My project explores the relationship between Diffusion of Innovations theory proposed by Christensen and Political Activism. By focusing on three particular political movements across time, I make observations on adoption behaviors of Information and Communication Technologies which may have occurd during that time, and state my opinion on social and political implications as a result.

The term project consists of a project paper, accompaying annotated bibliography, and project presentation slides.

Enjoy!

Since the beginning of time, the desire to form and live within communities has been a natural instinct and a necessity for humans to seek their self-interests. In recent history, more and more people; complete strangers at times with geographical constraints, have been enabled to establish communities and mobilize in ways that previously could only be achieved through institutions with traditional organizational structures (Shirky, 2008).

Over time, communication methods as they developed empowered people with the tools to do things together, unite towards a common goal, support group conversation, and encourage spontaneous group action in ways that have impacted societies regardless of the absence of traditional theories which usually govern these sorts of behaviors (Bimber, Flangagin & Stohl, 2005). The birth and formation of these new types of groups resulted in shifting group dynamics and people’s reactions in multiple areas, where the political arena was no exception.

The eruption of political uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in recent months has turned my life on its head and captured much of the attention from media in all of its forms and outlets. As a woman who was born and raised in Damascus, Syria I am emotionally and very passionately connected to these events as they unfold and reflect history in the making for all Arabs. The call for freedom and reform which is currently sweeping the Arab world has triggered my urge and curiosity to look back in time and reflect on some of the previous political movements to see how they came about and what factors may have led to their development. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to focus merely on exploring the relationship or association between Diffusion of Innovations theory and political activism.

Diffusion of Innovations and Timeline:

First, it is important to explain what this theory entails. According to Christensen (2004), Diffusion of Innovations is a process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. In simpler terms, it is the process by which we reach a decision to adopt a new technology or not.  I will be providing a read on the historical background of these political events and contrasting it with the state of technological advancements. A good place to start would be to look at what specific innovations were available at the time and examine people’s attitudes and mindset towards adopting new innovations.  I have selected the below timeline of political events, which I believe offers a balanced time range and a variety of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to reflect on, to evaluate if and what diffusion of innovations may have occurred during those years:

• §  Past: Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (Radio Devices)
• §  Present: Post South African Anti-Apartheid Movement 1960-1980 (Computers)
• §  Future: Political uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt  2011 (Social Media Tools)

 Since technology is about enabling change and amplifying its message, investigating the various ICTs leveraged during these movements and understanding how technology may have contributed to mobilizing these crowds in their political activism would offer substantial insight and help establish the connection between the two. 

Past- Spanish Civil War (1936-1939):

For the purposes of providing a quick historical background, the Spanish Civil War started when a group of conservative generals conducted a coup against the republican government. The war divided the country devastatingly in half since half of the cities were with the coup and the remaining half were against it. The death toll was estimated to have reached 500,000 dead, 150,000 of whom were sadly executed after the war.

In years preceding the Spanish Civil War, radio devices were certainly beginning to gain popularity among families in the western world including Europe. The Great Depression drove down the average price of a radio sold in United States from $139 in 1929 to about $47 just four years later, disabling the brutal market forces of the early depression to stop Americans from buying radios;. By the end of the 1920s, one-third of U.S. households owned a radio and by 1933 that number climbed close to 60% (Wilson, D). 

Radio was a great entertainment value in a time when people struggled just to pay rent and put food on the table even in Europe where the impacts of the great depression were similarly felt.  By 1933, radio manufacturers had made major technological improvements that in turn allowed radio stations to reach more listeners in American and around the world (Wilson, D).

But in 1936, an important event occurred bringing home the importance of radio as a powerful communication medium when war correspondent Hans Von Kaltenborn became the first American reporter to broadcast live from a war zone and brought the actual sounds of a Spanish civil war battle into ordinary homes while hiding in a haystack between the two armies.  Listeners in America could hear bullets hitting the hay above him while he spoke. Many historians believe that this was one of the defining moments for radio and that Kaltenborn helped establish the credibility of radio news in the public mind and helped to overcome the nation’s isolationist sensibilities (Ramos 2010).

The Spanish Civil War has been dubbed “the first media war,” given the integral role radio played in amplifying the message and the fact that several writers and journalists wrote about it as they wanted their work “to support the cause” including Orwell, Hemingway and many foreign correspondents and writers who covered the events.  

The Spanish Government tried unsuccessfully to channel all news through Union Radio network in Madrid and Barcelona, but the collapse of republican authority caused a “chaos” environment from the very beginning in the network while the nationalists had to build a new broadcasting system from scratch. All transmitters and receivers became targets by both sides, but also real weapons used to achieve military and political objectives clearly eluding to the effectiveness of radio news and broadcast in shaping up people’s perceptions and public opinion and in recognizing the Spanish Civil War as the first war radio (Ramos 2010).

Present – Post South African Anti-Apartheid Movement 1960-1980:

New digital communication tools often fulfill a desperate need, specifically for oppressed minority such as blacks in South Africa, enabling individuals to practice a much-needed freedom of speech. The basis for uses and gratifications is looking at active audiences who use goal-directed media to fulfill gratifications and how they interact with technology to make sense of the varied messages (Christensen, Anthony, Roth 1994).

