Zawaya

On Citizen Journalism

By: Nabila Saidoune

It is undeniable that new technologies are revolutionizing our daily lives, to the extent of encouraging unsuspected attitudes in each one of us. In addition to being a social phenomenon, Facebook and Twitter will influence the conventional functioning of all political parties in order to democratize their practices, and even build popular movements.

The post-election demonstrations in Iran are undeniably the best illustration of the magic of the Internet, and what some would call “the democracy of the Internet”. The idea of creating a borderless world is taking its full meaning today through the web that is woven by these social sites that project us deep in the Amazon, or take us to the remote areas of the oldest continent and then transport us in a glimpse to the North Pole. The concepts of time and space disappear as by magic, but internal wars and fights soon bring us back to a bitter reality that nobody can ignore.

This leads us to the following question: Can the progress of these new technologies contribute to the emergence of a popular movement? The answer can’t be but a big “Yes”; it can even hustle the established order. This may be perceived by some as a real boon, while others remain convinced that this is a double-edged sword, as they are obsessed with the idea of “political exploitation”.

We can think that deep inside every citizen there is a dormant reporter who – even in a spontaneous way – can convey a message, and that’s how the “Internet generation” is born. Except that when faced with innumerable contrasts, this phenomenon requires from us citizen vigilance. Who among us will ever forget the bloodied face of Neda? It’s thanks to a video uploaded online – among others – which helped reveal the relentless violence of the clashes, that the authorities have tried – in vain – to hide through the black out of the local media, or even the media that came from abroad under the banners of “special envoys”.

No country can live or work hermetically anymore. Subsequently, in the shadows of a new media practice, only new technologies and resulting social media nowadays are able to generate excitement and mobilization of a large public in a short time span. This is clearly the revolution of the 21st century…