Related: Boston Globe Now Censoring Iranian Coup Attempt
"When the revolution isn't broadcast" by Martha Bayles | June 28, 2009
THE PROTESTS in Iran have been dubbed the “Twitter Revolution’’ because the latest social-networking tools proved useful in organizing demonstrations and uploading eyewitness texts, images, and videos to the Internet. Indeed, the shooting death of 26-year-old Neda Agha Soltan became an icon after the “citizen journalist’’ who captured it on video sent the link to a friend outside Iran, who posted it on YouTube and forwarded it to the Persian-language service of the Voice of America. Finally, at the end of what is now a turbo-boosted news cycle, the video appeared on CNN.
See: Who killed Neda Agha-Soltan?
But what if this sudden deployment of media technology doesn’t move the regime?
It’s tempting to conclude that information technology will automatically liberate the world, and all Americans need to do is keep on producing and selling it overseas. But there are two problems with this. First, the same technology that empowers the individual also empowers the state....
It doesn't have to be that way!
Second, many Americans assume that massive media exposure will automatically lead to positive change.
Don't count me in that s***-eating pen, please!
Yet this requires responsive and accountable political institutions, which are clearly lacking in Iran.
In AmeriKa, too! We want single-payer health care (don't get it); an end to bank bailouts and corporate looting (fat chance); and an end to the wars and empire (strike three).
It also requires a consistent flow of information that sustains a view of the world different from the regime’s....
Is that what they are calling Amerikan MSM bulls*** now? "Information?"
Because their world view is the regime's!
Worst of all, the Iranian protesters cannot command the world’s attention indefinitely.
Especially if the coup attempt fails.
Funny how other protesters never command any attention at all, huh, readers?
As the regime chokes off all cross-border communication, CNN will move on to other more telegenic topics.
Like Michael Jackson! They can't even get that one right!
The cops can't even correctly investigate his death?
And it's truly censored. Why?
In addition to imprisonment and other abuse by the authorities, thousands of Iranians will suffer the pangs of obscurity.
I greened it because my FIRST THOUGHT was O', lovely Palestine!!!!!!
In this they are not alone. Human rights activists languish in many countries where the CNN spotlight rarely shines.
See above comment.
Some of these countries are of little strategic interest to America or its adversaries. Others are too poor to attract commercial media. But there is a way for America to connect with these populations. Like the BBC, Voice of America broadcasts news and information in 45 languages around the world. And its “surrogate’’ counterparts, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (which broadcasts into Central Asia and the Middle East), use a variety of media platforms, from shortwave radios to social-networking tools on the Internet, to send reliable news to millions of people whose own media are censored.
That last phrase gets me.
Nothing reliable about AmeriKa's news -- it's all lies and distortions -- and as for censorship, we got the finest self-censoring, agenda-pushing, war-promoting, biased media you ever saw!
The fact that Tehran spends a huge amount of money jamming these channels and blocking their websites tells us something.
So does imprisoning people for questioning the numbers of the Holohoax.
These broadcast services are not well known to Americans, because of a 1948 law that forbids the domestic dissemination of all material created for foreign audiences.
Translation: It is PROPAGANDA!
Related: Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh and the OSI
But this law is now moot, because like everyone else, Americans can access these services online.
Do so, and you will see that, contrary to what many assume, these channels do not merely broadcast US government propaganda. Nor do they follow CNN and other “global’’ media in hopscotching between hot spots. On the contrary, these channels maintain a consistent, steady presence, outwitting the censors and keeping brave reporters on the ground, so that the people living in those countries can know what is going on, even when the whole world is not watching.
Martha Bayles teaches in the Arts and Sciences Honors Program at Boston College and is writing a book about America’s cultural image.--more--"
And if the failure in Iran doesn't convince you:
"A hacker attacks Twitter" by Bloomberg News | July 16, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO - Twitter Inc., the social-networking service that lets users post short comments, was attacked by a hacker who gained access to company information and shared it with blogs.
How come the cops can't find him or the porn creeps, but they spy on my ass?
The attack, about a month ago, did not compromise user accounts, except for a screenshot of one person’s Twitter page, the company said yesterday. The hacker accessed documents by breaking into an employee’s Google Apps account, which stored notes and spreadsheets....
Even if it wasn't a data-mining operation (which it is, otherwise MSM wouldn't be so gung-ho on Twitter), I wouldn't want to tweet now.
Twitter faces increased scrutiny as its popularity soars. It drew an estimated 17.6 million US users in May, according to the research firm ComScore Inc....
Of which I was not one, sorry.
Also see: MSM Touts Twitter
The Boston Globe Twitters Away
The Tweeting Trolls of the U.S. Military
Turn the Page on Twitter
