Does Internet contol your life?

Yes, the time has come for Independent media to develop in different directions. I mean look at the Web world and the variety of different blogs, social networks and chat-rooms represented there. For drivers, models, Asians or gays – everyone can find something interesting for him or her. Sometimes it becomes even ridiculous and such websites like www.stumbleupon.com (the site for “adults and children abducted by aliens from space”) or www.shavemyyeti.com, where the only option is literally to “shave your yeti” become popular. But even the most ridiculous websites still reach their audience because that is mainly the point of the Internet. Think about it, the Internet is a whole new world of information for everyone, stupid and smart, fun and boring, religious and protestant. Those websites find their audience because even though they seem cheesy or don’t even make sense at all there is always someone, who finds him or herself in it.
One of those websites that I would never even think about to capture my attention is www.fmylife.com. You probably already heard about it or maybe even submitted your own FML story. For a past few months I heard the name of this websites every day: in my class, dorms or dining hall. People make stories from FML their statuses on Facebook and get hundreds of comments. FML became more than just a website to share the crazy stories from your life. It actually became the whole new social network for college and high-school students. People rate stories and fight for their favorite ones as if that was the most important thing in their life. In this way or the other, but FML became a huge success in the Web world and people all over the countries visit this website on an everyday basis. The website already has its own online store, where readers can purchase different FMyLife products.
The most exciting and interesting aspect in this huge success of FMyLife is the reasons that make people visit it every day. The website became almost a psychologist for many depressed and busy people who visit it in order to compare their life to the life of the others and feel better about their own problems. Many students during those few last weeks of school are feeling really overwhelmed with all the projects and amount of homework. They study till late night or even morning and during the breaks I can always see students going to FMyLife just to read all those terrible stories and feel better. They want to know that someone’s life sucks even more than theirs. That’s what makes us all feel better. That’s the success of FML.
Social networks are becoming our life. Not in theory, but literally. I know so many couples who broke up because of the pictures on the Facebook as well as many friends who were publically embarrassed when someone put provocative videos of them drinking and doing crazy things on the YouTube. Now FMyLife become a real psychologist for many people around the world. What is next? Those social networks already control many parts of our personal lives. We just never notice it. Internet becomes as powerful as it never was before. And who knows what is going to happen tomorrow…

Where is the balance?

It is a well-known fact that journalists MUST be objective and the information in the news and reports has to be balanced. We often complain about broadcast media because it is bias and controlled by one of the Media Conglomerates. And it is definitely true. Be it Disney, General Electric or any other media giant all the media outlets it owns work for its name and interests. And the same situation with small media companies. Independent media at the same time is considered to be the opposite and to present equal flow of information on different issues all around the world. And yes, it is true as well. Blogs and social networks give people more opportunities to educate themselves and to find opinions of different sources and sides in the conflict. But bloggers also often present only one side of the story that relies to their own preferences or ideas. The only difference is that if you don’t agree with the blogger’s position you can always switch to one of millions other blogs in the Web or even find critics in the comments after the blog. You can easily go to the link provided by the blogger to make his or her blog objective, to tell the readers “My information is balanced. Look! I provided the link to my opponent’s blog. His information is a total lie (unlike mine, which is complete truth), but I am objective and I always present both sides of the story.” And that’s it.
Of course in many cases bloggers are indeed more truthful, but only if they are not dependent on any kind of private sponsors, who wouldn’t like this or that kind of information. In this case blog becomes the same media outlet as the broadcast media, with the same rules and censorship. That’s why it is so important for Independent media not to relay on any kind of sponsors, who might use the media outlet for their own interests. It is also important to open the information about your income to the public if you are an independent journalist. Because readers have a right to know who sponsors the blog in order to understand what idea it supports or who it is connected to. Today, online media outlets still haven’t figure out how to make the same profit online as they do with broadcast media. That’s why online journalists look for any kind of money to support their work. But if they will allow this “big sponsors” to enter Independent online media sphere it might become controlled and censored just like any other media in the country. In Ukraine we say “Orders the music the one that pays for it.” It is very important to realize that. Sponsors are the owners of the outlet de-facto and if they set up the rules in the Web there will be no chance to develop Independent media in the country.

Why Is Internet Different?

