[authorme] PUBLISHING EMERGING WRITERS, DECEMBER 2012
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*In this issue... Special Focus on Social Networks in Iran's Elections*
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*A New Interface for Public Opinion: Role of New Media in Iran Elections,*
by Jamileh Dastmardi, PhD
**Jamileh1356@xxxxxxxxx
In general terms, it would be interesting to know about the role of new med
ia in elections. It should be confessed, however, for there is a lack of apt
and precise academic statistics even in the case of traditional media such a
s TV. In Iran, there are 46.2 million eligible voters, but if one narrowed t
he analytical lenses, one can notice that the distribution of computers as
telecommunication infrastructure is different among urban and rural areas. H
ence, there is no possibility of exact evaluation of voting behavior.
One major new medium, that is the Internet, is also not distributed equally.
The new media has been shaped by our yesterday, and it exists in our daily s
ocial interactions today. The turning point of its role was highlighted in t
he incidents happening before and after the recent presidential election, wh
ich in sober terms was called "The Twitter Revolution". Technologies of new
media played a fundamental role in the incident before and after the electi
on. The social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Weblogs, were
small windows to show the world the protest of Iranian people.
Reflecting upon what is suggested, it can be claimed that the Internet may
change the nature of political discourse in the future.
In the past eight years the number of Internet users has increased by 50%. D
ue to Internet oriented research, called "Opennet", nearly 35% of the Irania
n population is using Internet. As a result, the usage of Internet in Iran
is significantly more than the average of 26% in the Middle East. The new me
dia has not only changed the nature of civic engagement and their participat
ory behavior in Iran, but also political campaign behavior all over the worl
d. Despite the significance of such new technology in election and related e
vents, there exists less information about their function.
Robert Faris, the Director of Berkman Center of Internet and Society, Harvard
University, believes that, in spite of the important role of new media in
election and its following incidents, international radio and TV channels pl
ayed a more important role.
The new media are powerful instruments which, despite fast transfer of infor
mation, lack the precision and trustworthiness that traditional media posse
ss. In some countries the new media are still controlled noticeably. Due to
the centralized nature of social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, and Fl
ickr, they can easily be heavily censored. Facebook, for example, was used
for organizing the movement before, and in the time of election, but after
the elections, most social networks were blocked by the government.
Some social media can hardly be controlled. For instance, due to the non-cen
tralized nature of Twitter and text messaging, government control seemed to
be difficult. If new media are allowed to flourish, costs will be reduced an
d there will be an increase in citizen engagement via social movements. Duri
ng the protest movement in Iran, new media helped to unite by supporting pro
testors from outside the country and were successful in publicizing events t
aking place inside via new media. Andrew Lewman, the Executive Director ofThe
Tor Project, has introduced free software for protecting the privacy of onli
ne users, and this has about half million users today, but up to 80% of tra
ffic has been banned in Iran after the elections.
Moreover, Lewman has added that The Tor Project creates a platform for users
to access a virtual network of channels, and during the unstable situation
in Iran, the users of this project were roughly 300 thousand to 500 thousand
per day.
According to the high popularity of Internet (30-40%), the Iranian governmen
t did not ban the Internet totally for the sake of not losing face. Generally,
Tor was used for over the border communication and access to contact sites.
Also, Google map was viewed to unify the news of activities and health cond
ition of protestors. Primarily, this allowed citizens to break the limitations
imposed by government. Tor, in fact, recorded the highest number of users fr
om Iran during the Internet blockage.
Sam Sadaei, an Iranian – American blogger, on Huffington Post, declared that
the people should consider the incident happening in Iran as a war between c
onservatives and reformers. However, the best explanation would be to call i
t a public relations conflict. After the election result, the public relatio
ns conflict started to manage the influence and process of incidents. Depend
ing on traditional media, government tried to blame and condemn the oppositi
on, who gained the opportunity to express their ideas publically despite the
past situation, and successfully aired their voices through the new medium.
The new media played quite an important role in Iran because they do not
monopolize information like traditional media. The photos and videos of
protestors were shot with digital cameras and mobile phones and uploaded on
YouTube.
Furthermore, Iranians took advantage of Twitter to link the weblogs and
websites containing visual content from protesters. Facebook, noticeably,
played an important role in collecting help and support for protesters. New
media technologies including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Mobile phones,
played a significant role in wide distribution of information about
protests in Iran. Albeit widespread, these technologies are quite new in
Iran. Hence they did not play a critical role in protests. But the citizens
had too much trust in the newly established media to truly understand the
protest.
The new media has its own strengths and weaknesses. These, in comparison
with the traditional media, are more advantageous. Censoring and blocking
them is more difficult for the government as compared with blocking
traditional media. When foreign media broadcasters were being expelled, the
new medium used photos and videos that could not be achieved elsewhere.
Thus new media essentially had a more democratic nature while traditional
media may just keep on covering various stories.
Citizens can discuss their important issues in the new media. However, on
the other side of the coin, the new media can be highly unreliable.
Although transferring data is fast, it can lack precision and
trustworthiness. The new media is not exempted from censorship. In some
countries they are controlled significantly. Due to their centralized
nature, social networks are susceptible to censorship. The government
can block a social network on the spot. But some characteristics of new
media made it difficult to find the source of information. Also censoring
it is likely to bring target countries into disrepute, and with
announcement of technologies, state censorship is becoming difficult.
In summary, we shall witness the role of new media in social movements in
the future. And the role of these media will highly depend on the rate that
government will allow them to flourish.
Jamileh is a Ph.D. student in Communication
============================================================
Publishing Emerging Writers
December, 2012 (No. 1312)
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Carpentersville, IL 60110 USA
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