For the “present” mile stone, it was interesting how the availability of computers which were brought in from the US to instill oppression and racial discrimination in South Africa have played a reverse role helping the rebels in winning the struggle against the “Grand Apartheid”. According to the Computers and The Apartheid Regime in South Africa study conducted by CS students in Stanford, during the post South African Anti-Apartheid movement which ignited in 1960 and lasted well throughout the 1980s, South African governments relied heavily on computers in their federal offices, financial institutions and commercial establishments to ensure segregation between blacks and whites. It was said that all trade functions would come to a complete halt should computers exportation be blocked by Western countries. Strategists in the National Party invented apartheid as a means to cement their control over the economic and social system. Initially, aim of the apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation. Starting in the 60′s, a plan of “Grand Apartheid” was executed, emphasizing territorial separation and police repression. Race laws touched every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites, and the sanctioning of “white-only” jobs. In 1950, the Population Registration Act required that all South Africans be racially classified into one of three categories: white, black (African), or colored (of mixed decent).

The ANC responded militarily to attacks on the rights of black South Africans, as well as calling for strikes, boycotts, and defiance. This led to a later Defiance Campaign in the 1950s, a mass movement of resistance to apartheid. The government tried to stop the ANC by banning party leaders and enacting new laws to stop the ANC, however these measures ultimately proved to be ineffective.

In 1955, the Congress of the People officially adopted the Freedom Charter, stating the core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress and its allies the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats and the Colored People’s Congress. The government claimed that this was a communist document, and consequently leaders of the ANC and Congress were arrested. 1960 saw the Sharpeville Massacre, in which 69 people were killed when police opened fire on anti-apartheid protesters (NARMIC, 1982).

The movement said to have been a success (by non-military measures) due to a purpose-built encrypted communication system of underground network operatives which was put in place by activists using commercially available computer equipment and the international telephone system. Undoubtedly, capabilities afforded by the system changed the South African political landscape in an era of unprecedented information exchange. The Vula communication system proved powerful in that it was used to coordinate meetings and action, debate strategy as well as share military and political intelligence while leveraging powerful figures in the government to stay in touch with exiled leaders.

Future – Current series of political revolts in the Arab World (2010-2011):

The series of revolts in the Middle East and North Africa has taken on a new term in recent weeks; Arab Spring. It is difficult to confirm any findings at this point since 2011 is considered the “future” in research years, however looking at unfolding events such as the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt offers insight as to how the different ICTs were utilized during these times and how they may have helped amplify the people’s message

It all began on January 26^th of 2011 since the same day when the young street vendor, Sidi Bouazizi’s self-immolation. While this act in itself is not the first of its kind, it was the people’s determination to speak up and their new behavior towards leveraging social media tools to get their message across that made this event more significant than the Tunisian dictatorship could’ve imagined. Locals fought to get news of what was happening out, and succeeded. Protesters took to the streets with a rock in one hand, a cell phone in the other, to spread word of their uprising. On December 17, Ali Bouazizi, a cousin of Sidi Bouazizi, posted a video on Facebook of a peaceful protest led by the young man’s mother outside the municipality building. That evening, the video was aired on Al Jazeera’s Mubasher channel as the footage had been picked up by the station’s media team; a moment that officiated for the first time the fearless stand by the people against their tyrant government (O’Neill, 2011).

Similarly, in Egypt Facebook played an integral role in sparking the Egyptian Revolution, when Wael Gonaim, an executive at Google became an international figure that energized pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt after an emotional interview following 11 days of secret incarceration by Egyptian police. Gonaim was interrogated regarding his work as the administrator of the Facebook page “We are all Khaled Saeed”, which brought attention to the death of 28-year old Khaled Saeed who was arrested while in an Internet café in Cairo by Egyptian Security Forces. Photos of his disfigured corpse incited outrage over allegations that he was beaten to death by Egyptian security forces (Gigilio, 2011).

It is hard to get an accurate read this early on what might have been the role social media played. But in looking at these events through the Diffusion of Innovations lens, it can be inferred that the social network played the most significant role of any web technology used during the 2 Arab revolutions by all counts. Even though smaller sites, like Posterous, were used, Facebook became a central location for dispatching information about where protests were happening, where government snipers were located, video footage of what was going on in the streets, and plenty more (Mardigal, 2011).

What is significant about the Arab Spring is that people have displayed an adoptive/positive behavior towards utilizing and leveraging Information and Communications Technologies and readiness to use these tools to spread awareness and communicate their specific message. In 2002, Howard Rheingold detailed in his book Smart Mobs this development of this specific sort of community forming, including the formation of virtual communities.

While these technologies are far from reaching critical mass in these two countries, which means the number of individuals who must be involved in a social movement before it may “explode” into being or when a certain technology gets to a point where it is widely adopted by users to a state of “all or none”, I believe it was the quality of the engagement in this case that won over quantity (William, Strover, Grant, 1994).

I had hoped that by this time, the Syrian Revolution would have prevailed and I would be discussing the factors of its success, but unfortunately, we are not there yet. While social media tools may have helped the people engage in political activism and work together to  bring down decades of injustice and dictatorships, Syria’s situation offers a whole set of extremely challenging plots were leveraging Facebook, You Tube or Twitter alone may not have the same weight and effectiveness  as it did in Tunisia and Egypt.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, there comes a point in time when traditional communication systems are no longer adequate to deal with the rapidly increasing demands for faster exchanges of information. Often times, these demands inspire innovations, some of which with notable impact to our social, political, and economic systems as well as our cultural identities and perspectives (Fidler, 1997).

It is apparent that the impact of new information and communication technologies (such as radio during the Spanish Civil War,  later World Wide Web in South Africa and Social Media in the Arab world), have changed how people communicate, collaborate and demonstrate. ICTs are directly connected to the emergence of social/political movements, specifically the role low-cost types uniting groups under one common cause and facilitating conversations across the field (Garrett 2006).  At minimum, we can conclude that the Internet, Social Media partnered with new electronic devices may have marked the ending of Media Monopoly era in these non-democratic environments (Bagdikian, 1997).

