Small Media, Big Revolution | Book Review

Small Media, Big Revolution: Communication, Culture, and the Iranian Revolution
By Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi and Ali Mohammadi

I spent some time this past weekend reading this book, much to my delight. Aside from the romantic views of revolution (going so far as dedicating the book to "daughters of the revolution") and the simple readability of the book, I found the small media aspect very useful in a number of ways. I will try to outline why I feel it is so useful now. This isn't a full review of the book, but rather incomplete bits that I find useful for my own purposes.

First, the authors don't spend much time dwelling on trying to define small media, resorting to examples rather than definitions. They describe the uses of cassette tapes, pamphlets, and xeroxing, as the media used to spread the revolutionary word around.

A quick tour of theory brings the reader up-to-speed quite quickly, discussing Appandurai's scapes - ethnoscape, mediascape etc. - deterritorialization from Deleuze and Guattari, and Bourdieu's retraditionalization as an aspect of colonial experience. The authors discuss "traditional traditionalism" as previously the only choice for people. When a colonial power comes in and imposes their traditions on the occupied people, the reassertion of the traditional traditions becomes a choice a form of resistance.

An interesting point brought up in the introduction, "The originality of the Iranian revolution resides neither in its 'tradition' nor in its 'modern' character, but in the interaction of the two." p.xx, Introduction.

Most interesting to me and my work is the persepctive of revolution as an act of communication. In one of my graduate courses, we learned about examining everything from multiple perspectives, and how this can open new ways to communicate and new ways to solve problems. "All revolutions are also communicative processes." p. 19, Chapter Two. For me, this is the largest contribution of the book to the larger study of media and social change.

For my research specifically, it is most interesting to examine what small media is and what it was effective in the Iranian revolution. Needing to be "emancipatory" p. 21, but also creating a space for discussion under a repressive regime is a key element of the power of small media. Speeches were recorded, ideas copied and these small media spread through social networks.

Now, the book was published in 1994, before the Internet Revolution. For my research, it is almost as simple as replacing 'cassette tape' with 'viral videos' or 'xeroxed pamphlet' with 'blog.'

"Small media created a political "public sphere." Channels of participation, extending preexisting cultural networks and communicative patterns and become the vehicles of an oppositional discourse that was able to mobilize a mass movement." p. xx, Introduction.

"Media are frequently part of the structures/power of the authoritarian states in the the Third World, yet also the tools of resistance against those states." P. 3, Chapter One.

Are we seeing the new small media in blogs? The ability to extend cultural networks and communicative patterns in Facebook, Myspace, and other networks? Is there hope for blogs, Facebook groups, and more people joining the public sphere to join a mass movement?

I'd like to think so.

Arab Digital Expression

I stumbled across this project a few week ago and didn't have much time to look at it until now. Alaa Abd El Fattah works with kids in Arab digital expression "camps" where young folk can work on art, communication, and meet new people. You can sign your kid up or you can become a sponsor and help with the camps.

Based in Cairo, the project has lots of different people, from various backgrounds working. Learn more here.

The “Arab Digital Expression” project - promoting the use of ICTs by Arab youngsters for digital expression and artistic creation: a network of artists and experts supporting and mentoring young talents in the Arab region.
The project aims at giving the young Arab generation a free and constructive environment and the opportunity to produce ideas of their own using ICTs in an attempt to improve and add to the content of this world of media. It aims to give children from various Arab countries digital tools to express themselves and discover their identity in both culture and heritage

For more information, check out their website.

iToot: Blog Aggregator For The Arab World

A goofy little site that runs around the Arab blogosphere and keeps track of certain blogs. There are a few issues with how they select blogs to aggregate and what their standards are. They outline these issues, but they are very subjective to the staff's views.

It is a good place to follow some of the leading blogs from the Arab world in both Arabic and English. iToot is a side project of Syntax. They have taken on lots of projects and design and brand all kinds of things around the Arab world.

Are aggregators useful to blogging communities? Especially one as large as the entire Arab world? iToot has been going for awhile, but doesn't seem to have reached a threshold that makes it too important for now. Maybe that isn't their goal.

What we find interesting includes: good writing, crazy ideas, cool photos, strong opinions, intelligent humor, civilized discussions, creative people and other cool stuff.

What we don’t find interesting is bigotry, closed mindedness, violence, hate and racism. We also are not interested in explicit materials and cheap bluetooth movies ;-) For now, toot will be linking to only 191 blogs/photostreams that were initially selected. We might add new blogs in the future. So submit your blog and make your case for being featured on toot.

You could be selected for inclusion in our next update. Toot’s decision to include or remove a blog is done at its sole discretion.

Info-Activism Camp in India

A very interesting camp for those involved in social change and interested in using technology to aid in those struggles.

It appears to be geared more towards professionals working in NGO and not for the street activist, but I think it would be fruitful for anyone to apply. Hurry though, application is due November 8th.

It is sponsored by the Tactical Technology Collective, who have produced numerous booklets ranging from privacy and security in online advocacy to presenting information effectively. These publication are incredibly useful and are really well designed(I'd hope so, right?).

Revolution without Revolutinaries?

In an article published on the online journal, Arab Media & Society, Author David Faris talks about a phenomenon that I have first hand experience with in the past; that of getting 200 people saying there are coming to an event on a Facebook invite, and only 13 showing up for the actual event.

Egypt is becoming an interesting battleground to watch between the government and the younger, tech-enabled young folk who want more rights and economic opportunity. Facebook, SMS messaging, blogging have all become widely used in Egypt and the burgeoning online community shows that new media tools are changing the face of protests, social change, and relationships of power.

Revolutions Without Revolutionaries? Network Theory, Facebook, and the Egyptian Blogosphere

By David Faris

On the morning of April 6th, 2008, a small group of Egyptian bloggers and activists made their way from one internet cafe to another, updating web sites and Twitter feeds dedicated to the day’s tumultuous events in Cairo and other cities. They generously allowed me to spend the day with them, to see what they were up to and how they were using the tools of Web 2.0 to facilitate political protest and social action in Egypt. [i] The afternoon took me from the overpriced coffee joints of Mohandiseen and Zamalek to the Judges’ Syndicate, where a protest was the focus of several blocks full of plainclothes police, riot police, participants, and gawkers both Egyptian and foreign. The young men and women spent their time in the cafes aggregating reports from other activists about arrests and protests, and while they of course were doing everything they could to avoid being arrested, the general attitude seemed to be one of acceptance of that risk. They were doing all of these things at the same time, often talking on the phone, updating a Web site, and speaking with one another, engaging in what has been dubbed “continuous partial attention.” As one of the organizers and writers told me, “With the Internet you can get online anytime, wherever, so now we are publishing all the same news the same minute. If someone got caught now, arrested now, we can write about it now, rather than the old style.”[ii] By the old style, of course, this young blogger meant the traditional media, which has a built-in time-lag between an event and the delivery of news about that event, a delay that has been obliterated by the tools of new media.

The full article can be found here.

Potential for Change

On the eve of a special moment in history, I decided to help document another momentous change happening in the Arab World. That of new media and the change that it is having on society, politics, religion, and other aspects of life.

This blog is a journey. A space of sorts, to collect articles, ideas, books, thoughts, and events happening around new media in the Middle East, specifically in Jordan and Occupied Palestine/Israel, but not limited to those. Egypt and Iran have way too much going on to not discuss things happening there and how it can impact us.

I'll be posting storied I find interesting, as well as commenting on developments happening surrounding the topic.