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ARMENIA: FLYING THE FLAG OF FACEBOOK FOR POWER TO THE PEOPLE - AND THE POLITICIANS
Marianna Grigoryan
EurasiaNet.org
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65260
April 12 2012
NY
A new flag is flying proudly these days alongside the Armenian
national flag at opposition rallies for Armenia's May 6 parliamentary
elections, and it is the flag of Facebook. The US-based social network
is proving an increasingly handy tool for shaking up Armenia's ossified
election system -- both for exposing abuses and for campaigning --
and political parties and voters alike are eager to claim allegiance.
In the last three months, Armenia has seen its number of registered
Facebook users increase by nearly 18 percent (to 282,700), according
to the international social media databank Socialbakers.com; the
second highest increase in the South Caucasus, after Azerbaijan at
27.02 percent.
The social network has "solved" the problem of "the information
blockade" about real life in Armenia that characterized the 2008
parliamentary election, commented one youth activist who bore the
Facebook banner at a March 30 campaign rally in Yerevan for the
Armenian National Congress, Armenia's largest opposition coalition.
"I brought the Facebook flag to the rally to show the government
that now there is a unique, reliable alternative [for information]
to be used by everyone," said 24-year-old Areg Gevorgian.
Facebook's own reaction to seeing its logo displayed this way at an
Armenian political rally is not known, but used by everyone it is.
The ruling Republican Party of Armenia, government coalition
member Prosperous Armenia, and the opposition Heritage and Armenian
Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun Parties are the most active
political groups on Facebook, said social sciences researcher Laura
Baghdasarian, who is working on a study of how Facebook is used in
this year's elections.
It makes for "a unique situation," she continued. "Many politicians and
parties have registered accounts in Facebook since last fall," said
Baghdasarian, director of Yerevan's Region Center for Investigative
Journalism. "It is interactive, and this is of key importance;
through likes, shares and comments, no other tool provides such an
opportunity to understand an audience."
Or to get information from the source. Arguably, sensations like the
Yerevan apartment that somehow managed to accommodate 101 registered
voters also are contributing to voter curiosity about the site.
Twenty-five-year-old Facebook user Edgar Tamarian posted about
the apparently unusually spacious flat after finding it on a list
of registered voters on the national police website; all of the
supposed voters hailed from Georgia's ethnic Armenian village of
Nardevan. The police claimed the entry was "a mistake" that they had
somehow overlooked.
For a political culture more alike to an insiders' club, the public
notoriety to be gained -- or to impart -- at the click of a mouse is a
heady departure from the past. Opposition politicians sound off against
government officials on the officials' profile pages, while users post
information about various party-sponsored handouts -- vodka and coffee
for a funeral dinner, for instance -- or display photos and videos
that they believe show the true face of various political figures.
"These elections are going to be interesting," commented Samvel
Martirosian, an IT expert who works on the election watchdog
site iditord.org ("i-observer"), which maps reports of election
irregularities filed by site visitors. "On the one hand, civil-society
networking and reporting are intensifying in Armenia; on the other
hand, Armenians have gotten to see how social media was used . . .by
movements in Arab countries or for exposing and disseminating
information about election fraud in Russia" and are eager to try
their own hand.
[Editor's note: the Open Society Foundation-Armenia, part of the Soros
Foundations network, contributes financial support to iditord.org.
EurasiaNet.org is operated under the auspices of the Open Society
Institute, a separate part of that network. ]
Ways of adapting to Facebook's communication ethos of "post much,
post often" vary, however. The Armenian National Congress attributed
to youth activists the idea of taking Facebook flags to rallies, but
did not comment to EurasiaNet.org further. The Republican Party of
Armenia, for its part, notes simply that having a Facebook presence is
"a universal practice."
Personal styles are at odds, too. Former Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian, now a member of Prosperous Armenia, and Heritage Party
parliamentary faction leader Stepan Safarian manage their own profiles,
while Artur Baghdasarian, head of government coalition member Orinats
Yerkir, and Heritage Party Chairperson Raffi Hovannisian appear to
delegate these tasks, said researcher Baghdasarian.
To what extent the Facebook relations between these groups and
their supporters will stay civil remains open to speculation, noted
independent media expert Lilit Bleyan, who works on an online TV
program for the opposition-inclined A1+ news site.
"We have not yet developed a specific culture of Internet communication
and this becomes apparent during the pre-election period," she
said. "Before the Facebook era, [voters] would not perhaps have had
a chance to argue over these topics, and would stay friends after
[the elections]."
But many voters appear willing to take that risk.
Twenty-seven-year-old Yerevan economist Haroutiun Minasian said that
"the power of the Internet" makes him "feel more confident" in the
chances for a fair election. "I know we can now speak out about
problems that no one used to discuss before," he said.
