School of Social Sciences – Brunel University

CO3100 - Communications Dissertation

Afshin Robin Rohani

™ To what extent can the ‘blogs’ of sympathisers and representatives

of the Bahá’í Faith be seen as interactive channels of
communication that report on the persecution of the Bahá’ís in
Iran?

April, 2009

Student ID: 0529552

BSc Communication and Media Studies
Dissertation Supervisor: Dr. Jason Hughes

Word Count: 16,459

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Abstract / This dissertation will demonstrate how the modern communication form of

‘blogging’ has been used by writers to highlight the issue of human rights. ‘Blogs’ are

an aspect of online participatory culture and interactive communication channels have

emerged from this platform. The case of Iran’s Baha’i community has been

documented online; this independent world religion has some six million adherents

worldwide, but is officially outlawed in the Islamic republic of Iran. This has been

noted by various; academics, journalists and non-governmental organisations as an

issue of social concern, what has uniquely been addressed in this research is the role

blogs are playing as interactive channels reporting on the ongoing persecution of the

Baha’i’s in Iran.

This is viewed from those who blog from outside of Iran, since the Middle East faces

many restrictions on freedom of speech and authors can face censorship. As well as

using an online survey to gain an understanding of an international but closely knit

blogging community, a multi-method documentation of the individual dynamics of the

posts of the Muslim Network for Bahá’í Rights blog has been implemented. This blog

has promoted its cause since 2007 by using; collaborative blogging, viral videos,

podcasts and comics. This research concludes that such a blog has effectively used

innovative media to enhance its coverage of the persecution of members of the Bahá’í

Faith.

Key Words /Blog /Baha’i/ Iran/ Human Rights/ Religious Persecution/ Online
Interaction/ New Media/ Participatory culture/ Computer Mediated Communication/
Web 2.0

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 Contents Page

Chapter 1

An introduction to Blogging and Bahá’ís……………..05

Chapter 2

Literature review………………………………………16

Chapter 3

Methodology……………..............................................30

The online survey……………………………………...35

Looking at a blog………………………………………40

Chapter 4

And the survey says?......................................................47

Inside the archive of a blog…………………………….54

Mapping interactions………………………………62

What does this all mean?................................................72

Chapter 5

Conclusions………………………………………80

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References

Journals………………………………………………….84

Bibliography…………………………………………….86

Websites…………………………………………………87

Appendices

Online survey……………………………………………90

E-mail permission……………………………………….93

Research blog……………………………………………94

Ethics…………………………………………………….94

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Chapter one
An introduction to Blogging and Bahá’ís:

As the Internet advances its presence in the modern-day culture of communication,

societies are harnessing the potential of this networked technology to create a sense of

collaboration when discussing the topic of human rights. Up until recently the Internet

was not categorised into cycles of growth, though the coining of the term ‘Web 2.0’ has

been branded as the next step in the Internet evolution. This by its very appointment has

excluded everything preceding it which is now classified as ‘Web 1.0’; this can be

understood as fairly static webpages which focus on publishing. ‘Web 2.0’ is taken to

represent the advancements in websites that revolutionise participation (Flew: 2008).

The onset of the online weblog (which is essentially a diary) allows anyone with basic

computer literacy and access to the Internet, to have a space to distribute their

viewpoints on to an effective channel in terms of its interactivity. When referring to

interactivity, the researcher views this as the level of participation in which people

access blogs; to address a specific concern, attract others to discuss it, the use of a

variety of multimedia and whether other channels report on the content. This is at the

heart of the focus of this dissertation, which analyses the case study of the persecution

of adherents of the Bahá’í Faith in Iran, an independent world religion.

This study will present and argue the shift from mass consumption, to the online

‘participatory culture’ that Internet ‘blogging’ brings (Jenkins et al: 2006). Specifically

it will explore the weblogs dynamics as an interactive communication channel, and the

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patterns which emerge within the interactions of this medium by its users. The intended

contribution of this study is to consider the practice of blogging and the affordances of

this medium to open up engaging and valuable forms of communication:

“Across the world, online publics are forming via the Internet. In societies on

one side of the digital divide, millions of bloggers come together around diverse

topics, forming complex clusters. In societies on the other side, dozens or

hundreds of bloggers form tighter communities, often in the face of censorship

and conflict.”

(Kelly: 2009 – Keynote address Re-Publica Conference, Berlin)

The Iranian resistance towards the Bahá’í Faith is a current topic of interest in the

international blogging community, which tends to lean towards ‘the other side’ of the

digital divide. In this instance a religious minority with little freedom in Iran, has found

it self to attract a community of outsiders which voice their views online. The extent of

this coverage will be determined by unravelling the production of the contents of blog

posts about the Bahá’ís mistreatment. The main course of study will be assessing blogs

as a medium of civic expression which tries to connect audiences to content, this will

be undertaken through analysing the archive of a key blog operated by ‘The Mideast

Youth Network’ called the ‘Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights’ (www.bahairights.org

referred to hereafter as MNBR) and the interactions it has with other agencies and

individuals who report on the human rights situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran. This

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research can be further justified according to a recent article written by the founder of

the MNBR’s blog Esra'a al-Shafei, published by the non-profit news organisation ‘The

Media Line’:

“The Muslim Network of Baha'i Rights was founded is an effort to address and

challenge the discrimination that Baha'is have to suffer under the supposed

banner of Islam…It is to our advantage that increasingly more people rely on

the Internet for news instead of traditional media, which in much of the Middle

East is heavily censored…our successful utilization of creative media in order

to raise awareness about the abuse perpetrated against the Baha'i minority in

the Middle East, has encouraged others in to taking action.” (Al-Shafei: 2008:

Online)

In the extract about the motivations of the MNBR, the academic issues are clearly

identified as; discrimination, censorship, civic engagement and new media. Such

pressing points will be looked at in relation to the MNBR. To begin with,

discrimination of any kind is a popular topic when analysing types of media to

determine if it offers a fair representation of a certain social group, this is usually

applied to traditional media such as the printed press or television (see the work of the

Glasgow Media Group). These established media outlets have long faced struggles over

censorship in authoritarian societies; this had previously meant that there was little

room for any kind of collective action within the public sphere, to firstly be able to

congregate to formulate their ideas and secondly distribute them to gain appeal that

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would reach far and wide. Now with the onset of blogs and other flexible and freely

distributed media, avenues are created that allow people the enticing opportunity to

address their societal concerns online.

It is necessary to unpack the global Internet movement of blogging to make sense of it,

a web log or a ‘blog’ as it is commonly referred to, can be likened to an online diary

where an individual’s views are published reverse chronologically in the form of

‘posts’, the blog has been an emerging Computer-Mediated Communication (referred to

hereafter as CMC) tool since 1999 till present (Dean: 2005). Usually blogs serve as a

device for a writer to compile various musings found in cyberspace that form logs,

these can be updated instantaneously making it more dynamic then traditional websites

(Jenkins: 2006).

Within the timeline of Internet developments, blogs can be identified as a precursor to

the ‘Web 2.0’ computer age, this is a term that refers to a new wave of; business,

information and social networking sites that enable society to use innovative online

media to gain a participatory understanding of an interconnected world. One of

blogging’s main features in relation to this is that it has allowed users to engage with

content in a dynamic way; such as posting comments, tagging topics and subscribing to

content, this new web culture is now an established practice among the majority of

Internet users (Beer & Burrows: 2007).

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Many; businesses, educational institutions, and non-governmental organisations tend to

set up blogs designed to communicate their agenda to masses of people, having said

this it is more accurate to point out that the individual personal blogger is the most

prevalent creator of blogs discussing; travel, relationship, food and entertainment

stories among many others. This on the onset presents certain challenges to a study

which tries to extract more gripping commentary found on blogs, when on the surface

they appear to be outnumbered by mediocrity. This will be challenged by adapting a

research approach which aims to identify and assess the occurrence of blogs which

promote public discourse in great detail, within their own environment.

When considering the longevity of blogging, it has been recorded that a single blog is

created every second according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC Online:

2005), this statistic sparks a debate to the uniqueness of the blog and its interactivity in

delivering content. Whether or not the trend will be maintained as ‘Wired Magazine’

predicts (Boutin:2008) this pattern in Internet user behaviour of generating and

subscribing to citizen journalism is an important occurrence, which relies on a rich

network of communication channels that users actively engage with. When looking at

the information in blogs, it can reveal trends in to what topics are being discussed

online and offer an insight to whether the subject matter is increasing or declining over

time (Seshasai:2008).

As of late 2008 ‘Blog Pulse’, a website which measures blog activity, ranked the

keyword search for ‘Baha’i’ on the Internet, to amount to 0.0060% of online

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occurrences in the blogs it lists. This percentage seems miniscule in terms of the depth

of the World Wide Web, though the significance is not in its proportion, but in its

emergence in to the public sphere as a topic of discourse through new media

communities. In figure 1.1 ‘Blogscope.net’ highlights recent trends in the Bahá’í

blogosphere, noting how in the middle of December there is a red peak or ‘burst’ in

coverage, this research attributes this to the work of Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin

Ebadi which was a major news story concerning the Bahá’ís of Iran (see results

section).

(Fig 1.1)

The mass media in certain states in the Middle East have little freedom for independent

journalism as news stories face many restrictions, a handful of bloggers (in Internet

numbers) are moulding identities and values which aim to show a level of organic

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social solidarity (Ernest on Durkheim: 2007) against the status quo. Rather then having

to rely on what is considered ‘newsworthy’ by an established practice of broadcasting,

bloggers create their own agenda to blog about, the strengths of such autonomy are in

the writer’s ability to easily contextualise various; facts, information, articles and

personal opinion in the sources they use to form one single entry (Blood: 2002).

The combination of sources and immediacy of news reporting found in blogs is unique,

especially in picking up current and developing stories, when often it features a

merging of links to mainstream media content, with the perhaps more engaging and

noteworthy personal viewpoint. Whether people are creating; text, video or photo

focused blogs, these platforms are designed to allow an easy flow of information across

the Internet (Wynants: 2006).

It is necessary to turn to the case study this work will be examining; to do this one must

understand the Bahá’í Faith historically, and its links to the culture of the Iranian

blogosphere. In the Islamic republic of Iran a theocratic government is in power that in

part is responsible for causing freedom of speech to be diluted by heavy censorship and

restrictions on personal liberty (Parsa: 2008). It is not unforeseen; nevertheless it is

significant that within this environment people have turned to online technology, in

particular Farsi and even English language (USA Today: 2007) blogs as a means of

communicating their; political, economic, religious, personal and social viewpoints.

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With half of its seventy million population being under the age of twenty-five, Iran has

increasingly become titled a ‘nation of bloggers’, at the time of writing it is the third

largest country of bloggers (Aaron:2008). It is this vibrant backdrop of online activity

that has informed this research where people are “using blogs as tools to fight

oppression and gain access to some democratic qualities” (Parsa: 2008). Preferably

research would be conducted within this community of bloggers in Iran, since this

presents ethical issues around a sensitive topic and would be very time intensive. This

study will tackle the content of the MNBR and largely ‘Westernised’ authors of English

language blogs outside of Iran, who report on the situation of the Bahá’ís from their

correspondence with mainly; Iranian bloggers, the Bahá’í International Community and

human rights organisations.

