1. Global Communities Capstone Project Advisor: Caitlin Haugen
Media Literacy in the Wake of Political Uprising: A Case Study of Iran and Egypt
Andrea Glauber
Global Communities Capstone Project
Advisor: Caitlin Haugen
27 April 2011

2. Introduction What is media literacy?
A 21st-century extension of basic literacy
Result of Web 2.0 (Facebook, Twitter, blogs)
Necessary for effective citizen journalism
Key traits:
Access
Contact  usage
Analysis
Critical conversation
Evaluation
Navigate bias
Content Creation
Effective communication
(Livingstone 2-3)

3. Media Literacy Why is it important?
“relationship among textuality, competence, and power” (Livingstone 20)
Ability to produce accurate media
New facet of democratic
participation
Producers and consumers
are one and the same
Communication between
sources becomes necessary

4. Web 2.0 “social media” Key ideas Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.
Individual production/user-generated content
Consumers become the media
Power of the crowd
Influence in numbers
Data on epic scale
Accessibility of information
Easy participation
Simple interface
(Anderson 14)

5. How are they related? Web 2.0 Media Literacy Open communication
“architecture of participation” (Anderson 19)
Service improves as it populates
User-friendly interface  network grows
Usage leads to interpretation/self-teaching
Content generation

6. Citizen Journalism
Traditional  public  interactive  participatory  citizen journalism (Nip)
Journalism always moving toward higher goal of engaging citizens (Nip)
Through evolution, audiences (consumers) become reporters (producers)
Made possible by Web 2.0
New format of democratic
participation
Society’s “gatekeepers”

7. How did it develop? Web 2.0 Citizen Journalism Rapid communication
Easy access
Community-based
Source of inspiration and ideas
Infinite network
Produced in key moments
Open to public
Modified collaboration
among producers

8. Iran’s Media: A Briefing
Traditional media (TV, newspapers, radio) monitored by state
Modern media (Internet, Web 2.0) free from state control
10.6% of Iran’s 70 million population has Internet access
This makes up 38.7% of the entire Middle East
population
700,000 blogs
Persian one of the most popular
languages of the blogosphere

9. Egypt’s Media: A Briefing
Minister of Information can forbid publication of anything that may “threaten public stability and peace” (Saab 522)
Press Law No. 96: state controls media in states of emergency
Has been in control since assassination of President Sadat in 1981
State of emergency declared by President
Mubarak; lasted 30 years
Journalists still seen as
“guardians of society”
(Saab 541)

10. How was citizen journalism used during political uprising?
Case Study: Iran 2009
How was citizen journalism used during political uprising?
First social media revolution
From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp
Western journalists banned from providing coverage
Most of narrative told from bottom-up in terms of social hierarchy
Citizen journalists were themselves the
stories being covered
Monitoring events, engaging in critical
conversations

11. How was citizen journalism used during political uprising?
Case Study: Egypt 2011
How was citizen journalism used during political uprising?
Gene Sharp
Protestors collaborated and planned in advance
Increased international intervention
Internet blackout
Considered human rights violation
Google-Twitter partnership
navigated censorship

12. Similarities Iran 2009 Egypt 2011
Assistance of Gene Sharp’s From Dictatorship to Democracy
Social networking provided crucial information to outside world
International support and solidarity for movements
Attempted government shutdowns of media
Prohibition of Western journalists
in Iran
Internet blackout in Iran and
Egypt

13. Differences Iran 2009 Egypt 2011 Less planning
No international collaboration
State hostile toward citizens
No prior social media revolution experience
2 years of preparation
Sparked by Tunisia
No history of military abuse of citizens
Had ability to observe protests in Iran 2009 and learn from them

14. What do these uprisings tell us about media literacy?
Conclusion
What do these uprisings tell us about media literacy?
Media literacy becoming the future of literacy
Web 2.0 not the future, but the present
Citizen journalism unsure, but still in existence
These technologies are useful beyond mere communication
Online community-building
Future of democratic participation
Ordinary citizens  power

15. Thank you.