Technology

Revolutions and Social Media

Online media have come to play a huge role in politics. We saw this in Iran, where Twitter played an important role in post-election protests and to a lesser extent in Haiti, where news about the earthquake was mapped through webtools like www.ushahidi.com.Wikileaks caused it’s own revolution in the democratization of news.

My name is Corline van Es. Previously I worked for a thinktank called Knowledgeland as an advisor/ project manager on social change and social media. I recently moved to Tel Aviv to explore life in the Middle East, working as a community manager for VJ Movement and as a freelance project manager, researcher and advisor on social innovation.

Over the past few weeks we have seen dramatic popular uprisings in Tunesia, Egypt and now even in Jordan people are showing their dissatisfaction with the ruling regime. The first reaction of a government in distress seems to be: block social media. Twitter, Facebook and Youtube were being blocked in Egypt, and just before the biggest rally most of Cairo was offline, even text messaging didn’t work anymore.

Online media have come to play a huge role in politics. We saw this in Iran, where Twitter played an important role in post-election protests and to a lesser extent in Haiti, where news about the earthquake was mapped through webtools like www.ushahidi.com. Wikileaks caused it’s own revolution in the democratization of news. In all cases, the audience actively takes part in the distribution and/or supply of information, the ones in power try to control it by taking down networks.

Every citizen can choose whether or not to take part in the distribution of events. As someone who lives in Israel, a hub of political and violent conflict, and aware of what’s going on around me, every day I have to make a choice. Should I communicate about these things going on around me? Do I inform the world about life here? What do I tell them? What context do I provide?

Here’s another example from Egypt: Through Facebook, a friend of a friend living there, disconnected from the outside world, sent me a request to follow http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/RNN.NEWS. A news channel (in arabic) which only exists on Facebook and is used to spread news about the uprising.

It’s typical of the times we are living in: We click the “like” button and spread news. Following someone on Facebook  means more than just showing solidarity or interest, it makes you a news broadcaster in your own network. I guess it’s all about more than one truth…