why would we think social media is revolutionary?

Check out this podcast feature from Clay Shirky's on "Why Would We Think Social Media Is Revolutionary?"

In this podcast, Shirky discusses the most recent examples of effective use of the Internet and social media to effect political change in authoritarian countries from the Green Wave protests during the 2009 Iranian presidential election to Tunisian insurgents' recent ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Learn how revolutionaries and reformers have always used the most effective communication tools to distribute their message to the masses, going as far back as the printing press. For example looking at how the equilibrium state moved to freedom of expression when the printing press evolved and the first Bibles were created and how the printing press acted as a political medium.

Shirky talks about what we can do to help promote worthy causes by paying attention to and volunteering remotely for the regions of the world you care about most. Social media is another distributer of messages and information. It's almost global and has the power to create accountability.



In the same breath it worth watching Wadah Khanfar, the head of Al Jazeera, who shares a profoundly optimistic view of what's happening in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and beyond - at this powerful moment when people realised they could step out of their houses and ask for change and the impact his reporters had on being present and distributing their news story to the rest of the world.