From the Blogosphere to the Street: Social Media and the Revolution in Egypt

CHAPEL HILL – Charles Hirschkind, a scholar and professor of social and cultural anthropology at the University of California at Berkley, explored the impact of social media and the internet on the recent uprisings in Cairo and beyond with students and peers in Hyde Hall on Monday.

“The internet, especially the blogosphere, became an outlet for events and controversies that were unable to be seen in the news due to strict censorship laws,” explained Hirschkind.

Hirschkind’s forum-style lecture, “From the Blogosphere to the Street: Social Media and the Revolution in Egypt,” traced the beginning of blogs influencing the people of Egypt to the social media driven protests that sparked what is being called the “Days of Rage.”

It is Hirschkind’s opinion that there were several key events in the years leading up to the major revolution in January of this year with the most prevalent being the release of cell phone videos.

“A blogger was sent a cell phone video of someone being tortured,” said Hirschkind. “This tipped off everyone including the press and even people without access to the internet to the way the government was behaving.”

These types of blog exposures led to a mass of protests and demonstrations originating on the internet and in the social media realm mainly because the internet remained uncensored until very recently in Egypt.

On April 6, 2008, activists and workers inspired and informed by several different social media networks held strikes, protests and demonstrations throughout the country. The “Egyptian Intifida” called for civil disobedience asking workers to remain home and consumers to refrain from purchasing goods.

Blogs at this time highlighted the general violence and even instances of torture committed by the government in Egypt, according to Hirschkind. The newspapers were only allowed to report the good things that the government accomplished and, for a while, bloggers were able to report the facts because the internet was not yet censored.

“There were some examples made out of some of the bloggers that were speaking out against the government and Mubarak [the Egyptian president], but the uncensored nature of the internet fostered these demonstrations and led to the revolution,” said Hirschkind.

Even though examples of unrest were sprouting for years prior to the 2011 revolution, Hirschkind and his fellow scholars were shocked by the events that unfolded in late January.

“The massive protests beginning in 2008 were certainly striking, but no one could have foretold these events,” explained Hirschkind.

Tension had grown so much by the time these demonstrations erupted in 2008 that people were in the streets of some of Egypt’s biggest cities throwing censorship laws to the wind.

“The intensity of the poverty, decline of the subsidies and the really unhealthy conditions were overwhelming,” said Hirschkind. “The people had had enough.”

Another lending hand that the blogosphere in Egypt gave the revolution was presenting information in a language that was familiar to everyone.

The Arabic language is often considered in two forms: the classic written form and the form spoken on the street. These influential blogs used the “street” form of Arabic so that all people could understand their message of the changing regime.

“The adoption of this critical language was one of the reasons several of the blogs were finally shut down,” said Hirschkind. “They greatly threatened the government and what it stood for.”

The influence of social media, especially the blogosphere, came to a head January 25, 2011. On this day, thousands of Egyptians took to the streets to protest poverty, unemployment, government corruption and the autocratic governance of their president, Hosni Mubarak. The uprisings also sparked by social media in Tunisia helped inspire Egyptians to finally protest their tyrannical government.

According to Hirschkind, the blogosphere in Egypt is one of a kind and was necessary to spark the revolution that will change the country forever.

“This is not the blogosphere that I know in the rest of the world,” said Hirschkind. “It had to be unique to spark a revolution that will change not only Egypt, but the rest of the world.”

Hirschkind’s lecture was sponsored jointly by the IAH, Islanicate Graduate Student Association, the Carolina Center for the Study of Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, and the departments of religious studies and anthropology.

What will i do now?!

After taking this class, I am 100% positive that I would like to pursue the PR/Advertising track in J-School. I can also see myself doing freelance work for a newspaper or blog when I graduate. I really enjoy writing in the news form.

Absence of Malice

In the movie Absence of Malice, a feisty, truth-seeking journalist, Megan Carter is given the heads-up on a high profile case involving the disappearance of a union head. She is leaked the story that Michael Gallagher, son of a famous mob boss, is under investigation for the crime.

