Over the next three sessions, we will be looking at the specific role played by social media technologies in disseminating information about the Egyptian and Libyan revolutions. To this end, we will have a special guest in class (starting April 27th): John Scott Railton, founder of the "Jan25Voices" project. The site documents the revolution in Egypt through blogs, photos, video, audio, and twitter feeds. It gives voice to those people who were denied voices when Egypt decided to "shut down" the Internet.
In preparation for class, please read the following articles about John's work:
1. Time Magazine article: "Meet the Man Tweeting Egypt's Voices to the World"
2. Watch this video about John's work:
3. Listen to phone calls with young activists from the Jan25Voices site, look at the pictures and video.
Questions: What is the "new" public sphere? How has social media expanded the public sphere? Are there ways that the public sphere has also been constricted?
Also, please spend some time looking at the "Google Transparency Reports" by country (Libya, Egypt, China, etc): Figure out when the Internet was "turned off" and what services were shut down and when.
Links to the audio recordings on "Audioboo" can be found here.
Finally, all of John's tweets can be found here: http://twitter.com/#!/jan25voices
I believe this project is a perfect example to show the growth of the public sphere. Even when communication with Egypt was physically cut off, social media found its way through and continued to expand people's networks. John mentioned how he has become a producer with regards to social media, and I believe that is what defines the new public sphere. Social media expands this sphere to encompass everyone that wishes to be involved.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, however, the public sphere is being constricted to a less concrete and more virtual kind of relationship. Even though with social media, the sheer amount of networks and connections people make is practically limitless, I believe the quality of these connections are at times being compromised.
This project truly demonstrates the extent to which social media can impact society today. John founded a way to continue communicating with a nation that was in essence cut off from the rest of the world. People within Egypt and even around the world can now remain updated through Jan25Voices. This shows that the new public sphere is not limited but rather immense in what it can offer. Social media allows for everyone to access information anywhere and anytime.
ReplyDeleteI like the comment John made about the people who participate in this new public sphere. They are those that support the cause and have become the symbol for hope and change. They take part in it not out of force but out of their own accord. They are activists and one of the few voices for a nation that is trying to be silenced.
I also agree with the comment above by James that the public sphere is very much limited in regards to the virtual reality of social media. A concrete communication system and relationship cannot be made through the internet (i.e. twitter and other social media). There is not as much credibility to these loose ties even though John tries his best to use sources that he deems credible. Thus, the public sphere is no longer limited to smaller, stronger ties that can be verified. Because social media is so expansive with millions of people using it, it is important to remain cautious of the possible constraints that can arise. However, no one can deny the influence that social media is playing in the revolution.
The public sphere is "the space of communication of ideas and projects that emerge from society and are addressed to the decision makers in the institutions of society." It has greatly increased as a direct result of globalization, mostly a product of the internet and social media. The social media has broken geographical and communicational barriers, allowing people from all over the world to share ideas in a matter of seconds on the internet, creating the new public sphere. However, this virtual public sphere can be restricted by governments, as seen in Egypt for instance with the internet shut down.
ReplyDeleteKimmy, I disagree with your assessment that what John did had an impact on society. I believe that he was just a man who was in the right place at the right time and not a true reformer. It's great that he was able to get information from Egypt and relay it to us and other people, but in the end, did he really have an impact on society? Was it not the ones on the ground protesting in Egypt who had an impact on society. Thus, I hesitate to call Jan25Vocies truly impactful.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of the "public sphere," it is important to remember that what we read and see on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook should not be blindly trusted but must be verified. While I love social media and all the positive effects it has in our society, I also must take a step back and remember that most of what people post is opinion. This I believe, is the key to social media now and in the future.
I agree with Josh. John happened to be available during this time to help out. I do feel that he did a great thing but I also believe that even if he had not done this project someone else would have figured out a way to get news out of Egypt. Its possible he had an impact on society in the aspect that he gave people the opportunity to see what was going on during the revolution.
ReplyDeleteThis project is a great example of what our society is capable of doing with the modern technologies and social media devices that are available at our dispense. Jan25Vocies gave those not directly involved in the actions that occurred in Egypt primary sources to how the people being directly affected were feeling. However, there was so much media coverage of all these actions, that most the world had an understanding of what was going on. His project gained support because it was an innovative way for people to hear/read first hand accounts of those who were suppressed by the government's blocking of Twitter. John created this project with good intentions, it played out the way he expected, yet I cannot say that it had a large impact on the situation in Egypt.
ReplyDeleteThis "new" public sphere gives the world the opportunity to get a sense of living in areas where the internet has been "turned off" and any means of cyber communication has been shut down. John Scott Railton's Jan25Voices site is a great way to raise awareness of what is going on in places like Egypt. Whether John was a true reformer or he just happened to be there at the right place and time, he still continues to update his site with the pictures, phone calls, etc. The way John utilizes these forms of social media show how influential it really is. We could base that off the fact that every day people like us, are now more aware of what had happened during the revolution.
ReplyDeleteThe public sphere is define as an area, a moment where people can discuss public issues and influence political debates. It has been crucial to many revolutions as it was demonstrated in the article last week which compared the civil rights movement of the sixties to current movements. The new public sphere can therefore be represented by the development of new medias such as the internet. Such medias have experienced a huge boom in the past decade which encouraged the expansion of this public sphere trememdously. The idea of a growing virtual social sphere can be illustrated by an example from the video when the speaker explains that he first contacted his friends and then friends of friends in order to collect testimonies. Because internet was shot down, he imitated the activity of social networks such as twitter to fight against the lack of freedom of speech. Social websites such as Twitter has also expanded the public sphere because, as the speaker states in the video, it created a link between two populations which were far apart, Egypte and the rest of the world, thus making the movement bigger and the information cicurlate faster.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the public sphere has been constricted. Indeed, the internet and mobile phone were shot down, but this video demonstrates that with today's technology a movement can't be easily oppressed. As it is explained, the Egyptian forces always responded to revolutioners by massive actions but this year their were able to fight the officials with an even bigger and still growing power: social medias.
