The Revolution will not be televised.

Jun 15, 2009 11:37

It will be twittered.

Posted without editorial comment because i am busy and i like the way this is stated:

The voting is over in Iran, but the protests have just begun as thousands take to the streets to contest the re-election of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The concept of citizen-selected leadership itself is ancient, but we are witnessing today the latest chapter in how technology is strengthening that democracy, one byte at a time.

One need look no further than the 140-character updates streaming in from Iran on Twitter, the photostreams pouring in on Flickr, and the blossoming Facebook pages to understand and appreciate the revolutionary effect social media has had on how civilizations engage in and react to democracy.

The saying popping up over the last several hours has already become cliche: the revolution will not be televised, it will be Twittered. Stripping away the hyperbole of that statement and we are left with the very real and grounded fact that the way citizens across the world organize, react, and participate has forever been altered by the cornucopia of 21st century mediums, each of which presents a new platform for how citizens interact with and even select their government.

Here in America, the Obama's campaign brilliant use of social networking to fuel grassroots support is well known. In Iran we are witnessing how citizens use these tools to organize protests, and, most importantly, to bypass state clampdowns on media (for those who have not heard, the Iranian government has apparently jammed signals so that foreign press cannot broadcast the protests). Against the backdrop of the media blackout, information leaked online by protesters and citizen journalists shines, like this video of protesters coming to aid of police or this photostream from Tehran.

Across the world, the internet has fundamentally transformed how democracy is performed.

One editorial note: the internet isn't free. It's widespread and growing, but it isn't free, it isn't class-unconscious. There are folks in Iran using twitter/facebook/flickr, but there are many more people all over the world not engaged in the worldwide conversation. We need to get them involved; the communication needs not to be global but entire in order for the ultimate benefit to come to fruition.

Remember, bigot/homophone/worstpersonintheworld Orson Scott Card? In Ender's Game, he spends some time describing the "Net" that exists in his universe - one where every citizen has an unfiltered access to world communication - where message boards and blogs and bulletin boards become one large conversation capable of shifting world events. In dark ways, of controlling world events, but being a part of it all.

Getting closer.

tech, politics, writing

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