This poses the very important question of whether this change was coming regardless of available technological means, or if the system itself actively changed the political situation? While it is difficult to answer such question with certainty, it does help see the important relationship between information technology and social movements (Gerrett, 2007).  Diffusion of Innovations, as theorized by Christensen, embodied in rapid incremental innovation, user practices, technical competence and organizational routines all deeply affect the ways the system influenced these political and cultural movements. Personally, I believe that Diffusion of Innovations alone may not have been the sole reason why these political events have broken out, but it sure did accelerate the outcome, amplify the message, and caused the events to unleash on a broader, larger and far more visible scope and scale.

Annotated Bibliography (still in the works):

Bagdikian, H.B. (1997). The media monopoly: Afterword. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Annotations: TBD

Bimber, B., Flanagin, A. J., & Stohl, C. (2005). Reconceptualizing collective action in the contemporary media environment.

Annotations: TBD

Christensen, C. M., Anthony, S. D., & Roth, E. A. (2004). Seeing what’s next: using the theories of innovation to predict industry change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

The main idea in the first chapter of this book discusses the concept of Disruptive Innovation; the event in which a certain innovation has improved a product or a service in ways the market didn’t expect by lowering costs or creating a whole new set of consumers I will be leveraging the concept of Disruptive Innovations in my argument that mobile devices and social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter may have contributed to the series of revolts beginning with the Iranian Presidential Elections protests (2009) and ending with the series of uprisings we are currently witnessing in the Middle East and
North Africa (2010-2011). Christensen concludes that Disruptive Innovations such as the Internet are empowering individuals across great distances to unite under one common cause. Another aspect of his book which I wall also use in my argument the understanding Signals of Change and how certain communication technologies are reshaping cultural norms and assisting in changing the political landscape.

Fidler, R. (1997). Mediamorphosis: understanding new media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press

I will be mainly referencing this book to discuss the barriers facing early communication technologies such as the telegraph and radio and analyzing how those barriers may have impacted the adoption behavior by individuals during early political uprisings such as the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and the South African Anti-Apartheid movement in the 1950s,
thus influencing the effectiveness (or not) of these events. The main objective in referencing this book is to leverage the historical timeline positioned in this book in looking at each of the five political events I am focusing on in evaluating the market’s situation/readiness at the time and how certain newly introduced communication technologies may have helped or halted the success of these movements.

Garrett, K. R. (2006). Protest in an information society: A review of literature on social movements and new ICTs (Vols. 9 -2, Information, Communication & Society ed., pp. 202-224). Tandif, UK: Routledge Taylor and Francis.

This book will help explain the framework around which political activism may have developed and that way it changed how people communicate, collaborate and demonstrate. Impact of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as cell phones, email and the World Wide Web are directly connected to the emergence of social/political movements, specifically the role low-cost ICTs played in uniting groups under one common cause and in facilitating conversations across the field. What is valuable in this book is that it pulls examples from the past such as the civil rights mobilization efforts in the 1950s and 1960s as well as more recent history events such as the World Bank Protest in 2002 demonstrating alignment across different groups and over
different points in time.

NARMIC (1982).  Automating Apartheid – U.S. Computer exports to South Africa and the Arms Embargo. Omega Press, Philadelphia, 1982. Retrieved on 05/23/2011 from http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html

Annotations: TBD

O’Neill, N. (2011, January 24). How Facebook Kept The Tunisian Revolution Alive. In All Facebook: The Unofficial Facebook Resource. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from http://www.allfacebook.com/.

Annotations: TBD

Rheingold, H. (2002). Smart mobs: The next social revolution. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.

I will be leveraging Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs in taking a closer look at the social and cultural implications caused by new communication technologies such as the formation of virtual communities and the strong bonds created from online relationships regardless of vast time and geographical distances. This is a crucial point to use in
support my argument on why the Iranian Presidential Elections protests in 2009
may have had a notable impact over the outcome of the elections resulting in a
political change and a shift in mindset. I will also touch on Rheingold’s breakthrough prediction that mobile and pervasive technologies will reach further into our lives by
selecting a couple of current examples (10 years after this book was written) to illustrate his accuracy and incredible insight. Indeed new media has changed the way people cooperate these days as opposed to an innate desire to exist in groups; small groups without the need for regulatory authority or coercive means for serving the public good of the whole group.

Rosen, S. (2001). The power of Tiananmen: State-society relations and the 1989 Beijing movement by Dingxin Zhao. Political Science Quarterly (March 22, 2003). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

This book consolidates the learnings and insights of interviews conducted 10 years later with witnesses who were present during the Tiananmen Square Protests in Beijing back in 1989. I will be using the findings of these interviews and the analysis it produced in arguing that the political environment/infrastructure for any given country plays a key
role in challenging cultural norms. I will also be investigating the role of communication technologies at the time (fax, other) in mobilizing the crowds and organizing the protests with the absence of normal organizational forces. A key component which I plan to touch on as well is the strategy adopted by the Chinese government in blocking foreign media access to the country and allowing only domestic and local news companies to report on the event, which I will use to address the increasingly important and effective role the media is playing in informing the public and building up world view/support.

Shirky, C. (2008). Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. New York: Penguin Group. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on April 12, 2011.

