Social media has begun to not only connect people on a global scale, but has started to create social change within societies. The Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of demonstrators and protesters in the Arab that began on December 18^th, 2010 with intentions to force rulers out of power through civil uprisings.  The triggering event that caused this uprising throughout many countries was the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in protest of police corruption and ill treatment in Tunisia.  This sparked unrest within Algeria, Jordan, Egypt and Yemen as well as other countries.  There has been success within these four countries as the public has overthrown the government.

The way in which this revolution is different from those in the past is that the Internet has played an important role whereas before, the Internet was not a contributing factor whatsoever.  With social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter being incorporated into these social movements, people are able to spread information much quicker as well as voice their opinions and start online communities.  The role of social media:

a)    Allows the mobilization of protesters rapidly

b)   Undermines a regimes legitimacy

c)   And increases national and international exposure to a regimes atrocities

Internet usage within the Middle East had grown an exponential 1,825.3% between 2000 and 2010 including an increasing number of Facebook users to this day.  In April 2010 there were close to 15 million users on Facebook and one year later the numbers had nearly doubled to 27,711,503 users.  As of March 2011, there were 1,150,292 active users on the micro-blogging site Twitter that generated 22,750,000 tweets.  Twitter user Hani Morsi from Egypt tweeted “Social media has created a sort of Alternate Space for receiving a dormant public consciousness, into a sentient, dynamic social discourse” in 2011.

Internet traffic within Egypt dropped drastically on January 27^th 2011 due to authorities restricting access by shutting down the countries official Domain Name System in order to prevent the mobilization of anti-government protesters.  However, on February 2^nd after President Barak Obama stated that the Internet ban should come to an end, connectivity had been re-established by the four main Egyptian service providers.

The Internet and social media has allowed for people all over the world to come together for causes, like the Arab Spring to create change.  During the presentation, I was continuously reminded of other social movements that took place and were highly public due to the publicity received on social networking sites.  Two that came to mind were the Occupy Movement, and KONY 2012.  Both of these movements, although not political, revolved largely around social networking sites.  For example almost all of the publicity gained by the KONY 2012 movement were gained through Twitter and Facebook.  The Invisible Children organization which created the KONY 2012 movement asked celebrities like Rihanna to tweet about the subject creating awareness.   This created a great deal of publicity on a global scale.  Allowing the public to be emotionally moved by what they know and band together to create awareness can lead to change.  Regardless of the controversy surrounding the KONY 2012 movement, it shows great similarities to the Arab Spring.  I believe that this recent use of the Internet and social networking sites will continue to create change in the future.

– Alyssa Gauk

WikiLeaks, launched in 2007 under Julian Assange and The Sunshine Press organization, is a non-profit media organization that publishes important (and most of the time undercover) world news so the public can have access to it. People have the freedom to submit information through an anonymous drop box (or in person/ by postage) and then Wiki Journalists analyze the material, verify it, and write a news piece stating its significance to society.

Within the first year of its existence, WikiLeaks claimed a database of approximately 1.2 million leaked documents. The entire website relies heavily on volunteers, and there is much controversy surrounding the safety of these journalists; many could be imprisoned for publishing such high-classified documents. However, WikiLeaks has overcome legal acts to silence their organization, and have formed a solid security system.

Many of the recent documents posted on WikiLeaks are related to the war in Iraq, and they are known as the War Logs. Below is a screenshot of one of the posts by an anonymous journalist:

The controversy surrounding the idea is WikiLeaks is outstanding. Many believe that the website imposes great danger on the United States and its safety, and Assange has dealt with many persecutions against him and his website. Some things should be left private in order for a country to function properly, right?

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the leaks, stating that “it puts the lives of the United States and its partners’ service members and civilians at risk.”

–Emma Bratman

For any corporation, country, or politician, a WikiLeaks news article about them will inevitably prove the phrase “there is no such thing as bad publicity” wrong. WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization which releases important world news, both private and classified information to the public. This website was launched in 2007 by Julian Assange and The Sunshine Press Organization with a database of 1.2 million leaked documents in the first year and the number has grown exponentially since the launch. This media organization relies heavily on volunteers who would submit highly classified documents anonymously. Although such acts can have significant legal consequences, WikiLeaks has triumphed against legal and political attacks though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a large team of lawyers, and a solid system of security.

