Online Tools in Civil Society Activism, Conflict Sensitive Journalism, and Cross Border...

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13 August 2011, Istanbul, TurkeyRestoring Confidence of Civil Society Activists through Capacity Building and Education

ONLINE TOOLS IN CIVIL SOCIETY ACTIVISM, CONFLICT-SENSITIVE JOURNALISM, AND CROSS-BORDER COMMUNICATION

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Onnik Krikorian

Caucasus Regional Editor, Global Voices

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org

onewmphoto@gmail.com

caucasus@globalvoicesonline.org

What is Global Voices?

Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who work

together to bring readers reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with an emphasis on

voices that are not ordinarily heard in the mainstream media.

Global Voices is translated into more than 30 languages by volunteer translators, who have formed the

Lingua project. Additionally, Global Voices has an Advocacy website and network to help people speak

out online in places where their voices are censored.

We also have an outreach project called Rising Voices to help marginalized communities use citizen

media to be heard. Technology for Transparency examines the use of online tools in increasing

transparency and accountability globally.

Global Voices Impact

Four websites most consistently account for links between

countries: YouTube, Wikipedia, the BBC and, a distant

fourth, Global Voices Online. The last of these, launched at

Harvard University in 2005 […] works to create links

between bloggers in different countries, and to find what it

calls “bridge bloggers” […]

The Economist, 2 September 2010

Working relationships with BBC, Reuters, Pulitzer Center for Crisis

Reporting, La Stampa and many others. Frequently quoted by CNN,

BBC, New York Times, The Economist etc.

MENA Special Coverage

Twitter

@gvmena

Caucasus Special Coverage

Twitter

@gvcaucasus

Situation in the S. Caucasus

• Armenia- February 2008 presidential election, 10 dead, State of Emergency declared- Media 'Not Free' (Freedom House)- 187,520 Facebook users (as of 1 August 2011)

• Azerbaijan- Foreign radio stations taken off the air January 2009- Media 'Not Free' (Freedom House)- 431,600 Facebook users (as of 1 August 2011)

• Georgia- August war with Russia- Media 'Partly Free' (Freedom House)- 640,400 Facebook users (as of 1 August 2011)

Internet Use

Blogs: The new Samizdat?

Non-politicized Activism

Progressive Youth Movements

http://www.youtube.com/user/olmedia

OL! Azerbaijan

http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.orghttp://threatened.globalvoicesonline.org

Tweeting Protests

Eynulla Fatullayev Campaign

Novelty and Innovation

Mary Joyce of the Meta Activism project has warned that a key factor in successful online activism

appear to be novelty – it’s hard to articulate “best practices” because one of the best practices is to be

the first to try a particular technique. If we take the lesson from Fatullayev’s release that Twitter

campaigns, focused on individual public figures who use Twitter, leveraging offline media attention are

a useful strategy, it seems likely that campaign organizations will adopt the technique and use it to the

point where future implementations aren’t worth an article or a blog post.

Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices Co-founder

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/05/27/who-freed-eynulla-fatullayev-and-what-does-his-

release-mean-for-twitter-activism/

10 Tactics for Activism

http://www.informationactivism.org/

Platforms for Engagement

Russia-Georgia War

New & Social Media in Conflict

Anyone who believes that all citizen media are objective and impartial is either mad or hasn't actually

read any citizen media. […] What's become very difficult is using citizen media to understand what's

actually happening on the ground. As we all know, some of the reports from both camps in the South

Ossetian conflict were likely manufactured and inaccurate. This sort of situation can get even more

complicated when there aren't impartial journalists on the ground.

Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices co-founder

http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/13149/

New & Social Media in Conflict

http://ceasefireliberia.com/

Ceasefire Liberia

http://peace.oneworld.am

Caucasus Conflict Voices

Positive ResponseMr Krikorian […] found Facebook to be an ideal platform to build ties...

The Economist, A cyber-house divided

http://www.economist.com/node/16943885?story_id=16943885

[…] Onnik Krikorian reports that Facebook has created a space where young Armenians and Azeris

[…] can explore friendships that would never otherwise develop...

CNN, Does Facebook unite us or divide us

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/03/zuckerman.facebook.global/index.html

[…] bloggers such as Onnik Krikorian are overcoming intense nationalist propaganda to establish

contact with the other side of the Karabakh conflict divide. It is still a small movement but […] an

inspiring example...

Thomas de Waal, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

http://www.opendemocracy.net/david-hayes/2011-outlook-ideas-and-agents

Questions & Discussion

[…] the internet is not magic; it is a tool. Anyone who wants to use it to bring nations closer together

has to show initiative, and be ready to travel physically as well as virtually. As with the telegraph before

it—also hailed as a tool of peace—the internet does nothing on its own.

The Economist, A cyber-house divided

http://www.economist.com/node/16943885?story_id=16943885

Global Voices Online

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org

Global Voices Advocacy

http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/

Rising Voices

http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/

Technology for Transparency

http://transparency.globalvoicesonline.org/

Caucasus Conflict Voices

http://peace.oneworld.am/

Online Tools in Civil Society Activism, Conflict Sensitive Journalism, and Cross Border...

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