[governance] Internet blackout in Egypt

[Lisa Horner]

I don’t think in this converged world that we can necessarily separate out the online and offline platforms.  Al Jazeera undoubtedly has huge influence at national, regional and global levels.  It has on the ground reporters, but is also very well hooked in to online politics.  The mainstream media often takes its lead from citizen reporting, especially in more closed environments in moments of turmoil and crisis.  The circular link between wikileaks and “offline” media illustrates the levels of intertwining and interaction.  I was in Egypt a couple of weeks ago, and was struck by the influence that online platforms and media are having.  Some of the best media outfits there have online and offline versions, with online reporting much freer and having demonstrable impact.  For example, citizen reporting and logging of cases of harassment of women on the street has led to much wider awareness of the issue, leading to unprecedented convictions and draft legislation on sexual harassment.  The Internet may be shut down now, but the information from individual protestors is still getting out.  And we have to look at the role that online media and activism have played in laying the ground for the protests, however slowly and incrementally.  So, whilst Al Jazeera has huge impact, it’s part of a much wider communications ecosystem in which outlets and discussions all feed off each other at local, national and regional levels.....The Internet is playing a role, even in countries with heavily controlled networks and low levels of penetration.

Anyway, would be good to hear from people actually living in the region.....

All the best,
Lisa

From: governance-request at lists.cpsr.org [mailto:governance-request at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf Of David Goldstein
Sent: 28 January 2011 08:58
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Subject: Re: [governance] Internet blackout in Egypt

Al Jazeera has much more influence on happenings in the Middle East than the internet...


________________________________
From: parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>
To: "gov >> "governance at lists.cpsr.org"" <governance at lists.cpsr.org>
Sent: Fri, 28 January, 2011 7:23:52 PM
Subject: [governance] Internet blackout in Egypt

Today may turn out to be a historic day for Egypt...


Pl read below.

AP: "The day part of the Internet died: Egypt goes dark"

http://bit.ly/gCJFHt  (AP / MSN)

   "The Internet blackout in Egypt shows that a country with strong
    control over its Internet providers apparently can force all of
    them to pull their plugs at once, something that Cowie called
    'almost entirely unprecedented in Internet history.'"

--


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