Technology's role in the arab spring

This is a short video that gives you an idea of why people got involved on the streets instead of just watching it on the TV or internet. Jared Cohen told two stories about the role of technology and the first story he said that technology didn't play a huge role in the revolution, but it got people interested in what was really going on in Tunisia. People were able to see through the use of technology what was happening in a place they probably wouldn't have heard about if it weren't for technology. The second story he explained that in Egypt when Mubarak shut down the internet, when people would have watched it on al jazeera, they couldn't so they went out into the streets to see first hand what was really going on.
I think like he said, technology was there and people heard about the riots, but it didn't impact what happened to an extreme. If people wanted to know what was going on they were able to find out online and in Egypt when they couldn't find out through technology, they went to see for themselves. I think what they are trying to say is that technology is a great way to find out what's going on in the world even if you're not there and if it's taken away people will have to go and find out for themselves.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZwNb11n9zk
Jodi Bolton

Twitter Expands Its Linguistic Scope

If you write from right to left in your native language you are in luck! Earlier this year Twitter made it possible for people to write in their native language from right to left. This makes it easier for them to have trending topics in their language. I believe if this was around during the Arab Springs it would have been a lot easier for the riots to form because people would be able to follow all of the different trending topics. I think it is great that people can now make hash tags in their native language. On the other hand though, I feel like now there may be more problems. I feel that social media will now have a bigger impact within the Middle Eastern countries when it comes to rioting since they can now see trending topics in their own language. More people will be able to participate, find, and follow all of the trending topics since they can now read it in their language. Do you think that this could be a problem in the future?

Watch the Video!

-Erika

Excellent interview of former head of the Bin Laden unti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0VatZhh3pE

This interview between ex-CIA analyst and head of the Bin Laden Unit, Michael Scheuer and Eliot Spitzer is controversial.  I am a big fan of Scheuer and have read much of his work.  He argues against the  idea that the Arab Spring is a result of social media in the region, but instead Islamic-based movements gaining traction to bring down governments they see as supported by the west and offensive to Islam.  It is less than 7 minutes and different from what we usually hear.

Power of Social Media in Arab Spring

http://socialcapital.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/twitter-facebook-and-youtubes-role-in-tunisia-uprising/

Could this article be more perfect to our topic? The article explains Twitter, Facebook and Youtube’s role in the Middle East uprisings (Arab Spring). In the beginning of the protest, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube were used to accelerate the protest… and it worked. An interesting quote from the article is that the “CIA was blindsided about the Egypt uprising because they failed to follow developments on Twitter.” The fact that Twitter is ahead of our CIA and that they use social media to track what goes on in the word is fascinating. These social media sites are used to document what goes on in the world. Long gone are the days when the government can hide an execution, assault, bombing, etc. Within minutes acts of violence and other acts are posted, some even streaming live on these social media sites. The primary concerns of the author are how far social media is going to go. In such a short amount of time, social media networks have expanded, and now people and government agencies rely heavily on them for information. The author’s sources were from the NY times, first hand accounts from Slate, interviews, and other news sources. The author is writing from his first hand accounts on the power of social media and the Arab spring. The general impression given from this article is that social media is very powerful and heavily relied upon. The most interesting part of this article was when it talked about the three main ways social media could be helpful. The three ways are “a) mobilizing protesters rapidly; b) undermining a regime’s legitimacy; or c) increasing national and international exposure to a regime’s atrocities.”

Huffington Post - Egyptian Riots Now and Then

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/01/09/arab-spring-twitter-facebook_n_1194999.html

This article is comparing an Egyptian Bread Riot in 1977 and riots in the Egyptian Spring that have happened recently.  The Bread Riot was to end food subsidies and according to the article, attracted hundreds more people then and demonstrations that have gone on recently.  I have to agree with what the article is saying and that is that social media does not always have as big of an influence as people may believe.  Social media was pretty non-existent in the 70s and yet the 1977 riot had such a large turn out of people.  Back then people didn't have computers, cell phones and many may not have even had a televisions to watch to be "influenced" by what others thought and said they should be doing.

Going with the idea about people not having technology to persuade them in the 70s, many people in the Middle East STILL do not have access to these things today.  Yes, they have the TV station Al-Jazeera but is that enough to be making a difference in whether people will show up to a demonstration or riot.  The last three lines of the article says this, "So I think a degree of caution is required in believing that social media is at the root of everything that's happening. I don't think that's the case at all. I think it's a factor amongst other factors.".  In my mind, this is so true.  As we have talked about in class, it doesn't just take movie clips, Twitter posts and Facebook statuses to ruin a government.  It takes years of hostility, disagreement, poor leaders and many more factors to cause a situation to turn into an uproar.  

Iran SNL Digital Short

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/iran-so-far/169811

The link above is to a digital short that aired on Saturday Night Live. I thought it was a good video to post on the blog because it really shows Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ideas and also gives insight to how America portrays his power. Although Saturday Night Live is making a joke out of the situation, I believe that it provides valuable information on his thoughts. It talks about his politics, his beliefs and what America thinks of him. The writer of this digital short got the information to put in the song from the media around the world. The author wrote this song to be funny, but I also believe it does a great job of identifying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s absurd principles. The general impression given from the video is that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an irrational leader that us Americans are making a joke out of. The interesting thing about this video is that social media and American independence gives us the power to make videos mocking other political leaders and allows us to voice our opinion. This video did not cause any controversy here but if it was created and shown in Iran, it would have caused many problems.

Social Media Interview

http://socialmediatoday.com/rohnjaymiller/478307/egypt-social-media-during-and-aftermath-arab-spring

This is an interview between Rohn Jay Miller and a Egyptian man named Tarek Nasr concerning the benefits that social media outlets such as Facebook, and Twitter served as a bulletin board in gathering people together to revolt against their past corrupt leader, President Hosni Mubarak. Facebook events were posted and young Arab adults gathered together forming one of the most ambititious and inspiring groups of youth in revolt that the Arab world has possibly ever seen. Tarek explains how crucial social networking was in coordinating these gatherings that changed the face of their country by extinguishing a corrupt leader, and fighting for their independence.