The Bahá’í Faith is gradually being brought to the attention of academics who examine

globalisation, with Foreign Policy Magazine listing it is as the second fastest growing

religion in the world (Foreign Policy: 2007). Its founder Bahá’u’lláh was born in 1817

in Persia, he is considered by followers to have brought a revelation from God that

asserts; humankind is spiritually one and advocates world peace (Encarta Dictionary).

In theological terms the Bahá’í Faith recognises and reveres other religions such as:

Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. But the religion

boldly claims that Bahá’u’lláh is the promised one of all ages and religious traditions.

This Bahá’í belief can be seen by some clerics, to be in direct conflict with the majority

of Muslims who interpret the Qur’an to state that it is the final chapter sent by God

based on the reference “Muhammad is the seal of the prophets” (Quran: 33:40).

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Thus since the Bahá’í Faith was founded in Persia in 1844, teaching a belief system

which fundamentally broke away with Islam, Iranian followers of the Bahá’í Faith

previously – and presently face a heavy onslaught of persecution. This is mainly by

members of the predominately Shi’a Muslim clergy and government of what is now

geographically Iran. In terms of legislation the Iranian constitution recognises; Islam,

Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism as legitimate religions (BBC Online: 2008).

The Bahá’í who are the largest religious minority in the country estimated to be more

then 300,000 (Cameron et al: 2008), claim to be discriminated against solely based on

their religious convictions. Their belief in conjunction with the law at present subjects

them to exist at a basic level with little civil rights, vulnerable to unequal treatment in;

work, education, and everyday social life.

In a modern context, shortly after the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution (which now

marks its 30th anniversary) and up until the present day, Bahá’ís have been the target of

a more systematic campaign of coercion. This has ranged from; arbitrary arrests, state

propaganda and most significantly a government lead strategy to deny higher education

to university students (Closed Doors: 2005). At first, all Bahá’í children were excluded

from schooling, but in the 1990’s, primary and secondary school children were allowed

to re-enrol though this still at present leaves university students denied access to

education (Cameron et al: 2008), a fundamental human right advocated by

humanitarian groups such as Amnesty International (AI:2009).

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The European Union (Figel: 2005) has passed resolutions condemning Iran for its

treatment of the Bahá’ís. The situation has been steadily worsening under the current

presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose regime uses structural violence

(Tomaselli: 1991) in an effort to suffocate their followers, such as passing official

policy to secretly monitor all Bahá’í activities (One Country: 2006).

Often what is cited in defence by the Bahá’ís and their supporters is ‘Article 26’ of the

‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ (1948) which states that everyone has a right

to an education, as the 60th anniversary of the deceleration occurred in 2008 the notion

of human rights is becoming a hot topic widely blogged, remixed and shared (Jenkins

et al: 2006) within the different media of social networks. For example, the impact of

online movements such as ‘Blog Action Day’, this is a socially conscious viral blog

campaign, set up to raise awareness and to mobilise people to write about certain global

issues such as ‘poverty’ or ‘climate change’. This initiative prompted a large chain of

discussion, with the idea of humanitarian responsibility entering in to everyday

blogging just as it is entering business settings under ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’.

It is noted how even regular more passive users of media are being urged to consider

the wider impact of their activities and their potential to communicate a message of

hope (see Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign).

The situation regarding the right for equal human rights and public amenities regardless

of one’s religious beliefs, has sparked a large amount of coverage worldwide in the

press more significantly in the blogosphere, with representatives and sympathisers of

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the Bahá’ís rising to their defence. As this medium is deconstructed, this issue can

reveal to what extent blog authors have contributed to raising the problem of human

rights online when posts on this subject matter are created. Also it will present the

ability to observe what impact this has had within online networks themselves, by

writers choosing to communicate (what they deem to be meaningful) messages to

audiences using the emerging interactive blog format. This will be argued as a

computer mediated adjustment in user behaviour online.

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Chapter two

Literature Review:

Within the field of communication and media studies there is an emphasis on

understanding whether or not ‘new media’ (information that is computerised) liberates

or challenges civic engagement, and if it can play a role in social change. As the

Internet evolves to provide seemingly world-embracing platforms of dialogue, this is

presumed to be a new step in the history of media innovations. There is a lot of

contention between those who share utopian views of the Internet, who see it

transforming society, and individuals who view it rather as a natural consequence of

shifts in human development (Livingstone: 1999).

In this contribution in to the culture of ‘blogs’, what is explored is not an attempt to

choose a narrow path which either boasts of or disputes the merits of new media; rather

it will take one instance of human rights online and assess its ability to engage

audiences with its cause by evaluating the medium it uses for promoting its message.

Having said this, this paper does regard blogs with a certain degree of optimism and

envisions that the MNBR compliments online culture, though this issue remains open

to any evidence in the research to suggest otherwise.

The democratisation of information that the Internet can potentially achieve is another

feature in the new media debate, an American Website like Indy Media (1999) is a long

established ‘Web 1.0’ website providing grassroots participatory journalism, this raises

the point whether blogs have brought any real dramatic changes? Indy Media has

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decided not to utilise new media to enhance its presentation, and thus becomes

increasingly overshadowed by blogs, and as a result it is not as groundbreaking as it

was in the beginning. This can be attributed to their anti-establishment philosophy, thus

contradicting with the commercial side of ‘Web 2.0’ communication that democracy

goes hand in hand with. With the increased freedom that one can find online in

individual and collective empowerment, some groups have used this as a threshold in to

new media information forums, and have done so in a lively way. Such as those from

the Middle East and the people who speak on behalf of their marginalised voices.

As large numbers of society converge upon the Internet to explore new avenues to

reconnect their involvement in democratic practices, it emerges that today’s

communication networks at a glance spiral towards extraordinary heights. As with all

social phenomena this can’t be simply reduced to be isolated from other factors. It is

then worth asking if real life communities are closer then they were in the past? And if

they are nurturing the type of liberal mentality which goes hand in hand with

collaborative social media? It does not take a great deal of expertise or time to find

cases of injustice against human rights on the Internet or offline in an everyday setting,

therefore this research asserts rather that there is a change in media experience

nurturing more complex interactions between citizens, the affects of which are felt in

real life.

The reality of this is that in blog focused research, related literature is often scattered in

various disciplines and not fully tied to broader debates, unless as the previous work of

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researchers show blogging is deemed to reflect something highly politicised

(presidential elections) or their uses as educational tools (by academics). In this study

engaging with blogs that reveal more delicate issues require approaching them head on,

which is exactly what this research will attempt to achieve in looking at a small portion

of the sphere of minorities online. What can be seen from academia that relates to this

study is that before the rise of new media authors such as Fernback and Thompson

forewarned the dangers of computer dominated interactions, which would not only be

exclusive but lure people into a false sense of expression. Similarly the usage of online

CMC can be viewed to create a ‘fetish’ in ‘interpassivity’ i.e. a false sense of user

interaction (Dean: 2005). Despite this gloomy outlook, studies by the Pew Internet

Research Center have revealed how potentially freethinking this generation of youth

can be:

“Bloggers… seek, adopt, appropriate, and invent ways to participate in cultural

production.” (Rheingold: 2008:103)

Now it is difficult to see the permanence or a genuine benefit of this change presently

when this ‘cultural production’ is quite abstract, and is constantly being redefined and

reinvented as technology dictates. What this currently does show is how these active

citizens with their perceived arena of hope, have launched themselves in to blogs, as

they feel it gives them credible ways to express themselves formally and informally.

Which is further made more attractive by the way blogs encourage the linking of

content, which creates a sense of trust in blogs which help break down previous notions

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of production and consumption (Van House: 2004).

Much of the innovative changes in post-industrial societies (Bell 1973) in the latter part

of the twentieth and early twenty-first century, have revolved around developments in

computer technologies, which serve the ever demanding needs of an ‘information’ or

‘network society’ (Castells 1996). A period in which the commodity of information

services shapes; cultural, political and economic forces, as production becomes

increasingly immaterial in its outputs (Bell: 1973). Leading on from these contestable

theories in the social sciences is the notion of globalisation (the merging of the local

and global), which is commonly identified to be boosted by the communication

networks formed through the Internet. Some have argued that partially because of the

onset of new media, globalisation has in itself been perpetuated (Flew: 2002). Certainly

McLuhan’s ‘global village’ (1962) was strikingly well envisioned given the period he

wrote it in, as the current media landscape tries to on many levels unite countries

through a common development in computer technology.

Blogs are becoming platforms for people who are not technical to share and engage

with information online (Thelwall et al: 2005), in relation to civic engagement blogs

also follow a model which suggests that the gathering of the social and political at such

a high pace, has increased humanities perceptions of global responsibility (McLuhan:

1964). This literature review centrally explores the role of ‘Western’ bloggers who

campaign for the human rights of the Baha'is of Iran, by taking a closer look at what

bloggers situated outside of the country are saying about the Bahá’ís trials and how

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interactive this new media commentary is. At the centre of this is the belief that new

media is affecting and creating a new global public sphere, epitomised by the

blogosphere (Castells: 2007), this will be tested through unpacking interaction through

unconventional research. In presenting an overview of the debates surrounding the

intrinsic worth of blogging and the impact of their discourses, questions arise if they are

credible news sources? And whether within this activity we are experiencing a push or

pull factor in the progression of participation?

In tackling these questions they start to become clearer in contemporary studies, one

can look at either end of the spectrum of this literature. This is grounded upon; such

works as ‘Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World’ (2008)

written by Don Tapscott, who launched a large study examining the new and largely

positive youth Internet movement shaping social and political spheres. In contrast

Andrew Keen’s pessimistic views in ‘The Cult of the Amateur’ (2007), sees new media

taking regressive steps in the name of so called democratisation. These works

investigated ‘open societies’ that is to say usage in democratic countries, much is still

to be understood of behaviour in relation to the topics surrounding ‘closed societies’

(Mishra commenting on Cuplinskas: 2009).

The majority of Middle Eastern and Islamic populations which have been exposed to

the Internet’s cutting edge technologies remain underexplored, and the significance and

meanings for this are unaccounted for. The case of the Bahá’ís in Iran will be

researched, with an emphasis on understanding the activity of bloggers within this area,

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which at a glance seems to be somewhat ‘virtually’ liberating to the group in question,

through the networks of this emerging online culture:

“Networks are taking shared responsibility for the construction of vast

accumulations of knowledge about themselves, each other, and the world.”

(Jenkins et al: 2006)

This implies that networks such as blogs are channelling a diverse range of viewpoints,

giving everyone a voice and some responsibility. With this in mind it must not be

confused that blogs and even the socially ‘conscious’ blogs in question can be all

praiseworthy, as in time it may be detrimental for the circumstances of the Bahá’í to be

an ongoing online dialogue because of the credibility of blogs as a form of

communication. Nevertheless the social occurrences of this CMC are alive and active

and demand further analysis, especially in an environment where people in Iran are

unfairly imprisoned for speaking out about religion and politics such as Hossein

Derakshan (York: 2008).

When exploring literature within this area it can be seen that the significance of the role

of the Internet in human rights is a developing phenomenon, which can serve as a

means for activists and organisations to ‘obtain’ ‘communicate and ‘disseminate’

information. Although notable global barriers to this are issues of; information

overload, I.T. literacy and censorship (Halpin and Hick: 2000). These are striking

examples that question the extent of the coverage of any sort of human rights issue is

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communicated on the Internet, having said this, in light of what has emerged in recent

years; it suggests that what we label as a ‘blog’ breaks some of these social barriers.

