Di it l J li d C hiDigital Journalism and Censorship in a Global Era

A presentation on

“Global Censorship: Media and Message Disconnected”

Rutgers University

September 26, 2011

P f J h V P lik Ph D Ch iProf. John V. Pavlik, Ph.D., ChairDept. of Journalism and Media Studies, SC&I, Rutgers

jvpavlik@gmail.comOffice: 185 College Ave, rm 105Office: 185 College Ave, rm 105 New Brunswick, NJ 08901 USA

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What is the future of d i th di it ldemocracy in the digital

age?Whither newspapers?

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Th J ffThomas Jefferson

• "The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to k th t i ht d it l ft tkeep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapersnewspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean thatthe latter. But I should mean that every man (or woman) should receive those papers and be capable of reading them." --p gThomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787.

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Mobile TV subscribers/producers worldwidepABI research data, 2006-2010 (estimated 2011) US #’s roughly half

300

200

250

Based on smart phones, other devices, including

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Internet-connected tablets. Data are in millions.

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100

0

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Mobile TV subscribers/producersMobile TV subscribers/producers

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WikiL k WikiLeaks org publishes classified govtWikiLeaks WikiLeaks.org publishes classified govt documents. News media publish reports based on them.

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US Army Analyst B dl M i fBradley Manning faces

52 years in prisonAllegedly provided classified files

to Wikileaks

AP CorrespondentAP Correspondent Terry Anderson wrote

Den of Lions about his FOIA requests produced only heavily redacted documentsDen of Lions about his

6 years of captivity in Lebanon

heavily redacted documents until Pres. Clinton intervened

Contemporary case: Hamai K. Leibowitz, an

FBI translator sentenced NYTimes: “All I know is that it’s a

serious case,” Judge Alexander Williams Jr., of United States

to 20 months in prison for leaking classified

District Court in Maryland, said at the sentencing in May 2010. “I don’t know what was divulged g

information to blogger, site tikun olam

other than some documents, and how it compromised things, I have no idea.”

Did citizens learn of government

WikiLeaks revolution in Tunisia? Egypt? Beyond?

Did citizens learn of government corruption via WikiLeaks documents?There seems little doubt that the Wikileaks-released cable describing the Beyond? W ea s e eased cab e desc b g t e opulence of now former president Ben Ali's lifestyle played a key part in informing citizens of Tunisia.

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Civic ParticipationCivic Participation

How did Twitter, Facebook, other social media mobileother social media, mobile media facilitate citizen communication? Wh t th ti i i t?What was the tipping point?

Google executive Wael Ghonimcreated this page, was jailed for it.

• Social media and democracy

• Research shows traditional• Research shows traditional media have a hard time competing with social media on breaking newson breaking news (Zassoursky, 2010)

• Utilizing Facebook 700• Utilizing Facebook, 700 million users worldwide, free access, Twitter, 300 million

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Egypt cut off Internet service...did it fuel revolt?

Pres. Obama considering legislation s. 3480 cyber emergency bill that would

Is this a good idea? Would it protect national security? Would it violate First Amendment? Would it serve 3480 cyber emergency bill that would

give him power to take control of Internet service in US.

First Amendment? Would it serve democracy?

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Research indicates that tti ff I t t dcutting off Internet and mobile media fuels

further social unrest Hassanpour, 2011

The Bay Area RapidThe Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police in San Francisco in AugustSan Francisco in August

2011 interrupted citizens’ll h i i UK authorities did the same incell phone service in an

attempt to disrupt flash b i l f

UK authorities did the same in August 2011 in London riots.

mobs on train platforms (Elias, 2011).

Role of Civility in P bli DiPublic Discourse

• What price liberty?

• Security v. Censorshipy p

• Syrian editorial cartoonist Farzatbeaten August 25, 2011 afterbeaten August 25, 2011 after publishing cartoon critical of Syrian president Assad

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S ll Ch ?Small Change?

• Malcolm Gladwell in New Yorker says digital technology (social media) is only exerting small influence on democracy. Not making significant de oc acy o a g s g cachange for the better. Only small changes, such as sign an online petition, make a donation. Do these small changes have a cumulativesmall changes have a cumulative effect?

• Do billions of small changes add up toDo billions of small changes add up to a big effect?

• Consider micro-loans in Bangladesh

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Bi I t?Big Impact?

• Five billion phones worldwide.

• Enable development or political participation where other infrastructure is limited. Can empower the individual.

• Interactive journalism can close the information gap and engage citizens in digital democracy.

• Will the 21st century see an innovative, independent and uncensored journalism?

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