{"id":559,"date":"2011-02-07T03:50:43","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T03:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mediaforsocialchange.org\/?p=559"},"modified":"2016-07-11T04:33:02","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T04:33:02","slug":"mystery-of-the-sphinx-egypt-and-tactical-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/2011\/02\/07\/mystery-of-the-sphinx-egypt-and-tactical-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery of the Sphinx: Egypt and Tactical Media"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Protester attacked by camel at recent demonstration.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Egypt is Demonstrating Tactical Media and the power of Social Networking<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
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The key to ignition.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Facebook, Twitter, SMS and blogs were crucial organizing tools that ignited the social movements in Cairo.\u00a0 Inspiration came from the recent uprising in Tunisia. News of that rebellion reached many Egyptians very quickly with the help of the Internet.<\/a> Egypt remixed the Tunisian experience by appropriating the Jasmine Revolution and applying it to their January 25th<\/sup>, Police Day<\/a>.\u00a0 Someone made the protest an event on Facebook and 80,000 people signed up. \u00a0These media flows of dissent have been speculated to go viral and create rebellion throughout the Muslim world.<\/div>\n
These events highlight the ideas behind Tactical Media as defined by Alessandra Renzi in her chapter on Democracy and Media<\/strong>.\u00a0 Tactical Media is temporal, polymorphic, and collective.\u00a0 It is not predefined, but continuously reshaped by different actors and contexts.\u00a0 NGOs and other social justice organizations have clearly articulated objectives to alter preexisting conditions; whether they are alleviating poverty, calling for corporate accountability, or racial equality. Tactical Media is more immediate in the constant reconfigurations of its work and objectives.\u00a0 It is not a homogeneous entity within a network, but rather a \u201cnetworked space\u201d that is constantly produced until it becomes redundant (p. 76).\u00a0 Space in the world of Tactical Media is a social construction.\u00a0 Imagination is the site of contest.<\/div>\n
Assendra stresses the importance of linking the social activism of the virtual world with face-to-face contact.\u00a0 Events organized on the Internet use the many-to-many platform to build support amongst the masses, but meeting in person builds more cooperation and trust.\u00a0 Malcom Gladwell has noted this in his New Yorker articles<\/a> on social media and high-risk activism.\u00a0 Bonds between Facebook friends, he argues, are just not as strong as real life friends.<\/div>\n

[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gpYH7VxYFeI&w=640&h=390]<\/p>\n

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Awareness of subordinate status.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Why do people engage in Tactical Media in the first place?\u00a0 There is always a political element involved.\u00a0 Renzi cites Warner\u2019s research into counterpublics<\/em> as an example.\u00a0 If the public is an ongoing space of encounter and discourse, then counterpublics are publics that maintain an awareness of their subordinate status. Unlike NGOs and other institutions of resistance, publics unite because of participation rather than just a common identity.\u00a0 There is also immediacy to their involvement.\u00a0 Tactical Media actions are publicly displayed and have the potential to automatically address a global audience.\u00a0 However, because of the heterogeneous nature of Tactical Media, there is a question of how strong the bonds of solidarity are in the public movement (pp. 86-88).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The methods behind Tactical Media remind me of guerilla warfare tactics or Bruce Lee\u2019s belief that victory comes from \u201cBeing like Water.\u201d\u00a0 As we have seen from the Egyptian protests, Tactical Media was initially a success. The Egyptians digested and reconceptualized the Tunisian rebellion into their own form of dissent in much the same way that Renzi describes the Brazilian practice of Digitofagia<\/a>.\u00a0 Organizers capitalized on Facebook\u2019s and SMS\u2019s many-to-many platform and got global support.\u00a0 Thousands of protesters took to the streets and overwhelmed the government.<\/div>\n

[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=USlnfTGlhXc&w=480&h=390]<\/p>\n

