insightful, because it shows how quickly things can change over short periods of time, particularly in the Middle East. I think it’s very useful to have this context when researching current events in the area. I think it would be interesting to look a little deeper to see if there is any discussion of #Syria other than just the passing of news articles among people. I know you mentioned in your post that there weren’t a large number of such tweets, but it may be insightful to see what discussion there is so that you can gauge the climate regarding Syria outside of what the media portrays. After reading your post, I think a big thing I could do in my own post is provide a better historical context to ISIS. Although ISIS did not exist at all as we know it today, I could still look at equivalent groups at the time and see how ISIS came to be.