Upon reading Carter's story, Gallagher becomes enraged that he is being investigated for a crime he claims he did not commit. It was the prosecutor of the case who leaked the story to Carter in order to get information from Gallagher about the kidnapping. He suspects that Gallagher knows something about it.

When Gallagher began to question Carter about the story and her sources, a budding romance ensues, however; Gallagher's life begins to unravel because of the false accusations.

Carter is contacted by one of Gallagher's closest friends who suffers from emotional and mental issues and gives him an alibi for the time of the kidnapping. When Carter publishes the story, Gallagher's emotionally unstable friend commits suicide.

Gallagher decides to come up with an elaborate plan to entrap everyone who has harmed him and those close to him during this incident. Unfortunately he also ends up nailing Carter for her lack of compassion dealing with the case.

10 Things I Learned About Being a Better Journalist from the Film Absence of Malice

1) One must seek out the facts in a story, but it is important to always important to make sure you facts are 100% accurate

2) Never become romantically linked with the subject of your news story

3) Never go and visit the subject after you have second handedly causing his best friend to commit suicide

4) Follow your gut and not necessarily what other people advise you to do.

5) When a person is uncomfortable about revealing themselves as a source, do not force them

6) Make sure that you get both sides of the story before you print ANYTHING!

7) Do not take the blame for things that are out of your control

8) When you sense a situation is going out of control, do your best to stop it and don't add fuel to the fire

9) Give those suspected the benefit of the doubt until they are proven guilty

10) Always approach a story from every possible angle

The Facebook Effect

David Kirkpatrick used a medium by which 750 million users are familiar with to describe unique business, journalistic, and life lessons: Facebook.

“Sometimes a squirrel dying outside of your house is more important than what is happening in Afghanistan,” said Kirkpatrick.

Kirkpatrick, a speaker in the Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture Series, presented his “Ten Lessons from Facebook,” to around 420 audience members Thursday in Carroll Hall.

Mark Zuckerburg’s founding of Facebook was used as a tool to demonstrate how to become a successful person in the working world.

“It is so important to know what you believe in and to not vary from that,” said Kirkpatrick. “Zuckerberg will keep trying to have everyone in the world connected through Facebook until he believes it is impossible.”

The ten lessons presented by Kirkpatrick not only exposed his audience to how to be a savvy businessperson and journalist, but also a more active, aware member of society.

The importance of news and how people interpret it are rudimentary to living a successful life according to Kirkpatrick. News is also not what most people believe it to be; it is everywhere and concerns every person.

“News is an interpolation of news about friends, news about Afghanistan, and other important events all combine,” said Kirkpatrick.

The News Feed introduced by Facebook is one of the most successful, unique add-ons to the site. It combines all aspects of what Kirkpatrick has described to be news in today’s society.

Zuckerberg was innovative and made sure that he used his technological ability to give the people what they wanted.

Money was never the motivating factor for Zuckerberg in expanding Facebook. The company, which is worth approximately 80 billion dollars, followed the founding ideals consistently.

Facebook has changed the world of journalism forever. With the invention of the news feed, Kirkpatrick believes that individuals are given the ability to become reporters, broadcasters, editors and a number of other jobs in the world of journalism in completely new ways.

Even with all of the benefits of Facebook, Kirkpatrick believes that soon the actual website might become insignificant; however, Facebook could become the basic infrastructure of the internet as a whole. The concept behind Facebook provides a means for people to communicate over several different mediums.

Not only the new technologies Facebook has inspired, but also the mechanisms by which it was created makes the company and its founder an important model for success among a vast majority of mediums.

“Facebook is the most innovative business to ever exist in history,” said Kirkpatrick.

David Kirkpatrick, a former senior editor at Fortune magazine, has written numerous technology based pieces. He also organized the Techonomy conference and is often featured on radio, television, and the internet as a technology expert.

The speech, “Ten Lessons from Facebook,” was part of the Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Triad Foundation.

Roy H. Park was a journalistic mogul from North Carolina. His company, Park Communications, at the time of his death acquired 21 radio stations, seven televisions stations and 144 publications. The Triad foundation, which is funded by the Park family, sponsors the Roy H. Park Fellowships at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication.