Directions – Actively read the sources indicated and write a reflection on the seminar question -
Is citizen-journalism and social media empowering or undermining democratization and transparency in the modern world?
1.Blog introduction:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/revolution-20-democracy-promotion-in-the-age-of-social-media/article564610
2. Read one of the following sources:
a) Introductory Level –
"Can Social Media Bring Democracy to the Middle East?" - Voice of America Blog, 2012.
http://www.voanews.com/content/will-new-media-bring-democracy-to-middle-east-100898544/124035.html
or "How the Middle East Uses Social Media in Four Charts"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/19/how-the-middle-east-uses-social-media-in-four-charts/
or -
b) Grade Level - "Annals of Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted"by Malcolm Gladwell for The New Yorker. October 2010.
or-
c) College Level
"Blogs and Bullets: New Media and the Conflict After the Arab Spring." PeaceWorks/ United States Institute for Peace. 2012. Web. http://www.usip.org/files/resources/PW80.pdf
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/19/how-the-middle-east-uses-social-media-in-four-charts/
note: this is a longer article, focus on any two or three pages from p. 5-20
And
3. "The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State."by Janet Reitman. Rolling Stone Magazine. Web. December 7, 2012.
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-jeremy-hammond-enemy-of-the-state-20121207
4. Summarize the articles in a paragraph or two reflecting key ideas and details from all sources. Overall, what do these articles suggest is the answer to this blog’s framing question “Is citizen journalism and social media empowering or undermining democractization and transparency in the modern world? Refer to the US example, the Arab Spring nations mentioned in the PDF and the 2009 Green Revolution (Death in Tehran) in your response. Post two questions or comments that you may contirnute to an in-class seminar on Wednesday.
Most of the uprisings seem to share some common ground that is associated with will power and technology. In the Russian revolution, Iranian revolution and the revolutions currently happening in Tunisia and Egypt are based on the foundation of the people. The people that inhabit these countries are the driving force for change; if they are unhappy with their government, they will seek to overthrow it. The revolutions mentioned before are powered by technology. From the printing press, to the television to face book, these innovations have allowed people to connect with each other, in turn spreading ideas and instilling rebellion. Iranians used cassettes and pamphlets to spread ideas in 1979 in order to start a movement against the Shah. Currently, social media like twitter and face book is being used to enlighten the world about government corruption and have others support causes and movements.
ReplyDeleteIn “New study quantifies use of social media in Arab Spring” by Catherine O’Donnell, she presents social media as a catalyst for revolution. In the article, a person stated, “Our evidence suggests that social media carried a cascade of messages about freedom and democracy” .O’Donnell makes several quantitative references about social media’s affects on democratization that insinuates empowerment. She states how the total rate of tweets about Egypt ballooned from 2,300 tweets a day to 230,000 a day. Tweeting and status updates have instilled a sense of understanding among people that sparked a need for change and revolution. In some countries like Tunisia, when social media influenced a riot of 100,000 people, leaders from the old regime were forced to relinquish power; therefore, empowering other political systems to come about like Democracy.
In the article, “The Rise and Fall of Jeremey Hammond: Enemy of the State”, the article shows how social media is empowering Democracy. Hackers like Jeremey Hammond acted like a vigilante, hacking government and corporate websites to expose deceit and corruption within. He would then post his finding on the web, allowing people to see these rouge operations. By doing this, he is promoting legitimacy and transparency in Democracy. Although Hammond is anti-capitalist and slightly anarchist, he inadvertently promoted the foundation of Democracy.
Questions:
Delete1. why did the U.S government use Stratfor's services sometimes
if it could make people doubt the governments transparency?
2. If Hammond is anti-capitalist could that also mean he is
anti-democratic?
Sarah Tallaksen
ReplyDeleteA) Some characteristics these uprisings have in common is the use of social media as a driving force for a revolution. In the rebellions talked about in the article social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have given protesters a channel to focus their frustrations and desire for freedom into, giving power to the people instead of the government. However this pushes governments for more control over the internet.
B) Citizen journalism and social media is empowering democratization. It is giving citizens a truthful outlook on the world around them. It allows people to gather and talk about issues without having to see each other in person. It is an outlet for people who are constantly controlled and watched by the government. Social media forces a government to be more transparent. Instead of blatantly accepting lies or relying on other governments false of skewed word now people can just go online to get a truthful story.
C) New study quantifies use of social media in Arab Spring
Social media became a critical component in the uprising, spreading expectations of freedom and bringing forth organized political action. The amount of content produced by people on social media sites increased dramatically during the Egyptian Revolution. Twitter provided the most evidence because it held conversations about democracy and does not require a computer but only a cellphone. In Tunisia blogs were filled with the words of revolution and liberty. This talk often led to a public protest soon after. The discussions in Egypt and Tunisia spanned across borders. Other countries saw the conversations and aimed for social change as well. The censorship or banning of social media in some countries caused the protesters to openly rebel. Social media has brought people together as a unified enemy against dictatorships.
The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State
A group of hackers attack a major company. They gather a wide array of information to use against the government saying, if the government had secrets they would have secrets too. This group was led by sup_g or in other words Jeremy Hammond. He is an anarchist and wanted to reveal some of a major company’s biggest secret. He worked hard and fast collecting over 200 gigabytes of data. He not only destroyed the company but also leaked a massive amount of both government and civilian data out worldwide. Three months after the attack he was caught and incarcerated.
Social media can either empower or undermine democratization. It all depends on the people using the social media sites and for what purposes. In the America example the leaked information caused more harm than good yet in Tehran social media was being used to create a social reform. However on both sides it does force a government to be more transparent. The government secrets on both sides were forcefully revealed to the public eye without hesitation.
How would the government use social media to promote its own ideas?
Why do governments try to deny the truth when social media sites have recoded data on actual historical events?
Rachael Chan
ReplyDeleteE Block
The author of this article suggests that social media has greatly impacted people all around the world, especially in developing countries. The article states that social networking is the web communication medium of choice in the developing world, in which people are spending more time on social networking sites rather than email. In countries like Tunisia and Egypt, governments have been controlling media and restricting free speech and political association; however, it has been unable to contain the “viral anti-regime” activities of their citizens. The purpose of controlling mass media us to preserve the government’s control and contain opposition. In the article, “Can Social Media Bring Democracy to Middle East?” Egyptian born columnist, Mona Eltahawy promotes social media as a way for marginalized groups to voice their opinion. Social media has given people a chance to bring change in a region that is largely run by dictators. The article, “The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State” raises awareness of the evils social media may bring. As a member of the online activist movement, Jeremy Hammond is said to have been part of the team that beached Stratfor’s main defenses, gaining access to its main web servers. Jeremy had joined a group within Anonymous in which they protested against the corrupt government, corporations, militaries and law enforcements of the world. Although many of his actions were illegal, he still promoted legitimacy and transparency within his democratic government. Much like the 2009 Green Revolution, the use of social media was used for people to voice their opinion.
How would censorship benefit the country?
To what extent does social media impact transparency in a nation?
I agree with Rachel on how although Jeremy Hammond illegally hacked closed documents, he was driving the force of legitmacy in our government
DeleteNancy Che Block E
ReplyDeleteMany groups of people have been restricted by their governments on several occasions throughout the run of history. The oppressive governments take full measures to block unwanted media and restrict natural freedoms. At times, government officials will instigate violent methods to suppress their people from hurting their reputation. Like the Iranian government, social media has played a considerable role in each to stimulate communication and promote democracy. Many of these strongly oppressed nations rely on social media such as Facebook and Twitter to share and communicate the events to others more than through e-mailing.
In “Can Social Media Bring Democracy to Middle East?” social media’s efficiency to bring democracy is questioned at the start that they are only used to vent opinions and won’t affect their government’s legitimacy in any way, especially ones supported by western nations such as Egypt. Elthaway says social media gives voice and power to minorities. People are able to express their thoughts more freely and discuss political affairs. She says there have been several occasions of which social media brought justice to police brutality and raises awareness to corruption. Thus, increases their government’s transparency by spreading the news manually rather than the government to reveal it to the public willingly. However, the government is increasingly aware of the social media activities and is taking violent precautions by imprisoning, beating and even killing bloggers.
Discussed in “The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State" by Janet Reitman, social media has proven to be both promoting and discouraging democracy. The article discusses the hacking endeavors of a 29-year old named Jeremy Hammond or also known as sup_g on the internet. Insisting he was bringing justice to Strategic Forecasting Inc. for stealing and tapping into millions of data ranging from private messages, credit card numbers to passwords, some belonging to “top-secret operators,” the stolen information was spread to both the government and the people. In this case, the use of social media has proven its dangers but yet, this exposure increases the government’s transparency levels. He believed that if they have secrets, the people can have secrets too, which is quite a reasonable claim. He was described to be like Robin Hood who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Hammond intended to donate the stolen credit cards to charity but hasn’t gotten around in doing so before getting arrested.
Social media does give the public power to enforce democracy as seen in “Death in Tehran” when the recording of Neda’s death was exposed to the world through Youtube. Overall, from thegaurdian on the Arab Spring Uprising, nations striving for democracy haven’t been as successful since the corrupted officials retain power, especially if the US government is supporting the dictatorship as explained by Elthaway in “Can Social Media Bring Democracy to the Middle East?”
Questions:
-What are the purposes of continuing to hide the truth when everyone knows it already? Doesn’t it just make them more unpopular?
-Why does the US support dictatorship in the Arab nations when we are democratic and have always strove to protect the world from communism (WW2 and cold war) at which the people in those nations are experiencing similar governmental abuse?
Jeffrey Skidmore Oart 1
ReplyDeleteI believe that citizen- journalism and social media have is empowering and undermining democanization and transparency in the modern world. Social media is one of the few tools in the middle east that keep people optomisic about the region. Social media has given all types of people a voice and got to say whatever they wanted to say. Most of these groups are women and minorities of different kinds of religions, ethnic groups, and sexual minorities. Now all these people have a place to express themsleves on what or how they are feeling. For example, social media has helped convict police officers of torture in Egypt. Social media has helped the hunger strike going on in Saudi Arabia. It has prevented sexual harrassment in Egypt. Social Media is more than just stress relief and venting.
Jackie Armao & Jillian Welch
ReplyDeleteBlock D
The main idea of the introduction is to show outsiders how social media and reform have become linked as one. People in Tunisia and Eygpt have rallied on these social sites sharing their opinions and thoughts about the government and other national problems. The governments in these places have tried to increase censorship amoungst it's citizens and have blocked and monitored sites on the internet. China for example has developed cyber control strategies that have included strikes agaianst Gooogle. This is interesting to us because Google is a national search site and China can stop it's citizens from going on it.
In reading "Can Social Media bring Democracy to the Middle East" we have discovered that the U.S. is trying to train Arab youths to be political activists and use the internet as a social outlet to express their feelings to the world and eachother about the issues and concerns they have. The speaker in the article says she finds social media to be one of the few tools the Middle East has to keep her optimistic about the region. The speaker argues that no regime has been defeated by social media but it has made changes in the way people can improve the governmental control. Social Media has become an effective tool for the Middle East and to express feelings on an issue.
The last article is about a group of hackers who hack into major sites such as Stratfor. This promotes the use of social media but in a neagative way.This group of people used social media as a way to gain access to passwords, emails, and other private infromation. We believe that social media is a good thing to have but when it is used tp hack and steal people's private and personal information the it is considered bad. Citizen journalism and social media is empowering democractization and transparency in the modern world. It is allowing people who wouldn't have a voice in their government to speak out in a safer way and allow for change to happen in their nations.
Emily Camacho
ReplyDeleteD block
The Blog introduction article showed the major problems that the government is having with their citizens using the internet. The article states that the first major demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt were organized via facebook and twitter. The government realizes the potential threat that the internet poses and has then increased censorship. This hasn’t stopped people from using these sites though; social networking has opened up communication in developing nations which has the potential to lead to revolutions.
The second article talks about the reinvention of social activism using social media. Through all of history people have protested against their governments or organizations, and social media has given way to a new set of revolutionary tools. In Tehran after a student protest, the government asked twitter to suspend their uses in order to avoid other uprisings. The article states that “Without Twitter the people of Iran would not have felt empowered and confident to stand up for freedom and democracy”. Although many people just believe the internet is used for interaction and conversation, developing nation’s governments are monitoring media to ensure no acts of revolutionary change or uprising occur.
The article “The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond” raises awareness to the bad things that occur from social media. There was a team of hackers who hacked into Stratfor’s main defense systems. The stolen information was spread along the internet, gaining the attention of Government officials and people. This shows how the media can not only be used as a source of interaction or protest but instead has its defects in robbing people of their privacy.
Overall these articles show the positive and negative sides of social media and how government can either restrict their people of their freedom of speech or adjust to the communication traveling through social media.
- How would the government restrict people using the internet in highly developed countries that have more security?
- What does everyone think about the importance of the internet in the Arab uprising?
Part 1:
ReplyDeleteNon democratic countries often try to control what media is being spread so they can stop revolutionary ideas from spreading. This has been easy for strong countries in the past, who are easily able to control what newspapers write, and what’s on tv. Now with the creation of social media it is becoming more of a challenge to control ideas from being spread. Web 2.0 is a new type of computer program that many countries have had trouble blocking information on. The Western world needs to work to keep Web 2.0 a free and useable space so people can promote already popular ideas of democracy. Using social networking sites, activists have been able to organize protests, and gain supporters.
In the Middle East social media has been used to convict police officers of torture, raise awareness, organize protests, and help people congregate. No regimes have yet to be overthrown, but small progress has been made towards democratization. Using social media both within and outside of Egypt, people were able to convince government to hold an open election with multiple presidential candidates. Governments of Middle Eastern countries have reacted harshly to bloggers. Bloggers from these countries have been intimidated, and even jailed. People need to support these bloggers and try to protect them.
Hackers from a group called Anonymous work for justice by hacking internet sites. A subgroup within the group is called Antisec
1) Non democratic countries often try to control what media is being spread so they can stop revolutionary ideas from spreading. This has been easy for strong countries in the past, who are easily able to control what newspapers write, and what’s on tv. Now with the creation of social media it is becoming more of a challenge to control ideas from being spread. Web 2.0 is a new type of computer program that many countries have had trouble blocking information on. The Western world needs to work to keep Web 2.0 a free and useable space so people can promote already popular ideas of democracy. Using social networking sites, activists have been able to organize protests, and gain supporters.
ReplyDeleteIn the Middle East social media has been used to convict police officers of torture, raise awareness, organize protests, and help people congregate. No regimes have yet to be overthrown, but small progress has been made towards democratization. Using social media both within and outside of Egypt, people were able to convince government to hold an open election with multiple presidential candidates. Governments of Middle Eastern countries have reacted harshly to bloggers. Bloggers from these countries have been intimidated, and even jailed. People need to support these bloggers and try to protect them.
Hackers from a group called Anonymous work for justice by hacking internet sites. A subgroup within the group is called Antisec
Zachary Agatiello
Briano Bruno Melanie Seidel
ReplyDeleteThe articles have to do with social media being involved in government as a way for people to express themselves against there government and allow themselves as a group and as people with opinions to be heard by there peers.There are too different ways to do this , the first article shows that it can be used peacefully such as posting on twitter or as G_sup used it ,it could be used to take down companies and find out usefull data such as passwords and files etc.
However Social media is forcing transparency onto governments because if the governments don't share the information it can be stolen by these people and exposed to everybody anyway.
Questions -
Briano -
Will governments be more transparent due to the ability of hactavists to find out whatever is being hidden?
Will there be restrictions and more regulations added to computers?
Melanie-
Will there ever have to be restrictions on social media in the U.S?How will people respond
Do you agree with the punishments put apon the Hactivists
Social Medai does promote the want for transparency and democracy in government, since it is such a huge sharing platform which new ideas can be expressed. Also that citizens can supretiously stage meetings and revolutions which the government has a hard time of controling the spread of anti-government propaganda. Today in the world the use of social media to rebel against the government is prominent in the middle east,most countries in the social media in the middle east is used to mostly talk about community issues,politics, and religion, while their western counterparts mostly talk about entertainment. Jeremy Hammond known by his hackname sup_g and LulzXmas, along with his counterparts Stratfor's computers they made off with 200 gigabytes of information which he shared, as well mocked Steratford by putting degradinmg things on thier website. They also destroyed the company's database. In the past before the internet and social media swaying public opinion and stopping revolutions was an easy task for any corrupt government, as society as grown and evolved people have found new ways to pass on ideas about revolution, such as audio tapes that held messages about revolution during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Now that social medai is a huge driving force in many of these revolutions, Twitter and Facebook being the biggest players. Most countries have a hard time controlling internet usage and how aware people are off government actions, which makes the need for transparency and legitimacy for the government ro increase for the people. - Paul Tanzi, Gian Prado, Mark Magrone
ReplyDelete1) The main idea in all of these articlesis that social media(the internet) is a very dangherous thing. There are positive influences like communication and spreading of ideas. There are also negative impacts like hacking, corruption, and incorrect data. In a democratic government there is greater freedom on what you can do,share, or express on sites like Facebook and twitter.Less democratic countries have more restrictions. The articles talk a lot about the hacker in Egypt age of 27, that got away with over 30,000 people's credit and personal information
ReplyDeleteNick Vazquez and Ivari E.
