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Trends that are Shaping Social Media in the Public Interest: Active Witnessing
Active witnessing occurs when individuals or groups share information and stories about important and often dramatic events through the use of digital tools such as cellphone cameras and social media utilities including blogs, microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr), and social media platforms and networks (Facebook, Myspace).
Active witnessing has been around since before the time of Homer and the Illiad, but never before have so many people been able to share so much information and experience so fast and to so many people. The substance, speed and scale of active witnessing are changing what is “news” and what grabs the world’s attention.
Active witnesses living in places characterized by oppression and violence are increasingly being targeted by their governments and opponents of free expression. But, the same social networks which help active witnesses get information out to the world are now mobilizing to protect them—letting their oppressors know that they are not forgotten.
Examples include:
- An Iranian Twitter user who went by the name “persiankiwi” became one of the most symbolic voices of the so-called Green Revolution during Iran’s contested presidential elections this year. Persiankiwi was frequently retweeted by followers and cited by the international press for his or her tweets that illustrated the increasingly dramatic events that followed the election, chronicling in 140 characters or less the heady atmosphere of citizens’ pro-democracy mobilization and the terror of violent government crackdown. When persiankiwi’s Twitter account fell dead after this June 24th tweet—Allah – you are the creator of all and all must return to you – Allah Akbar -#Iranelection Sea of Green—followers feared the same fate for its author, whose identity and fate is still unknown.
- Examples of the growing movement to memorialize and advocate for persecuted bloggers include the Mideast Youth Foundation’s March 18 Movement, which asks for an international memorial day set to the date of death of imprisoned Iranian blogger Omid Reza Mir Sayafi; another Mideast Youth campaign, “Free Kareem,” advocates for the release of an imprisoned Egyptian blogger.
- News aggregator and online advocacy site Global Voices; Vietnamese reform party Viet Tan’s campaign encourages supporters to petition politicians for a Vietnamese internet freedom resolution and to write letters to imprisoned bloggers; and action from journalists’ rights organizations like Committee to Protect Bloggers and Reporters without Borders.
- A long-established “active witness” network is Witness.org, a non-profit that empowers people to tell stories of human rights abuses through video technology. Inspired by founder Peter Gabriel’s 1988 Human Rights Now! Tour—where the musician brought along a Sony Handycam to document stories of people he met—today the WITNESS.org site hosts an online video-sharing community where members can upload videos, audio and photos. This initiative, dubbed “the Hub,” was prompted two years ago by the growing popularity of video and camera-enabled phones.
- Ushahidi means “testimony” in Swahili, a fitting name for a website developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the 2008 presidential election. Ushahidi has spawned Ushahidi Engine, a platform that allows people worldwide to set up personalized ways to gather and map news via mobile phone, email and the web.
Read the full Social Media Blueprints report and learn about the other trends that are shaping the use of social media in the public interest: Social Media Blueprints 1.0
Posted in: Trends, awards | Tagged: activewitnessing, advocacy, cellphones, facebook, greenmovement, iranelection, march18, Microblogging, mideast, myspace, persianwiki, twitter, Witness.org, witnessorg
