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YouTube, Facebook Emerging As Reform Tools In Yerevan

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  • YouTube, Facebook Emerging As Reform Tools In Yerevan

    YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK EMERGING AS REFORM TOOLS IN YEREVAN
    by Marianna Grigoryan

    EurasiaNet
    http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62398
    Nov 17 2010
    NY

    An estimated 700-percent increase in the number of Armenian Internet
    users since 2009 is changing the way Armenians lobby for social change
    and protest perceived abuses of power, some media observers say.

    Others contend, however, that the YouTube and Facebook revolution
    remains in its infancy, with state-controlled television still
    dominating the public discourse.

    The effects of Armenia's Internet usage explosion have already been
    seen this year: several cell-phone videos posted on YouTube prompted
    unprecedented investigations into physical abuse of soldiers within
    the army and of teachers' use of violence against students in public
    schools.

    "The Internet's influence is growing larger with the increase in
    the number of Internet users," commented Gegham Vardanian, an online
    producer at Internews, a media support non-governmental organization.

    Internet World Stats, a portal for international Internet access
    statistics, claims that Armenia's number of Internet users has
    increased by 700 percent since 2009. Some 47.1 percent of Armenia's
    population of almost 3 million is now online, according to the Public
    Services Regulatory Commission. By comparison, just 6.4 percent of
    Armenia's 2009 population was estimated to have Internet access.

    Armenia currently holds the highest Internet access rate in the South
    Caucasus, just ahead of Azerbaijan at 44.4 percent of the population,
    and far outpacing Georgia's 28.3 percent of the population.

    Lower-priced Internet service packages offered by Armenia's
    three main cell phone companies (Vivacell-MTS, Armentel-Beeline
    and Orange Armenia) appear to be encouraging growth. Prices for
    126 kilobytes/second and 256 kilobytes/second now range on average
    between 6,000 and 9,000 drams (about $16.50 - $25) per month - a
    noticeable decrease from a few years ago when Internet access was
    not widely affordable.

    One of the more active non-governmental organizations in online media
    development in Armenia, the Open Society Foundation-Armenia, has
    underwritten a project to try and enable cell phones to display and
    use Armenian-language fonts. Conceivably, the option could accelerate
    the spread of cell-phone-based Internet usage. [The Open Society
    Foundation-Armenia is part of the Open Society Foundations network.

    EurasiaNet.org operates under the auspices of the Open Society
    Institute, a separate part of the foundations network.]

    If Internet usage rates are even "maintained, we'll have a situation
    when people sitting in front of their PCs at home are able to
    initiate huge changes in the country," predicted Edgar Arakelian,
    who oversees a 3,300-member-strong Facebook campaign against opening
    foreign-language schools.

    Two sets of YouTube videos have already illustrated the potential
    for using the Internet to promote reforms.

    In September, a cell-phone video entitled "The Real Face of the Army"
    that showed a drunken army officer pulling soldiers' ears, hitting them
    in the face and pouring water on their heads kicked off a series of
    video postings that documented the physical abuse of Armenian soldiers.

    Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian at first declared that he did not
    believe that such an incident could happen in the Armenian army.

    Within a few days, however, as popular outrage at the videos increased,
    a criminal case was filed against the offending officer.

    Soon afterwards, two videos appeared on YouTube, shot by students,
    showing Yerevan public school teachers hitting and yelling at
    students. Within several hours of the videos' publication, the
    teachers in question had resigned. The schools' principals received
    official reprimands.

    Vardanian, the Internews producer, said the incidents show that
    reform-minded citizens are discovering the power of the Internet to
    mobilize support for struggles against individuals and institutions
    that traditionally have proven resistant to change. "The latest
    developments create the impression that the Internet fight is more
    effective in terms of establishment of civil society and protection
    of rights than any other options," commented artist Diana Galstian.

    The local head of one international media advocacy organization
    notes that the social network revolution is not just the domain
    of disgruntled citizens. After the bloody crackdown on opposition
    protests against the 2008 presidential election results, the government
    took note of the change as well, commented Media Diversity Institute
    Director Arthur Papian.

    With media restrictions in place post-crackdown, "it became apparent
    for everybody that social networks and video websites can basically
    replace" traditional media, Papian said. "So, the state, as well
    as the mass media understood the power of social media, which have
    appeared now in the focus of their attention."

    Civil society activist Izabella Sargsian, a blogger for more than a
    decade, believes that Armenia is no different from other countries
    that have turned to social networks like YouTube and Facebook as a
    way to overcome problems with freedom of speech. "Social networks
    have a great role, but we cannot say that the Internet can compete
    with TV in terms of influence," Sargsian said.

    Political PR consultant Armen Badalian believes that the uproar
    created by the YouTube videos had less to do with ordinary Armenians'
    Internet usage and more to do with traditional media taking advantage
    of these online tools. "It's not the influence of the Internet that
    is great; rather the [mainstream] media makes this influence large,"
    said Badalian, in reference to traditional broadcast media.

    By themselves, such videos do not prove conclusively that the Internet
    is providing a significant boost to civil society development in
    Armenia, commented blogger Sargsian. While the YouTube videos are
    "indeed positive," she said, "it's not a total victory."

    Editor's note: Marianna Grigoryan is the founder and editor-in-chief
    of MediaLab.am, a news site financed by the Open Society
    Foundation-Armenia.




    From: A. Papazian
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