Kaitlyn Conroy
ReplyDeleteA-Block
1) Citizen journalism and social media are empowering democratization in many regions in the modern world. Citizens in countries like Egypt and Syria who have seen revolution in the past years have used citizen journalism and social media to document what is going on around them and share their views on it. Deep longing for freedom and democracy have been a cause for uprise in many Arab countries which have led to violent protests. These protests have been captured by video and picture, which can be shared with a click of the button around the world. Access to social media has allowed ordinary citizens to write their own history, and has increased transparency within these countries. Overall I believe citizen journalism and social media has empowered democracy and transparency since it has allowed citizens to voice their views and share their countries truths with the world.
2) The article "Can Social Media Bring Democracy to the Middle East?" by the Voice of America Blog questions whether social media can bring democracy to the Middle East, or if social media just functions as an outlet to vent rather than bring down different regimes. Social media has kept many people optimistic in the Middle East because its become a crucial tool that has given people a voice, especially for woman and minorities of different kinds. The article further discusses how social media in an aspect may not of brought down regimes, but definitely effected the way they were run and brought to light their corruption. Social media was used to organize the victims of police torture within Egypt, helped end the hunger strike in Saudi Arabia and was used to raise awareness about sexual harassment against women in public in Egypt, leading to Egyptian Parliament discussing a draft law that would both define and criminalize sexual harassment. Social media has definitely ignited change within nations under going revolution. It is a fast easy way to bring issues to light that would of been ignored by corrupt goverment. Citizen journalists are demanding to be heard and are growing by the hundreds. However many citizens are also being punished for what they say and post, especially when criticizing the regime they live under. Bloggers in various countries across the region have been intimidated, beaten, arrested, and have been imprisoned without any formal charge for speaking out against the reigme. Similarly, in the movie a "Death in Tehran" Netta's boyfriend who tried to inform others about her death and how it was unjust and caused by the regime, was imprisoned for talking to the media.
"The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State."by Janet Reitman described the life of Jeremy Hammond who is a hacker, and now considered a terrorist. He did partake in illegal activity by hacking into government data bases, however the article profiles him as not doing it in a malicious way. Jeremy would hack into government sites and spread confidential information from them to show how corrupt government is. At times instead of stealing credit cards number for himself, he would donate money to the Red Cross and other progressive causes. Overall Jeremy might of broken the law and went to far, but he like many citizens in the Middle of East used technology to get a point across and to reveal how unjust government is in order to make change.
Questions:
1)Is social media benefitting the world and society? Or just causing revolt?
2)Are some hackers just questioning government like people in the Middle East?
Lucinda S. Martinez
ReplyDeleteBlock A
In the Article,"Can Social Media Bring Democracy to Middle East?", the author conducts an interview with Mona Eltahawy, who is an Egyptian columnist. Eltahaway believes that social media has played in important role in shaping the events that have taken place in the middle east. Women and other minority groups are able to voice their opinions through the use of technology. People have the ability to change their government by exposing the injustices that have been taking place. By being exposed the government has no choice,but to change. People want to strive for freedom and democracy. However, the government doesn't want to admit that it's doing anything wrong, so it tries to hide the truth from the rest of the world, but through the use of social media, the people are able to get their message across.
1. Is social media really affective at over throwing government?
Delete2. How can social media be used to persuade people's opinions?
Daniel Belic
ReplyDeleteI chose the article "Why the revolution will not be Tweeted." The article gave excellent psycolocical reasonings about hoe revolutions are made. Big movements such as those needed in the Middle East need to have a defined leader and a rigid structure. This ensures the movement is secure enough and works on "strong bonds" this leads to less people but more commitment. The leader is looked on as the mascot of the revolution and centralizes ideas. Said leader also makes controversial decisions impossible in leaderless groups. Members mostly join via friends or family. What is the trend in America is a leaderless group that makes their opinion known. This group cannot make big changes controvertial questions cannot be answered however many more people are able to join but with less commitment. The Article about sup_g describes the social structure of annoynomus. It is based on weak bonds but common goals. No loyalty to each other is owed no one works on a cause they don't believe in. It is difficult to infiltrate because giving names is not required the only information dispersed is the person's handle. Handles can be changed as often as the person likes.
Questions
1. How did sup_g go from a grey hat to a black hat?
2. Why did the unerversity flip out over grey hat hacking its not like he is a cracker at least at that time.
Alyssa Morganti
ReplyDeleteA Block
1-Social media and citizen journalism promotes democracy and transparency in the world today. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and other socially connected sites spread the word. In other words, social media enables people with various opinions and facts to share and voice to each other and themselves. By expressing thoughts for all to see and comment on, it brings people together. People coming together when it comes to their country's problems promotes democracy.
2-The article entitled "Can Social Media Bring Democracy to the Middle East?" challenges the idea as to what social media provides in the Middle East. In other words, does social media lead to transparency in countries located in the Middle East? Or, do all of these social networking sites benefit or harm the society in which Middle Eastern citizens inhabit. Although democratic values, thoughts and opinions are spread in using social networking, it is evident that people who oppose these democratic views revolt against those in support of it. Bloggers feel the wrath and some receive punishment because they're using freedom of expression and sharing their thoughts on their government with the world. However, although social media provides the option of problems and unfair treatment upon voicing one's opinion, it provides a sense of optimism. Social media grants the opportunity to share feelings and thoughts, especially for those who experience Middle Eastern corruption in their government, and feel as though their only means of voicing their opinion is through social networking, spreading awareness and supporting their thoughts as they please.
3-In "The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State" is about a young man, Jeremy Hammond, who opposes the government. He is against capitalism and doesn't agree with the government's actions. In order to show that he is against the government, he hacked into government systems and taught a group of people to hack into them as well. He worked vigorously, exposing what he and many other citizens would be deemed as corruption in the government. The government took great offense to this, as hacking is illegal. While being interviewed after his illegal actions, he showed no signs of regret and stick to his perspective on the U.S. government.
Questions:
1) Would the government reward Jeremy Hammond if he hacked and exposed another country's corruption in government?
2) If it wasn't for social media, how do you think we would be aware of what is really happening in the world, and how would those feeling the impact be able to make us aware?
Paul Montanaro
DeleteIs citizen journalism and social media empowering or undermining democratization and transparency in the modern world?
In my opinion the driving factor of the Arab Spring was social media. Inside the countries it may have not been the most popular form of communication but for the outside world social media sites have become major news outlets. It is in my opinion relatable to the way television has forever changed the ways that war has been fought because the flash of a camera than the click of a mouse can cause mass awareness.
c) The collegiate level article to which I read explored how now more than ever the speed and efficiency at which it is possible to exchange information is hundreds of times faster than in the past. Surprisingly enough inside Iran the so-called twitter revolution changed the common perception of the Arab Spring but may have not done justice to the factual background of the uprising. One of the most surprising facts that I have seen is that in 2011 #Egypt was the most popular hash tag on twitter, it even beat out #JustinBeiber. These facts do also change the common perception of the revolts. It does have a bit of an undermining to the democracy process because people outside of countries do not get the entire feel for the protests. An unnecessary loss of life is terrible but most of the Arab Spring failed.
d) In the article about the hacker known as Sup_g, or Jeremy Hammond the use of social media is a complete and total undermining of democracy but a personal threat to the security of the United States. In his own words this punk is an anarchist-communist who has a personal vendetta against the intelligence world. This hacker has been a constant source of annoyance for the government. He has hacked into many websites including the FBI, CIA, private contractors, and several foreign government sites. He has used credit card numbers to donate towards causes he felt worthy. This man should not only be sentenced to life in prison but should be made an example of. This punk is guilty of treason and should be sentenced as such. He is for all intensive purposes, the future of domestic terrorism.