Blogs can be seen as different societies individual response to the; information overload

by their opportunity to publish ‘your own views’, while liberating literacy with

translatable easy to start up podiums and tackling censorship with blogs being a

response to media repression. Blogs have been proven to break many firewalls (a

system which restricts Internet access), and have been known to have proxy servers

funded by democratic governments (Parsa: 2008).

While blogs face obstacles in to the entry of human rights debates, Evgeny Morozov

assertively sees them as a ‘new frontier’ in human rights, as she studied the case of

Denis Denisov an activist from Belarus who was imprisoned unjustly while human

rights organisations took little notice, but it was the online community which caused

enough awareness to raise the bail money to release him. She draws attention to her

findings which while narrowly focused, they are closely tied to the research question in

this piece and suggest that “A blog with ten readers could potentially get human rights

groups further in 2007 than a petition with one million signatures could in 1967.”

(Morozov: 2007) This use of new media to disseminate news on human rights is a

budding act and is illustrated in the case of reportage on the Bahá’ís, as highlighted in

the introduction with the ongoing patterns in Iranian society and media in the Middle

East, that paradoxically serve blogs to thrive in an environment of ideological

subjugation and also in times of conflict.

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For example in the Israel and Lebanon war (2006) citizens turned to blogs so they could

benefit to “… respond and interact almost instantaneously, use digital photographs,

provide clips from TV reports, link to podcasts and make use of satellite mapping

imagery.” (Metcalf: 2006: online) An instant method of reporting when Middle East

news would be challenging to approach to publish the publics stories, especially in

times of conflict when communication infrastructure is strained. Another contemporary

instance is during the Mumbai terrorist attacks (2008); this highlights the swiftness of

blogs while also complimenting blogging in the bigger picture of news. During this

event citizens utilised the mobile micro blogging service ‘Twitter’ to report on their

personal reactions to the terrorist’s activities as the drama unfolded, which even if

unconfirmed on their own, as a network and as a point of reference beside the mass

media they took on a role within themselves.

One must also take in to account how this technology can be abused on the flipside to

aid the communications of radical groups and the influx of ‘cyber terrorism’ (Debrix:

2001), the British Broadcasting Corporation justified their use of Twitter in Mumbai on

the grounds that “These accounts move more quickly and include a wider array of

perspectives and sources, not all verified by us, but all attributed, so that in effect we

leave some of the weighing up of each bit of information and context to you”.

(Herrmann: 2008: Online) Certainly this sense of empowerment to audiences is a key

feature in the new media age, as a society which demands information, also wants to be

contributors to content (Time Magazine’s YouTube cover 2006).

Dan Gillmor who represents the ‘Center for Citizen Media’, an online initiative used to

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encourage citizen media and foster further initiatives welcomes Tapscott’s words. For

Tapscott the underlying aspect is that audiences are interacting with blogs in

collaborative ways, which contribute to the richness of the media, and while they are

not a substitute to real life discussions they certainly emulate them and our creating a

sense of self-directed experience rivalling previous passive ‘couch potato’ culture

(Tapscott: 2008). It can be noted that some of the subject matter in the dialogue which

takes place on blogs are; personal views seen as subjective or even offensive. Though

this does not demoralise the important social issues that are being raised in various

blogs that demand an insight in to the communication of this media, in fact in the case

of the bloggers of Iran, when people just have a free channel to express their personal

views, it is in itself liberating against a government which would oppose the

opportunity to publish such views in the first place (Parsa: 2008).

Rebecca Blood is an author who is cited greatly within the subject of the uses of blogs,

and promotes their practical use as media literacy tools, although she is realistic in

distinguishing blogs from journalism, she still acknowledges their merits such as the

fact that the views of marginalised voices flourish in the ‘blog universe’ (Blood:2002).

The relatively new and ever evolving culture of communication which exists within the

world of blogging contains numerous differing voices, of which on the one hand only a

small portion offer credible and current commentary, on the other hand due to the

nature of the interactivity of blogging, the impetus by the minority can spawn a large

response picked up on by writers “… bloggers have demonstrated themselves as techno

activists favouring not only democratic self-expression and networking, but also global

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media critique and journalistic socio-political intervention.”(Kahn and Kellner: 2004).

This area of the power of minorities in blogs, has also received attention identifying

why certain viewpoints find a space to be blogged about, such as the almost non

existent financial capital that is needed to be able to start up a blog, as opposed to

traditional media outlets (Fuchs: 2008).

Commentators on the Internet, who have reservations before jumping to major

conclusions about new media, take the form of cynics towards the affects of the

message of blogs. This is apparent with the mind state of Andrew Keen, who is

ardently critical of the merging of audience and author in ‘Web 2.0’ networks, which is

an aspect of how a weblog operates. Keen in ‘The Cult of the Amateur’ (2007)

admonishes the sense of freedom users have felt from tuning to blogs as a news source,

as the content which can be created by any individual can distort perceptions of reality.

In 2007 around fifty three million blogs were created, Keen asserts that “Blogs have

become so dizzyingly infinite that they’ve undermined our sense of what is true and

what is false, what is real and what is imaginary” (Keen: 2007:3).

With this in mind he furthermore links the fact that most bloggers blog about ‘personal

experience’ to highlight the potential for misinforming the world, as oppose to the

mainstream media which produces articles made by professionals and editorial teams.

In regards to the personal aspect of blogs and the amateur drive of new media, it is

important to note their limitations, although in line with the research question it is the

personal experiences which are comprised in blogs by many authors and various

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channels which form an evolving community. In the course of this research it will be

argued that this is a forum which democratises and empowers users opening up the

Internet; to audiences, to share thoughts and experiences in a unique way that they may

not have been previously inclined to participate in (Deuze, 2003).

In addressing Keen and his views of the web that are shunned by many, a debate in

‘The Guardian Online’, ‘Andrew Keen v Emily Bell - Is today's internet killing our

culture?’ (2007) gives ample insight in to the climate of the blogosphere, where he

takes on the editor in chief of the Guardian Unlimited. Keen launches his arguments by

stating that the Internet’s commercialisation of the duality of content overshadows the

role of the mainstream media, and will cause more cultural inequalities then equalities

(Keen: 2007), to which Bell points out that:

“…there are plenty of issues particularly around the investment in journalism,

the quality of factual TV production, the challenging perspectives which no

longer find their way into mainstream channels. But this is not the fault of the

web, it is the collective failing of existing media.” (Bell: 2007: online)

This counterpoint shifts the blame away from the Internet’s role of ‘dumbing down’

culture, and places the blame at the existing media industries. It resonates with this

research, though it does raise another consideration regarding what was the state of

human rights online before the weblog? In regards to the Iranian Bahá’ís they have

always been efficient in utilising what ever media they can to speak out against their

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suffering, this has meant steady public relations with; the printed press, television and

radio broadcasters. This has helped communicate this issue abroad but certainly not

within Iran or beyond any national coverage, as the Internet emerged so did the ability

to transmit messages internationally giving news coverage more exposure and greater

rapidity. This is now well grounded in the new frontier of blogging and the interactivity

it brings. There seems to be a fairly balanced path in the literature between those;

hinting towards the interactive side of the practice of blogging, which is distinguished

from those who believe the affordances of blogs are exaggerated by academics, and see

them rather as individualistic forms of self-expression (Herring: 2004).

It will be argued in this paper that blogs are an important part of user content online,

and this aspect of new media has changed the public’s access and interaction to stories

relating to the Bahá’í in Iran as different societies can be informed of an issue they

might not have been aware of. Similarly the interactive way they can communicate with

the issue, serves to liberate the dissemination of the message i.e. that the medium is the

message (McLuhan: 1964).

Also this exploration will seek to present that blogs are an effective medium in

communicating meaning due to their structure and format, these factors affect the

ability of the content to spark interest to be read and distributed by users through

‘citizen media’ the merging of consumption and production in ‘prosumption’(Thrift:

2005). Blogs allow for the distribution of information to happen in new forms through

their communication channels, for the Bahá’í in Iran the process of a story ending up on

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a blog and the relationships which feed in and out of the issue, create networks which

encourage dialogue and are valuable in a commentary of new media dynamics, while

also serving to benefit the coverage of this human rights scenario.

In conducting the research, it was decided that it will consist of primarily analysing the

content of the blogs of sympathisers and representatives of the Bahá’í Faith and their

dynamics as a source of information on the Bahá’ís in Iran. It emerged in the research

planning stage that questionnaires, traditional surveys and interview techniques will not

engage with the issues, as if they are used as the basis of the research outside the actual

blogosphere, it will not be a measure of the medium at question. Also it will not be

viable in terms of the research time frame practically, when participants are based

outside of the United Kingdom. In adapting a mainly qualitative approach with a small

level of quantifiable data which will interpret the flow of content on the blogs, the

advantages are that this will allow an underpinning of the content of the research data in

a meaningful way, which complements the nature of the online networks.

Conversely a completely quantitative method could help to statistically deconstruct

blogs and measure the reach of their content, though in this way the social aspects of

the academic question will not be tackled substantially. Due to the subjective nature of

blogs, it is more practical to approach it from a qualitative mode of thought, which will

produce results not completely impartial due to its framework, but will certainly aim to

add another valuable contribution to understanding the nature and worth of new media

and blogging, while homing in on the struggle of a marginalised voice in the Middle

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East.

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Chapter three

Methodology:

With the literature offering some broad debates in communications and some current

talking points in new media, the same filters through to previous methodological

approaches in this area, using these as a guideline a semi-experimental approach for

this research was adopted. Given the spread and complexity of blogging, it's unfeasible

to gain an overall picture with any degree of adequacy. Thus the strategy is to focus on

just one unique blog, and to use sources that are current and relevant to that particular

case. Where this study faces difficulties, is in its access to concrete studies which deal

with unpicking qualitative information from blogs which deal with human rights, and

how then to understand how interactive they are as a medium.

Methods such as content or semiotic analysis are challenging to apply to blogs and this

research question, their usual generalisation of the sources of their texts cannot be

applied to the blogosphere because of “…its size, diversity of content and variation in

format.” (Tremayne: 2007: vii.). In Nicolas Hookway’s ‘Entering the blogosphere:

some strategies for using blogs in social research’ (2008), an initial consideration of

blog research is given which informed many of the methodological concerns. Hookway

provides a comprehensive discussion on blog research and as a starting point to the

development of a method for this research his discussions will be referred to.

Berger and Greenspan (2008) who analysed the blogs of mountain climbers to assess

how technology impacted their activities, also found approaching the methodology of

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research in to blogs challenging especially in creating any datasets, though there

remains some established attempts at opening up the area especially with a number of

political blogs being the focus of research such as; Coleman (2005), Kerbel and Bloom

(2005) and Borders (2005) who concisely addresses the academic background:

“Three concourses of research provide insight into blogging…First, there is the

investigation of the blog as a social diary. Second, there is the analysis of blogs

as organizing tools. Third, blogs are viewed as a form of civic, participatory

journalism.” (Borders: 2005)

In addressing the research question the three issues mentioned by Borders will be

touched on, specifically point two where blogs are organising tools and three their civic

attributes. These couple of points will be addressed in full as the choice and

construction of methods are discussed throughout this chapter, as an introduction the

civic nature of blogs will be looked at by using an online survey and the organisation of

content will be explored in the proprietary archival method. A recent study (2008)

which aimed to create a picture of the Iranian blogging community titled ‘Mapping

Iran’s Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere’ by John Kelly,

trawled through countless sources to gain its data, this was then presented in images

showing the various clusters of Iranian blogs grouped by their topics.

