Dec 10, 2012 Posted by Joelle

Can A Blog Make People Happy?

In late October 2012, I enrolled in the 6-week course Introduction to Infographics and Data Visualization with Alberto Cairo, an internationally renowned expert in the field. The course is offered by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. For our final project, Professor Cairo gave us the liberty to do whatever we want. All we had to do was choose a topic, gather the appropriate information, and... read more

Sep 4, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Expressing Sexuality Through Art

To commemorate World Sexual Health Day (September 4), an art exhibit entitled “Good Sex/ Bad Sex/ No Sex/ Your Sex” was held at AltCity, in Hamra. “Sexuality is such a profound part of our life. So is art,” explained event organizer Rola Yasmine, member of the Youth Initiative Committee of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS). ”What we did here is create a space for... read more

Aug 20, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Industries Shaping Women’s Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is what a person thinks of their own self-worth. It includes beliefs and emotions, and is reflected by behavior. In today’s world, girls and women are supposed to follow ideals of beauty, appearance and weight, imposed by multiple interconnecting industries that benefit from making them feel bad about themselves. The more women hate their bodies, the more they can buy dieting products... read more

Jul 25, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Deconstructing Sexual Harassment

One of the challenges of addressing sexual harassment is that it is, to a large extent, hard to define. It could be reduced to “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” But there’s a lot more to sexual harassment than just a range of hostile or offensive acts. And while the absence of laws to criminalize and... read more

Apr 25, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Objectives Of Name-Calling

In our discourse, we have a tendency to use the argumentative fallacy “ad hominem” (Latin: “to the man”). It is a false, incorrect way of arguing with which we try to undermine a speaker’s argument by attacking the speaker instead of addressing the argument in an attempt to discredit them. Whichever way we choose to present ourselves (activists, bloggers, stand-up comedians,... read more

Apr 18, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Themes Used To Market Tobacco To Women

Since the 1920s when American women first began to be targeted by the tobacco industry, various images and themes have been used to encourage women to smoke, by promoting smoking’s social acceptability and highlighting the supposed desirable attributes of particular brands of cigarettes. Some of the most dominant themes that have been linked with smoking and particular cigarette brands are: glamour,... read more

Jan 30, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Breakdown: US Aid To Egypt

In the aftermath of Egypt’s crackdown on protesters since the revolution began on January 25, 2011, Washington has announced it is reviewing its aid package to the country. Egypt receives close to $2bn in financial assistance every year, making it the second largest recipient of US foreign assistance after Israel. In this infographic, I break down this aid which underlines the US’s longstanding... read more

Oct 20, 2010 Posted by Joelle

10 Smoking Things

10 Things You Should Know About Smoking in Lebanon is an infographic I designed to support the new tobacco-control bill that has been submitted to the Lebanese Parliament. The new bill, which is backed by the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) and its partners both in the public and private sector, consists of the following, in conformity with the World Health Organization’s guidelines: A total ban of... read more