Vahid Online

Post-2009 Iran and the Politics of Citizen Media Convergence

Bibliographic Data

ID5933339
AuthorsBabak Rahimi (0000-0001-6642-2212, University of California San Diego, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume5
Issue4
Pages77
Publication date2016-11-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2076-0760 • E-ISSN: 2076-0760
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/socsci5040077
OpenAlexW2559521959
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

An attempt is made to study the social network site, Vahid Online, pseudonym of a leading Iranian activist who has the largest social media followership online. Vahid Online is Iran's leading distributor of information about social and political news about Iran, a source of information used by citizens and journalists. Similar to Twitter, Vahid Online posts, shares, and communicates news in short messages with hyperlinks, hashtags, or internet slang for multimedia purposes. In this networking media space, citizen journalism is assumed the civic responsibility of news and information dissemination with a perceived conception of internet as an agency of change. Vahid Online, I argue, is representative of an individuated networking activism in the new technology for information production. Technology, likewise, is imagined as a political agency and, in turn, citizenship is redefined through technology that carries the promise of change. It is also argued that Vahid Online's conception of citizen journalism is directly born out of the Green Movement in 2009, a protest movement against the 2009 presidential elections with a self-image of networked citizenship with a relative reliance on a weak tie model of civic association. The notion of citizen journalism examined here is one of civic participatory activism in archiving the collection, reporting, and dissemination of news through the merging of diverse media technologies in an attempt to create and distribute the most impact spreading news. The paper finally offers a critical analysis and argues that Vahid Online is more about individuated network framing of a privileged politics through practice of new technology

Agency (philosophy · Citizen journalism · Citizen media · Citizenship · Framing (construction · Journalism · Media relations · Media studies · News media · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Technical Journalism · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social Media and Politics

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