Editor's note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter based
in Yerevan.
Marianna Grigoryan
EurasiaNet.org
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65260
April 12 2012
NY
A new flag is flying proudly these days alongside the Armenian
national flag at opposition rallies for Armenia's May 6 parliamentary
elections, and it is the flag of Facebook. The US-based social network
is proving an increasingly handy tool for shaking up Armenia's ossified
election system -- both for exposing abuses and for campaigning --
and political parties and voters alike are eager to claim allegiance.
In the last three months, Armenia has seen its number of registered
Facebook users increase by nearly 18 percent (to 282,700), according
to the international social media databank Socialbakers.com; the
second highest increase in the South Caucasus, after Azerbaijan at
27.02 percent.
The social network has "solved" the problem of "the information
blockade" about real life in Armenia that characterized the 2008
parliamentary election, commented one youth activist who bore the
Facebook banner at a March 30 campaign rally in Yerevan for the
Armenian National Congress, Armenia's largest opposition coalition.
"I brought the Facebook flag to the rally to show the government
that now there is a unique, reliable alternative [for information]
to be used by everyone," said 24-year-old Areg Gevorgian.
Facebook's own reaction to seeing its logo displayed this way at an
Armenian political rally is not known, but used by everyone it is.
The ruling Republican Party of Armenia, government coalition
member Prosperous Armenia, and the opposition Heritage and Armenian
Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun Parties are the most active
political groups on Facebook, said social sciences researcher Laura
Baghdasarian, who is working on a study of how Facebook is used in
this year's elections.
It makes for "a unique situation," she continued. "Many politicians and
parties have registered accounts in Facebook since last fall," said
Baghdasarian, director of Yerevan's Region Center for Investigative
Journalism. "It is interactive, and this is of key importance;
through likes, shares and comments, no other tool provides such an
opportunity to understand an audience."
Or to get information from the source. Arguably, sensations like the
Yerevan apartment that somehow managed to accommodate 101 registered
voters also are contributing to voter curiosity about the site.
Twenty-five-year-old Facebook user Edgar Tamarian posted about
the apparently unusually spacious flat after finding it on a list
of registered voters on the national police website; all of the
supposed voters hailed from Georgia's ethnic Armenian village of
Nardevan. The police claimed the entry was "a mistake" that they had
somehow overlooked.
For a political culture more alike to an insiders' club, the public
notoriety to be gained -- or to impart -- at the click of a mouse is a
heady departure from the past. Opposition politicians sound off against
government officials on the officials' profile pages, while users post
information about various party-sponsored handouts -- vodka and coffee
for a funeral dinner, for instance -- or display photos and videos
that they believe show the true face of various political figures.
"These elections are going to be interesting," commented Samvel
Martirosian, an IT expert who works on the election watchdog
site iditord.org ("i-observer"), which maps reports of election
irregularities filed by site visitors. "On the one hand, civil-society
networking and reporting are intensifying in Armenia; on the other
hand, Armenians have gotten to see how social media was used . . .by
movements in Arab countries or for exposing and disseminating
information about election fraud in Russia" and are eager to try
their own hand.
[Editor's note: the Open Society Foundation-Armenia, part of the Soros
Foundations network, contributes financial support to iditord.org.
EurasiaNet.org is operated under the auspices of the Open Society
Institute, a separate part of that network. ]
Ways of adapting to Facebook's communication ethos of "post much,
post often" vary, however. The Armenian National Congress attributed
to youth activists the idea of taking Facebook flags to rallies, but
did not comment to EurasiaNet.org further. The Republican Party of
Armenia, for its part, notes simply that having a Facebook presence is
"a universal practice."
Personal styles are at odds, too. Former Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian, now a member of Prosperous Armenia, and Heritage Party
parliamentary faction leader Stepan Safarian manage their own profiles,
while Artur Baghdasarian, head of government coalition member Orinats
Yerkir, and Heritage Party Chairperson Raffi Hovannisian appear to
delegate these tasks, said researcher Baghdasarian.
To what extent the Facebook relations between these groups and
their supporters will stay civil remains open to speculation, noted
independent media expert Lilit Bleyan, who works on an online TV
program for the opposition-inclined A1+ news site.
"We have not yet developed a specific culture of Internet communication
and this becomes apparent during the pre-election period," she
said. "Before the Facebook era, [voters] would not perhaps have had
a chance to argue over these topics, and would stay friends after
[the elections]."
But many voters appear willing to take that risk.
Twenty-seven-year-old Yerevan economist Haroutiun Minasian said that
"the power of the Internet" makes him "feel more confident" in the
chances for a fair election. "I know we can now speak out about
problems that no one used to discuss before," he said.
Editor's note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter based
in Yerevan.