WikiLeaks have released many articles which have created a number of front page news items. The most notable one was a package of almost 400,000 documents called the Iraq War Logs released in October 2010. Included in these documents were first hand accounts of the Iraqi occupation told by soldiers in the US army and is considered the biggest leak in the military history of the US. These logs exposed a discrepancy in the Iraqi civilian death numbers, orders to kill civilians who came to close to checkpoints and the lack of investigation in reports of torture, abuse, murder, and rape by the Iraqi police and soldiers. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State condemned the leaks on the basis that these leaks “puts the lives of US and its partners’ service members and civilians at risk. The Prime minister of Iraq and an influential Iranian politician also dismissed these claims made by the US government to incriminate their forces.

A notable person in the Iraq War Logs is Bradley Manning, a soldier who was suspected to have provided a video showing the killing of civilians and several classified documents. Bradley now faces 22 charges and has been in severely punished through military jail and has yet to be tried. Several websites and groups have formed in protest of his unjust and brutal treatment in prison and for his release including www.bradleymanning.org.

A question was raised in class today asking if WikiLeaks should be considered a journalistic organization. In my opinion, I believe so as WikiLeaks does produce news articles to inform the public just like any other journalistic organization. They also claim to have a system of verification of any information that is brought to them to ensure that the public will receive the true story. In addition, many major news organizations such as BBC and the New York Times have used WikiLeaks as a source for news stories. I think that one of the reasons why WikiLeaks may not be considered as a journalistic organization is due to the controversial articles that they produce. Many of their articles expose holes in governments and corporations which are also the very institutions that can influence other major journalistic institutions and the stories that they produce. Although I personally do not follow WikiLeaks very often, I appreciate their existence simply because they make us remember that the very institutions that govern our lives are not always just and should not be fully trusted.

For those who wish to learn more about the Iraq War Logs, here is the WikiLeaks Press Interview after its release: WikiLeaks Iraq War Diary Press Conference

Have a good weekend everyone!

All over the Middle East, protesters are taking part in what is known as the “Arab Spring” – a series of demonstrations that argue for government reform in oppressed countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen. Seen as the spiritual successor to the largely failed “Prague Spring” of 1968 (where the Czech people attempted to remove their country from oppressive Soviet rule), the Arab Spring plays likewise, in the sense of ordinary citizens joining forces with reformist politicians in fighting for change regarding the sociopolitical landscape.

Protesters in Egypt gather under their country's flag in Cairo. Source: TheHindu.com

The reasons for these protests are nothing new; government corruption, human rights violations, censorship, repression, economic stagnancy, poverty, and dictatorship have unfortunately characterized the Middle Eastern image of sociopolitical development for quite some time.

However, this particular round of protests is extremely significant because it is the first time that social media – sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and numerous blogging services – have been utilized as a tool to aid protests. Outlined in today’s presentation, social media holds three major advantages: mobilizing protesters rapidly, undermining the legitimacy of a regime, and shedding light on a regime’s atrocities on the world stage. These sites have been used extensively by protesters both abroad and on the ground to disseminate information at a rapid pace, often faster than the speed that legitimate news outlets are able to.

Indeed, growth of social media usage in the Middle East is staggering: the amount of Facebook users has nearly doubled between April 2010 and April 2011, from 14 million to 27 million, while Twitter has reported a gigantic 22,750,000 tweets from 1.15 million users. Internet use among Middle Eastern people is increasing, more so in the younger generations who are far more educated and more likely to push for political reform in their respective countries.

Already, oppressing powers have seen the power of social media and are afraid of the power that it wields regarding the raising of awareness abroad. More than ever, Western countries are made privy to information that would not have been let out of an oppressed nation otherwise. One can only speculate as to what the technology of social media will bring to the Middle East in terms of political reform, but as far as the mobilization and coordination of protests go, it’s a good start.

On June 12^th, 2009, protests began in Iran, specifically in the major cities of Isfahan and Tehran. They didn’t end until February 11th, 2010. Understandably, any protest requires a reason for conflict. In this case, the people of Iran gained worldwide support and interest after the highly favoured Mir-Hossein Mousavi lost in the presidential election to current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These two men had very different political agendas, as Mousavi was lobbying for a new progressive Iran with law, justice, and freedom at its core. On the other hand, Ahmadinejad was pushing for policies that were unfriendly to human rights activism. The voters were outraged when they heard the results of the election as they believed that the election was manipulated.  Most citizens were convinced that their ballots were not counted nor included in the election.