Through this rigorous and innovative method it was found that the Iranian blogosphere

is a rich and complex space with many voices such as; conservatives (Ahmadinejad),

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reformist (Khatami) and minority cultures (such as Baha’is) see figure 1.2. Filtering

and censoring was found across this range but blogs still flourished despite being

hindered by the government. When observing a representation of the online

community, certain keywords could be identified in the clusters, such as ‘Evin Prison’,

which coincidently is a notorious detention center where Baha'is are known to be held

for allegations such as spying for Israel (see results). Kelly’s work uncovered a

networked media ecosystem, with inward links to bloggers, and outward links to other

‘Web 2.0’ websites (Kelly: 2008). For the research in Kelly’s study to gain such

revealing data, as well as looking at the blogs in the public domain, it also required

translators and personal contact with communities to bolster the research.

(Fig 1.2)

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In this paper such valuable and worthwhile links are hard to establish let alone

maintain, rather an attempt is made to confront the investigation in a way which avoids

relying on the relatively unknown spaces the actual bloggers in Iran face, by observing

the activity of the growing ‘Western’ support of human rights supporters. Kelly makes

a noteworthy attempt to address the channels and networks which blogs form and this

has implications towards how interactive blogging communities are. While this study is

insightful, it used long-term research and specialist software to produce its maps

whereas the resources for this research are slightly limited. When creating similar

visuals of interactivity, more simplified maps will be formed in the results of this

research from a bottom-up perspective looking at individual activity, rather then a top-

down approach which lumps everything in to categories.

The development of a method for investigating the activities on blogs that cover the

Iranian Bahai community touches on available literature and relevant social science

frameworks of research, amongst this some have argued that the body of literature on

the ‘uses and impacts’ of blogs currently available is quite ‘considerable’ and that this

evidence has suggested that most blogs that exist are of the personal diary nature

(Schmidt: 2007). Though not in line with the core arguments of this research, this is

true in some aspects, but the extent in which more socially ‘conscious’ dialogue is

taking place should not be neglected as a result, and will be tested in the Bahá’í case.

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With this in mind, the bulk of this research entails an experimental documentary

approach in investigating the archive of posts in the MNBR. This tackles the

uniqueness of the blogging community as a communication medium by looking at it

with a flexible documentation style in the applied method. Though to keep the research

more academically sound a multi-method approach is used, by using the more

established technique of a survey which was distributed online, this formed a way of

gauging the current opinions of bloggers within the Bahá’í network who regularly blog

about the persecution in Iran from their own position. Gaining first hand insights in to

what motivates bloggers and to expand knowledge of the uses and applications of their

blogs, this informed the choice of focusing on the MNBR blog, while also giving

guidance for criteria to look for when researching it such as indicators of interactivity.

In the following sections the methodology of the online survey and archive analysis

will be touched on.

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The Online Survey:

The survey has been traditionally used to gain a response from audiences when

researching media output, with the use of face to face, postal or a telephone approach.

Largely they can be used to explain or describe phenomena, such as the opinions and

behaviour of a group of people on a specified topic e.g. assessing the general public’s

view of a company’s brand after a recent advertising campaign (Gunter: 2000). Surveys

are a peculiar research method as though people can hesitate to participate in them; they

are often interested in what they can potentially reveal about themselves and can be

enticed in to completing them. This is useful in this study, as bloggers passionate about

human rights want to promote their cause. The advantages for the researcher are that

they are; inexpensive, able to gain current information and can extract quantitative and

qualitative data or a mixture (Berger: 2000).

A common theme with surveys is that the information that is sought might already be

available from another survey, in this case understanding the behavior of the authors of

blogs, was an area with little similar research available using this method. This was

somewhat an opportunity to use a survey in a fairly new way, though the methods of

postal and telephone approaches were inadequate for the goal, which was to have a

short questionnaire sent to bloggers that would inform the researcher’s choice of a blog

to focus on, this needed to be done with survey distribution which would collect results

in a fairly quick time span.

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It was envisioned that contacting the main blog authors of blogs about the Bahá’í Faith,

would help with identifying what factors affect the blog messages reach, to aid with

documenting the MNBR’s archive, though this process initially seemed challenging. As

contacting this group of worldwide campaigners by; telephone, post or even questions

in e-mails was impractical. As the survey suffers from problems with; dishonesty,

respondent mistakes, sampling and the ambiguity of questions (Berger: 2000).

It seemed like the online survey route was not only the approach with a good balance of

advantages and disadvantages. It was relatively easy to use the contacts with; Bahá’í

institutions, Facebook groups and ‘blogrolls’ (a set of blog links that a blog user likes)

to compile an e-mail list to send the online survey hyperlink. As well as the benefits to

research the Internet has in vastly eliminating time and costs, on the contrary it has also

increased people’s perceptions of ‘junk’ content to account for any unsolicited

communication on the web. While this was an issue the online survey approach

“…benefits from using the Internet and it’s variety of well established software and

Web hosts, which cater for survey creation and distribution.” (Ritter: 2007: xi). This

gave the survey host ‘Free Online Surveys’ some integrity for first time visitors.

The goals identified for using the online survey method at the planning stage, were to

understand the dynamics of blogs which cover the persecution of followers of the

Bahá’í Faith in Iran, by gaining an insight from the actual blog authors themselves.

Certain objectives which can be recognised with this topic which will form the basis of

questions are; to assess why they started using the blog method? To verify what online

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tools they use to make their blogs engaging (interactive)? To determine whether they

feel a sense of community? To identify where they turn to for their sources? Their own

examples of people taking action as a result of their blogs? As well as, whether this

form of communication encourages credible dialogue on the issue of human rights?

As an established practice surveys have a lot of literature on design, sampling,

execution and analysis which was helpful, though the most informative was

‘Conducting Online Surveys’ by Lois. A. Ritter (2007), as entering research online in

this niche area introduced more variables to take in to account. This ranged from how

to motivate people to fill in a survey which was presented on a ‘Web 1.0’ site, and if

they would feel comfortable about talking about their authorship of Bahá’í related

material. These concerns were addressed in the design of a very welcoming survey

which was forthright about the researcher’s work at the same time.

The demographics required for the survey were reflected on a particular practice of an

individual, rather then their background, this helped with the sampling process as the

response was representative of the closely knit Bahá’í blogging community, which

based on correspondence with official sources, were easy to contact leading to a

perceived research sample. Having said this, it is not without its concerns over

circulation to the specific blogging community, however it could only work with what

contacts were available, and in some instances bloggers were not approachable for their

own safety and for the protection of the Baha'is.

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With the goals identified, the task of devising and testing the questionnaire was

troublesome, as it was sent to an academic researcher to gain feedback, as oppose to

giving it to an actual blogger who would resonate with the questions, but then miss an

opportunity in the actual research. Constructing meaningful questions which were well

thought out relied on relating to the purpose of implementing this method, which was to

gain insider knowledge from the bloggers that wasn’t visible from independently

interpreting their behavior. This caused questions to be largely qualitative with an open-

ended response; there still were a few quantitative questions to establish patterns, and to

set up some multiple choice question options to determine certain variables.

The presentation was very important, as the survey had to appeal to the bloggers as a

genuine research project. Figure 1.3 shows the title page to the online survey with the

header ‘Understanding blogs which cover the persecution of followers of the Bahá’í

Faith in Iran’. It uses an image, summary of the project, a link to an ethical procedure

form, contact details and a link to the researcher’s personal blog. All of which are

devices attracting the bloggers to take part in the research (Ritter: 2007). Once a

participant would scroll down from the title page, they would reach the sixteen

questions (a full script is listed in the appendix) and as a result they would be agreeing

to the terms and conditions of the research. Generally the creation of the survey online

proved to be useful as modifications to the design of the page and crucially the

questions was instantaneous. After the survey was launched it was agreed not to make

any more amendments unless it was serious, as this would interrupt the flow of

completed responses and change the implications of the results.

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(Fig 1.3)

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Looking at a blog:

In this section the methodology behind the MNBR archive analysis will be covered. As

the Internet is vastly dominated by the latest generation of blog platforms, social

networks and even micro-blogging services (abridged blogs popularised by Twitter),

the process of finding and engaging with blogs is developing. To gain a complete

picture of a blog one can begin by consulting with various third-party websites which

try to interpret blog dynamics through complex statistics, though what is the most

practical in terms of sourcing is going directly to archived content.

If someone wants to start a blog from scratch, it is both a free and relatively fast

process, with the most popular content management systems (BCMS) being; Live

Journal, Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad and Xanga (Hookway: 2008). From an

immediate scan of the main service providers it is easy to distinguish which sites cater

for more ‘diary’ based blogging i.e. Live Journal which consists of arbitrary personal

updates mainly operating closed networks, as oppose to Wordpress or Blogger which

contains styles of writers who have a level of consistent reportage on specific news

items in more open networks. Since the latter is inline with the research, general

searches on Wordpress and Blogger for the keywords ‘Baha'i’, ‘Iran’ and ‘Human

rights’ returned around one hundred and fifty results with a handful of sites which kept

on recurring as the criteria was refined, and from this the main community of bloggers

which interacted with the MNBR were shortlisted.

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Technorati, the web’s biggest blog directory enables users to freely submit their blog to

be indexed and online activity to be collected and presented, this served as a useful

point to cross reference a blog from an individual host to a multi purpose network to

judge its scope (Hookway: 2008). As of the 29th January 2009 Technorati ranked

MNBR 140,502 out of the millions of blogs it lists, which makes it one of the highest

ranked Bahá’í orientated blog. This can be attributed to its team of contributors and

fans which promote it across various outlets on the web including social networking

sites, and also the relation it has to Mideasyouth.com its highly topical ‘parent’ website.

The set of research related blogs identified and used in the e-mail list to distribute the

online questionnaire (see results) are important to the study’s understanding in two

ways; firstly they are consistently highly ranked blogs in user returned search results,

secondly to some extent they all communicate between each other in the strategy of

their blogs. As mentioned in the introduction out of this core, one of these blogs serves

as the main focus of research which is the Muslin Network for Baha'i Rights (MNBR),

this particular blog has been presented as the primary blog for a number of reasons. To

an outsider of the community of bloggers on the Bahá’í persecution, they may not

distinguish between sympathisers from representatives at a first glance, as the majority

of blogs online produce posts which criticise the plight of the Bahá’ís discrimination in

Iran, excluding the odd profanity found by hate groups.

This gives a sense, that whether or not the author was a Bahá’í or not, seemed not so

significant in this instance, what was more compelling were the online discussions

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arising on a matter seldom voiced. Regardless of this, for good practice this factor of

subjectivity did not go unnoticed in the sampling and selection process, as the MNBR

adds an interesting example in the research, as although its blog is campaigning for

Bahá’í rights, it is surprisingly from a relatively neutral camp. It was started by Esra'a

al-Shafei, a liberal student from Bahrain who campaigns for the rights of minorities, she

writes for the Baha’i Rights blog, which has been produced as part of a collective of

forward thinking Muslim youth under the umbrella of the ‘Mideast Youth Network’.

