· February, 2008

Stories about Citizen Media from February, 2008

Iran and Israel: foes forever or future friends?

  28 February 2008

The online video posted by the Century Foundation regarding the relations between Israel and Iran and the geopolitical forces that are behind this situation has several bloggers discussing their ideas on who is really pulling the strings.

Armenia: Post-Election Revolution Scenario?

  26 February 2008

That there would be mass demonstrations immediately after the presidential election held last week in Armenia was known long ago. Many observers also figured on yet another attempt by the radical opposition to stage a colored revolution of the type seen in Georgia and Ukraine. However, few expected it to succeed, but a week after the 19 February vote, the situation is now gearing up for what might be serious confrontation between opposition supporters and the authorities.

Ecuador: My Mobile Voice and Citizen Journalism

  26 February 2008

Mi Voz Móvil (My Mobile Voice) is a project in citizen journalism from the newspaper Ultimas Noticias in Quito, Ecuador. The mobile van travels to neighborhoods where they conduct workshops for aspiring citizen journalists. In many cases, individuals that have submitted news see their stories side-by-side with the professional journalists. Here is a short video of the paper's editor explaining the mobile reporting room.

India: Regional Identities

  12 February 2008

Musings discusses the recent controversy in the state of Maharastra, India – where the issue of insider-outsider has brought up interesting questions of identity and economic contribution.

Carnival: Videos from around the world

  8 February 2008

One way to know about a culture, is to see how they celebrate and why. Many countries share a common festival, the carnival, and each country gives a distinctive flavour to the celebration. Carnival usually takes place during the weeks prior to Lent in Catholic countries, and it's usually a time to revel, enjoy and feast before the 40 days of fasting and prayer in preparation of Easter begin. Citizen videos show us how carnival season was spent this year in Bolivia, French Guyana, Goa, India and Croatia.

Mozambique: Riot organized via SMS is covered by bloggers

  6 February 2008

Three people died and more than 250 were injured in a riot yesterday in Maputo, part of a protest against the increase in fares charged by the private minibus operators from the Mozambican capital. This unprecedented manifestation was organized through SMS and covered by bloggers, while local TV stations were mostly showing soap operas and the radios broadcasting football.

Colombia: United in a March Against the FARC

  5 February 2008

For the first time in Colombia´s history, an initiative which began on the internet managed to become a massive, worldwide event in just one month. The February 4th demonstration against the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) , began as an idea on a FaceBook group "A Million Voices Against the FARC" and then it snowballed into a worldwide event with marches in 133 different cities around the world.

Brazil: Blogging helps the police to mobilize and protest

  5 February 2008

They have no rights to join a union or to go on strikes, but they can blog. More and more police officers, from all ranks and states in Brazil, are discovering this. They use blogs to spread information about future meetings and to quickly mobilize protests, to make their claims known to the greater public, to comment on reports by the mass media, to produce their own independent journalism.

DoGooder.tv: A video sharing site for NonProfits

  1 February 2008

DoGooder.tv is a website for videos with a cause. Through it, non-profit organizations can promote their cause for a specific audience: one that is already interested in hearing what they have to say, and figuring ways in which they can help out.

Guyana: Warning poem

  1 February 2008

Signifyin’ Guyana posts “the angels warn”, a poem by Guyanese writer Balwant Bhagwandin, and notes, “The recent history-making violence in Lusignan makes the warning prophetic and urgent.”

Brazil: Last minute ban on Holocaust-themed carnival float

  1 February 2008

A few days before the official Carnival kicks off, Unidos do Viradouro samba school has had a float banned from the parade, after Jewish groups took a stand against it for featuring a pile of dead victims of the Nazi Holocaust. The controversy has divided the Brazilian blogosphere.

Trinidad and Tobago: Reading Andy Ganteaume

  1 February 2008

Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp takes at look at the recently published memoirs of Trinidadian cricketer Andy Ganteaume — who scored a century in his one and only Test match, 60 years ago, then never played Test cricket again.

Trinidad and Tobago: Carnival art

  1 February 2008

Trinidad's art galleries are filled with Carnival-themed work right now, says SexyPink, but is it just aimed at tourist dollars? “We have to reach inside ourselves and pull out much more.”