With such a large controversial issue happening in our world, reporters jumped at the opportunity to report on this story. Unfortunately, international reporters were not allowed into Iran to take footage and conduct interviews about the protests and controversy. Therefore, Iranian people had to turn to social media, namely twitter, to update the world on the protests. Those angry at the presidential outcome in Iran went onto the streets to show their outrage at the lack of democracy being showcased in their country.

Although international reporters were restricted from reporting on the story in person, they aided the spread of information by using hashtags and IP addresses into their twitter posts to allow Iranians to read and keep updated with opinions and updates from the international community.

This movement was given the title, “The Twitter Revolution.” While it is clear why this movement was given a nickname with twitter in the title, I feel that it is important to describe how the Iranian protests would be considered a revolution. A revolution is defined as “a fundamental change in power or organizational structures.” We have witnessed these changes in world events such as the French Revolution in the 1980s, when political upheaval caused a societal change of thought. The government went from the philosophy of absolute monarchy to enlightenment, citizenship, and human rights. It is important to remember that the Twitter Revolution in Iran was put in the category of “revolution” for a reason; to demonstrate the historical importance of this event.

What is interesting is how the media focused on the movement’s use of twitter as a mode of dissemination of information instead of focusing on how there was a minimum of 2,500 arrests in Tehran, with more than 30 civilians dead. Society is sometimes so focused on the evolution of technology that we seem to forget why and how these social networks are needed. Technology is inarguably a powerful mode to communicate, but it should not overshadow the historical, political, and social impacts that these events are creating. This being said, journalism changed during these events as people were shown that networks such as twitter do have tremendous power to educate and update on important global events.

– Emily Chan

When disaster strikes in China, you’re not really sure what to think. For a country of 1.3 billion people, if there’s an earthquake there is more than likely to be a high death toll and mass damages. The prospects of mass death are indeed frightening, especially in a country containing a rural population that lives in unstable conditions and may lack immediate access to emergency care. The earthquake in 2008 that occurred in the Sichuan province demonstrates the immensity of China’s dense population and its poor, even corrupted infrastructure. Claiming the lives of some 70,000 people, it also left 4.8 million people homeless. Can one imagine the disaster of the entirety of British Columbia being left homeless? The numbers are roughly equal.

What is remarkable, however, is the journalistic response to this tragic, monstrous event. Much like what happened with rebellious online activists during the Arab Spring, people at the scene of the events of the earthquake were able to give first hand accounts of what was happening, only this happened 3 years prior. This type of Twitter reporting was able to spread further through sites like Tweetburner, which was able to track Tweet topics, and TwitterLocal, which connects to local business. Other sites like Alphatwitter, Tweetscan, and Summarize.com were also highly praised for the amount of information they spread about the earthquake. This rather new tactic of reporting on the web from eyewitness accounts was crucial for getting the word out. As Free Line reporter Brad Fallon puts it: “While it isn’t exactly ‘a hard news source,’ Twitter has proven instrumental in time of tragedy and uncertainty.” Hence while there may be some controversy as to how credible these civilian reports are, they are certainly owed credit for doing a service that big networks could not.

I feel where the real controversy lies is in China’s actual response to all the destruction, especially due to the high death toll of schoolchildren and the numerous amount of schools that collapsed in the quake. In some communities like Juyuan, the children there were completely annihilated. Other cities that are located miles away, such as Dujangyan and Hanwang, reported hundreds of deaths each. Even in Chongqing, which is 200 miles away from the quake’s epicenter, reported 5 child fatalities. The tragedies shed light on very crucial topics that continue to plague Chinese society. One is that the country, despite its embrace of capitalist markets and recently booming economy, is still terribly poor in many places. Provinces like Sichuan, which is located in the southwest part of the country, have been very neglected by Beijing and therefore its infrastructure is terribly outdated and unsafe. This leads to another debate about the country’s primary concerns for its people. Dozens of schools fell to rubble from the earthquake – would that not be alarming to Chinese officials? This type of corrupt educational policy, where horribly maintained schools are allowed to be built, and meanwhile the educational system itself is underfunded, needs to be more in the spotlight as a result of this catastrophe. It would have been even more remarkable had these Twitter journalists been able to report on the issue (though it is understandable how that would be ‘mission impossible’ in a country where media and reporting rights are so repressed).

For the sake of ending on a somewhat brighter, more comical note, here’s an article on a controversy regarding one of the earthquake victims and Coca Cola.