An association that describes itself as “a student-owned independent network that

promotes constructive dialogue and understanding within the Middle East and North

Africa.” (Website) A description for an online network given authority by features in

podcasts on; BBC Radio 5 (Vallance: 2007), and the Berkman Center for Internet and

Society at Harvard University (Harvard Online: 2009).

The MNBR is a noteworthy online media outlet representing a region which is

portrayed as bitterly opposed to such ideals as freedom and coexistence of religious

minorities. This represents a rather bizarre occurrence of events, as many

misconceptions relate to the circumstances in Iran, which argue that because the Islamic

authorities denounce the Bahá’í Faith ideologically and persecute them, then as a result

the two entire religious groups are in conflict with each other in any social context,

which as the MNBR illustrates is a falsity. Bahairights.org (MNBR) users come from

the following countries: United States 35.3%, Egypt 6.3% and other countries 58.4%

(Alexa Online: 2008). These demographics suggest that although it is a Middle Eastern

blog which has users from Iran and Egypt (the two main countries it reports on), it is

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also dominated by Western viewers in the traffic it receives, these statistics also made a

contributing factor in the choice of this blog as it clearly has a diverse readership.

Iinitial research in to the MNBR blog archive started before the data collection stage,

and involved monitoring the blogging community by using an ‘RSS’ aggregator called

‘News Gator’ see figure 1.4. This ‘really simple syndication’ or blog content feed

allows a blog’s updates to be conveniently monitored remotely on the Internet in the

form of alerts (Mishne et al: 2006). In doing so, emerging activity in the individual

main blogs were watched, as well as a general Google News keyword searches across

the whole web, this allowed the researcher to stay updated with any breaking stories

which would shift the type and focus of research. This convenience of being informed

of updates, in practical terms allowed the researcher to not only be free from the burden

of periodically visiting the MNBR blog to check activity, but also by using the same

RSS technology one can keep an eye on blogs using a mobile telephone device.

(Fig 1.4)

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The first stage of the data collection began examining the MNBR which although has

been individually designed, it is hosted on the widely used open-source blog platform

Wordpress. This stage involved an examination of all the posts which relate to the

human rights of Bahá’ís in Iran, including the archived posts beginning in January 14th

2008 until December 30th 2008, that is all those that were put in the category of ‘Iran’

by the posts creators see figure 1.5.

(Fig 1.5)

The criteria was set based on feedback from the survey to; indentify sources by reading

the text to highlight the different blogs or websites used in the body of the blog post,

recording what the origins of users who left comments were, also the multimedia that

was counted with a note on the; images, video and audio included in the posts. These

factors all helped to build a picture of how interactive a blog post is and its potential

channels, such a method entailed systematically working through the archive and

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recording each post to access how tangible the activity on the blog was and be able to

then illustrate examples which showed a reasonably level of interactivity. Typically

each entry would be recorded in tabular form similar to figure 1.6; this extracts archival

data such as the posts number (from the date range chosen) the date it was published

and the title of the blog post. It then has headings for the classification of the aspects of

the blog posts; these have been informed by common responses in the survey (see

results).

To illustrate how these tackle key concerns of this empirical study the example of ‘blog

post one’ will be commented on, in this item the MNBR uses one online news source in

their blog post which is the liberal website the Iranian.com, it is tied to their values of

uncovering and presenting a progressive portrayal of Iran. As the blog post’s other

interactions are observed they divulge how they make three references back to the

online news source in the body of the text used for consistency, while additionally

Wikipedia and a YouTube video were used as well as three links to other bloggers.

These are trails of a strategy which uses new media to enhance news reporting and

encourages others to join the MNBR camp. The interactivity is thus assessed by these

headings, and relates to the aims as stated in the introduction which is participation; to

address a specific concern, attract others to discuss it, use a variety of multimedia and

whether other channels report on the content.

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 Blog post: 1 Source(s) of Links Links
article (to websites) (to blogs)
Date: 14/01/08
1 - Iranian.com 1-3 – To source 1 – HR blogger
Title: Sacrificing 2 – Egypt rights
the innocent (Online news site, 4 – To Wikipedia 3 – Iran Press
reports house Watch
arrests) 5 – To Youtube

Post categories Multimedia Social

bookmarks
History, Human Rights, Video – Additional video Available
Iran, Persecution, was added / hosted on
Translations Youtube

(Fig 1.6)

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Chapter four

And the survey says?

An outline of the results and findings of the applied methods will be shown and

grouped according to their relevancy, where appropriate several salient examples from

the results will be highlighted. To begin with after launching the online survey for one

and a half months, a total of eleven responses were gained from the promotion of the

survey link, it was primarily distributed by a group e-mail list to twenty bloggers. The

survey platform FreeOnlineSurveys.com provided a useful option of e-mail updates

whenever a participant had completed the questions, this would inform the researcher

by summarising the results. The server would create a database of the findings and

immediately draw comparisons, and allow options for extracting the data from the

results to create charts and graphs.

As the level of participation to this part of the research was well within the aims of the

project, the survey was suspended, and at the analysis stage work began to draw a

partial picture of what the Bahá’í blogosphere looks like, to inform the bulk of the

research. Whilst endeavoring to practice attention to detail at the design stage, a lot of

the questions avoided giving completely misleading and unclear results, although there

were a couple of instances where the questions could have been worded more carefully,

leading to misunderstanding, resulting in a user skipping a question or giving a vague

answer.

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When individuals completed the survey they were clearly informed that it was

anonymous, the service provider was set up so it would not track visitors IP (Internet

Provider) addresses, for reasons of privacy discussed in the ethical portion of the cover

page of the survey. Also in keeping with this, the questions deliberately avoided

personal probing, the only question which was identifying was the first one ‘Are you a

member of the Bahá’í community?’ This had the options of ‘yes’ ‘other’ and ‘I’d rather

not disclose’, the results showed that all of those who had contributed were allegedly

from the Bahá’í community, even though a handful of non-Bahá’í bloggers were

targeted for the research. This may reflect fears from activists who would rather say

they were ‘Bahá’í’ then identify their own cause i.e. Muslims who are safeguarding the

Bahá’ís on an issue of harassment which is carried out in the name of ‘Islam’.

Now the overall significance of the findings will be discussed in relation to the survey

questions; firstly the individual usage will be looked at, then the format of blogs and

this is followed by questions regarding impact. It was revealed from questions

surrounding the individual usage that out of these eleven responses, around seven of

them claimed to have not been working in the area of human rights before they became

bloggers. This reflects the nature of the amateur side of blogging, as many had been

writing for less then six months, though this does not necessarily diminish their efforts.

Being actively engaged with blogs led them to report, that weekly they would spend at

least just under an hour a day reading blogs, with a couple noting that they spent

significantly more then this and one a lot less. This is telling of the nature of news

online as like the researcher, one has to constantly monitor the web’s sources, for

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stories to be accurate. In many ways this makes this online public sphere more current

then any news agency or human rights organisations could be, as bloggers extract

various sources which form some of the most breaking news stories their is.

In regards to the their choice of the medium of blogging as oppose to more traditional

media, the consensus were replying that it is an easy and fast service that gives ‘a voice

and engages in dialogue.’ Also it was noted how the personal aspect of this which the

diary form of blogging gives, is a motivational factor, as bloggers like to publish their

own take on the news. This shows how within the realms of intimacy of the actual

producers themselves, the ramifications of personal opinion may not be fully grasped in

relation to whether this creates meaningful (in terms of established activism in human

rights) interactions or one’s which are misguided. Question six asked what sources are

used in the blogs for informing news stories; half of them report that they cite ‘The

Bahá’í World News Service’, news sites or blogs of activists such as the MNBR

similarly Iran Press Watch (IPW) was another major source but had only been

established recently.

These revealing and valuable insights lead to the MNBR being chosen as the focus, as

it was clearly favored by the community as a regularly updated source of information.

A quarter stated that they rely on a mix of ‘Google Alerts’, friends emailing news and

actual newspaper stories as additional sources. This can show how while they overlap

there are two types of bloggers; those commenting on stories from traditional news

sources and the corroboration of public perceptions, contrasted with those who rely on

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new media and independent journalism to create a picture of the persecution.

Now the results of the format of the blogs will be discussed, in question seven

(figure.1.7) it was asked: ‘what multimedia do you commonly use in blog posts to

supplement a news story on the persecution of the Bahá’í?’ ‘A’ which represent video,

and ‘B’ image content together formed the largest contribution to blog posts, with uses

of satirical cartoons ‘E’ in blog posts, also being listed four times, no one showed a lack

of common usage of multimedia. As images and video were perceived as tools to

encourage interaction, this finding can indentify that bloggers feel the need to utilise

multimedia to advance the visual aesthetic of blogs as if they cease to, their message

may not be that appealing to viewers.

(Fig 1.7)

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This is not to suggest desensitisation to human rights but rather to conventional news

reporting which normally contains lengthy columns of text. In another closely related

query regarding the tools used for promotion of blog content, 18% of the possible

choices were for the option of sharing their blog with their friends and contacts. Other

major choices were listings in the blog directory Technorati, RSS feeds and search

engine optimisation. This is a an eye-opener in regards to the way that ‘word of mouth’

is still used, even with the onset of advanced ‘Web 2.0’ tools of promotion, which in a

way enhance the means of peer to peer communication. On average a quarter of the

people found that user interaction with their blogs was generally through someone

citing their blog, leaving comments was the most popular and is the most direct

communication channel.

Comments on blogs are susceptible to spam and malicious attacks directed at the

blogger’s content, though this was not the case with this blog as it was non-commercial

and well maintained. There is a correlation between the blog content and the amount of

comments it receives, and analysis of the Bahá’í persecution online relates to what

Trevino (2005) observes, that blog authors are motivated by the direct feedback that

comments can give. Whilst Mishne (2006) recognises that the exchanges in comments

are overlooked, in studies which primarily focus on a blog post’s content.

When assessing the use of blogs as a channel of communication on the topic of human

rights, the advantages and disadvantages were explored. Question thirteen was looking

for specific accounts of blog posts which have sparked reactions from other people to

take action against the Bahá’í persecution, while two people expressed that people have

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e-mailed their posts quite widely before, many express no such instances with only the

minority having concrete examples such as; collaborating with CNN, Media Shift and

informing Bahá’í institutions. This suggests that apart from the odd major feature, most

of the effects of people taking action as a result of a blog occurs between bloggers.

(Fig 1.8)

Now the questions regarding impact will be uncovered, in figure 1.8 it is illustrated that

no one had any rejections to blogs being viewed as credible news sources, with all the

results indicating that people were split according to whether they felt that lack of

credibility was not true or that they were impartial to the line of questioning. Digging

deeper in to whether or not blogs are made by amateurs, it was asked if they aid

freedom of expression by being a tool to cover news affecting Iranian Baha'is. A

substantial answer was gained by one author saying that: ‘Democratisation of

publishing has always been a force in furthering awareness. While broadsheets and

pamphlets may have been the tools of the past, fuelling revolutions and sparking

discussion and debate, the internet has birthed an even more dramatically democratised

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media, giving voices to those who previously had none.’ This taps in to the broader

debates of this research regarding shifts in media, and suggests that bloggers are

internalising democratisation in their work.