Questions.
1) Do you feel that Mr. Hammond is a threat to society?
2) Is there still an Arab Spring uprising now?
Jackie Armao
ReplyDeleteBlock D
Questions:
1. What do you think the governments who are using censorship will do once they realize that their censoring isn't as effective as they had planned it to be?
2. Do you think more governments who are trying to censor people will resort to violent tactics?
3. How can the U.S. support the way social media is being used in these countries to make change in their nation without making enemies?
Juliana Zaloom
ReplyDeleteD Block
Media over time has developed to help people share their ideas, contribute to society, and empower individuals all over the world. Based on the information posed in these articles, I would say that social media has empowered democratization and transparency in the modern world. The blog introduction article mentioned how the spread of news has developed over time. Since people now have a near-endless amount of access to anything they want, information access has become a perfect way for oppressed people to spread the word on what’s happening in their country. But, with the rapid spread of information comes angry national governments that have turned to censorship as a way to stop external intervention. In the article “Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted”, “Boycotts and sit-ins and nonviolent confrontations—which were the weapons of choice for the civil-rights movement—are high-risk strategies.” This theory encourages forms of social media, which is more readily accessible to the masses and spreads across the globe faster. The quote is proved in the documentary “Death in Tehran” when an innocent woman was killed in a shooting spree when she was on her way home from voting in the latest controversial election in Iran. In the last article, it is shown that sometimes activism through social media gets out of hand. Anonymous is an online activist movement that during the Arab Spring, “shut down the websites of the CIA, major banks and credit-card companies. They took up the cause of the Arab Spring by attacking the government websites of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt.” By taking such intense action, they’re shining a negative light on activists as a whole, even if some of them don’t do such drastic things to national governments and organizations. Seminar comments/questions: 1- Even though some Middle Eastern governments are censoring citizens’ opinions, how are people still having their voices heard around the world? 2- If you were a journalist/news reporter, how would you fight for these people’s rights? Just think, if you were in their position, wouldn’t you want external help?
Tiffany Eng
ReplyDeleteA Block
4/18/13
Citizen journalism and social media is empowering democratization and transparency in the modern world. According to “Revolution 2.0: democracy promotion in the age of social media“, there are many forms of media that has spread the thought of political, economic and social change. There are more than 500 million Facebook and 200 Million Twitter users in the world. The article “Can Social Media Bring Democracy to Middle East?” says social media is giving women and minorities a voice. Social media allows people to express themselves. There was transparency because social media allowed convict police officers of torture. Exposure of police corruption, helping a hunger strike in Saudi Arabia, raising awareness of sexual harassment against women in the public in Egypt were all presented by social media. Many of these bloggers who post on social media sites are risking their lives to voice their opinion. Eltahawy says “Bloggers in various countries across the region have been intimidated, have been beaten up, have been arrested, have been imprisoned without charge.” Even though they have to suffer the consequences, I believe they think they are doing what is right in their opinion.
In “The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State" by Janet Reitman, the article talks about a hacker named “sup_g’ who is part of a politically motivated hacker group. They gained access to private information like passwords, credit card info, private messages, and activity from the U.S government. Although social media is used for the good by some users, sup_g usage is negative. On March 25, 2012, sup_g was caught, arrested and was put into prison for two years.
Questions/comments
1)Are people who don’t use social media scared of the government’s consequences?
2)I think people in these countries should not be beaten, arrested or imprisoned for posting on social networks.
“ Citizen-journalism” can either help of under mind a revolution. Cell phones and social media help spread messages and introduce new ideas. They empower the people and give them a voice , that they would usually be scared to use. These revolutionary tools can be used to the oppositions advantage as well. Governments censor what it’s people can and can’t say. They can also send a false message disguised as some who supports the revolution. When revolutions are started because of social media it can hurt the cause, governments would usually shut down the connection and increase police presence, it would feel like jail instead of the freedom that the revolution strives for. Facebook and Twitter are major websites that is used by many people to communicate. Governments have been known to shut down these sites in attempts to stop an uprising. The Middle East has been known to use social media. The Egyptian revolution was started and spread like wild fire on Facebook. The Egyptian government shut down the web site but the word already spread. I think the article "Can Social Media Bring Democracy to the Middle East?" shows both sides of the the argument that social media helps Middle Eastern Countries speak their voices. It explains that social media can increase censorship so much at in egypt a blogger was sent to jail for three and a half years ago on charges of insulting Islam and insulting the President. In "The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State" is about Jeremy Hammond, a hacker who opposes the government. He is against capitalism and doesn't agree with the actions that the government take. In order to show his opposition of the government he taught people how to hack into govenment files. He worked vigorously, exposing what he and many other citizens would be deemed as corruption in the government. The government took this as an attack, as hacking is illegal. He was sent to jail and served a sentence in jail.
ReplyDeleteIf/when censorship doesn't work. What is the next step?
How do countries deal with global pressure?
Salvatore Sicilia
ReplyDelete0-Block
Government
Blog
Seminar Question:
Is citizen-journalism and social media empowering or undermining democratization and transparency in the modern world?
Answer: Citizen journalism and social media are definitely playing an important role in empowering democratization and transparency in the modern world. In Iran the protests were organized through social media by normal citizens of Iran. This gives the people a chance to talk and express how they feel on the internet and then put those words into action with protests. This leads to democratization because now the people can all collectively agree that they want change so nobody will be scared to vote for something they want. All the citizens can connect one way or another to talk about their feelings and follow through with what they want. Social media and citizen-journalism are increasing transparency between the government and the people also. More with the government towards the people perhaps because now the people of Iran have access to information they never had before so the government can only “cover up” or not tell a certain amount of information before the people know what is true. This is a good thing for Iran and it should help them get their voice heard and bring about change in the government.
Article Summary:
In this case, social media and citizen-journalism undermine democratization and transparency. This shows us how powerful information is in the wrong hands. This can undermine democratization now by scaring people into seeing what is really out there and how big the problems really are which would in turn lead to less votes because they wouldn’t car. This drastically could bring down transparency because if the government programs can be hacked and this crucial information can be exposed so easily why would the government want to tell us anything. They would keep everything secret now and only give us the basics which would lead to less democratization and a soon to fail government.
Questions:
1. Can the government ever truly be transparent with its people?
2. How can the government feel comfortable being transparent if their networks are being hacked?
Melany Yuin
ReplyDeleteA-Block
Based on the many documents and articles I’ve read, I believe that citizen journalism and social media empower democratization and transparency in the modern world. According to “Revolution 2.0: democracy promotion in the age of social media,” the Iranian Revolution of 1979 sparked the increase of citizen journalism. The government censored the media and repressed people’s right of freedom of speech. Although the government thought that they could silence the youth of the generation, people used social media such as Twitter and Facebook to show the world what was happening in their hometown, and to expose the truth of the government. Contrary to many beliefs, it is not The United States who shoves the concept of democracy down the throats of Iranians, but it’s the Iranians who want have freedoms like Americans. In “New Media and Conflict after The Arab Spring,” the Arab Spring was influenced by many young adults. In Middle Eastern countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Bahrain, many activists are identified to be young, urbanized and well educated people. They were all normal citizens that had the same views on the lack of transparency in the government and since they were heavily censored, they turned to social media as a way to make their voices known. Facebook pages are made to support anti-suppressive regimes and tweets are made to update the state of their country and their opinions on government transparency. In “The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State,” Jeremy Hammond tries to expose the fallacy of the government and how, in reality, they are stifling people’s opinions. He uses modern technology as a sign of protest against the government and soon, his beliefs are recognized and he himself is made known to the world.
Questions:
1) If the government censors media very harshly, why don’t they block social media websites?
2) Is repressed freedom of speech and lack of transparency present in The United States present right now?
