Social Media’s Importance in Foreign Affairs

Tags: CNN, Iran, social media

Social Media’s Importance In Foreign Affairs

It’s no shocker that Iran’s recent elections have made the headlines of every major news network.

However what IS noteworthy is the role social media is playing in the recent turmoil.

Keeping information and content within your region or country has become literally impossible thanks to the world wide web.

The same holds true for social networking via Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Iranian citizens are able to keep the rest of the world updated in a 140 word blurb on their Twitter, a valuable resource that didn’t use to exist.

This new social media turn is refreshing and innovative, no longer will we question what really IS going on in a protesting country or nation.

This is an unforeseen route that social media has taken, we have always looked at Twitter or other social media sites as vehicles for personal or company gain…now we have opened up a completely different door.

Personally, this is a thrilling turn for us aspiring innovators, because this shows that we have more resources to cause change and connect people than previously considered.

I only hope that this sort of connection does not get abused or misused, it would be naive to rule out any sort of cyberwarfare or attacks against outside governments.

Thus, with admiration and caution, I end this blog entry, and log onto my Twitter to view the latest updates.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 8:18 pm and is filed under Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Social Media’s Importance in Foreign Affairs”

Nick Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I find it quite satisfying to know that mobile media/social networks have empowered the people of Iran and made it possible to receive real time updates as to what is actually happening on the ground. As internet access becomes more widespread it will become more difficult for oppressive regimes to limit the rights of their people, especially as proxy servers can bypass government control. Personally, I believe the potential for innovation in this area is unlimited.
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Summer Says:
July 8th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
And the government definitely realized the important of these social media….
After an incident happened in China recently, twitter and facebook got banned and can not be accessed even with proxy servers, which brought great inconvenience to people who got used to networking and getting information through these social media networks…
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