Ethan Zuckerman is a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. His research focuses on the distribution of attention in mainstream and new media, and on the use of technology for international development. With Rebecca MacKinnon, he co-founded the international blogging project, "Global Voices", which focuses on using weblogs around the world to close gaps in mainstream media coverage. Global Voices was honored with the Knight-Batten prize for innovation in journalism in 2006.
In 2000, Ethan founded Geekcorps, a technology volunteer corps that sends IT specialists to work on projects in developing nations, with a focus on West Africa. Previously Ethan helped found Tripod.com, one of the web's first "personal publishing" sites. He blogs at http://blog.ethanzuckerman.com, http://www.globalvoicesonline.org , and http://www.worldchanging.com and lives in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, USA with his wife and a small, fluffy cat.
Presented by the Social Entrepreneurship Seminar Series and the Global Media Project.
Location: Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer Street.
Event Summary
Ethan Zuckerman, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and co-founder of Global Voices Online, spoke this week at the Watson Institute about the revolution in news coverage arriving via worldwide blogging. While pointing out the potential benefits of the democratization of journalism, which Zuckerman calls “citizen media,” he also discussed growing censorship in the blogosphere and security threats to bloggers themselves. These will increase, he said, as repressive governments become more Internet savvy.Global Voices Online is a website that aggregates and contextualizes blogs with various points of view from diverse sources across the world, aiming to amplify the bloggers’ voices and increase their audiences. The website gets 1.25 million visitors per month and is translated to and from seven different languages, said Zuckerman.
In his talk, “Listening Widely (Wisely?) – International News and the Rise of Citizen Media,” Zuckerman gave examples of the unique political and social functions personal blogs can perform. One Thai blog contradicted major news sources that spoke of large popular protests of the recent military coup. Another blog in Kenya exposed the true background of several members of the Kenyan parliament.
Zuckerman also described a new technique becoming popular called “crowd sourcing,” which draws on large numbers of people to collectively create news. This was useful, for example, when sifting through the documents made public in the Alberto Gonzales case late on a Friday night; the bloggers divided the work.
Dissidents and activists use blogging to incite, organize, or notify others of their well-being, said Zuckerman. For example, one such blogger notifies his readers when he goes to a court hearing so that they will know if he is detained.
Bloggers, particularly in countries with heavy restrictions on freedom of speech, are very concerned about security and some work hard to remain anonymous, said Zuckerman. He has helped to create a manual for Internet security and often finds himself consulting on this issue. When repressive regimes see the Internet as increasingly threatening, they quickly come up with the means of silencing dissenting bloggers, he said. This can include physical detainment or electronically blocking certain content or types of sites. Zuckerman predicts that where blogging has provided a momentary opening, this loophole is the result of a knowledge gap that will change rapidly as controlling governments learn how to suppress the content of citizen media.
Zuckerman's lecture, moderated by Watson Institute Associate Director Geoffrey S. Kirkman '91, was part of the Social Entrepreneurship Seminar Series.
Submitted by Watson Institute Student Rapporteur Liana Paris ‘07