In the article “Revolution 2.0: democracy promotion in the age of social media”, it explains how the expansion of the internet is making it increasingly difficult for strict governments to control what the people search. The article uses example from Tunisa and Egypt saying the first videos of protestors and activist was shown on a social media website. These websites are getting bigger due to more users and information. Also China have restricted or limited Google access which shows that the government doesn’t what them seeing the possible truth or rumours about Chinas government. In the introductory level article called “Can Social Media Bring Democracy to the Middle East”, they talk about the role of social media and how it helped raise awareness for many issues in many countries. Such as sexual harassment on women in Egypt, where videos and updates explained the problem and raised a conscious thought that this is actually happening to other people as well. In the last article explaining Jeremy Hammond and his hacking ability that gained him access to Stratfors defence system. He leaked many things that people would like to know about what the government was hiding from people. Strafors is a security defence computer system that protects secret numbers ,names, social security numbers, private investors and banking information. The good side morally is that we found things that were exposed due to Jeremy that made us question our government but hacking all those legal numbers was a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteI think there is more good being used out of social media to raise awareness and the problems that face our world today. Yes, what Jeremy Hammond did was a bad thing because he gained access to a legal secure vault but in the back he found dirt on the United States. Regardless of that miss-hap that still has a good side to it, being that we now know that the United States does hide things that we might want to know. If the government is restricting the internet then they must be doing something wrong and if people band together to get around it then that’s step one of demoralization. Which I would think is being able to agree to something based on a raise or hands. (Raise of hands meaning people agreeing on problems over the uses of social media). Finally, I think that social media is promoting democracy and that it will only increase in time due to the increasing amounts of problems in the world.
Citizen journalism plays a big part in promoting and empowering democratization. It presents what democracy is about and citizens all over are able to view it. When people see what they like, they will start to push for what they want. Citizens may take advantage of their rights and power, which may start undermining democratization. Though many people may believe that expressing their thoughts and feelings through social media, it will not always get them what they want. Eltahawy explains that social media is mostly used to express yourself and that’s what I believe is true because no matter how hard you fight against the government, they will always have the last say. Social media has had a positive effect from preventing sexual harassment and having the power to expose police brutality.
ReplyDelete- Is there such thing as democracy in such a theocratic country?
- How can social media be used to help advance democratization in other countries?
The article “Revolution 2.0: democracy promotion in the age of social media” explains that today social media is helping make major political changes in the Middle East. Recently much of Egypt’s and Tunisia’s revolutionary ideas were spread using Facebook and Twitter. Although social media was not the only form of protest in Egypt and Tunisia, it certainly was a major role in these revolutions. Even these authoritarian governments were unable to control what protesters were posting online. China has been the only country that is able to restrict what its citizens can view on the Internet, but China has the largest amount of bloggers.
ReplyDeleteThe article “Can Social Media Bring Democracy to the Middle East?” explains that social media in the Middle East has allowed citizens, especially women and minorities to be heard more than ever before. It has not only allowed people to express themselves, but also allowed them to convict police officers of torture. Some people, however, have been punished for blogging negative things about the government. Social media can have great benefits in the Middle East, but it can also have consequences.
The article “The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State” is about a computer hacker named Jeremy, who used the name “sup_g” on the Internet. Jeremy didn’t like the capitalist government and was against many government policies. He and a group of other hackers broke into government databases and exposed private government information. The government took this offense very seriously and put him in jail for hacking into private government databases.
Citizen journalism and social media are empowering democracy and transparency in the modern world. The protests on social media are seen by millions of people across the world, where as protests on the street are only seen by the people actually there. Some laws in Arab nations are actually being changed due to corruption exposed on social media. The hacker Jeremy Hammond increased transparency in the U.S. because he exposed all the secrets of the government. This forced the government to inform citizens about issues that citizens had not previously known about. The documentary “Death in Tehran” proved that social media increases democracy. The video of the Iranian girl dying at the protest, increased Iranian citizens fight for a democratic nation. Social media spreads democratic ideas and exposes government policies.
-Will governments eventually able to censor every social media website?
-Would censoring social media websites take away citizens' freedom of speech?
Michael Munnelly D-Block
ReplyDeleteSocial media has played an integral role throughout the annals of history. Social media is more commonly scene during times of revolution and change. Many authoritarian countries have tried their utmost hardest to control media so they can retain control over the people, they wouldn't want anyone speaking out against them. Most of these authoritarian countries have met with great success in their repression of the media in the past, that is before the arrival of social media and the world wide web. Such authoritarian countries like Tunisia and Egypt who have strict censorship controls and high restrictions on freedom of speech could do nothing short of turning off the internet and mobile communications when young activists protest anti-regime messages online. It can be said that social media is the foundation in which democracy is being built in the Middle East today. Social media was the main source of connection for the protesters in each of the countries going through a revolt during the Arab Spring. Social media is used in the Middle East to talk mainly about politics, why the talk about politics in the Middle East is twice the rate as it is in the West. A study was shown on a graph in the article, "How the Middle East uses social media, in four charts" that shows the percentage of social media playing a role in empowering me to influence change in my community, and the results were very interesting, Kuwait being the highest at 51% and Saudi Arabia at only 32%. One could infer that it may be harder to gain access to social media in the country of Saudi Arabia.
I believe that social media and citizen journalism is empowering democratization and transparency in the modern world. a prime example of this would be the Arab Spring in 2011. One of the participating countries, Egypt, went through a revolution that would not have been achievable without social media. With the government censoring everything social media was the only tool they could use to get in touch with each other. Now Egypt is in the process of reforming their government and will most likely be using more democratic reforms. So social media and citizen journalism quite empowers democratization and transparency in the modern world.
-How much damage would the Egyptian government cause if they had turned off the internet and mobile communications during their revolt.
-I think it is really interesting that people in the Middle East talk more about politics and religion on social media then we do in the west, twice as much in fact.
Pamela Tsetsakos A Block
ReplyDeleteIn 1960, a revolution took place before the internet, cell phones and any time of social media. Four students decided they wanted to stand up for their beliefs and go against the social norm. During the time most Americans had confederate beliefs and still segregated many places such as restaurants. In this particular restaurant in North Carolina where the revolution started, Caucasians were able to sit at the nice lunch table and eat, while African Americans had to eat at the stand up snack counter. Without the use of any social media these people found followers and friends to help them with their cause. People of both races and beliefs came together as one and fought for equal rights. These people in a sense demanded democracy to be able to chose if their country was divided or not. They accomplished their goal and America is now desegregated. This worked without the use of social media due to the tight knit communities that existed in past America and the innocence and willing to serve and do good. These qualities have seemed to disappear in America today. In places such as China however, where the government controls everything and watches its citizens in the street, they can’t properly communicate like they did in past America. In this case, social media was needed in order for those people to properly communicate to come together and protest as one. Fifty years ago people still believed in the greater good and trusted their government, which was why they were so open to share their thoughts and beliefs. Now, however without the internet out government’s level of transparency is extremely low. We use the internet to become informed and inform others of new thoughts and ideas. Now, it is necessary to use the internet for a revolution because people don’t trust each other as they used to in past America, and need to know someone believes the same things as them in order to act with them. In the Rolling Stones article, the hacker, sup_g was using the internet to forcefully create a more transparent government. He hacked into the databases of the company Stratfor and uncovered many secrets from the pentagon to the United Nations. Names and emails of top-secret operators had been leaked for the first time, and the company’s databases were completely destroyed leaving all their, and their clients secrets in the hands of sup_g. The hacker, identified as Hammond was known as an electronic Robin Hood for uncovering or governments secrets and stealing from the corruptly rich to donate to foundations like the Red Cross. Once again, technology was needed to prove our democracy.
Questions:
Why do we need technology to make our government transparent?
Is the United States truly a transparent democracy?
Samantha Escobedo
ReplyDeleteBlock E
In the articles they talk about how social media has affected other countries when it comes to politics and transparency. In one of the articles, it shows how other countries in Europe and the Middle East are so involved with social media compared to the United States. It does however explain that while there might be more users in the United States than in those countries, the users that do exist in the Middle East use Facebook as a way to vent to the public about politics. Meanwhile, the United States users use Facebook as a form of interacting with others and not really voicing opinions on political injustices. This goes to show that social media and journalism also play a huge role in their society. Especially in Iran with the women who was killed during a protest and people were able to bring awareness through social media. This is only widening the democracy of the countries.