Net Neutrality. Save the Internet. The Death of the Internet?
In past few years those questions have been everywhere around the Web. Journalists, bloggers and citizens are concerned about the Net neutrality and the equal access to every web-site. The issue became so discussed and significant for the society that even Mr. President mentioned it in his “Promises to Americans.” (You can read about it more on Timothy Karr’s blog http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/everyone-gets-a-bonus-fro_b_178286.html.) And it doesn’t seem so unrealistic anymore as it did even few years ago. After Verizon Wireless denied a request from an abortion rights group to use its mobile network for a text-messaging campaign and AT&T presented its idea about dividing the Internet on fast and slow, where big communication giants could pay for the faster one, the control over the Internet is more possible than ever before. And it is understandable and “natural’ in the country, where the whole broadcast media is totally controlled by few media conglomerates, who decide what to show, when and how. Imagine how powerless they feel about the Internet, where people can find any information they want mostly for free, with no special revenue for those Media Giants. Of course, those companies are trying to find the way to change the situation and seem fair at the same time. But it wouldn’t be so dangerous without the support of the Government. I mean, think about the United States. One of the most technologically developed countries in the world with a strong economy (even now if you compare to other countries)is only number fifteen in broadband infrastructure (http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20080423) and almost half of all citizens in the country still don’t have a 24/7 Internet access in their homes. Why is that happening? The answer is simple. Big Media Conglomerates don’t allow the Government to pass the law and provide the country with free Internet as a part of social needs (along with free education) because in this case they lose not only a lot of money, but what is even more significant an ability to control the flow of information. And if you could just imagine the amount of money and power those companies have you would understand that they will definitely prevent the free and equal Internet from happening. For example, WiMax – a wireless digital communications system that is able to provide Internet coverage for up to 30 miles (WiMax.com.) This new technology is widely spread in Europe and Japan because it costs less and gives an opportunity to more people access the Web. It is common in many developed countries…except the United States. The reason is obvious and it is Media Conglomerates. With the potential of WiMax that is going to be able to cover whole cities or even countries, Internet providers will lose the revenue from internet and will not be able to control anything inside the Web.
That’s why people started to defend Internet now, before it’s too late. More and more blogs and videos appear on internet about the Net Neutrality. A web-site called Save The Internet (savetheinternet.com) provides different kinds of information, including laws and political decisions on the issues related to the Net Neutrality. Donations and other kinds of participation are available on the site and more and more people join it every day. Because this problem is not about me or you. It is about us and everyone. We saw this happening to the Radio, TV and newspapers and we can’t ignore the fact that it is going to happen to the Internet as well. Everyday we can not only hear other voices from all over the world, but also be heard. There is nothing more important in journalism than an opportunity to be heard and to have an access to information. That’s why it is so important to defend the Net Neutrality, to show the Government that we are responsible and active citizens, who will not be silent anymore. The time of silence has ended. Now it’s time to act and defend our freedom. It’s time to defend the Internet or we might lose the last media sector that is still free of censorship and control.

Twitter organizes protest in Moldova

Moldova is a unique country in Europe. It is the only remaining communist country from all Post-Soviet Union countries and one of the poorest ones. On April, the 5th the Parliament Election took place in the country and the Communist Party won again with the result of nearly 50% of the vote. But this time citizens could not accept it anymore and massive protests started in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. The protests were planned by youth, who don’t want Communism to take place in the country anymore and want change for society.
But one of the main problems in Moldova is a huge gap between young and older population, who still believe in Communist Party and its leaders. Similar revolutions took place in many other countries in Eastern Europe, such as Ukraine and Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo. All those countries suffer from the same “evil” – the “Post-Soviet” effect that doesn’t let countries to develop and join EU and remains corruption in those countries.
But what is interesting exciting, and unique about the Revolution in Moldova is a wide usage of social networking, such as facebook, LiveJournal and especially Twitter. As the whole media sector is controlled by the Communist Government, the only way people could communicate with each other and tell the truth about the election was Internet as a whole and particularly Mobile Web. Because Internet service as well as PC is still expensive and not accessible to everyone in Moldova, young generation uses Mobile Web to chat with each other and find the news. During the protest that took place right after the results of election were published, Twitter became the only source for youth to organize meetings and discuss the situation in the country. That allowed young population to gather about 15, ooo people, who “came out of nowhere” in central Chisinau. “"Using the Internet we managed to gather 15,000 people on the square in a few minutes. Not one party can boast of such abilities," Natalya Morar, one of the leaders of the committee, told reporters.” (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iDcO_zE2vCYOyjSrPagB4xP2RoAg.)
Although right after the huge protest was organized on the main square of Moldova the Mobile service was shut down (for unknown reason, either political interruption or overloaded service) and people were not able to use Mobile Twitter anymore, they turned to other social networks, such as facebook and Blogs to keep each other posted on the news about protests. Some way or another, but social networking is becoming a powerful source for social changes especially in poor countries like Moldova. Many ask why this revolution happened in Moldova just now, after all the revolutions in other Post-Soviet countries. Well, maybe the reason is simple and its name is Social Network. I mean, if you think about it, citizens in Moldova, the only Communist country in Europe, have never had an opportunity to bypass mainstream Moldavian media outlets controlled by the government and to speak out. Now imagine how significant Social Network is in those countries and how priceless its influence is for social changes in those countries.
P.S. The only president that congratulated the Communist Party right after elections was Medvedev, current president of Russia. Obviously, Russia has its own interest in Moldova and its Communist Party as well as it had its own interest in Ukraine during the Orange revolution. It is understandable that Russian Government doesn’t want to lose the control under those countries in order not to lose the control in Eastern Europe as a whole. Russian newspapers and websites are full of ridiculous statements, like one from Russian web-site RIA-Novosti: “The protest rallies were clearly organized by the opposition, which provided buses for bringing the demonstrators to Chisinau and supplied them with stones to throw at their targets.” (http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20090408/120987903.html). No comments are needed.