This rather personal account of the blogging community gave a considerable amount of

leverage in looking at the MNBR and positioning it within this international

neighbourhood of bloggers, in each ‘street’ these ‘locals’ may swing from the

occasional personalised coverage, to at times a more systematic one, though through

their regular contact with each other (boosted by new media channels) they form a

cohesive force of resistance against repressive ideals.

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Inside the archive of a blog:

Now the research which followed the survey specifically applying this knowledge in to

a framework to look at the interactivity of the MNBR will be summarised. Having

found from the survey that the MNBR blog was used as a significant resource for

presenting news from Iran on the Bahá’í persecution, it was then analysed paying close

attention to its relation to the different channels of communication. Particular attention

was made to video and image content as it was previously flagged in the survey as

being used significantly amongst bloggers, also the comment section (which is found at

the bottom of a blog post) was identified as crucial to determine what types of networks

of people who read the posts came from.

This is useful if someone who left a comment turned out to be another blogger, who

had re-posted the story. These in turn would make up a representation of the blogs

sense of interactivity and give some space for interpretation of its popularity, which can

reflect on how credible it is as a news source, this is disputed by Ulicny (2005) but still

remains a widely used method (that Technorati uses) for determining what blogs are

‘worthwhile’.

When exploring the content in fifty-four blog posts, a significant insight was gained in

to the MNBR blog, it should be noted that the category ‘Iran’ was excluded from the

summary of the results as it was used as part of the selection process of the posts in the

first place, thus occurring in all of the results. Also all of the posts in the archived

content provided e-mail sharing and distribution to social-networking bookmarks by

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default. As a starting point looking at the framework of the research of the primary

group of bloggers figure 1.9 can show the different relationships of the channels of

news sites, and blogs which interact with the MNBR.

The level of activity based upon the dynamics gained from the descriptions provided by

the online survey, makes the MNBR blog appear to have a central role in distributing

news on the persecution of the Baha'is to its range of Middle Eastern, European and

North American audiences. When a story is published on the Internet, it can take the

form of an official press release by the Bahá’í International Community, a human rights

organisation or an insider tip from a blogger, in any case the community of bloggers

modifies the content in their own way and play an integral role in distribution. This in

turns makes their own miniature map; it is observed how the MNBR becomes a

valuable democratic and central player in this area, as it is a well known independent

Middle Eastern commentator on the Bahá’í issue, and an avid user of multimedia to

harness exposure to human rights.

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 (BWNS) Bahá'í World News Service: A news story is
The Bahá'í International Community’s official news source that
posted about human
provides; reports and press releases on current Bahá’í activity
rights in Iran
around the world.

http://news.bahai.org/

Story is picked up by
The Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights (MNBR): Bahai Rights on the
mistreatment of
A Liberal Muslim blog about the rights of Baha’is from Bahá’ís.
a non Bahá’í perspective, raising awareness of the issue
and producing viral content such as YouTube videos and cartoon It is blogged about
satire, the blog is an initiative of the Middle East Youth Network. within their network.
http://www.bahairights.org/

Also they produce a

video on Youtube to
raise awareness.
Baha'i faith in Egypt & Iran:

An Egyptian Bahá’í who focuses on covering the issue

of human rights in Egypt and Iran, regularly documenting
and adding commentary on newspaper and TV coverage. The Egypt & Iran blog
sees the video and
blogs about it.
http://www.bahai-egypt.org/

Barnabas Quotidianus:
Barnabas Quotidianus
The personal blog of Barney Leith, an English Bahá’í and sees the post about
a representative of the UK national spiritual assembly, the the video and
blog regularly reports on the situation of the Baha’is in Iran. mentions it on his
blog.
http://www.leithjb.net/blog/

Also at each stage comments are In turn other blogs

exchanged back and forth about the pick up the story and
blog posts, this is alongside repost and access the
additional links and multimedia channel at different
content. stages, adding and
opening up more flows
each time.

(Fig 1.9)

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In the MNBR the documentation found it had used a total of fifty four sources in the

blog posts recorded, which meant that out of all the entries looked at only one did not

cite any source for the basis of its news, while another had more then one which

balanced out this figure to represent the same number of posts selected. Apart from the

one post with no clear reference, the blog had done well to provide a source for each

post rather then posting material haphazardly, though this does indicate that its main

function is not to provide well grounded journalism rather to form a repository of

stories related to the Bahá’ís using various sources.

The news sources varied with many of the online news sites being only featured once,

across a large range of; Arabic / Persian language, North American and European

online news edition websites. Largely, this showed that stories were followed and

presented on the blog as and when different news agencies happen to report on the

Bahá’ís in Iran. Only two blogs were used as the main sources of posts such as ‘Iran

Press Watch’ (which is a blog by an Iranian scholar who provides regular translations

of the Iran’s media’s coverage of the Bahá’í Faith), with the more established news

sites being frequently used such as; the ‘Bahá'í World News Service’ and ‘Human

Rights Activists in Iran’. Mideast Youth Media (Censeo or MEY TV) was an outlet

producing comics and other viral media for the MNBR blog.

When observing how the MNBR links between different mediums on the internet, it

was gathered that over half of all outbound hyperlinks relate directly to the source of

the item posted, either as a direct reference to the article or to the webpages hompage.

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This occurrence of letting people only leave the site to trace an article, gives a sense of

how careful the MNBR are to avoid visitors tuning out of their network which can be

counter productive to maintaining an environment which relies on rapport. To

supplement the main sources links were also made to additional points of comparison

and angles by the use of Wikipedia, Facebook groups, translations of documents and

other news websites.

As well as the news sites that the MNBR linked to, thirty five blogs were attributed to

in the body of all the posts combined, with around half of this being tactical

organisational threads leading to previous MNBR posts. This was used when a news

item was developing over time, such as the instance of a string of arsons against Bahá’í

homes (29/02/08 - 19/07/08) in which several reports unfolded over the course of

months, to recap the situation an internal link to related stories were added in the text of

the blog posts. The remainder of links to blogs in the posts were either acknowledging

related blog posts as a source or commentator on the issue such as ‘Iran Press Watch’.

The comments were unravelled for a general view of their messages, while reading

over their opinions to establish their integrity; sources were traced to reveal patterns to

the conversations of this online community. Comments took on the role of being the

first point of call a reader has with the author, and a textual forum for civic

engagement. Only one instance of a ‘malicious’ comment was found where an

individual questioned the validity of the faith of the persecuted minority, it is perceived

that administrator moderation and clear disclaimers have resulted in other comments

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being removed and many being discouraged. In an interview with one of the admins of

the blog, they reveal that they get most of the abuse sent to them directly (Etling: 2009).

It can be estimated from the results gained that on average each post received two or

more user comments from visitors to the MNBR blog, out of this 80% were

‘anonymous’ this is classified as those who provide some sort of name or pseudonym

but do not provide a regular link to their website when commenting. It is not that

surprising given the controversial nature of this blog and its exposure to authoritarian

societies, that people conceal their identity, though this does not deter a considerable

amount of people who put themselves in danger when engaging in such dialogue.

One in ten of the comments can be identified as other blog users reacting to the news

items with their thoughts, this is fewer then expected, and when it occurs they usually

offer more information as the news progresses or general moral support. A couple of

regular posters were a Wikipedia (online encyclopaedia) user and a book author who

had works available on Amazon, the former is a useful commenter as they can

influence stories by editing online Bahá’í ‘Wikis’ related to the persecution based on

news brought to their attention by the MNBR.

In terms of multimedia despite the assumption that this is used regularly on blogs to

illustrate points and make the design and layout of stories more attractive and in some

cases more distributable, what was gathered from the archive of the MNBR was that a

huge media presence was not apparent in the construct of an average blog post. With no

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single use of just audio, in the case of images twenty two instances were found across

all of the posts which were taken directly from the article that was used as a source,

apart from the odd original political comic made by Censeo (the Mideast Youth

Network’s illustrator) and slideshows of pictures sent in by eye-witnesses. The rest of

the pictures mirror a simple reproduction style of postings, quoting a news articles text

with their original images to illustrate a point.

The only more substantial use of media and what has popularised the MNBR online,

was the use of viral video content, this engaged with different networks on the Internet

while being in some cases produced by the MNBR as a way to draw people in and

share content with their friends on social networks. Just fewer than ten percent of the

fifty four blogs posts selected, had used original or cited video content in their posts,

which is a considerable amount.

All in all ninety uses of categories within posts were used, this helps with indexing

when searching the blog, archiving and also for external sites which generate the topic

area of a site e.g. Technorati would categorise a blog with the types of topics that it tags

itself with. This ranged from; history, interfaith, religious freedom, arson, human rights

and recent news. With the most popular tag being ‘human rights’ used twenty eight

times, along with ‘persecution’ and ‘education’. Some lacked consistency, this meant

that similar areas where not grouped as they had been in the past such as issues relating

to a ‘comic’ which was only labelled once out of the many posts which featured

comics.

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This can lead to some users not finding all of the appropriate content they want. In the

occurrences of trackbacks (a way of seeing which blog users are linking back to the

MNBR blog in their own posts) eighteen were noted, which shows interactivity but not

on a large scale, some of this can be accounted for by users not citing the MNBR

directly. A large portion of communication between various publics was rather

sporadic, apart from some peaks and drops relating to certain headlines, chronologically

as the posts featured less input from the MNBR in editorial terms, the less comments

and trackbacks were found, which indicate a decline in interactivity. The following

segment of the results will illustrate some of the notable interactions whilst noting any

exceptions to this behaviour.

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Mapping interactions:

(Fig 2.0)

From the results gathered in the archived posts, it is increasingly difficult to get a clear

understanding of the circumstances surrounding human rights on the web when the

stories are ongoing and data hard to grasp. Visual maps were created to gain a new

view of an individual part of the networks in action. After reviewing the results as a

whole, three particularly vivid examples of interactivity in the MNBR blog posts have

been selected, these illustrate clear channels of communication intersecting the blog in

their account of the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran. Following on from the concept

of Kelly’s (2008) maps of the Iranian blogosphere (mentioned previously in the

methodology) this approach was modified at a more fundamental level, attempting to

visualise what interactions took place in the environment of a blog post.

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A useful diagram from Wynants (2006) shown above in figure 2.0 gives a precise

annotation of the networks in blogs, as the ‘blog data source’ shows they are

intrinsically linked to the media and data they combine in their sources, which create

other avenues of communication in themselves. Wynants places the emphasis on the

user, who has the underlying control to take this content and redistribute it. He seems to

overlook the level in which this process has a duality of ‘prosumption’, with the creator

and user contributing in almost equal measure to the interactivity of content, which is

what the interactive maps in this research stress and take in to consideration.

The first case in the MNBR, is in a post (blog post five in the research documentation)

titled ‘Persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran dated’ April 21st, 2008 mapped in figure 2.1. In

this instance the MNBR provide a summary of the persecution in Iran, relating

specifically to the period following the 1979 Islamic revolution, when arrests and

executions were widespread events. The MNBR cover the story based on their own

adapted source which is taken from a report on the American television news network

ABC, aired originally in 1983, this was uploaded to Google Video on April 07th, 2007.