Sarah Sietz
ReplyDeleteA Block
4/18/13
4) Whether citizen journalism and social media are empowering or undermining democratization and transparency in the modern world is truly up to the way that one looks at the evidence and sources to support each view. In the article “Revolution 2.0: democracy promotion in the age of social media” by Mark Sedra, the main points involve how media affected the Iranian Revolution. The article states that the emergence of social media presented Iran with major challenges to the state's ability to control the message and contain popular dissent. There were many social networks being used by the people to share what was occurring during the revolution, including revolts and deaths, and to voice their opinion to others in Iran and around the world. Even though they can’t be held responsible for the chaos, Twitter and Facebook added to it. According to the article, “the first major demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt were organized via Facebook and Twitter, with activist leaders directing followers where to congregate and how to avoid blockades.” Due to this, citizens were all involved and got very into what they were fighting for. This article ended on a positive note by suggesting that whenever we can use social media to make an impact and change to do so because not only will it mobilize the people, but it will lead to democracy, taking views and opinions of all people. In the article “How the Middle East uses social media, in four charts” by Caitlin Dewey, it states how the Arab Spring uprisings used social media as a tool to gain political democracy. The article is accompanied by charts and also states that a “report also found that Middle Easterners post about religion and community issues far more frequently than the rest of the world.” This is very important to understand because it shows the priorities and concerns of the Iranian people, and Middle Easterners as a whole. Also, since this is a study compared with the United States, as well as other countries, and Americans here post as much as they want about anything, being a democracy and opinionated, it is surprising to learn that Middle Easterners post more frequently about these topics than us.
CNT'D
ReplyDeleteIn a way, this article explains that Middle Easterners and people a part of the Arab Spring uprisings shared information and discussed politics over social networks. Also, the Green Revolution and “A death in Tehran” prove how people who truly opposed the government and wanted change did whatever they could, recording it all along the way. Without the use of cell phones and computers, Neda’s story from “A death in Tehran” would’ve never been seen or heard and specific opinions and actions might’ve differed around the world and within Iran. In “The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State” by Janet Reitman, a hack is discussed, catching the reader’s attention right away by calling it “digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb.” The hack mentioned in the article could’ve fooled the smartest company. The article stated that there was an "electronic civil-disobedience journal" and that it was “an army so powerful we won't need weapons.” This was so significant because it’s suggesting that the internet and social networks are going to be our voices from now on and that, in a way, our wars will be electronically ones since people will “verse” the government through technology. Even people who disagreed with what Jeremy Hammond had to say still appreciated his thoughts. A powerful line from this article was we’re not stopping until every prisoner is freed and every prison is burned to the ground." I think this meant that people were going to get arrested and put in jail for opposing what the government was doing, but that they weren’t going to let that stop them, it’d still continue, and eventually the government would lose, leaving the people with victory and change. Overall, citizen journalism is empowering democracy since people are voicing their opinions and are being heard. In a way, however, democracy is a further goal to reach because of citizen journalism since the people want democracy, but the government isn’t giving them one, so the people and government don’t see eye to eye, making democracy harder to achieve. Citizen journalism is definitely empowering transparent in the sense that more people are learning and discovering what the government is up to and what they are actually doing, good or bad. Then again, people who strongly oppose the government may only state the bad, while others who are for the government may only discuss the good. In this context, transparency may be held back, as well, since no one really knows if one’s “journaling” is the truth or not. Overall, and with the support of the articles mentioned, citizen journalism can be both empowering and undermining to democratization and transparency in the modern world.
Sharon Martinez
ReplyDelete4/18/13
E-Block
1) This articles shows article some of the major problems the government is having with their citizens using the internet. With the creation of social media, it's becoming more challenging to control ideas from being spread in the nation.A new type of computer program called Web 2.0 is causing trouble for many countries to block information.Citizens can stage meetings and revolutions and the government is having a hard time controlling anti-government propaganda. In the article "Small Change" by Malcolm Gladwell explains that without the use of social media, many Iranians wouldn't have started the revolution.He explains that social media in any way is the reason why many revolutions have been successful not only in the present but in the past as well. I was reading the article "The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammony enemy of the state" it was about the group called Anonymous. I have of this group that stands up for what they believe in and hack into many different places. They expose information and make people see what really is going on with the government. I think that citizens are using social media to empower the democracy and transparency.
Since censorship is losing power, what would the next alternative be?
Do you think that people like the group Anonymous is doing the right thing?
Questions:
ReplyDelete-If a government were to be fully transparent, whether about positive or negative topics/views, would the citizens be more pleased?
-How would the Iranian Revolution/Arab Spring uprisings been different if the government were transparent?
-How would the Iranian Revolution/Arab Spring uprisings been different if social networks/cell phones/computers weren't available for them?
Briana Cotugno
ReplyDeleteIn many countries, even those in the Middle East, the people have been using Social Media to help with protests and creating their own voice. Social networking websites like Facebook or Twitter have given protestors a place to spread their word all around the world. In many of the countries in the Middle East, it is thought that social media and social networking cites have brought more democracy to the area. In the article “Can Social Media Bring Democracy to Middle East?” it was said that social media has raised awareness to corruption. Although many countries have gone through great measures to prevent its citizens from gaining too much information through social networking, the people have found their own way. Their worldwide publications of their protests have helped in taking a stand and gaining what they are fighting for. Although social media provides many good things, there are also down sides to social networking. One of the main reasons for this is due to hackers. Overall it seems that many societies are benefiting from social media the citizens voices are being heard and more democracy is beginning to take root.
Questions:
-Why do some countries strive to have complete control over its citizens when it is clear that they do not want that?
-Do you think some citizens of other countries would prefer a more controlled society over a democratic one? Do you think it has anything to do with what they are used to and more comfortable with?
Shantel Rowe
ReplyDeleteD- Block
Social Media has a massive ability to impact the way citizens promote or undermine the push for democracy/transparency. The articles present offer evidence that social media has the power to bring forth transparency. In the Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond, the computer hacker is credited with taking down a mega corporation, Strategic Forecasting Inc. and is classified as somewhat of a leader of an online activist movement. Hammond was extremely skilled at his craft and although when immediately looked upon he seems somewhat dark or manipulative, he truly is able to target transparency. To be able to crack a system and expose those he believes are rich individuals/government cheating people and manipulating their opinions. This use of technology shows the extent to which a message can quickly turn into a movement. Social media has a way of empowering citizens and making them feel as if democracy is a possibility. In the article Revolution 2.0 the power of social media is presented through the 1979 Iranian Revolution. For example in both this article and readings from class social media forums such as Twitter and Facebook, allowed history to be presented to the world despite being under censorship in areas such as Tunisia and Egypt. In fact in these areas democracy is ultimately benefited by social media because it allows the individuals own want to be heard, and most often this is a want for change. In fact in terms of the Arab Uprisings, most Muslims felt as if democracy would help them, hence the enthusiasm to use social sites in broadcasting otherwise censored material is prominent. Perhaps the greatest key social media holds is in the Green Revolution. In the article "Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted", author Malcom Gladwell shows how the Green Revolution's social media aspect empowered people and encouraged them to stand up for freedom. However he also points out that social media is merely another way of activism and not necessarily always as successful as traditional activism as it gives us access to weak tie connections. However in a "Death In Tehran", the coverage surrounding Neda's death would not have sparked such an uproar if it weren't for the physical footage that showed a helpless woman. The media documentation of this tragedy put a face to a message, a message that people we're being killed for the freedom and democracy that they wanted. While social media may not always be the best or traditional way of achieving one's goal, it is certainly the most modern, efficient, and globally aware method of turning a want into an international movement.
Questions: Social Media is very much present in the United States, has this been more undermining to our citizens due to extensive exposure?
To what extent should individuals pursue their causes through social media without risking their own safety? Is it worth the bigger cause?
Christopher Morabito
ReplyDeleteE Block
Since the beginning of media, it has been used as a tool for protest and revolution around the globe. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, revolutionary seizing of telephone lines led to the spread of revolution propaganda. Even in modern times media and technology are manipulated for use by protesters and revolutionaries. One such example is the case of Jeremy Hammond. Hammond is a twenty-seven year old hacker and member of the group Anonymous. While Hammond freely admits to being a member of the group he denies that he is "sup_g," the hacker behind the attack of Stratfor, a company that deals with many political organization. Hammond is now serving a jail sentence for his crimes, but his message lives on. More spoken about however, is the use of social media in the so-called "Arab Spring" uprisings that have broken out in the middle-east since 2009. For these revolutions and uprisings, encompassing nations such as Iran, Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, and Libya, a great deal of credit has been placed on social media for the spread of revolutionary ideas and information and the movements themselves. Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter have been used for the distribution of information and even the organization of events. These websites are also used by people outside of the nation to get a sense what is happening inside the country. This is especially important in countries such as Iran where journalists are barred admittance. However, the question must be raised of whether or not such information is reliable. In the article "Annals of Innovation: Small Change:Why the revolution will not be tweeted, author Malcolm Gladwell points out "In the Iranian case, meanwhile, the people tweeting about the demonstrations were almost all in the West." If this is true, why is this not the way that the information was reported to us prior? Social Media, and other forms of media in general, provide a powerful tool, but we cannot be sure if the information we are receiving is completely accurate. While "citizen-journalism", as it may be refereed to as, can potentially be a powerful tool in empowering democracy, we must use it cautiously at the risk of undermining it instead.