The public sphere has undoubtedly been enlarged by the advent of social media. Simply in the way that it fosters quick and widespread dissemination of information (from events to news), it has been an effective tool in encouraging populations en masse to cooperate for a common goal.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it would be foolhardy to attribute the success of the revolutionary movement solely to social media. A look back to the Iranian revolution of 1979, the Russian revolution in 1917, and the French revolution of 1789 shows that social media, while a helpful tool to get everyone involved, is far from a necessity.
On the other hand, I believe that revolutionary demonstrations exhibit a "mob mentality" characteristic. After a certain "critical mass" of the population demonstrates, more of the population is compelled to demonstrate too. It's the inverse of the free-rider theory. But until the demonstrations achieve critical mass and the revolution can be self-sustaining, I believe social media has helped encourage the population to get involved.
The "new" public sphere is expansive, largely accessible and full of producers. The potential of the Internet’s ability to permeate physical and geographic borders is partly realized by the advent of social media and its ability to reach areas where leaders or governments want to “unplug” the citizens of their country.
ReplyDeleteJohn’s project is very interesting—both in its concept and that questions that it raises about the use of social media in the news, namely questions of credibility.
What I feel is underestimated in the posts above, is the power that comes with having a voice. John’s project may not, and likely will not, change the macro-socioeconomic or political conditions in Egypt, but what it will do is what it sets out to: to give a voice to the voiceless. In revolutions where citizens are oppressed and repressed by their leadership, having a voice not only raises morale but also draws the attention of those who can hear those voices. With social media, the potential audience is in the millions, and this is what makes social media so powerful in this realm—the ability to draw the eyes of the world to a specific moment, place or people in a cost-efficient and relatively easy way.
All technology has its limitations, however. The impact of social media only reaches so far as Internet permeation does. What constricts its potential is the fact that many countries today are still without widespread broadband access or cell phones. Without access to the public sphere and the communication methods that are used within it, is to be without the unlimited access to audiences that technological users enjoy. Additionally, the lingua franca of the Internet, though this is slowly being subverted by translation pages and the such, is English.
Here are some of the first tweets that John posted, starting when the Internet was shut down:
ReplyDeleteJan25voices Jan25 Voices
Live Phonecall: Shots. First live shot fired into the air by officer standing on car. Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz St #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: CHANT "Saudi Arabia is waiting for you Mubarak" #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Observation: Police trying to cut link points across city to prevent demonstrators from linking up. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: Riot police in Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz St, but people not being arrested at the moment. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: Nile Bridge Closed, El Gamaa bridge closed, Abbas Bridge closed. Trying to divide apart city. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: teargass firing in Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz St, security suddenly come back "as if fallen from sky"#jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: people are taking back Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz St #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Need to reach us?correct email: jan25voices(at)gmail.com #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live phonecall: Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz St has been blocked, cutting people off from the rest of the city. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live phonecall: quiet in some parts of Zamalek #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: reports that powerful, painful water canons are in wide use at Syeda Zainab (poorer neighborhood)#jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz St: Police dividing protesters. Separating into small groups. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: uncountable mass at Gala trying to break through to Tahrir, police unmoving behind teargass #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: Crowd is louder as they try, for the moment unsuccessful, to break through towards tahrir square. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: Gala square. Thousands surging. Wide gala bridge blocked by 4 security trucks. Teargas into the crowd #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live: Police have blocked Gala bridge. Wncountable mass forming at Gala square. They are going to ram the barricade. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live: Gala Square running from police in thousands, pressing into sidestreets. Looking for a way around barricades #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live: Tear gas arcing across the crowd at Dokki. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live watching Tahrir: A swell of people are running from Dokki towards square. "The People Want to Topple the System" #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live watching Tahrir Street: updates coming
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: Police heavy, and walking along both sides of demonstrations at Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz St. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
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Live Phonecall: Not hearing any Muslim Brotherhood chants #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt
28 Jan
This project demonstrates the usefulness and dimensions of how effective our media and communication technology have advanced. Instead of just calling between friends for insignificant things, using the technology as the mean to help people to voice their opinions and suffering is a really great way to exploit the media.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this might bring political tension that might endanger the safety outside those countries. Nevertheless, this is a great approach to help those people remote from other countries.
The new public sphere can be seen as the up and coming network of communication that society is rapidly transitioning into. It transfers much of the importance of broadcast media to the hands of the users of the Internet. Instead of having multiple barriers to get a message across like before, we now have the ability to get our thoughts and opinions on different subjects out easily, which could easily be a double-edged sword. However, this public sphere is limited to the people who have access to the Internet and even then, some parts of the Internet are private to certain people. Also, only certain people attain the certain information they made need because there is an oversupply of random information that forces people to wade through what is correct or fake.
ReplyDeleteThe public sphere can definitely be interfered with, two examples being the two revolutions we've gone over in class. Once again, restrictions can come down to "who" can actually access the information, possible Internet providers blocking certain searches or websites, miscommunication and false information, or just having certain keywords taboo and having consequences against them.