Assignment 4

As the election in Iran ended many citizens rose up to dispute the election. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the election but many citizens felt that the votes were somehow rigged. As the protests began cameras started rolling, pictures were being taken, blogs were being posted on the internet, and radio talk shows carried out the message to listener around the world. Immediately the world was aware of what was going in Iran. Through all the different media’s people began to get involved in the election. With different types of technology giving attention to the protest in Iran demonstrators, government, and people around the world were able to contribute for or against the protest.

Technology can play an important role in the face of social protests. The use of technology can either benefit or hurt a social protest by attracting the attention it needs to gain the support of more individuals or shy people away and dismantling their social network. Other times technology can mask the truth and prevent protestors from achieving justice. Technology has many advantages and disadvantages; it all depends on how it’s used. In the case of Iran’s election, protestors claimed that the election was rigged and they demanded a recount. Technology made it possible to get the attention of the world. In this case technology was able to make it easy for people around the world to see that there was a serious problem in Iran. It also made people aware that the country is still continues to have an unstable government where people still seek justice.

In the case of the protest in Iran, technology was put into use for people around the world to see the radical tactics that protestor are using against riot police. One source of technology that was used was video. In one video that came from the city of Tabriz in Iran it shows police running away from demonstrators. The video also shows police throwing tear gas onto the protestors to disperse the mob. The report indicates that because of the media blackout in Iran it is hard to understand what is really going on in the country since the riot took place outside the capitol. The Iranian regime used the video against demonstrators by indicating that the type of violence and protest going on is a plot set by western government and also the media. Other types of technology like internet articles were used by Iranian government to put the social movement. The Iranian ambassador used the media to discourage protestor by making public that protestors represented the minority of the public. He stated that, "the minority can't impose their opinion on the majority (Iran)." As can be seen this type of use of technology can impact social movements in a way that may prevent them from moving forward.

Another source of technology that was used to create a perspective of the social movement going on in Iran was photos. The photos used were published in the interest of the protestors. It showed protestors of different religions, beliefs, and socio-economic status coming together to protest against the alleged rigged election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won. The pictures served to gain the support of individuals who thought it wasn’t their cause to fight. By seeing people of different religions, beliefs, and socio-economic status makes the social movement more inclusive and welcoming to people of different backgrounds.
In today’s social movement in Iran the use of technology in cases has either helped or hurt the protesters. The content of the media used can be interpreted in many ways. Technology allows not only good but also the bad to come out in public. How and when technology is used can either break or create change in society.

Without technology there would be less public support because of the lack of information going out to the public. Technology has made it possible to distribute information around the world and has made people aware of issues that may eventually affect their life. Social movements around the world depend on technology, with out it people would suffer injustice and the truth may never come out. During the movement against the election it was published that the leader of the opposition Mir Hossein stated that those responsible for electoral fraud" had sided with those behind the post-election violence "and spilled the blood of the people (Moussavi)." Statements like these published throught out different medias allows the opposition movement to let everyone know what is really going on and use that information as a source of recruitment.

The facilitation of technology made available to social movement has changed that way people carry out protests. The more attention protestors get the more public the issue becomes and the more attention they receive from the various types of media. The social movement in Iran to have a re-election attracted the attention of internet subscribers, radio stations, news broadcast stations, etc. around the world. Picture, videos, the internet, and telephone, etc. made it possible for protestors against the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to gain the support of people from all around the country.




Moussavi maintains defiant stance
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/25/iran.election/index.html

Radical tactics against riot police in Iran
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/22/videos.iran/index.html

Iran Ambassador: Protestors represent a minority
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/24/iran.ambassador/index.html