Annotations: TBD

Williams, F., Strover, S. and Grant, A. E. (1994). Social aspects of new media technologies. In J. Bryant J. & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

There are 2 main concepts I would like to leverage from this book in supporting my argument around the impact new social media tools may have had in empowering individuals and forming groups. The first concept as explained by the authors is Uses and
Gratification: When a certain product or service fulfills a need for those who are seeking it encouraging them to adopt it. My proposal is that new digital communication tools such as Facebook, You Tube and Twitter have fulfilled a desperate need, specifically for citizens in less-democratic countries such as in China and the Arab world, enabling individuals to practice a much-needed freedom of speech and demand democracy. Critical Mass of email communication for example, is the second concept I will reference arguing that email technology facilitated the unmonitored information and free opinion sharing among
protestors in Muslim countries in recent years which resulted in a shift in the cultural and political landscapes.

Wilson, D. Radio in the 1930s [Date of publication not specified]. Retrieved on 05/23/2011 from http://www.radiostratosphere.com/zsite/behind-the-dial/radio-in-1930.html

Annotations: TBD

Wright, T. (2001). The perils of protest: state repression and student activism in china and Taiwan. Political Science Quarter (March 22, 2003). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

This book to explain the outcome of two different movements; the protests in Tiananmen Square, Beijing (China), and the students’ peaceful movement in Taiwan. I will be using the findings in this book specifically to shed light on the failure of political activism in less democratic and repressive political environments (china), contrasted with the success of political movements in more liberated political environments (Taiwan). I also plan to use the same logic in touching on the recent uprisings and revolts in the Middle East and
North Africa and how new communication tools may have changed the connection between a movement’s success and the political culture is exploded from.

In my theoretical paper, I touched on three case studies briefly in explaining the role of Information and Communication Technologies in mobilizing people towards a common goal. What I didn’t elaborate on at the time, was looking closely at people’s attitudes and mind set around new technology tools and the state of diffusion of innovations present at the time.

To give some context, I was inspired (having been born and raised in Damascus, Syria) to choose a political topic for my final project, given the recent series of Arab revolutions, or what has been recently referred to as the “Arab Spring”. My goal is to explore the relationship or association between diffusion of innovations and political activism by reflecting on three specific political events defining a reasonable timeline, and analyzing people’s adoption behavior of new Information and Communication Tools (ICTs).

For the “past” mile stone, I looked at the Spanish Civil War, which occurred between 1936 and 1939. The war broke out when a military coup was conducted by a group of conservative generals who wished to overthrow the current republican government. At the time, radios were mainly used for entertainment purposes even when the great depression had made it difficult for families to keep a job or put food on the table. According to Wilson in Behind the Dial: Radio in the 1930s, and for the sake of providing comparison, in the late 1920s, nearly one-third of American households owned a radio device. That percentage rose to 60 % by 1933. While the numbers for countries in Europe may not have been that high, we do know that radio devices were beginning to pick up momentum and gain popularity among families in Spain and that advanced developments at that time allowed radio networks to reach broader audiences all over the world.

But when Hans Von Kaltenborn became the first American reporter to broadcast live from battle field, giving listeners at home a dose of reality and a glimpse of what it was like during the Spanish Civil War, people’s perceptions towards radio’s popularity as a powerful means for communications shot through the roof. Moreover, many journalists and writers wrote personally about this war such as Orwell and Hemingway which led the Spanish Civil War to become known as the “first media” war.

For the “present” mile stone on the other hand, it was interesting how the availability of computers which were brought in from the US to instill oppression and racial discrimination in South Africa have played a reverse role helping the rebels in winning the struggle against the “Grand Apartheid”. According to the Computers and The Apartheid Regime in South Africa study conducted by CS students in Stanford, during the post South African Anti-Apartheid movement which ignited in 1960 and lasted well throughout the 1980s, South African governments relied heavily on computers in their federal offices, financial institutions and commercial establishments to ensure segregation between blacks and whites. It was said that all trade functions would come to a complete halt should computers exportation be blocked by Western countries. However, having this infrastructure in place helped the rebels in brining ANC leaders (African National Congress) back from exile using non-military measures by building a purposed encrypted network of underground activists using international communication systems. These operatives helped the opposition organize, mobilize, share intelligence and communicate with leaders in exile!

As for the Arab Spring which is currently taking place, it is difficult to confirm any findings at this point since 2011 is considered the “future” in research years. However, we have enough writings suggesting a significant role played by social media such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube in amplifying the people’s message and spreading the facts to the rest of the world. The eruption of revolts in the Arab World was sparked by the self-immolation of a young street vendor in Tunisia with the name Sidi Bouazizi. While this act in itself is not the first of its kind, it was the people’s determination to speak up and their new behavior towards leveraging social media tools to get their message across that made this event more significant than the Tunisian dictatorship could’ve imagine. People took to the streets in a rock in one hand and a cell phone in the other. Similarly in Egypt – While literacy rate in Egypt is slightly above 70%, the majority of the population resides in one of three main cities or regions in the country with Internet access and ample Internet café sites. The one event that caused the revolution to break out was the killing of a young Egyptian man; Khaled Saeed, who was beaten to death by Egyptian police. Again, while this isn’t an unusual practice in countries such as Egypt, Libya, Syria and others in the region, it took the initiative of one individual; Wael Ghonim – Head of Marketing at Google who moved people through an emotional interview following his 11-day arrest for hosting the “We are all Khaled Saeed” Facebook page.  The only significant difference here is yet again the people’s willingness to use new technologies to speak up.

