Blogging Toward Utopia

The growth of Internet usage in the Middle East and North Africa is among the world’s fastest: between 2000 and 2007 usage increased almost 500 percent, more than twice the rate of increase in the rest of the world. Just as elsewhere, this has led to Middle Eastern cyber-optimism - among the users of digital tools and Internet watchers alike. It is a widely-held hope that the coming of Web 2.0 can move closed societies towarddemocratic values and governance.

New Media in Syria

What is the role of the new media in this context of bought criticism? Hopes that increased globalization and advanced media technology bring about political liberalization have all but vanished. We now know that authoritarian regimes are more resilient and that economic liberalization and technological modernization are not necessarily coupled with democratic reform. The new media, especially the Internet, blogs and Twitter, have indeed created a counter public, a space where state hegemony...

Background

Citizens are agents of change and development Equitable and sustainable development depends on open and vibrant democracies. Citizens are the central actors in public and political arenas. Their ability to hold governments to account and to participate fully in democratic processes is contingent upon the opportunities to freely assemble, associate and express opinions– including the right to seek, receive and impart information. But citizens agency is not only the purpose – or the ends –...