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CAUCASUS 2.0Focus on new and social media tools in the Caucasus has largely been confined to the role they might be able to play in democratization, but in a region riven by ethnic conflict can they also contribute to peacebuilding initiatives now or in the future?
Onnik Krikorian
Journalist, Photojournalist, Online Media Consultant
Caucasus Regional Editor, Global Voices
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org
http://peace.oneworld.am
[email protected]
http://twitter.com/onewmphoto
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What is Global Voices?
Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who work
together to bring readers reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with an emphasis on
voices that are not ordinarily heard in the mainstream media.
Global Voices is translated into more than 30 languages by volunteer translators, who have formed the
Lingua project. Additionally, Global Voices has an Advocacy website and network to help people speak
out online in places where their voices are censored.
We also have an outreach project called Rising Voices to help marginalized communities use citizen
media to be heard. Technology for Transparency examines the use of online tools in increasing
transparency and accountability globally.
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Global Voices Impact
Four websites most consistently account for links between
countries: YouTube, Wikipedia, the BBC and, a distant
fourth, Global Voices Online. The last of these, launched at
Harvard University in 2005 […] works to create links
between bloggers in different countries, and to find what it
calls “bridge bloggers” […]
The Economist, 2 September 2010
Working relationships with BBC, Reuters, Pulitzer Center for Crisis
Reporting, La Stampa and many others. Frequently quoted by CNN,
BBC, New York Times, The Economist etc.
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MENA Special Coverage
Twitter
@gvmena
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But not only...
Twitter
@gvcaucasus
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http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.orghttp://threatened.globalvoicesonline.org
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Russia-Georgia War
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New & Social Media in Conflict
Anyone who believes that all citizen media are objective and impartial is either mad or hasn't actually
read any citizen media. […] What's become very difficult is using citizen media to understand what's
actually happening on the ground. As we all know, some of the reports from both camps in the South
Ossetian conflict were likely manufactured and inaccurate. This sort of situation can get even more
complicated when there aren't impartial journalists on the ground.
Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices co-founder
http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/13149/
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Nagorno Karabakh• 1994 ceasefire
• Approx 25,000 dead
• Approx 1 million refugees and IDPs
• 14-16 percent of Azerbaijan controlled by Armenian and Nagorno Karabakh forces
• Border skirmishes and clashes, increase in sniper incidents
• New generations living without contact with the other side
• Peace deal still elusive
• Threat of new war
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Media & Civil Society
• Media practices self-censorship
• Subjective and/or selective reporting, misinformation and propaganda
• Nationalist narratives and terminology over objectivity and neutrality
• Rumor and speculation becomes accepted as 'fact'
• Civil Society – Usual Suspects and Closed Circles
• Political forces manipulate conflict for domestic political gain
• Communication and/or contact with the 'enemy' discouraged
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Media Perpetuating Conflict?
[A] negative context [is set] in the public consciousness, which hinders dialogue and mutual
understanding […] Without more accurate and unbiased information […] free of negative rhetoric
and stereotypes, Armenians and Azerbaijanis will continue to see themselves as enemies without
any common ground.
Armenian and Azerbaijani International News Coverage – Empirical Findings and Recommendations
for Improvement, Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC)
http://epfound.am/files/mb_fg_report_finalized_edited_12.27.2008.doc
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Media Perpetuating Conflict?
[...] people are often inclined to consider their existing attitudes and beliefs to be true and filter the
news through this lens. Thus, they accept messages in order to maintain their original perceptions. […]
bias in the local media [...] serves as a means to fuel and perpetuate hatred. This is a role the media
has and continues to play with regards to the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh.
Armenian and Azerbaijani International News Coverage – Empirical Findings and Recommendations
for Improvement, Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC)
http://epfound.am/files/mb_fg_report_finalized_edited_12.27.2008.doc
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Attitudes in Armenia
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Attitudes in Azerbaijan
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Attitudes in Georgia
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Another Alternative?
Throughout history, war has affected media, with conflict often creating an information void. In the
21st century, media has begun to affect war more than ever before. Digital media technologies [...]
have increased communication and information dissemination in conflict settings [...]. These new tools
can be used to foment violence or to foster peace, and it is possible to build communication systems
that encourage dialogue and nonviolent political solutions.
Ivan Sigal, Global Voices Executive Director, Digital media in conflict-prone societies, Center for
International Media Assistance (CIMA)
http://cima.ned.org/publications/research-reports/digital-media-conflict-prone-societies
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Social Media Crossing Borders
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Catalysts
• BarCamp Caucasus
• Arrest, detention and eventual imprisonment of Azeri video blogging youth activists
• Increased use of Facebook, Twitter, and blogs
• Faster connection speeds making audio/video communication possible
• Coverage on Global Voices Online
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Social Media Crossing Borders
• Facebook allowed insight into lives, interests and concerns across ceasefire line
• Additional connections made with like-minded Armenians and Azerbaijanis
• Global Voices covered stories ignored by Armenian and Azerbaijani media
• Facilitated translation of stories from Armenian and Azerbaijani
• Dissemination of alternative narratives ignored by Armenian and Azerbaijani media
• NGOs requesting contacts for their own cross-border projects
• Showed that Armenian-Azerbaijani communication and cooperation was possible
• Additional tools such as Skype, Twitter etc. facilitate daily communication
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Twitter Communication
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Alternative Narratives
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http://peace.oneworld.am
Caucasus Conflict Voices
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http://peace.oneworld.am
Caucasus Conflict Voices
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Alternative Narratives
Nowhere in the world can you find two groups of people closer to each other. That is why we often
have these stupid disputes between Armenians and Azeris. "This house is Armenian" or "this house is
Azeri." Or "this music is Armenian or Azeri." This is exactly because the two have so much in common.