I had hoped that by this time, the Syrian Revolution would have prevailed and I would be discussing the factors of its success, but unfortunately, we are not there yet. While social media tools helped bring down decades of dictatorships, Syria offers a whole new set of challenges were leveraging Facebook, You Tube or Twitter may not have it weight as it did in Tunisia and Egypt. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

NARMIC. Automating Apartheid – U.S. Computer exports to South Africa and the Arms Embargo. Omega Press, Philadelphia, 1982. Retrieved on 05/23/2011 from http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html

Wilson, D. Radio in the 1930s [Date of publication not specified]. Retrieved on 05/23/2011 from http://www.radiostratosphere.com/zsite/behind-the-dial/radio-in-1930.html

(EC Opportunity)

This article explains the important role “Discussion Catalysts” play in importing content and creating large threads. It also goes a bit beyond that in implying that the same people are in fact feeding political activism online. While I will not attempt to provide a firm answer to this question for various restrictions and limitations, I will however attempt to investigate the reality of this claim and reflect along the way on one of the theories we discussed in class regarding technology as well as on personal experiences.

 At its basis, Uses and Gratifications is a theory where we look at active audiences who use goal-directed media to fulfill gratifications and how they interact with technology to make sense of the varied messages. At the core, it explains how individuals with a void seek to fill this void by looking for alternate sources in similar environments. In the case of political activism, these individuals are looking for discussion leaders who are able to answer the many questions they have, drive healthy debate, and kick things into motion.

This doesn’t surprise me at all because I am experiencing it on a personal level as we speak. After the revolution ignited in Syria on March 25^th of 2011, I was on the hunt for a leading figure on Facebook or Twitter to follow; basically anyone with the right amount of postings/tweets while demonstrating leadership qualities and communication competencies. There was a gap I couldn’t fill however without listening to every word these guys had to say on the matter, and gradually their online contribution started  evoking vigorous discussion and fueling collective consensus.

Naturally, I started wondering why I am following those individuals closely. After all, we both go back to the same news sources for information! But it is more than just information sharing, which is a crucial point the authors make in these pages. It is the filtering of information, the credibility of the sources, the mediation of information flow between media and the public, and most important, it is the the leader’s personal voice that makes discussion catalysts so effective and so loudly heard.

So in some ways, their activity fills a void I am clearly unable to fulfill on my own, however, with time it has fueled my participation and enabled my activism. On a side note, this can be both addicting and blinding because discussion leaders stimulate our curiosity and keep us hanging for more. I can see how this behavior could swiftly slip into a to a form of stalking, especially among young teens who are easily obsessed with certain public figures in the Entertainment or Fashion industries. 

That’s not to say however, that online political activism is only driven by discussion catalysts.  Indeed, there is a set of predetermined conditions that must be present first in order to achieve online political activism. One of which is diffusion of innovations; which in this case revolves around the people’s awareness and willingness to adopt online platform as an arena for political activism.

Bagdikian, H.B. (1997). The media monopoly: Afterword. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.  

The notion of “Media Monopoly” as addressed in this book and its impacts in shaping up people’s thinking and beliefs, is clearly absurd to us; people who have lived the majority of our lives in a free speech/democratic environments. But I’d rather provide an outsider’s perspective as media monopoly is certainly an interesting notion, and one that I have come to firmly believe in just a couple of months ago. The author may sound too paranoid or dramatic now, but I personally do see a bit of where he comes from.

Let me take you on a journey to my world where Media Monopoly is literally the norm. On March 25^th 2011, the world was shocked to have witnessed revolution fever reach Syria, against all odds and against all bets. Thousands of brave Syrians took to the streets calling for what have been righteously theirs for over 4 decades; freedom and democracy for all Syrians. To counter act, and I will stay on topic by only focusing on the role of media rather than going into how the murderous administration recruited armed and security forces in oppressing its own citizens, the ridiculously embarrassing Syrian TV launched what I’ve been calling a sabotage campaign aiming to discredit the bravery and courage put forth by the thousands of peaceful protestors and to mislead the public in believing those protestors are in fact armed gangs, Islamic extremists, foreign conspirers, etc.

At first, the media’s false reporting didn’t faze me nor did it surprise me at all. Why should it? Surely, everyone in their right mind know not to buy into this bias coverage when all media outlets in a country are owned by one of the ruling family members or when access to foreign media is completely blocked! But apparently, this scheme worked. We’ve been in touch with several families who reside in the Damascus, the Syrian capital, who have the littlest clue as to what’s going on in terms of killing and mass murder in cities outside of Damascus and it has been clear that up until a couple of weeks ago, life in Damascus was business as usual! How could that be?

To ensure the plot is properly tangled, the Syrian government jammed Internet connection and mobile telephone waves across the country.  In some cities, power was cut off for days so electronic devices such as cell phones, laptops, and cameras would run out of battery preventing people from uploading footage to You Tube or report the tragic events.  Unfortunately, this method seemed to have worked overwhelmingly among middle to upper class families residing in the city. Childhood friends and even relatives living in Damascus or Aleppo (the two largest cities in the country) are convinced that the whole world has conspired against Syria to overthrow the Assad regime! The list conspiring countries include U.S. and Israel among others, both of which have expressed and demonstrated in many occasions and on multiple levels their concern should the Syrian regime fall!  

I couldn’t help, as I was reading these pages, but to compare the findings with the impact Syrian TV has had in recent weeks over people’s perceptions and beliefs.  Do not under-estimate the power of media and its messages, certainly in non-democratic countries. To some, right or wrong may be clear as day and night, but that’s not the case with the easily influenced majority. Profound implications are reflected in the masses; meaning as long as the two largest cities in this case continue to buy into the lies of the Syrian regime and its fabricated media, the Syrian revolution will most likely and very unfortunately die down. 