To make this video known to the world, in the main part of the post they have

acknowledged the video, and have translated it in to Arabic by adding subtitles

to 'promote dialogue' with Middle Eastern countries.

Although this video is quite dated and its style holds many biases towards Islam (even

given the situation of the Bahá’í), the re-emergence of worrying government policies in

recent times, still makes it as relevant today to the intensity of attacks faced after the

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1979 Islamic revolution. This type of media usage can be referred to as ‘collaborative

remixability’ where information is shared and can be modified to convey a whole set of

new ideas (Manovich in Dybward: 2005). This then translated and edited version of the

original news piece which was already hosted on Google's video sharing networks, that

had a couple of comments on its page, has been independently hosted on 'MEY TV', a

separate media portal for Mideasyouth.com. A total of nine comments from various

channels were left on the post, they comprised of a couple of regular people who

comment, and some who have been drawn to this article and had reposted content, the

diagram shows the activities of the interactions within the post.

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(Fig 2.1)

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The second instance that will be illustrated is (blog post fifteen in the research

documentation) a post named ‘Persepolis 2: Safeguard the Innocent’ published on the

MNBR on August 15th, 2008 shown in figure 2.2. It is one of the most popular blog

posts on the site, and has been featured on different; podcasts, news items and

interviews about the MNBR as a prime example of unique communication online. Its

main article describes the historic nature of the video, which is the main source. It is

based on the internationally well-received cartoon film called ‘Persepolis’ (2007), it’s

about a young Iranian girl that grows up amidst the Islamic Revolution. The title itself

is the name of an ancient Persian city, which is believed to be the same rich ancestry in

which an early form of human rights was first written over two thousand years ago by

Cyrus the Great.

In this commentary of events in the blog post, the point is made to remix this now

popularised cinematic story of repression, with the themes of the current persecution of

the Bahá’ís. Scenes from the film are adapted and cut together with different text to

form a trailer, which is dubbed with a narrative talking about the Bahá’í plight in an

emotive way. The rest of the text in the blog post includes copyright issues justifying

that the video complies with a Creative Commons licence which is an online legal

agreement. The article goes on to list numerous hyperlinks within the blogs own

network for people to learn about and take action on the issue after viewing the video,

suggesting that the MNBR conceived that this ‘intertextual’ publicity stunt would

attract first time viewers to the blog.

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The trailer is hosted on the ‘MEY TV’ network but it was initially hosted on Youtube

and has received twenty seven thousand views and over eighty five comments at the

time of writing. Youtube is infamous for spam and offensive responses; regardless of

this it still makes this content a viral video in Internet terms. On the MNBR its own

direct comments number twenty two, with a variety of bloggers leaving messages

which trace back to their own site, which often re-post the story and there are

considerable messages of appreciation left. A real sense of broader community

engagement is made with this post, resulting in users forwarding their own links to

similar content and one response is left in Arabic itself showing the scale of the

readership as noted in the diagram with international bloggers engaging with this story.

Through dissecting the chain of comments, it shows in this case a four stage process

with; one the initial post, second the ‘Bahá’í Faith in Egypt and Iran’ blog’s direct

comment on the post, three the same user’s reposting of the content on their blog and

four another user reposting the story for the second time as a result of this. This of

course is just one flow streaming from a single comment, others create different

patterns and as a whole they from a larger picture.

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(Fig 2.2)

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The third and final example is not as vivid as the previous cases, rather it reveals what

the other part of the research had found in the majority of the research documentation,

that the MNBR seemed to show a decrease in comments over time and one factor that

may be playing a role in this is the way articles were becoming more of a re-printing or

‘aggregator’ (like a manual RSS feed) service rather then adding additional journalistic

views. This is shown in the post ‘Offices of Shirin Ebadi raided’ (blog post 51 in the

research documentation) released on December 21st, 2008 illustrated in figure 2.3.

To allow room for some scope to look at the whole picture, it has been presented in

conjunction with major developments relating to the post which have emerged in early

2009. It deals with news from Iran that prominent human rights lawyer and Nobel

Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi (who defends the Bahá’ís), has faced a rise in attacks

against her office in Tehran. This was brought to attention when her offices were

raided, papers were ceased and her work was subsequently monitored by the state. She

has been targeted as she is viewed as ‘Western’ in her outlook by advocating women’s

rights and those of minorities.

The article by the MNBR sourced Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an online radio

news site which featured Ebadi’s story. This time the MNBR has little original content,

but covers a major story and in doing so has trackbacks in the form of comments,

which show how the MNBR have cited this entry in later editions as the story has

progressed over time. The updated events of this post relate specifically to the ongoing

trial of seven Bahá’í leaders in Iran who are being held in Iran’s iniquitous Evin prison,

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in February 2009 major broadcasters such as CNN and Channel 4 News picked up on

this story and have related it to Shirin Ebadi’s legal work, as she has offered legal aid to

these imprisoned men and women. Even if this initial blog post by the MNBR hasn’t

been that dynamic, other levels of communication in more traditional media have risen

since its arrival, due in part to the Internet’s ability to appeal around the world, and as

this research argues this relates to the overall interactivity that a blog’s impact has (seen

below in Wikipedia referencing the MNBR blog post).

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(Fig 2.3)

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What does this all mean?

In the discussion and presentation of the results, what is demonstrated is how the multi-

method approach has; firstly asked questions to bloggers, it then has used this to inform

documenting a blog and it has ended by using this data to produce visual maps which

address interactivity. The central line of questioning underpinning this research was to

gain an understanding of the medium of blogging by presenting and documenting a

small portion of the blogosphere that covers the scenario of the Bahá’í religious

minority in Iran, and to judge how interactive it is. To some extent these have all been

addressed in the results and a modest contribution to this area of research has been

provided, though some areas were overlooked and many obstacles were faced, which

will be unpacked.

To summarise the findings, it can be seen that the online survey provided to be useful,

it was not completed by large numbers but it was able to reach a respectable portion of

the active bloggers within the targeted community. The objectives set were to identify

the relationships between bloggers and other sources in creating their content, the

common traits of how they managed their postings and how they address human rights

in their work. Since these questions gained a high level of detailed responses it was

deemed they were inclined to reveal this information, and in summary can be seen to

address the following three main points. First of all the bloggers themselves varied in

experience and background but all were united in their sympathy and a general

consensus that blogging was a credible and easy way to promote their cause. Secondly,

producing news relied on personal ties with bloggers and monitoring the Internet for

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possible leads, this network was greatly involved in such actions and had impacted

various media outlets at different stages. Thirdly for their efforts to be shared, they

needed to regularly contribute using all avenues of promotion, assisted by keeping in

close contact with their subscribers.

The documenting of the MNBR blog archive was almost data collection in to uncharted

territory, as although there is guidance in this area, it doesn’t provide one single generic

suggestion for looking at a blog as a whole, especially its interactivity. This challenge

was met by using the survey to select a blog which stood out among the community,

this did allow for some interesting posts to be read and their communication to be

qualitatively recorded. But it still was such an ongoing active climate of exchanges,

which meant that consistency was hard to maintain.

The insights gained can be summarised to; first that a blog post on the MNBR about the

Bahá’ís in Iran is well structured and covers the news of the persecution by

systematically presenting stories from online news sites, non-governmental

organisations and first hand accounts with translations to and from English, Persian and

Arabic. Second it does not use blogs so much in its sourcing, but it is a landmark blog it

in its own right, being arguably the most effective blog which features on the Mideast

Youth Network, the MNBR channels are therefore more of a one way process, were

people commenting and sharing do so quite passively. Third this network’s posts

overall, appear much like bulletins with the occasional more revealing journal

approach, with the MNBR becoming an established resource, the only real interactivity

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and advocacy for the Bahá’ís comes in its remixed or original multimedia which

spreads widely.

The visual narratives shown with the interactivity maps go a step further from looking

at archive posts from the data side, and view how content on a blog flows by

illustrating each mode of interaction. It was narrowly focused, which on the one hand

gave a specific account of individual posts uniquely, on the other it did not give room

for taking a broader look at this network and to see how it links in with wider media on

the Internet, which initially was planned as area an area to explore in greater detail.

These charts revealed that a posts interactivity can be split in to a few categories; those

that utilised existing content and repackaged it to promote their agenda (Fig 2.1), one’s

which presented original content in an appeal supported by additional remixed media

which helped emphasise an issue (Fig 2.2) and the case of providing a reference point

on a poignant issue which would be influential enough to spark future coverage by

other media outlets (Fig 2.3). As a whole this gives a complex picture of the area of

study, with many parties creating the news; it reveals the scale to which the interactive

nature of blogging has helped excel itself forward as a viable and respectable medium

to communicate human rights.

Looking back at literature with these results at hand, the analysis has shown how

blogging is a remarkable avenue, with its affordances to create a space for debate which

reaches lively audiences. As to the lack of research outside of ‘open societies’, this

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proved to be a factor throughout the entire piece. This does not detract from the point

that there are plenty of examples out their, as the MNBR is part of network which has

other blogs which promote the human rights of other groups and causes such as Kurds

and honour killing victims. This is as well as blogs such as ‘Global Voices’ and

research in to bloggers in the somewhat restricted country of Belarus, Morozov (2007).

When viewing literature which dealt with human rights on the Internet, it did suggest

that information overload was an important aspect, this was interpreted in this case to

be slightly liberating with blogs tackling the overload by people creating new channels

of information.

However it was observed that due to the exponential rise of blogging this information

in itself was polluting the web, maybe not for the casual user but as the researcher

learnt the closer a community was observed, the more incoming stories became

increasingly daunting to keep up with in the research. The issue of the information

society and new media’s increasing participatory ways to cover human rights is seen at

different layers in the Bahá’í instance. Relating to Rebecca Blood’s description of blogs

as methods of media literacy and a place were minority voices flourish, the MNBR

does not gain from their blog as it is non-profit, the Bahá’ís are receiving multinational

coverage in some cases as the survey reveals, by people who have taken a leap from

citizen to journalist with little middle ground, leading towards largely positive affects

for their cause.

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Dean’s view of fetishism in this online culture has some standing, as news does become

commercial even at the grassroots level, with many instances of multimedia being

presented as entertainment to just consume. The other layer in this does show

interactivity occurring within this ‘new world’ at high levels, and this is an

improvement in the active engagement of audiences compared to a closely interwoven

previous generation which lacked empowerment. Tapscott sees this shift as generally

pleasing “Time online is not taken away from hanging out with your friends or talking

to your parents…It’s taking time away from television.” (Tapscott in Meckbach: 2008)

His words are in response to cynical views held by some agencies which view youth

who grow up in a ‘Web 2.0’ environment, as lacking social skills and creating

meaningless content.

The blogs in question are largely youth driven and credit Tapscott’s research, with a

highly accessible ring of blogs on the Internet covering intellectual topics, a setting

exists which offers room for engagement as well as passivity. This submissiveness

alternatively homes in on Keen’s contempt towards the ‘revolution’, which although is

not completely identified in the results, strands of his arguments can be seen. As no

matter how well perceived this research was and the examples of hope found online, it

must be considered how idealistic or essentially misleading this amateur activity may

be. Keen’s solution to the frenzy of new media outlets is that they cannot be stopped,

but one most also find a way to “preserve and balance traditional media at the same

time” (Keen: 2007:185).