God Bless America! (personal opinion)

As an exchange student in the United States I always compare educational system here with one back home, in Ukraine. It is easy for me to see a significant difference in everything from professors to class assignments. And as a journalism major here and in my home University, I can particularly compare the way journalism and the freedom of speech are treated in America. You would say – “Oh, boring. What about U.S? Big corporations control the whole media sector and there is almost no freedom of speech at all.” But the majority of people don’t realize that an ability to say that and to criticize an existing system is already a freedom of speech.
When I decided to take journalism classes at Ithaca College, NY, I expected them to be more then propagandistic towards American broadcast. Because that’s exactly what we, Europeans, expect from Americans. They love their country and everything that’s connected to the U.S. But surprisingly, not even some, but all of my classes turned to be against the existing system in this country. It seemed that the goal of every class was to criticize the system as much as you can and as a result to turn to “blessed” independent media. Students in my classes were really disappointed to find out how big corporations control their minds and the whole flow of information. But for me the experience was different. I was amazed by the way journalism classes are held in the United States. Once one of my professors, Vadim Isakov, who turned to be from Turkmenistan, where freedom of speech is “unachievable good”, after about thirty minutes of pure criticism towards American broadcast TV, said “Guys, you are so lucky to have an opportunity to have this kind of discussion in your class. In my country we all would probably be already arrested.” And even though I can’t say the same about my country, I realized at that point how important it is just to have that kind of discussion without a fear to be “punished.”
And that is not the only advantage of studying journalism in the U.S. What about professors? I mean, how important it is to have professors teaching journalism, who are not just theoretical experts, but actual journalists themselves. For Americans it would probably sound funny, but for me having someone, who worked at the biggest channels in the country, who published his own book and met the most influential people in journalism sphere teaching me in my class is something that cannot be described.
In the journalism department here students also have opportunities to participate in the real newspaper, TV channel or magazine. They constantly have famous guest speakers from different parts of the country. I mean, just imagine such professionals as Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald coming to College town to give a speech and accept an award (http://theithacan.org/am/publish/news/200903_Izzy_award_recipient_Amy_Goodman_to_speak_in_Ithaca.shtml). For journalism students it is a priceless experience.
Yes, America is the land of opportunities. Opportunities to criticize and speak out. Opportunities to teach journalists critical thinking and action. Opportunities to love your country, but notice its system problems at the same time. It is difficult for Americans to realize how lucky they are to have open debates and discussions, to be able to criticize something that is not perfect. Maybe, it is not enough to proclaim the complete freedom of speech in the country. But it is definitely enough to have a basis to develop one.

Who will control the Internet?