This example isn’t the only one of its kind. Growing up in the Middle East provides many similar examples such as Future TV which is owned by Lebanese Prime minister Saad Hariri, and Al-Manaar TV which is run and owned by Hezbollah, and finally Al-Dunya TV which is owned by a member of the Assad ruling family

One thing we must keep in mind is the timing of this reading – which was written 14 years ago. While I do not at all discount the reality and clear danger in the presence of media monopoly even in these days, I do believe that the rise of satellite television and access to Social Media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube does provide alternate and credible sources for people to check the facts and obtain accurate read on any event in the world, including in Syria. I do believe that the trend has effectively weakened the hold traditional media used to have over its audiences and their opinions and all I can say in conclusion is Thank God for technology.

The eruption of political uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in recent months has captured much of the attention from media in all of its forms and outlets. As a woman who was born and raised in Damascus, Syria this period in time is history in the making, and therefore, of strong emotional connection as well as special interest to me.  In particular, the call for freedom and reform which is currently sweeping the Arab world has triggered my urge and curiosity to look back in time and reflect on some of the most major political movements and the factors leading to their development.  

As part of a larger term paper, the following few pages will focus merely on one theory pertaining to the birth of certain information technologies and will assess by examining 3 political movements around the world, how are information technologies which were available at the time used as a tool of political activism? Since technology is about enabling change and amplifying its message, a good place to start would be investigating the various Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) leveraged during these movements and analyzing people’s adoption behavior to understand how technology may have contributed to mobilizing these crowds towards a common goal. 

According to Christensen, Diffusion of Innovations is a process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system (Christensen, 2004). Diffusion of Innovations is one 3 theories I will be discussing my term paper, but for the purposes of this assignment, I have selected the below timeline of political events to evaluate if and what diffusion of innovations may have occurred during those years. In the final paper, I will bring forth additional case studies to support my argument around ICTs and political movements. The research will take us as far back in history as the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and carry us all the way to our current day today as we continue to witness the political revolts in the Arab world unfold.  

Spanish Civil War (1936-1939): In years preceding the Spanish Civil War, radio devices were certainly beginning to gain popularity among families in the western world. But in 1936, an important event occurred bringing home the importance of radio as a powerful communication medium when war correspondent Hans Von Kaltenborn became the first American reporter to broadcast live from a war zone and brought the actual sounds of a Spanish civil war battle into ordinary homes while hiding in a haystack between the two armies. Listeners in America could hear bullets hitting the hay above him while he spoke. Many historians believe that this was one of the defining moments for radio and that Kaltenborn helped establish the credibility of radio news in the public mind and helped to overcome the nation’s isolationist sensibilities (Ramos 2010).

The Spanish Government tried unsuccessfully to channel all news through Union Radio network in Madrid and Barcelona, but the collapse of republican authority caused a “chaos” environment from the very beginning in the network while the nationalists had to build a new broadcasting system from scratch. All transmitters and receivers became targets by both sides, but also real weapons used to achieve military and political objectives clearly eluding to the effectiveness of radio news and broadcast in shaping up people’s perceptions and public opinion and in recognizing the Spanish Civil War as the first war radio (Ramos 2010).

Post South African Anti-Apartheid Movement 1960-1980: New digital communication tools often fulfill a desperate need, specifically for oppressed minority such as blacks in South Africa, enabling individuals to practice a much-needed freedom of speech. After African National Congress leaders (ANC) were banned in the 1960 as part of the apartheid government’s crackdown on Black political opposition, and despite all legal and military obstacles, Operation Vula in the late 1980s brought back ANC leaders from exile. The movement said to have been a success (by non-military measures) due to a purpose-built encrypted communication system of underground network operatives which was put in place by activists using commercially available computer equipment and the international telephone system. Undoubtedly, capabilities afforded by the system changed the South African political landscape in an era of unprecedented information exchange. The Vula communication system proved powerful in that it was used to coordinate meetings and action, debate strategy as well as share military and political intelligence while leveraging powerful figures in the government to stay in touch with exiled leaders (Gerrett, 2007).

Current series of political revolts in the Arab World (2010-2011): In research terms, 2011 is considered years in the “future”, however looking at unfolding events such as the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt offers insight as to how the different ICTs were utilized during these times and how they helped amplify the people’s message. It all began on January 26^th of 2011 since the same day when the young street vendor, Sidi Bouazizi’s self-immolation. As tragic as it may be, the event itself wasn’t more significant than other previous events, however, a key difference in Sidi’s case was that locals fought to get news of what was happening out, and succeeded. Protesters took to the streets with a rock in one hand, a cell phone in the other, to spread word of their uprising. On December 17, Ali Bouazizi, a cousin of Sidi Bouazizi, posted a video on Facebook of a peaceful protest led by the young man’s mother outside the municipality building. That evening, the video was aired on Al Jazeera’s Mubasher channel as the footage had been picked up by the stations media team (O’Neill, 2011).

Similarly, in Egypt where Facebook played an integral role in sparking the Egyptian Revolution, when Wael Gonaim became an international figure that energized pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt after an emotional interview following 11 days of secret incarceration by Egyptian police. Gonaim was interrogated regarding his work as the administrator of the Facebook page “We are all Khaled Saeed”, which brought attention to the death of 28-year old Khaled Saeed and photos of his disfigured corpse inciting outrage over allegations that he was beaten to death by Egyptian security forces (Gigilio, 2011).

It is hard to get an accurate read this early on what might have been the role social media played. But in looking at these events through the Diffusion of Innovations lens, it can be inferred that the social network played the most significant role of any web technology used during the 2 Arab revolutions by all counts. Even though smaller sites, like Posterous, were used, Facebook became a central location for dispatching information about where protests were happening, where government snipers were located, video footage of what was going on in the streets, and plenty more (Mardigal, 2011).