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Yet, Tactical Media\u2019s limitations are also illustrated by the Egyptian crisis.\u00a0 When Renzi speaks of culture-jamming she describes it as only a temporary reversal of power.\u00a0 Egyptians exposed the possibilities the communications network and then jammed it with their rebellious discourse.\u00a0 The state responded with a telecommunications blackout revealing the temporal nature of Tactical Media.\u00a0 Even though the riots played out over YouTube<\/a> before a global audience, the bonds have not been strong enough between Egyptian protesters and Facebook friends in other countries to provide the support needed to topple the government or even end the riots.\u00a0 The decentralized nature of the movement was a strength in its emergence, but now a centrally organized group is needed to restore order.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Grassroots movement.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Egyptian turmoil is populace driven and this brings into question the effectiveness of a grassroots movement.\u00a0 Can it be done?\u00a0 Shania Anand, an Indian filmmaker, is skeptical.\u00a0 Anand goes into impoverished communities like Rustle Market in Bangalore<\/a> and tries to transform the residents from passive consumers of media into active participants by allowing them to broadcast themselves. Anand points out that she is dependent on larger NGOs for the funding of her projects.\u00a0 She scrutinizes her relationship with her benefactors because when she accepts money, her autonomy is lost.\u00a0 What are the power dynamics at play in the transaction?\u00a0 Anand says that NGOs are \u201cgiving you things, but [they] are also telling you what\u2019s good for yourself.\u201d\u00a0 (p. 327) The result is that as funding increases, practitioners have to increasingly pacify their politics.\u00a0 Anand believes that public culture is in abject poverty.\u00a0 The goal of her projects is to provide empowerment through media literacy.\u00a0 Her objectives are political and, by her rationale, the more funding she accepts the less she will be able to get done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ticket to Tahrir Square.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Anand calls her projects interventions.\u00a0 Her crew of academics and filmmakers enter into squalid conditions and inject their services and expertise<\/a> into the community.\u00a0 They employ cheap Do It Yourself<\/em> technology to give the community a voice, expose the under use of the existing communications infrastructure, while promoting alternative means of networking.\u00a0 Anand echoes Renzi\u2019s thoughts on Tactical Media.\u00a0 Media alone can\u2019t bring a permanent shift in power.\u00a0 Permanence is dependent on commerce and social capital.\u00a0 This makes the systems that produce Tactical Media more autocratic than autonomous (p. 339).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Countless examples of Tactical Media\u2019s dependency can be seen in the Egyptian uprising.\u00a0 Protesters used Facebook and Vodaphone, both large corporate platforms, to engage in social change. Speak To Tweet technology <\/a>has been widely celebrated by those supporting free speech and the social movement in Egypt.\u00a0 Protesters have managed to call in their tweets over landlines and Google and Twitter have come together to translate their voice messages into digital ones.\u00a0 It\u2019s remarkable how such an impressive technological innovation has emerged in the midst of a crisis.\u00a0 However, it also suggests that in order for protesters to communicate with the outside world an entity like Google has to intervene.\u00a0 Can a grassroots movement grow organically or does a larger power have to step in?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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VoiceMsg may not exceed 140 char.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What\u2019s so bad about Google offering this free service anyway?\u00a0 Anand\u2019s critique on YouTube, another major media outlet in the Egyptian struggle, is relevant here.\u00a0 \u201cEyeballs mean money.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Speak To Tweet may allow protesters to voice their experience, but how does the information they produce feedback to them in a valuable way?\u00a0 Communication was blocked from entering Cairo.\u00a0 An eyewitness may alert netizens that men are pouring gasoline downtown<\/a>, but no one in the city has the means to read that message.\u00a0 This leaves only countries outside the sphere of struggle to intercept the information, but how do they respond?\u00a0 Awareness is the first step in bringing social change, but as media and communications have become censored, a fishbowl effect has developed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In Where the Activism Is, Trebor Scholz writes that the social networking aspects that have come to characterize Web 2.0 are defined by creativity, collaboration, and courage, but also commoditization, control and consumption.\u00a0 Owners of social networking sites create their wealth on the backs of producers who upload content to their profile pages (p. 336).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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People who live on a dollar a day say that \u201caccess to voice\u201d would make the most difference in their lives according to Scholz.\u00a0 To some extent, Egypt got its wish.\u00a0 The world is listening, but are the protesters getting shortchanged?\u00a0 YouTube broadcasts uploaded content, the audience watches in shocked dismay, and advertisers benefit from the large number of page views. Money is made, but how does it aid those who uploaded footage in the first place?\u00a0 There is no direct feedback circuit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Eye of the storm: #egypt is everywhere but.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Censorship has technologically marooned the protesters, but Internet solidarity movements continue online despite the reduced Egyptian participation.\u00a0 Scholz points out that it\u2019s easier than ever to get involved in social movements.\u00a0 People can fit them into their busy schedules between commuting, work, and family.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take much to hit the \u201clike\u201d button on Facebook’s We are all Khaled Said<\/em><\/a> solidarity page and its cathartic.\u00a0 For that very reason, online protest becomes less effective.\u00a0 When everyone on Facebook changed his or her profile pictures to their favorite cartoon character a few months ago did child abuse stop?\u00a0 Scholz uses the example of the Save Darfur movements in Second Life<\/em><\/a> as a way that online activism has detracted from real world social change (p. 361).\u00a0 \u201cWho listens to flag waving rhetoric?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Scholz asks.\u00a0 Observation must be turned into a critique that is inclusive of deep-rooted social causes for what went wrong Scholz concludes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cActivism is not about hardware and software, but networking humans through technology,\u201d says Scholz.\u00a0 This happened in the initial stages of the Egyptian movement, but as the government cracked down with censorship. The protesters lost the feedback that made the online revolution so great.\u00a0 Since then, the online movements have taken a different turn.\u00a0 Content leaks through from Egypt, gets posted on the Internet, and then commoditized and consumed by a foreign audience.\u00a0 Some of the more recent uploads on YouTube are inspirational music videos that romanticize police barricade standoffs with little context to why there is civil unrest in the first place.\u00a0 The editors of these videos aren\u2019t shedding blood for the cause; they\u2019re just turning violence into an aesthetic.<\/p>\n