-Marty Stillman

The growing realm of social media is greatly increasing the pace in which information is passed around the world.  Instantaneous messages are able to inform people of what is happening in different parts of the world in a matter of seconds.  This is particularly true with the social networking site “Twitter.”  The Twitter Revolution was so named because of the frequency that Twitter was used by Iranians to report news, coordinate protests, and air their grievances.

The relatively recent revolution in Iran is a key example of how Twitter is changing the media paradigm.  The revolution in Iran was about a supposed “rigged election” in which more people supported Hossein Mousavi for President, yet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won.  This occurred on June 12, 2009 and ended on February 11, 2010.

The Iranian Twitter Revolution was a modern day attempt at a revolt against the government, as opposed to past revolutions, such as the French Revolution in which weapons were used to overthrow the government, now there is media.  I believe that Twitter has allowed for the oppressed people of Iran to voice their opinions and fight against the government for what they believe to be right.  The presenters, Casey Medina and Pete Markel, mentioned that there are “23 million Iranians have access to the Internet and over 45 million people own mobile phones.”  In essence, this allowed for Iranians to connect to one another during the revolution.  Other social networking sites were used as well, including Facebook and YouTube, however,Twitter was the site that seemed to be the most vital for the rapid spreading of information.  This was especially since the revolution was never televised, but videos and pictures still spread because of social media.

However, because of this rapid spread and constant updating of information, the Iranian government revoked press credentials, and blocked the Internet in hopes of stopping the revolution from becoming worldwide knowledge.  Nonetheless, this did not halt the outgoing flow of information as the UK stepped in to help by posting different IP addresses to help keep Iran connected.  This is very much like the ban of Facebook and YouTube in China, where they have been blocked since 2009.  Ironically, China is also where 20% of Facebook’s application development is.  In my opinion, individuals who attempted to get around the blocking of the Internet in Iran put themselves at a risk, as the government could have taken the necessary steps to suppress those individuals.  This could have happened through the tracking and following of certain IP addresses, although, because of the vast amount of people “tweeting” about this topic, it would still be extremely hard for the government to control.  Though, the government could still block the IP addresses from the UK if they were found, hence creating a type of “whack-a-mole” effect; as soon as an IP address would “pop up” the government would suppress it.

The evidence that Twitter as well as other social media sites are becoming the medium for democratic movements as such, are becoming increasingly apparent.  This can only continue to grow as technology continues to progress within society.

“I think Twitter’s a success for us when people stop talking about it, when we stop doing these panels and people just use it as a utility, use it like electricity.” – Jack Dorsey

By: Courtney Lee

Collateral Murder, read the caption of the controversial video depicting a diabolical Baghdad airstrike in April of 2010. The footage released by the Wikileaks website included two US soldiers releasing fire on a group of mostly unarmed men, including two journalists (Saeed Chmag and Namir Noor-Eldeen of Reuters) whose cameras were thought to be weapens. After eight men were killed, the soldiers targeted a van housing  three unarmed men and two children, killing three more men. In the last airstrike the US militants fired three missiles, destroying a building where a number of men, some armed, ran for shelter. The US soldiers approached the event with a disturbing callousness. “Look at those dead bastards,” they exclaimed, as if the people they just gunned down were characters in a video game.

The disturbing video was released just months after the Wikileaks website exposed 400, 000 documents known as the Iraq War Logs. The mainstreaming of this classified information caused a stir in society similar to that of the publication of the Pentagon Papers in the early 70’s. These papers exposed the bloody battle in Vietnam, displaying a brutally honest form of journalism that managed to sharply decrease the public’s support of the war. Every subsequent US war was carefully managed by the government and media. A more sanitized portrayal of war allowed for the positive support of the war in Iraq. Stained by the raw data exposed by the Wikileaks, many now question the morality of the government in its use of censorship in the media (one classified document showed that around 15 000 civilian deaths had not been admitted by the US government; other files record the brutish deaths of soldiers in Iraq and Iran locations).

Although the leaked footage and documents managed to raise questions concerning the morality of the military conduct of US troops, Assange’s integrity continues to be questioned. Rape accusations undermine Julian Assange’s credibility, and many hold to the idea that the government has a right to keep things secret. Fox News accused Wikileaks for censoring the video depiction of the Baghdad airstrike, shaping and editing the content in a way that underemphasized the fact that some of the civilians were indeed armed. Political comedian Stephen Colbert said that, by editing the video and entitling it Collateral Murder, the site produced a mere editorial. This argument remains disputed; the site also posted the longer, unedited version of the Baghdad airstrike.

