Awareness through Action

This week was marked by a communications revolution by the citizens of Iran. Rioting, civil unrest and a foreign media blackout followed the contested elections. Concerned citizens took action and were heard around the world as they recounted their own experiences from the ground, creating a collectively loud voice.

New communications technologies are enabling individuals to disseminate their personal stories. The current Iran events emphasize the important role that the Internet and social media play. Today we can see videos taken from camera phones and posted onto youtube, and facebook or twitter feeds that describe the action on the ground, minute-by-minute.

This call-to-action of empowering citizen journalists is so important that even the U.S. State Department asked twitter to hold off on its regularly scheduled maintenance operations so that there would be no disruption of service.

Regular citizens are evolving from subject matters to creators of relevant news stories reported in real time. Even individuals outside of Iran are emerging as heroes as they provide Internet services which facilitate communication beyond the blackout. One such individual posted instructions for setting up proxy servers, which in turn allowed Iranians to communicate with the outside world once the traditional Internet sites were shut down by the government.

This is the most prevalent and inspiring example of the power of activism through social media. There is no blackout on reporting on Radical Islam in America, however, it does not always make its way onto the agenda of major media outlets. This is why the power of www.radicalislam.org is so critical. By getting the message out to the general public, awareness can be raised on issues that directly affect Americans.

It is only through your help as concerned citizens that we can continue raising awareness. We need your support to improve the social media functionality of our website so that we can learn from the Iranian example and empower concerned citizens to get the message out. Click here to see how you can help.