Even two years ago it was impossible for me to imagine how anyone can control the Internet. I mean, TV, radio, and newspapers are those media sectors that historically were under someone’s control, be it government or businessmen. But Internet, as for me, was created not only for convenience in searching information or creating new data base, but also to fight with that information control and to give voices to voiceless. With the development of Independent Media it became even clearer that web is a “free of control” space for those, who have something to say. It seemed that people all over the world were “celebrating” the global holiday of freedom and total absence of control in the information flow. But as Internet becomes more popular, informative and influential, more and more people realize that having control in the web space is equal to having control in the whole media sector. And of course, if there is something as huge and global as Internet there will be always someone, who wants to own this “something.” Some governments chose the easiest way to control it – block all “dangerous” web-sites in the whole country, which basically destroys the whole idea and point of Internet existence. While people in the U.S.A. or E.U enjoy the total freedom of speech in the Web and talk about Independent Media every two seconds, citizens in china or Turkmenistan still can’t use the Internet for its primary purpose. We heard all the stories with Google in China, where it’s searching engine blocks all the Web-pages that go against Chinese government’s ideology. But we don’t understand that the main problem here is not about Google Company, but about the government that has total control in all the spheres of social life in China. Yes, Google could have resisted providing its service in China and left the country. In this case the whole “democratic” world would respect the Company, but what about China? What are all those people suppose to do? It’s easy to give an advice living in the U.S., but it’s not that easy to fight against the government in countries like China.
But blocking Web-sites is not the only problem. At&T idea of creating fast and slow lanes, with big companies paying extra money to move to the fast line is even more dangerous as it might affect all countries, including democratic America and Europe. Big conglomerates that already control broadcast media now realize that Internet is the next step. And this idea is not as crazy as it sounds and not as impossible as any of you might think. If those big corporations have enough money to buy media broadcast they definitely have enough money and creativity to find the way to control Internet. Will the Internet be divided into fast and slow? Will it be privatized by media corporations or controlled by the government? Will we still be able to write whatever we want on the blog in 20 years? Who knows? But what I know now is that Internet became too big and too important in the whole world to be unnoticed and untouched by those who have money and power.

Who are you, Bloggers?

This question appears in the media again and again. Who are the bloggers? Journalists? Writers? Citizens or professionals? What rights do they have and what obligations? The online media developed so fast that a particular definition has not been found yet. Some might say that blogging is just an alternative journalism or “citizen” journalism with the same purpose and rights as “professional.” And it does make a lot of sense. Bloggers just like journalists write news stories, investigative reports, opinions, etc. In many cases bloggers act even more “journalistic” than journalists, covering significant issues ignored by the broadcast media. But at the same time it would be unfair to call bloggers journalists and to give them all the rights professional journalists have. By saying this I relay to the situation in Oregon, where Mark Bunster, the author of the political blog, tried to attend an executive session and was asked to leave. (http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/bloggers_might_be_excluded_fro.html.) Even though media is allowed to attend all the executive sessions in Lake Oswego City, as it found out bloggers are not considered to be professional journalists. Of course, the issue initiated many discussions and debates on weather bloggers can be considered as a media or not. And my answer is surprisingly…No. Although I consider myself as a big fan of independent media and maybe even a part of it (as I blog sometimes for school or my friends), I don’t think that bloggers should have the same rights as professional journalists. Just imagine if the press-conferences with politicians, musicians or any other important person would be open to everyone, who names him/herself a blogger or a citizen journalist. It would basically allow anyone to attend the event and automatically turn it into mess. It is hard to imagine the security measurements that would be required to control everyone and make sure that all important people are safe. And it doesn’t mean that bloggers are worse than professionals. I just don’t compare them to journalists at all. They are just different. Like dogs and cats. Both animals. Both beloved pets. But at the same time completely different.
Of course some of you would argue that information access should not be limited. Instead it has to be free and open to public. And I would say that it can happen only in a perfect world which doesn’t exist yet and probably will not in future. And it’s understandable. Journalists are the ones who open the information to the public, they are the platform for all public people. Yes, to some point they are the gatekeepers of the information flow. But think about it. You will see the same situation everywhere. With bank workers and doctors, lawyers and businessmen. They are all the gatekeepers of a particular information. And only they can decide whether to share it with the public or not. And the only thing the society can do is to trust all those people and to hope that they share all the important information they know.
But with the whole “bloggers as journalists” issue it is definitely more complicated. Yes, I do not consider them all as journalists. But at the same time some independent media outlets like Huffington Post or DemocracyNow deserve a right to be considered as a professional media. That’s why I think there should be a particular measurement of the whole blogosphere that would define whether the outlet can be considered as professional journalism or not. And still it is difficult to imagine how and what is even more important who will make this decsision? Well, that’s a good topic for the government to think about in order to avoid Oregon’s situation in future.