Wikileaks is a non profit media organization that brings classified world news to the public. It was created by Julian Assange and the Sunshine Press organization. Since its launch in 2007, the webiste has publicized 1.2 million leaked documents. It relies heavily on volunteers, who work labouriously to keep the identities of contributing journalists anonymous. The website is notorious for its its radical anti-censorship stance. Because of the leak of the Iraq War Logs, Julian Assange has received signifcant amounts of criticism. Hilary Clinton condemned the leaks for putting “the lives of US and its partners’ service and civilians at risk”; from  the other perspective, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Iranian politician Mohammad Javad dismissed the documents that accused them of political corruption. In his interview with The Guardian, Julian Assange justifies his actions, stating that the information he publicized no longer holds military relevance, asit is no longer necessary to keep deployment locations hidden because the military has already carried out these orders. He supports the leak, saying that good journalism at its heart is controversial; the publication of this classifed information was effective because it got people talking about the true nature of the war.

– Karalee Congo

Wikileaks, an online organization created by Julian Assange and the Sunshine Press in 2007, relies heavily on anonymous tips. Controversy struck when Wikileaks released a package of almost 400,000 documents titled the Iraq War Logs.

Within a year of the official launching, Wikileaks already had a database of over 1.2 million documents and steadily increasing. Most of the journalists and anonymous tippers could be prosecuted for exposing such highly-classified documents, that is if Wikileaks did not triumph over legal and political using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Iraq War Logs, the largest leak in United States military history, were released in October 2010 and discussed evidence of the occupation of Iraq from January 1st 2004 to December 31st 2009. Tips submitted by the troops themselves, brought to public the brutality of death and everyday life as soldiers fighting in Iraq. Some of these deaths included over 700 civilians merely for coming in range of military checkpoints and hundreds of cases of torture by the Iraqi officials. These documents also exposed over 15,000 deaths which were not previously included in the war’s death count, raising it to 66,000 causalities.

The documents claimed that the Iraqi Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki operated a “detention squad” whose responsibility was to track down his political opponents. Both Nouri al-Maliki and politician Mohammad-Javad Larijani both dismissed the claims made the the United States Government to incriminate their forces. Hillary Clinton condemned the leaks, and claimed that Wikileaks is “an attack on the world.”

Wikileaks has created a mind blowing exposer in the world of citizen journalism. Though written by volunteers, there is a more dimensional aspect to each story. Each journalist is given tips to work with which brings in multiple points of view and insight on each situation. Other major news sources, such as The New York Times, followed up on the claims, but used a lot of information originally reported by Wikileaks.

Written by Rachel Goss

For the past six years, since March 2006, Twitter has been booming all around the world to spread news and also personal information with millions of people. It allows users to share text posts with their followers in 140 characters or less, known as “tweets.” The social networking site is used every day to spread news to the world, especially during presidential elections and reforms in various countries around the world.

In June 12^th, 2009, Iranians began a protest because they did not like the leadership of their current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was known to have terrible economic policies and have no respect for the human rights of the citizens of Iran. His opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a reformist and progressive leader, was favored more by the people. When the results were released and the public found out that Ahmadinejad was elected as their new president, Iranians began to protest claims that the ballots for Mousavi were not accounted for in the election.

The protest was reported on Twitter nonstop, and citizens would express their complaints and unhappiness with the election and president. Surprisingly, Iran has the most bloggers per capita than anywhere else in the world. The social networking site was also used to plan protests around the country and also get the perspective of civilians participating in the protests, thus also raising awareness. This way, the entire world was informed of the hardships and complaints of Iranians. Many Twitter users would also use #iranelection or #iranprotest so other users could track their posts using Twitter’s “Trending Topics” feature. Due to the mass tweets about the protests, it was named “The Twitter Revolution.”

“The Twitter Revolution” is similar to the recent Kony 2012 outbreak, which got more than 84 million views in less than one month. The video created by Invisible Children went viral on Facebook, another social networking site. From my own experience of seeing the video go viral, more than 60 of my friends on Facebook shared the video on their timelines. After the first 20, I decided to watch the video myself, but unlike most of my friends, I didn’t share it because I knew that everyone would have already seen it. Unfortunately, the video was not what everyone thought it was, therefore it allowed for the creation of rebellions on the video and the charity.

Social networking can be a positive invention in the world of technology, but also a negative one as well. Although you can view other people’s perspectives on what is going on, some of the information that is shared may not be true (as it is the same for Wikipedia) – they are not completely reliable sources. In our current world, it’s hard to know what is real and what’s not.