In conclusion, it is apparent that the impact of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as radio at first, and later World Wide Web and Social Media, have changed how people communicate, collaborate and demonstrate. ICTs are directly connected to the emergence of social/political movements, specifically the role low-cost types uniting groups under one common cause and facilitating conversations across the field (Garrett 2006). 

This poses the very important question of whether this change was coming regardless of available technological means, or if the system itself actively changed the political situation? While it is difficult to answer such question with certainly, it does help see the important relationship between information technology and social movements (Gerrett, 2007).  Diffusion of Innovations, as theorized by Christensen, embodied in rapid incremental innovation, user practices, technical competence and organizational routines all deeply affect the ways the system influenced these political and cultural movements.

Christensen, C. M., Anthony, S. D. and Roth, E.A. (2004). Seeing what’s next. (pp. 3-27). Boston,

MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Garrett, K. R. (2006). Protest in an Information Society: A Review of Literature on Social

 Movements and New ICTs  (Vols. 9 -2, Information, Communication & Society ed.,

pp. 202-224). Tandif, UK: Routledge Taylor and Francis.

Garrett, K. R., & Edwards, P. N. (2007, Spring). Revolutionary Secrets: Technology’s Role

 in the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement. Social Science Computer Review, 25

(1), 13-26. doi:10.1177/0894439306289556.

Giglio, M. (2011, February 13). The Facebook Freedom Fighter. Newsweek. Retrieved May 10,

 2011, from http://www.newsweek.com/2011/02/13/the-facebook-freedom-fighter.html.

Mardigal, A. (2011, January). The Inside Story of How Facebook Responded to Tunisian

 Hacks. The Atlantic. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from http://www.theatlantic.com.

O’Neill, N. (2011, January 24). How Facebook Kept The Tunisian Revolution Alive. In All

Facebook: The Unofficial Facebook Resource. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from

http://www.allfacebook.com/.

 Ramos, V. (2011, March 5). Telecommunications Conference (HISTELCON), 2010

Second IEEE Region 8 Conference on the History of Broadcast, (pp.1-5). Madrid,

Spain. doi:10.1109/HISTELCON.2010.5735269.

Main Idea:

Are ICTs (Information Communication Technologies) helping mobilize political activism? Is there a connection between the success/failure of a political movement and the political culture or environment it rises from? How were communication tools leveraged to amplify the message? What role did technology play in forming communities and assembling political movements? Several political events will be discussed to assess the connection between the outcome of political movements (their success or failure) and the political
environments these movements rise from (Democratic vs. repressive), and to examine how new forms of communication may have changed the playing field even in less liberated countries in uniting people across great distances under one common goal and reshaping the political and cultural landscape.

Timeline:

1)     Past: The Spanish Civil War (1936) and South African Anti-Apartheid Movement (1950s)

2)     Present: Tiananmen Square movement (1989)

3)     Future: Iranian Presidential Elections protests (2009) and the series of revolts in the Middle East and North Africa (2010-2011)

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Christensen, C. M., Anthony, S. D., & Roth, E. A. (2004). Seeing what’s next: using the theories of innovation to predict industry change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

The main idea in the first chapter of this book discusses the concept of Disruptive Innovation; the event in which a certain innovation has improved a product or a service in ways the market didn’t expect by lowering costs or creating a whole new set of consumers I will be leveraging the concept of Disruptive Innovations in my argument that mobile devices and social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter may have contributed to the series of revolts beginning with the Iranian Presidential Elections protests (2009) and ending with the series of uprisings we are currently witnessing in the Middle East and
North Africa (2010-2011). Christensen concludes that Disruptive Innovations such as the Internet are empowering individuals across great distances to unite under one common cause.  Another aspect of his book which I wall also use in my argument is understanding Signals of Change and how certain communication technologies are reshaping cultural norms and assisting in changing the political landscape.

Williams, F., Strover, S. and Grant, A. E. (1994). Social aspects of new media technologies. In J. Bryant J.  & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

There are 2 main concepts I would like to leverage from this book in supporting my argument around the impact new social media tools may have had in empowering individuals and forming groups. The first concept as explained by the authors is Uses and
Gratification: When a certain product or service fulfills a need for those who are seeking it encouraging them to adopt it. My proposal is that new digital communication tools such as Facebook, You Tube and Twitter have fulfilled a desperate need, specifically for citizens in less-democratic countries such as in China and the Arab world, enabling individuals to practice a much needed freedom of speech and demand democracy. Critical Mass of email communication for example, is the second concept I will reference arguing that email technology facilitated the unmonitored information and free opinion sharing among
protestors in Muslim countries in recent years which resulted in a shift in the cultural and political landscapes.

Wright, T. (2001). The perils of protest: state repression and student activism in china and Taiwan. Political Science Quarter (March 22, 2003). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

This book to explain the outcome of two different movements; the protests in Tiananmen Square, Beijing (China), and the students’ peaceful movement in Taiwan. I will be using the findings in this book specifically to shed light on the failure of political activism in less democratic and repressive political environments (china), contrasted with the success of political movements in more liberated political environments (Taiwan). I also plan to use the same logic in touching on the recent uprisings and revolts in the Middle East and
North Africa and how new communication tools may have changed the connection between a movement’s success and the political culture is exploded from.

Fidler, R. (1997). Mediamorphosis: understanding new media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press

I will be mainly referencing this book to discuss the barriers facing early communication technologies such as the telegraph and radio and analyzing how those barriers may have impacted the adoption behavior by individuals during early political uprisings such as the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and the South African Anti-Apartheid movement in the 1950s,
thus influencing the effectiveness (or not) of these events. The main objective in referencing this book is to leverage the historical timeline positioned in this book in looking at each of the five political events I am focusing on in evaluating the market’s situation/readiness at the time and how certain newly-introduced communication technologies may have helped or halted the success of these movements.

