Networked Journalism and the Arab Spring
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Networked journalism and the Arab Spring #mac309 @rob_jewitt 1
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Slides used in undergraduate media studies module at University of Sunderland For the YouTube videos on the following slides skip to the following sections: #34 - 9:00 -11:30 #38 - 9:50-11:30
Transcript of Networked Journalism and the Arab Spring
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Networked journalism and the Arab Spring
#mac309@rob_jewitt
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John Gilmore“The Net interprets censorship as damage and
routes around it” TIME magazine (6 Dec 1993)
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Outline1. Networked journalism
2. The Twitter revolution? Lessons from Iran
3. The Arab Spring and activism
4Transformation of journalism“In the 20th Century making the news was almost entirely the province of journalists… The economics of publishing and broadcasting created large, arrogant institutions – call it Big Media…
Big media … treated the news as a lecture. We told you what the news was…. Tomorrow’s news reporting and production will be more of a conversation, or a seminar…” (2004: xiii)
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Asian Tsunami 2004
London 7/7 2005
Mumbai 2008
US Airways #1549 2009
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Networked journalismA term that has been floating around for some
time…
Jeff Jarvis (2006) Journalism professor at CUNY Graduate School of
Journalism; blogger; writer
Charlie Beckett (2008) Director of Polis, at the London School of Economics;
writer; former broadcast editor at BBC, ITN & C4
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Networked journalism Jeff Jarvis (2006)
“Networked journalism” takes into account the collaborative nature of journalism now: professionals and amateurs working together to get the real story, linking to each other across brands and old boundaries to share facts, questions, answers, ideas, perspectives. It recognizes the complex relationships that will make news. And it focuses on the process more than the product.
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Networked journalismCharlie Beckett (2008)
The idea that traditional journalism opens itself up to the public. It shares the production process from start to finish. It uses new technologies to include the citizen in every aspect of news-gathering, production and publication. It means using a lot of jargon like crowd-sourcing, social networking, wikis and Twittering. Many of these techniques build on existing journalism methods and are already out there. But it will also require a participatory revolution in the way we make the news.
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Networked journalismCharlie Beckett (2010)
By ‘Networked Journalism’ I mean a synthesis of traditional news journalism and the emerging forms of participatory media enabled by Web 2.0 technologies such as mobile phones, email, websites, blogs, micro-blogging, and social networks
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Social media revolutions?Twitter revolution
Facebook revolution
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#iranelectionA disparate series of events, reports, protests,
accounts, links, stories, etc across multiple media platforms by social agents seeking to redress a perceived and actual danger
Click icon to add picture
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Top Twitter Trends of 2009“The terms #iranelection, Iran and Tehran were
all in the top-21 of Trending Topics, and #iranelection finished in a close second behind the regular weekly favorite #musicmonday.” Abdur, Dec 15 2009
Click icon to add picture
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10th Iranian election, aka:Green Revolution
Sea of Green
Twitter Revolution
Persian Awakening
Click icon to add picture
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June 12: The Election Official (disputed!) results:
Ahmadinejad = 24.5 million votes (62.6%)
Mousavi = 13.2 million votes (33.7%)
Over 80% voter turnout
Both claimed they had secured majority of (58-60%) vote
Click icon to add picture
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Other social mediaWikipedia
YouTube
Flickr
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June 13-14: ProtestsMainstream media fingered for poor coverage =
#CNNFail
Al Jazeera English charges Iranian government of direct censorship
Al Arabiya’s Tehran office shut down
NBC News in Tehran raided
BBC World Service claim signal jammed
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Other social mediaWikipedia
YouTube
Flickr
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June 15-18: Escalation Rumours of Mousavi’s arrest flood the web
Supreme Ayatolla Khomeini initiates partial recount of votes
Iranian football team wear green armbands in game vs South Korea
US Govt asks Twitter to postpone its scheduled downtime
Ministry of Culture issues a directive banning foreign media from leaving their offices
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Other social mediaWikipedia
YouTube
Flickr
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June 19-21: Violence Bloodiest days of violence across the weekend
Social media becomes the main way for citizens to communicate and organise in face of media censorship
Shooting of Neda Soltani by Basij forces becomes a rallying cry against the government
State run television reports 10 killed in Tehran over the weekend
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Other social mediaWikipedia
YouTube
Flickr
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Some dangers for usersTwitter being used for misinformation
Twitter being monitored by state authorities (retweet function)
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The Arab Spring
Revolutionary wave of protests throughout the MENA region, beginning on 18th Dec 2010 following self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi
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TunisiaCorrupt officials under rule of President Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali
High unemployment, inflation, police brutality, and lack of free speech
Mainstream media censorship
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Sidi BouzidMohammed Bouazizi
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Tunisia17th Dec 2010 – Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-
immolation in Sidi Bouzid
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John Gilmore“The Net interprets censorship as damage and
routes around it” TIME magazine (6 Dec 1993)
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Tunisia17th Dec 2010 – Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-
immolation in Sidi Bouzid
18th-24th street protests result in public being shot in Bouziane
Protests spread nationally, engulfing Tunis by 27th
14th Jan 2011 – President Ben Ali flees into exile
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Egypt
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Net neutrality?Small team of engineers from Twitter
and SayNow created a voice-to-tweet service @speak2tweet
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Egypt Jan 25th 2011 - Popular uprising began
26th Jan – Internet and mobile services shut down
28th Jan – Hundreds of thousands protest across Egypt after Friday prayers
29th Jan – Military presence in Cairo increased
2nd Feb – “Battle of the Camel” in Tahrir Square
11th Feb – Mubarak resigns, Armed Forces take over
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Revolutions were tweetedOn Sunspace
Focus on Tunisa and Egpyt protests
Analyses different ‘information flows’
Measuring different actors impact and influence
“news on Twitter is being co-constructed by bloggers and activists alongside journalists”
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ConclusionCivic activism can be supported by coordinated
internet activism
Internet “revolutions” may be somewhat problematic
Depending on circumstances, social media and networked journalism contributes to a hybrid and dynamic flow of information.
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In seminars1. Identify an example whereby networks have
been used to break a news story before the mainstream news media (it doesn't have to be about the Arab Spring!)
2. Identify any advantages or disadvantages of information bypassing mainstream media channels
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In seminars “One possible reading of the current situation on the ground
in Tehran is that, despite all the political mobilisation facilitated by social media, the Iranian government has not only survived, but has, in fact, become even more authoritarian” Evgeny Morozov, 2010, Prospect Magazine
1. Listen to the interview (link) with Evgeny Morozov (from 7 mins)
To what extent is he right (or wrong) to be skeptical about the power of social media?