[...] I normally say, and people don't like this, that Armenians are just Christian Azeris and Azeris are
just Muslim Armenians. That is how much they are alike.
Seymur Baycan, Re-arming the Caucasus, Al Jazeera English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz47DkYn4Kk
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Alternative Narratives
We hear far too little of what I call this “third narrative” of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, a
narrative of peace. It spins the idea that the two peoples are capable of getting along fine, have lived
together in the past and, if politicians are able to overcome differences on the Karabakh conflict, can
live together in the future. International mediators are too timid to speak this narrative or feel that it is
not their business. The media in both countries suppresses it.
Thomas de Waal, senior associate in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment and
author of Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War
http://peace.oneworld.am/conflict_voices_may_2011.html
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Cyber Utopian or Skeptic?
The reason why the KGB wants you to join Facebook is because it allows them to learn more about you
from afar. It allows them to identify certain social graphs and social connections between activists.
Many of these relationships are now self-disclosed by activists by joining various groups.
Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom
http://www.rferl.org/content/interview_morozov_internet_democracy_promotion/2284105.html
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Identifying Networks
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Imaginary Cosmopolitanism
I study the ways new media shapes people's perceptions of the world. It's my fond hope that social
networks such as Facebook will help users broaden their perspectives by listening to a different set of
people than they encounter in their daily life. But I fear services such as Facebook may be turning us
into imaginary cosmopolitans.
[...]
Is Facebook a space for cross-cultural interaction? For fomenting reactionary hatred? Or is it primarily a
space for online interaction with our local, offline friends?
Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices co-founder, Does Facebook unite us or divide us?
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/03/zuckerman.facebook.global/index.html
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Imaginary Cosmopolitanism
[...] we could well see a big jump in citizen to citizen diplomacy across this next year , as universities and
even high schools step up their efforts to integrate international awareness into their curriculum. We are
seeing all sorts of interesting uses of Skype, iChat, and other online video platforms to connect students
around the world in meaningful international experiences.
[...]
Will we become the best informed societies thanks to the information available, or the most polarized
societies as we gravitate to the networks (media and social) that share our biases? [...]
Sheldon Himelfarb, Associate Vice-President at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP)
http://www.usip.org/publications/media-and-peacebuilding-trends-in-2010-and-looking-ahead-2011
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Internet Use
Internet Frequency in the Caucasus, Awareness, Adoption & Usehttp://katypearce.net/cv/?p=198
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Internet Use
Armenia 2011 Media Public Opinion and Preference Survey, Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC)
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Cyber Realism
New media tools will certainly help in getting people better acquainted with each other, but at the
same time can also be used to reaffirm existing biases. Just search on the Internet for Armenian and
Azerbaijani web sites and you can find a lot of trash and very harmful discourse from nationalist
websites. I’m mildly optimistic, but at the same time think we should be very cautious about what
we find on the Internet as well.
Bart Woord, International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) Secretary General
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/08/03/caucasus-an-interview-with-bart-woord/
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Cyber Realism
I think you can’t do it just with social media tools, but as we’ve seen over the past 15 years, you
definitely can’t do it by meeting in Tbilisi for a weekend every summer. It becomes an “entertainment”
and I’ve had experience with those conferences in Georgia where it’s just one big coffee break and a
waste of money. However, I think that both approaches combined could propel things along.
Micael Bogar, Projects Manager at the American University's Center for Social Media
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/08/01/caucasus-an-interview-with-micael-bogar/
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Cyber Realism
Mary Joyce of the Meta Activism project has warned that a key factor in successful online activism
appear to be novelty – it’s hard to articulate “best practices” because one of the best practices is to be
the first to try a particular technique. If we take the lesson from Fatullayev’s release that Twitter
campaigns, focused on individual public figures who use Twitter, leveraging offline media attention are
a useful strategy, it seems likely that campaign organizations will adopt the technique and use it to the
point where future implementations aren’t worth an article or a blog post.
Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices Co-founder
http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/05/27/who-freed-eynulla-fatullayev-and-what-does-his-
release-mean-for-twitter-activism/
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Questions & Discussion
[…] the internet is not magic; it is a tool. Anyone who wants to use it to bring nations closer together
has to show initiative, and be ready to travel physically as well as virtually. As with the telegraph before
it—also hailed as a tool of peace — the internet does nothing on its own.
The Economist, A cyber-house divided
http://www.economist.com/node/16943885?story_id=16943885
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Links Global Voices Online
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org
Caucasus Conflict Voices
http://peace.oneworld.am/
Global Voices Caucasus Twitter account
http://twitter.com/gvcaucasus
Personal Twitter account
https://twitter.com/onewmphoto
Caucasus Project Twitter account
http://twitter.com/caucasusproject