Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for Spinwatch, Web 2.0 Warfare from Gaza to Iran. It’s a story I’m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of Iran on Twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by Robert Fisk, that the Iranian government is using Hamas and Hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators.
If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, I hope that the links to SpinProfiles and Neocon Europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, I think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere.
Speaking of propaganda networks, David Habakkuk’s continuing investigations of media manipulation by Russian oligarchs has produced two new pieces documenting an unsavoury power struggle involving Boris Berezovsky and Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili – A falling out of thieves? and How to rescue a rat.
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