-Do social media representations of a nation accurately represent the ideologies of the majority?
-How can social media postings be properly vetted?
Fiona Jung
ReplyDeleteE-Block
All the articles were about social media affecting democracy and transparency in nations. The articles specified in the Middle East and the United States. The article, “Revolution 2.0: democracy promotion in the age of social media” was about technology and social media evolving where they would use all around the world. According to that article, there are 500 million Facebook users and 200 million twitter users and the numbers are still growing. This proves that social media is indeed growing and people around the world use it. The article, “How the Middle East uses social media, in four charts” is about how the Middle East uses social media in charts. According to the charts, a huge percentage of Middle Eastern people use social media for information on entertainment. The article stated, “social media was celebrated as a tool for political discourse and democracy building in the Middle East.” Social Media is used as its fullest in the Middle East, it builds up the democracy but it can also tear it down. The article, “The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State” was about a male name Jeremy Hammond who hacked into the United States government system. It leaked out good and bad information on a website. The people had various views on this doing.
I think social media does affect democracy and transparency in a government because whatever people posts online, it stays there forever and everyone can see it. In the documentary “Death in Tehran” all it took was one text message that had everyone bring their own pens on voting day. The text message stated that the government is going to provide invisible ink on voting day and have people vote in invisible pens. Although this was never clarified, Tehran people brought their own pens. This shows the lack of trust they have in the government.
Questions:
How does the lack of trust in a democratic nation affect their democracy?
Since social media blossomed throughout the years in most nations in positive and negative ways, can the government take that freedom away from their people with out causing protest or riots?
Brianna Slyman
ReplyDeleteA Block
Social media and citizen journalism appear to have a big roll in promoting democracy and transparency in the modern world. The articles Revolution 2.0 by Mark Sedra and Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted by Malcolm Gladwell each speak about the rapid growth in the use of social media and how people are using it to even spread the word about what is occurring in their nation when it comes to their government. In The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, Gladwell points out that social media makes it “easier for the powerless to collaborate, coordinate, and give voice to their concerns.” Since many governments disapprove of protestors and social activism, this is another way for those protestors to voice their opinions. Although the governments may not like it, people are finding ways to take action as best as they can. This seems to promote democracy and transparency because as more and more people use social media to spread word about the revolution, this can have the potential to make the governments realize that they are unable to stop the people and more communication between the government and the people must occur in order for any civil conclusion to be addressed. In Revolution 2.0, Sedra says that “if Western states are serious about democracy promotion, they must work to harness this potential. This will require continued investment for innovation in social media technologies and the political will to keep them open and free at all costs” which proves the idea that the more people use social media to take action, the more of a chance they will have to make a change. Social media gives people so much freedom to explore and express all that they want and as much as the government may want to stop the people from having that, they ultimately can’t.
Questions:
1. Why is the government so against people protesting through social media?
2. If social media did not exist would people find another way to revolt and express their opinions on the government?
Alina Khan
ReplyDeleteI believe social media and citizen journalism promote democracy and transparency in the modern world, and most importantly in third world countries and/or government corrupt countries. The article “Revolution 2.0: Democracy Promotion in the Age of Social Media”, discusses the large role social media has played in our evolving world. Media has been advancing every year and the first ones to take advantage of the social media are those who need it most- people fighting for democracy and transparency in their government. In the 1917 Russian Revolution the people used railroads and bridges to spread the world of the revolution. Even before that social media was emerging globally but it hasn’t been until recently that such advanced social media has been so powerful among regimes, specifically authoritarian and dictator regimes. Social media has been an ever-changing aspect of global society, but some extremely restrictive governments have managed censor their people and ban websites like Google, Facebook and Twitter so they can prevent events like the Green Revolution to occur. The Green Revolution refers to the use of Scoial Media in Iran after the 2009 elections. Protestors swarmed the streets taking videos of violent government force and taking notes of threats to later post on You Tube, Twitter and the next press article. Social Media traveled through the WWW and made the world aware of what was going on in their nation. China has been one of the few nations that have been ahead of social media; the government banned Google and is very limiting regarding the power they give to the people. One of the most politically corrupt countries is Egypt, and their lack of freedom and justice is highlighted through social media. Citizens of Egypt, as well as Tunisia, use the internet to make the world aware of the actions going on in their countries. The government has tried shutting off the internet and taking violent force but the very eager democrats of these countries are driven by the power of social media. Arab countries have been particularly influenced by social media and citizen journalism because of the lack of legitimacy and transparency between the people and their government. Young activists have been extremely hopeful in changing the relationship between the government and its people and their primary force is the internet. In the article, “Can Social Media Bring Democracy to Middle East?” Mona Eltahawy expresses her thoughts on how social media voices the opinion that cannot be heard without the internet. As an Egyptian citizen Mona has been directly subjected to corruption, but she has also not been granted some of the freedom us American citizens have. The U.S would be considered one of the most free countries, if not the most to many nations globally; but it is true that the U.S has some issues of corruption on its own. The U.S lacks transparency more than justice and freedom. The Secret Service, CIA and the government often hide very important details and issues from the people. In the article “The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State”, Jeremy Hammond is a notorious hacker who has cost some of the most riches countries in the world millions. He hacked passwords, encrypted codes and many CIA and government issued work that is not supposed to be seen by the citizen’s eye. Although this is illegal and goes against the law, Hammond used social Media to penetrate through the transparency and legitimacy in the U.S. He was a young man who wanted the truth, but still his freedom and justice- just like many other activists around the world.
Questions-
1) Is there a limit on how much social media can help until it hurts?
2) How will social media play an affect in the long run?
Robert Urbanski
ReplyDeleteGovernment
Blog Post
4/14/13
1. In the first article, they explained how the role of revolutionary protesting has lead to using multimedia such as new types of media out that such as recording things that happen and explaining why, and how they want to put an end to it. The article also shed light on the subject of social media and explained it as being very well in helping protesters explain what is going on in their eyes and in their country and what needs to be done to put an end to it.
2. In the second article they explained how African Americans we protesting a snack bar, because they wouldn’t let them in because they serve their kind so they came back the next day and they had a whole group of students from the school protesting and thanks to social media news reporters came and spread the word about what was going on which made more students come and spread the word.
3. The article explained the kid who became a hacker from social media, which was the fuel that drove him to want to hack due to the other kid forcing him or pushing the way he did what he did.
Summary: After reading everything I believe that the world is changing for good and bad there are good ways that social media is going to control we look at new stories new facts or even new lines of protesting that can after people. Protest can become a corrupting due to social media and allow people’s thoughs to be clouded of what they’re really there for and allow other ideas to come into play due to following supporters wanting to reach their decision.
John D’onofrio
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College Level Reading
Article 1)
The Peaceworks article introduces the role of new media aiding the Arab Spring movement. The movement was the usurping of dictators in the middle east in nations such as, Libya, Egypt, Syria, The articles cites Cyber Enthusiasts such as Philip Howard and Muzammil Hussain illustrating that "the Internet, mobile phones, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter made the difference this time. Using these technologies, people interested in democracy could build extensive networks, create social capital, and organize political action with a speed and on a scale never seen before.” Without these virtual networks,
physical protests would have been far less organized and influential.
