The ceremony is over and the winners of The BOBS have been announced.
Xenia Awimova, a 23-year-old aspiring photojournalist who lives and works in the Belarusian capital of Minsk runs “Foto-Griffoneurei” (literally translated as “Photo-Maniac”). Her collections of photos chronicle her live and that of her home city.
“In Belarus there are not many independent newspapers or other platforms where people can express their opinions,” Awimova said after being told of the award. “That is why a lot of young people write blogs.”
Foto-Griffaneurei uses few words to makes its pointThe site features a collection of Awimova’s black-and-white photos with only a brief description of the picture. It was the simplicity and the beauty of the site that gave it its appeal, jury members said.
The winner of the best Arabic blog category was Al Jazeera Talk.
More updates about the BOBS soon.. For now check out what Deutsche Welle had to say about The BOBS.
Comments
4 responses to “Best of the Blogs 2007: The power of Black and White in “White Russia”..”
I hate to see Al Jazeera win the Arabic blog award. This is a very bad transition. Blogs are all about individual people’s ability to provide alternative media and journalism with the least resources available based on creativity and willingness. To award the winning place to a corporate blog which has plenty of oil and gas money behind it is a real blow for the identity of blogs. I am afraid Ahmad that your team of judges have made the wrong decision.
Batir. I think it is not fair to call it a corporate blog. As far as I understood, it is a project that started independently, and is only nominally supported by Al Jazeera (hosting space, to be specific).
The founders seem to believe exactly in the value of citizen media that you are mentioning.
Now when it comes to the brand, this is where the support is most apparent. I personally think that it would have been better for the guys behind this blog to to have created their own brand.
But it seems that the Al Jazeera brand is what brought this group blog recognition among readers and writers alike.
I admit that the whole thing is tricky. But I still think that the blog is an important contribution to the Arab blog scene and that the over 70 young Arab writers who write there deserve recognition.
Ahmad exactly as you said. The Jazeera brand has provided the “blog/journal” with the required promotion that any other blogger would need years to accomplish. So, it is like an olympic race were one starts ahead of the otehrs so it is not fair. What if Al Arabiya starts a blog tomorrow and provides space for another 70 writers to write, and them Al Mustaqbal and other channels do the same?
Al Jazeera did a huge promotion for their blog on their channels and other media outlets and that created the audience. The quality of writing in the blog becomes the second priority.
I remember that one of the best Jordanian blogs (Khobbeizeh” was nominated for BOBs 2006 and that is one kind of a blog that needs to be “recognised” were one young gyus goes around with his camera and provides fantastic coverage of cultural issues. He puts effort, time and even money for his blog. Al Jazeera provides hosting space, technology and promotion and you only need to write. For me, and I may be wrong all the time this is not the sort of blog that need to be recognised in the Arab World.
However, I believe there can be a certain set of guidelines for selecting blogs to be sure that no corporate interference is allowed in selection, even if it is the best blog in the universe it is not fair to compare a “corporate image” blog with an individual blogger.
I’m with Batir that the competition should target the achievement of a blog, or individual behind a blog. If the same reasoning is applied to the Aljazeera blog. Then the 1.5 million on Jeeran or the few hundred thousand on Maktoob should be recognised under “Jerran’s” win!
I went to BOBs to see great blogs, amazing messages and fantastic writing. And was disappointed to not find any of that.