Garrett, K. R. (2006). Protest in an information society: A review of literature on social movements and new ICTs  (Vols. 9 -2, Information, Communication & Society ed., pp. 202-224). Tandif, UK: Routledge Taylor and Francis.

This book will help explain the framework around which political activism may have developed and that way it changed how people communicate, collaborate and demonstrate. Impact of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as cell phones, email and the World Wide Web are directly connected to the emergence of social/political movements, specifically the role low-cost ICTs played in uniting groups under one common cause and in facilitating conversations across the field.  What is valuable in this book is that it pulls examples from the past such as the civil rights mobilization efforts in the 1950s and 1960s as well as more recent history events such as the World Bank Protest in 2002 demonstrating alignment across different groups and over
different points in time.

Rheingold, H. (2002). Smart mobs: The next social revolution. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing

I will be leveraging Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs in taking a closer look at the social and cultural implications caused by new communication technologies such as the formation of virtual communities and the strong bonds created from online relationships regardless of vast time and geographical distances. This is a crucial point to use in
support my argument on why the Iranian Presidential Elections protests in 2009
may have had a notable impact over the outcome of the elections resulting in a
political change and a shift in mindset. I will also touch on Rheingold’s breakthrough prediction that mobile and pervasive technologies will reach further into our lives by
selecting a couple of current examples (10 years after this book was written) to illustrate his accuracy and incredible insight. Indeed new media has  changed the way people cooperate these days as opposed to an innate desire to exist in groups; small groups without the need for regulatory authority or coercive means for serving the public good of the whole group.

Rosen, S. (2001). The power of Tiananmen: State-society relations and the 1989 Beijing movement by Dingxin Zhao. Political Science Quarterly (March 22, 2003). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

This book consolidates the learnings and insights of interviews conducted 10 years later with witnesses who were present during the Tiananmen Square Protests in Beijing back in 1989. I will be using the findings of these interviews and the analysis it produced in arguing that the political environment/infrastructure for any given country plays a key
role in challenging cultural norms.  I will also be investigating the role of communication technologies at the time (fax, other) in mobilizing the crowds and organizing the protests with the absence of normal organizational forces.  A key component which I plan to touch on as well is the strategy adopted by the Chinese government in blocking foreign media access to the country and allowing only domestic and local news companies to report on the event, which I will use to address the increasingly important and effective role the media is playing in informing the public and building up world view/support.

History Repeats Itself – Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media

Fidler, R. (1997). Mediamorphosis: understanding new media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press

Is history repeating itself? I couldn’t help but notice points of commonality between the barriers which accompanied the emergence of certain communication technologies in the 19^th century and early 20^th century, and challenges facing the rise of social media tools as means of communication in our time. Roger Fidler’s Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media discusses the challenges which faced early developing communication
technologies such as telegraph, telephony and radio, and which I intend to contrast
with the ones facing more recent communication technologies such as Facebook.

There comes a point in time when traditional communication systems are no longer adequate to deal with the rapidly increasing demands for faster exchanges of information. Often times, these demands inspire innovations, some of which with notable impact to our social, political, and economic systems as well as our cultural identities and perspectives.  Take for example the arrival of the telegraph technology (in the early to mid-19^th century), and telephony a little later in the same century.  Some of the early challenges and barriers to entry were the high cost and value perception by people who suspected anyone is willing to pay the high price to sending few words between cities. But look where we are now? Other concerns were also expressed at first by businesses such as newspaper companies and by government officials who feared Morse’ code for example would encroach on its monopoly of the postal service business, and again look where we are now?

Similarly, with the increased popularity of social media tools such as Facebook came growing concerns about privacy issues, identity theft, cyber bullying, overload in information sharing and most important, frustration about effective marketing among many other issues.  However, with more than 600 million active users on Facebook since its launch in 2004, this generation confirms that the benefit of being connected online through social media tools far outweighs its risks and shortcomings.  I for example
hesitated to join Facebook until 2007. Like everyone else at first, I was reluctant and weary of the concept of granting “friends” access to my profile information, family photos, and daily updates! But slowly, my guard was let down. It was obvious that more and more people were willing to lead an open and transparent life style on the web, and I finally decided it to jump in and join in on the fun.

What’s most interesting is the direct influence these innovations such as the electricity, had on interpersonal media domain. By collapsing physical and psychological barriers of time and distance that had always limited human interactions, the telegraph and later the telephone greatly increased their user’s power to maintain relationships and to control
activities at a distance. This trend is incredibly comparable to the social and cultural impacts we witnessed with the arrival of Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and other digital communication tools. All of which brought people from across the globe even closer than ever before by connecting and forming relationships across vast distances and in real-time. While I didn’t get the fun in posting videos on You Tube at first, I now have many videos of my kids on You Tube to share with my family back home.  And while I certainly didn’t see the logic in behind Twitter when we had Facebook, I recently started appreciating its value in getting updates instantly during important events such as Obama’s visit to campus Seattle last year, the 2010 Microsoft Company meeting with all of the behind the scene dynamics being shared instantaneously on Twitter, and most important the most recent and wide-spread breaking news of Osama Bin Laden’s death.

In a nut shell, look how far we’ve come in terms of communication and social interaction. I asked, is history repeating itself? And my answer is this: There will always be barriers to overcome and reluctance of adoption of any new technology at first, but when these technologies start fulfilling uses and gratifications on some level, history will always repeat itself.

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