The article then continues to explain the “Five Levels Of Analysis” it used to examine new media’s affect on politics, individual attitudes and behaviors, social connections and divides, collective action, regime repression and international attention. New media’s impact on individuals was fostering a belief they were different than others because of exposure to new media. Such people gained an activist identity, and shared common political goals/ideals. Society is influenced by new media’s reaches as well. Many Egyptian protesters shared a common political identity, anti-Mubarak and very liberal, however they failed in the elections where Islamists swept the polls. There is a disconnect between mainstream society and activists, which is amplified through new media. Collective action similarly has a weak case for the revolutionary effect of new media on the arab Spring. In Egypt most protesters took to the streets on January 28th after the government shut down the internet and SMS service. The opposite would have occurred if new media played such a large role as we believed it did. The evidence citing twitter as being influential to the Arab Spring only makes such conclusions on the number of tweets, not the actual impact such tweets had. Arab Regime’s also used new media to prevent protesters from gaining strenght. In Bahrain, the government disrupted such anti-regime message boards and twitter posts by uploading pro regime voices into the cyberworld. Also, many governments captured, exiled, or killed bloggers. International Attention for the Arab Spring was garnered through new media being a conduit for old media. Most news networks used “citizen journalists” instead of their own correspondents. This is evidence of a media ecology, a mix of old and new. New media overall had a largely over-exaggerated influence on the Arab Spring.
Article 2)
Jeremy Hammond was a hacktivist in “Anonymous”. He was arrested and will be tried for his hacking of Stratfor, a large private government contractor. The sect Hammond was a part of released 200 gigabytes of data, such as private emails between the government and Stratfor executives, credit card numbers, and even surveillance on protests in Arabia and the U.S. Hammond is still in prison awaiting trial, slated for late 2013.
Social Media is empowering democracy and transparency in the modern world. While the article by Peaceworks downplayed the role of new media in the revolutions in the Arab Spring, does not mean they were not effective. Any impact is significant in the fight for democracy. New media will only grow in power and supporters. The transparency is empowered through hacktivists such as Jeremy Hammond. Governments can no longer hide their secrets, because through the internet they can come out. Examples are the Stratfor hacking, the FBI being hacked, and most notably Wikileaks. However, since most people who reveal the information are arrested, it may not become such a strong movement.
In the article, “Revolution 2.0: democracy promotion in the age of social media,” by Mark Sedra, citizen-journalism and social media empowers democratization and transparency in the modern world. As mentioned in this article, the Tunisian and Egyptian governments have very harsh censorship and media controls which has concluded in shutting off the Internet and mobile phones. Before cutting the phone lines and Internet connections, Facebook and Twitter, two very popular social media sites with both over 200 million users, were being used for the first major demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt. This gave activist leaders directing followers where to congregate and how to avoid blockades. Though some demonstrations fell out while in process, gatherings began to grow, which then involved many different kinds of people internationally. With these events taken place in Egypt and Tunisia, it has shown that the Web 2.0 can facilitate a network of activists, the sharing of ideas, and the organization of movements.
ReplyDeleteIn the article “Can Social Media Bring Democracy to the Middle East,” from the Voice of America, citizen-journalism and social media empowers democratization and transparency in the modern world. This can be proven with the spoken words of Mona Eltahawy, Egyptian-born columnist who writes about Middle Eastern political affairs for international newspapers. In this interview with Eltahawy, she states that social media is one of the few tools in the Middle East that keep her optimistic. Social media, as stated in this interview, also provides a voice, especially for minorities such as sexual minorities, religious minorities, and ethical minorities. Eltahawy also feels that bloggers have it very hard across the world, being arrested, beaten, and even imprisoned without charges just for voicing their opinion. If one was to blog, she feels that we need to hear the voices of those groups that want to continue blogging and ask them, 'How best can we support you?’
In the article, "The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State,” by Janet Reitman, citizen-journalism and social media undermined democratization and transparency in the modern world. Jeremy Hammond, under the anonymous name of “sup_g” took the form of an Internet hacker, along with a team of others; his specialty, political hacking. With finding very important private data bases with hacking Strategic Forecasting Inc. Stratfor, a “private CIA”, he found the corruptions of the government. With this, he exposed names and donated money from credit cards on the website to organizations such as PETA and the Red Cross. About three months later, Jeremy Hammond, 27, was accused of taking the form of sup_g. Through social media and the Internet, Hammond had gained the name of the “electronic Robin Hood”, which shows his support for the people.
Both the introduction article and the article “How the Middle East Uses Social Media, in four charts” share the same idea. They both express the idea that social media has a major role in society and culture today. However when it comes to movements and revolutions, social media cannot take all credit. Many people enjoy social media because they can vent and voice their opinions on anything from the waitress at the restaurant they just ate at to the next leader of their country; the possibilities are endless. Through social media, especially in the Middle East, those whose opinions were previously “irrelevant” and silenced are suddenly able to be heard loud and clear on all corners of the world. Obviously some governments feel extremely threatened by social media because it holds so much power. Social media suddenly obtained this power, from the people, when they started turning to those cites to plan protests and rallies. Both articles do a great job in displaying the fact that social media is really just a pit stop on the road to revolution, in reality, the people are the driving force behind the changes. I think because of this, without social media there would be much less civilian journalism. I think civilian journalism and social media is beneficial to society because the people hold the power, and the government is purely there to make sure everything is run smoothly. The only reason social media and civil journalism would be seen as negative, is if the government is doing something that they know the people would go against. Two questions I can post for tomorrows seminar would be: How would things be if social media hadn’t gotten so big? Why do you think social media has become such a big thing?
ReplyDeleteLeo Krkuti
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Intro: As I began reading the introduction article, (Revolution 2.0: democracy promotion in the age of social media) I quickly assumed that social media had played a massive role in the spread of the news of the revolution. The article described how social media has proven its revolutionary potential. If western states want to implement more promotion of democracy, they must focus on the Web and the powerful platform it holds. It gives people the way of virtually expressing themselves and their opinions. Instead of lecturing people on the importance of freedom, etc. they need to focus on expanding the use of the web and closing the gap of not having any social, political or economic change.
1st Article:
The article, "Can Social Media Bring Democracy to Middle East?" tells us about how there are major benefits to the use of social media but there can also be major consequences. The use of social media gives the men and women of the Middle East the power to express themselves. It isn't just an outlet to express their feelings, though. It also gave them the opportunity to convict police officers of wrong doings, sexual harassment, as well as police corruption. But, although there is benefits there are also consequences. One blogger was sentenced a four year prison term for insulting the religion of Islam and the President, Hosni Mubarak. These people are in fear of supporting because of what could possible happen to them. It goes to show that social media can be a powerful tool and peoples opinions are taken very seriously. If that were the case in the United States, there would be a lot of people behind bars, today.
2nd Article:
In the article, "The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State" the article explains to us that a hacker from the infamous group, "Anonymous" had hacked into the government and released private documents. He went by the name of "sup_g" and was a motivated political hacker. In that time he went into data bases of large government agencies and released hundreds of messages, pass words and documents that exposed the government. The article states that he released information including, |"passwords, unencrypted credit-card data and private client lists revealing Stratfor's deep ties to both big business and the U.S. intelligence and defense communities." After being apprehended by federal police on the south west side of Chicago, he was charged with hacking and releasing private government information. His offense wasn't taken lightly.
Although people posting their opinions about the government online and on social media websites gives some transparency to their thoughts, it doesn't give full factual transparency of the government. What the Anonymous group did was reveal private information that the government withheld without notifying the people. It is considered to provide transparency to the government but it doesn't really make the government transparent with its people. If it was considered to be so transparent it would tell its citizens about what was really going on without hiding. Not notifying the people after being called out and uncovered. Social media gives people power and freedom of speech in a sense. Hacktivist's as described in the Jeremy Hammond article will increase transparency. In today's day and age, people have an opinion on everything, conspiracy theories and more. The word will get out about everything regardless. Social media is growing and the change of society in inevitable.
In some countries, the people have been restricted by their own governments. In Iran they weren't even allowed to speak their minds if they spoke bad about the government. There were multiple occasions, where people spoke their minds about how they felt about the government and had to face imprisonment, torture, etc. Now Social Media and Journalism are being used for these people to finally express their opinions without these types of consequences. This allows the people to force democracy onto the government. In "Can Social Media Bring Democracy to the Middle East?" it shows how social media gives the most marginalized groups in the region a voice. It't not only a stress relief either, there have been other occasion where they have helped convict police officers of torture, help hunger strike, and make people aware of sexual harassment against women. Not only could social media but a helpful tool to allow people to express their opinions but it is also a place of theft. In "The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond" hackers were able to tap into Stratfor's main defense systems. The hackers were able to access peoples private information and to showcase it to the world. This violated a lot of peoples privacy. In A Death in Tehran, social media spread the video of Neda's death thought the world, exposing the government for what it was.
ReplyDeleteOverall, social media is empowering democracy thought it's use of expression. It's more then just stress relief and venting. It allows for change that they wish to see.