The Twitter Revolution Gets Literal
10,000 Revolutionaries in Moldova used Twitter and other social networking services to protest the Communist government. The New York Times provides a good description of the situation and phenomenon. On the other side of the pond, Baltimore police are starting to use Twitter to fight crime.
I believe social media puts us all in the middle of a revolution, but evidence to this fact is typically more tame in the U.S. I see it as an extreme form of the power of collective voice, but it does have the negative impact of making us focus on the shiny objects (tools for social reform) rather than the message and results.
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Categories: Social Media, Technology, Web |
Tags: accountability, government, media, micro-blogging, news, protest, public, revolution, socialmedia, twitter, wired
What the heck is the point of the video? kids with beer and a video camera…. wooo hooo!
but I love the stories. Tweeted this this morning and find the whole idea fascinating. It used to be text messaging that brought together crowds for protests and stuff…. now a single text can get out sooo much farther!
Whoops, just noticed that first link was pointing to the wrong place. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. It’s fixed now, which provides some context for the video. Mainly pointing out that the great seal of Moldova was destroyed and adding some local color. Here’s the transcript for context:
“Look, it’s the great seal of Moldova,” says the cameraman. “Not a f**ing thing left of it.”
He then turns his lens to a weedy young Moldovan in a tracksuit. “So say a few words, why did you come here?”
“To defend Moldova!” he says to the camera, while his friend passes a bottle of wine.
“So why don’t you like communists?” asked a second man, off-camera.
“I dunno,” the kid says. “Just don’t like ‘em.”
“And how old are you, anyway?”
“I’m turning sixteen … “