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Cartoons exposing brutality

In response to the Syrian regime's brutal suppression of the revolution, a group of artists are producing political cartoons and comic strips and publishing them anonymously on a Facebook page called Comic4Syria. More than 30 albums have been posted so far, featuring Arabic and translated cartoons and comic strips of the situation in Syria, addressing everything from President Bashar al-Assad's bloody crackdown to the response of the international community.

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Visualising conflict in Palestine

Visualising Palestine (VP) uses public information about life in Israel and Palestine to expose the damaging effects of the occupation. For example, by creating a visualisation based on bus transport networks, VP brings attention to the severe restrictions on mobility that Palestinians experience.

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Chevron thinks we're stupid

In 2010 Chevron, the second largest oil company in the world, prepared to release a campaign called "We Agree" which featured messages from people explaining what they think the oil company should do supposedly guiding the company's decision making.

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Personal stories of violence

Digital Stories for Transformation documents stories rarely told, and rarely heard. Organised by Women's Net, an organisation working to advance gender equality and justice in South Africa, these videos allow women to share their personal experiences of surviving violence through digital storytelling. The approach allows people to use animation, photos, music, and live video to tell first-person stories. These are then distributed to human rights advocates, policy-makers, and service and aid workers.

 

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A feminist spin on folklore

Artists and advocates from Egypt created a short animated video based on traditional Arabic stories re-told from a feminist perspective. The video uses animals and objects to approach gender inequality in a creative way that is also sensitive to its audience. It was created by Tessa Lewin and the Women and Memory Forum, Egypt.

 

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Puppets taking on politicians

Top Goon: Diaries of a Little Dictator is a 13-episode series, broadcast on YouTube, that was created by an anonymous group of actors from within Syria who go by the name of Masasit Mati. With a simple set and finger puppet characters they impersonate Assad, along with generic figures such as “the peaceful protester” and “Shabih”, a member of the state-sponsored militia.

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Satirical web-tv in South Africa

ZA news is a satirical web-tv show that lampoons South Africa's politicians and current affairs. First aired in 2009, its format is a news show made to look and sound like the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). After commissioning the pilot, the SABC refused to air it. It is now shown online reaching 10% of the South African population who have access to internet.

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Lukashenko's birthday present

Belarusians created a group of websites they called LuNet, in mock honour of President Alexander Lukashenko’s birthday, after he promised to increase internet censorship. The sites, which were a play on words using sites such as Youtube and Livejournal, were packed with government propaganda amid ironic posts which increased awareness to internet censorship and the detention of bloggers for political purposes.

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IamJan25: Documenting protest

The website Iamjan25.com collects images and videos captured by demonstrators in Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands of Egyptians gathered on 25 January 2011 to protest against the regime of then-president Hosni Mubarak. It is a collection of eye-witness accounts recording this significant piece of history from the point of view of the people on the ground. Containing over 7,000 videos and pictures, the website is the largest online archive of its kind.

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Balloon mapping oil spills

In 2010, a community monitoring project in New Orleans led by activist group Louisiana Bucket Brigade got Gulf Coast residents out on boats and beaches to produce high-resolution aerial imagery of the effects of the BP oil spill. Using cameras mounted on helium balloons they took photos and stitched them together to create an aerial map which was then put in the public domain.

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