[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vo5Fn1-2E8o&w=640&h=390]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Why did the protests start in the first place?\u00a0 Mubarak has been in power for 30 years. During that time he has privatized Egypt, transforming it from state-run socialism to a free market economy. <\/a>Like many other emerging nations, Neoliberalism has created a divide that has empowered the upper classes and alienated the poor.\u00a0 Now consider that before the uprising only 15% of Egyptians had access to the Internet. Forty percent of population, on the other hand live on less than $2 a day according to the World Bank.\u00a0 The Egyptian online movements have been used as examples of the democratic power of social media, but in reality it was just a small fraction of elites informing each other. Their efforts still amplified the voice of protest, galvanized support, and created a ripple effect, but I don\u2019t believe that social media was truly representative of the Egyptian population.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Once you pop you can’t stop.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Gambiarras are probably playing a far more important role in this crisis than Facebook or Twitter, but because of their humble stature they aren\u2019t as visible.\u00a0 Gambiarra, as defined by Ricardo Rosas, is a Portugese word akin to \u201cmakeshift\u201d used to describe the recombinatory technological improvisation of an expedient substitute when other means are unavailable (p. 344).\u00a0 They also act as a kind of political statement.\u00a0 Rosas claims that the Gambiarra is endemic to Brazil, but I hardly believe this is the case.\u00a0 Gambiarras exist everywhere that people do not have the capital to buy essential goods and services.\u00a0 The majority of Egyptians couldn\u2019t access Mubarak\u2019s free market economy and, as a result, the country has one of the largest black markets in the world.<\/a> Gambiarras come in all shapes and forms. Rosas gives the examples of illegal electrical and cable hookups, as well as bicycles outfitted with loudspeakers and television sets.\u00a0 Egyptians have been relying on these same types of tactics and inventions for a long time.\u00a0 As the government has moved from upholding citizen welfare to downright opposing it, Gambiarras are playing an increasingly important role in the average Egyptian\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I got the Hook Up<\/em>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

While we may not see many Gambiarras because they are serving populations on the other side of the digital divide, their online forms are more visible.\u00a0 These include digital piracy, cracking, and open source coding. Egyptians are finding ways around the Internet ban, by employing Tor bridges to make contact with the outside world.<\/a> Despite the fact that the Internet is outlawed and that only a minority had the means to access it before the uprising, communication still gets through.\u00a0 The Tor bridges and similar technologies have become the front lines in Tactical Media\u2019s spaces of contestation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The social movements in Egypt are not only revolutionary because of their urge to topple government, but also in the sense that communication innovations have been used as tools by either sides while the rest of the world bares witness.\u00a0 This brings up questions of how Tactical Media plays a role in the unfurling sequence of events.\u00a0 Social media was able to start the protest movement with the speed of wildfire, but when countered by the government and telecoms, was unable to sustain itself.\u00a0 Can Tactical Media play more of a role than just initiating a movement?\u00a0 More importantly, how can social media be used to resolve a crisis?\u00a0 The Egyptian protests are unique because of the decentralized, grassroots nature of their organization.\u00a0 Did a powerful entity like Google have to intervene to keep the rebellion going or would other corporate and state institutions stomp it out<\/a>?\u00a0 Even after Egypt\u2019s government censored its citizens the protest continues online.\u00a0 How can all of the page views, \u201clikes\u201d, and other global discourse support the absent primary actors especially when social networking platforms continue to make a profit?\u00a0 Finally, what do social media protests tell us about the desire to communicate outrage even when there\u2019s no possibility of reply?\u00a0 Egyptians are improvising technologies and risking their safety just to post a status update<\/a>.\u00a0 Social media is not just about communication, but self-expression.<\/div>\n

[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-HGfFyqJMrk&w=480&h=390]<\/p>\n

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Protester attacked by camel at recent demonstration. Egypt is Demonstrating Tactical Media and the power of Social Networking The key to ignition. Facebook, Twitter, SMS and blogs were crucial organizing tools that ignited the social movements in Cairo.\u00a0 Inspiration came from the recent uprising in Tunisia. News of that rebellion reached many Egyptians very quickly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[170,247,271,299,416,461,470,491,497,512,6,529,569],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alessandra-renzi","tag-democracy","tag-egypt","tag-gambiarra","tag-networked-publics","tag-protest","tag-ricardo-rosas","tag-shaina-anand","tag-social","tag-tactical-media","tag-technology","tag-trebor-scholz","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1189,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions\/1189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}