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This is a fair point and traditional media as this study suggests is faltering in the process

of the integration of citizen reportage, although at a level of interaction seen

particularly in the MNBR maps, blogs are influencing more established institutions to

learn to adapt to survive this shift. Many online news websites now feature regular blog

columns, or make their stories interactive by adding easy links for their content to be

shared on ‘Web 2.0’ networks, and even give an option to directly repost the article

onto a user’s blog.

It is necessary to add a level of objectivity by acknowledging the problems with the

accuracy of the results and how representative it really is with the actual phenomenon

being explored. In all methods of the social sciences there are setbacks with the

approach, by choosing a qualitative direction from the beginning, this did cloud

judgement when extracting data, as blogs are already thought of subjective unreliable

diaries despite what some theorists and bloggers say themselves about their merits. By

tackling a very specialised topic area with little particular academic framework to draw

on which encompassed all aspects of the study, this did in many ways create a danger

zone of simply creating a method which would suite the ambiguous nature of the

research. New media and blogs are loosely defined terms, and distinguishing

‘conscious’ blogs from junk can be troublesome.

While every effort was made to relate to literature, the distribution of the online survey

and its intended focus was unconventional. As the survey took the role of an indirect

interview in many ways in its tone, intending to reveal logistical information from

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bloggers, also its small response wasn’t sufficient to make general assumptions about

the bloggers as a whole. In the archive of the MNBR, a period was chosen based on the

posts that spanned roughly the year of 2008 which were tagged as relating to ‘Iran’, this

may have left out mislabelled posts and in ideal circumstances the whole of the archive

would have been the focus, as well as doing the same process to each of the related

blogs as Hookway (2008) had done. If it had been practicable, it would give the study

much more standing rather then relying on a multi-method approach. As the

documentation was exploratory with only a hint of quantitative tallying, it would not

reproduce the exact same results if another research had tried to recreate the study,

mainly because a lot of interpretations had to be made to essentially explain the new

online ways people are speaking to each other about human rights.

The design of the interactive maps intended to use simple graphics to help record a lot

of the occurrences which were hard to word, though this did become quite simplistic. It

was used to only emphasise three examples in the results which were thought to have

stood out, this in retrospect should have consistently been done for every post in some

shape or form, as in unfortunate in a way as it is hard to really see which posts are good

instances of interactivity until they have been mapped out in some sort of diagram

form.

To enhance this research if it was revisited or a similar area was being planned, the

strengths and weaknesses of the piece can point towards developing a more thorough

methodology one which comprises clear online analysis of discussions depending on

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the aims; by using a content or discourse analysis of blogs, with actual fieldwork

involving interviewing new media producers or textual analysis of print media which

has covered the issue to contrast it with. This is because even if the study is specifically

dealing with virtual discourses, the online spheres can detract from understanding the

actual human social relations in the public sphere surrounding the Bahá’í persecution.

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Chapter five

Conclusions:

(Fig 2.4)

On February 25th 2009 Mideast Youth in association with the Muslim Network for

Bahá’í Rights blog, placed an article on their website shown in the above comic figure

2.4. It parodied the increased media attention surrounding seven Bahá’í leaders on trial

in Iran for alleged “Espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda

against the Islamic republic” (Times Online: 2009). This links to the interactive map

which deals with lawyer Shirin Ebadi who defends the Bahá’ís (blog post 51 in the

research documentation) which was the side story building up to the increased media

coverage around the court case. This is mentioned to show how diverse and animated

some blogs are in taking the issue of human rights (in this case the Baha'is in Iran) to

new and clearly significant heights in online discourses.

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After conducting the examination of the small community of bloggers who provide

insights in to the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran, close attention to the Muslim

Network for Bahá’í rights and the individual bloggers own uses and practices of the

medium has produced interesting discoveries. This range from complimenting this

small effort in being able to present their case study, from how trivial and easily

outdated this information can be in a larger context and within long-established

methods of viewing communication in the social sciences.

To conclude, in examining the ability of weblogs to report on the Iranian Baha'is

persecution, this dissertation manages to find a blend of literature and methods to

demonstrate this area and does so in some innovative ways. It has presented what blogs

are as an online entity in relation to new media technologies, and this has been shown

with the history of the Bahá’í Faith and why Iran has targeted them. It is framed it

within Middle Eastern uses of media and the general background of censorship and

human rights violations, where blogs can potentially become vehicles for social change

and at the very least they open up new avenues for this process to manifest itself.

As a religious group Bahá’ís enjoy relative freedom around the world and exist quite

peacefully, this is excluding certain Islamic countries, best illustrated in Iran where

their activities are secretly monitored and University students expelled. While the

government create baseless charges aimed at unjustly persecuting this minority, their

state of affairs has remarkably won the Baha'is many sympathisers and representatives,

even the most unlikely candidates’ young Middle Eastern Muslim youth. They have

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unremittingly used blogging to advocate their rights, with this medium offering a tool

to accelerate this message further which was in many ways non existent to citizens

prior to new media advancements, and the potential influence of which is now more

widespread then human rights organisations that would circulate literature in the past.

Mideast Youth and the MNBR are adventurous, and use new media to create a rich

network, which although is not as participatory as first envisioned, they certainly have

the scope to offer the means to do this, attracting a varied audience and being closely

watched by Bahá’í institutions/organisations and a growing portion of mainstream

media. The MNBR blog functions as a greatly needed news resource for both people

close to the Bahá’ís, and those who are distant to become more connected through the

site’s ability to document a range of sources and promote the idealism of liberty in its

innovative multimedia.

A blogs format is effective in its ability in allowing anyone to broadcast their views, the

timeframe this can be done in and the options that allow for networking with like

minded people constantly relies on; adapting, reinventing and reshaping not just what

we know about a certain topic but also how can one express it to audiences in a

different way. Viral content relies on precisely this notion on convincing an audience

that they need to take on board a certain piece of information by transmitting the media

(which in itself is groundbreaking) in an appealing and accessible way.

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The extent to which blogs are interactive channels is evident in their ability to diversify

traditional news reporting and successfully utilise new technologies. However, as users

become active in these communities, a mixture of views emerge to whether this type of

behaviour is consistent and also if participation can become isolated from real

grassroots activism on human rights. Even if blogs are shown to be sources of online

interaction defending a minority, this has only be illustrated in a handful of studies with

the broader blogosphere being more about commercialisation of content, and

collaborative content for the most part being another form of consumption.

This study foresees based on its findings that because of blogging and its related

communicative attributes, the Bahá’í Faith will increasingly appear as a topic of interest

on the Internet and has done so to some extent already, it is the merits of blogging

which have guided these already visible patterns of growth. This is not to say that the

issue of Iranians being denied human rights is not newsworthy in its self, it is rather

that blogs have accelerated this because they are an all-encompassing medium. In the

Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights, a gateway is made between traditional press and

new media and also between largely democratic and undemocratic societies, with the

weblog forming the common ground to talk about human rights candidly.

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Appendices

Online survey:

1) Are you a member of the Bahá’í community?

Yes

I'd rather not disclose

No, Other (Please Specify):

2) How long have you been blogging/following blogs about the

issue of the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran?

3) Were you involved in writing/monitoring content on the issue of the

human rights of the Bahá’ís in Iran before you were using blogs?
Yes
No
Other (Please Specify):

4) To the nearest half-hour or hour, how much time did you spend reading
blogs last week?

5) As a blogger, why have you used this medium to express your views
as oppose to more traditional media?

6) What is the most common online news source(s) (other blogs included)
you have used for content in your blog posts on the persecution of the Bahá’ís of Iran?

7) What multimedia do you commonly use in blog posts to supplement a news

story on the persecution of the Bahá’í? Please indicate all that apply.

Video
Picture
Audio (speech)

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Audio (music)
Cartoon
Other:

8) Please indicate which Internet service(s) you utilise to promote the circulation
of your blog?

Technorati
Twitter updates
Tags
Categories
Digg
Delicious
Search engines
RSS Feed
Webring/or text ad network
Guest Blogging
Exchange links with other Bloggers
Promoting your Blog amongst your own friends and contacts
Other (Please Specify):

9) In your experience what is the most common instance of user interaction

with your blog?
Comments
Trackbacks (Someone linking to your blog post)
Sharing your post on a social network
Emailing the post
Subscribing to e-mail updates
RSS/Atom Subscription
Online press coverage on a news website (not a blog)
Other (Please Specify):

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10) In creating posts which draw attention to the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran,
have you ever experienced malicious comments on your blog?

Yes

No

11) As oppose to other channels of communication in your experience

what are a couple of advantages with using blogs to report on the issue of human rights?

12) As oppose to other channels of communication in your experience

what are a couple of disadvantages with using blogs to report on the issue of
human rights?

13) Is there a specific instance where a blogger/organisation/institution has taken

action to highlight the persecution of the Bahá’ís of Iran as a direct/indirect result
of content on your blog? If so please leave details.

14) Some people feel blogs lack credibility as a news source.

How do you respond to this statement?
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Neutral Agree Other (Please Specify):
Disagree Agree

15) It can be argued that despite the amateur nature of blogs, in the case
of the Bahá’ís in Iran blogs are helping to liberate the freedom of expression
of marginalised groups to some degree by disseminating current news on the
persecution. Do you agree or disagree with this statement and why?

16) How do you feel about the following statement? Through blogging an
online community is created that results in a sense of efficacy on the issue of the
persecution of the Bahá’ís of Iran.
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Neutral Agree Other (Please Specify):
Disagree Agree

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E-mail permission:

Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:20:12 +0300

From: ********
To: **********
Subject: Re: Afshin Rohani

Dear Afshin,

Thanks for contacting us! We do not mind you using our blog as a source for your
dissertation.

Good luck on your research.

Best,
Esra'a

November 14, 2008:

Your
Afshin Rohani
Name
Email *************
Website
Greetings,

I am doing my dissertation for my undergraduate in communication and

media studies, and my topic is on the communication channels of blogs
which cover the topic of the persecution of Baha'is.
Message
My aim is to analyze the content from a media point of view to see how the
online interactions of blogs work, for example how one blog post may
inform a news article and various discussions.

I was just wondering from an ethical point of view if you would mind me
basing some of my research on the public posts on your blog.

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Research blog:

A blog was created as a diary to accompany this dissertation and as an open a forum
on the internet during the course of the research, which serves to make sure the
work is current by informing members of the networks being studied of the
progress of the research.

http://afshinsresearch.wordpress.com/

Blog posts which have featured the researcher’s blog:

¾ Changing Times Blog – A blog communicating cutting edge Baha’i news from
around the world run by youth in conjunction with a European conference.

http://blog.changing-times.org/2008/12/dissertation-on-blogging-and-persecution-
of-the-bahais/

¾ Baha’i Views – The blog of George Wesley Dannell, a Baha’i who collects
clippings from blogs and websites on the Internet when people mention the Baha’i
faith, he often mentions the persecution and adds his own comments.

http://www.bahaiviews.net/2008/12/12/on-the-blogs-of-bahai-sympathisers-
representatives-impact-by-amateurs/

Ethics:

This thesis did not conduct any of its research before it had been approved to meet
Brunel University’s ethical guidelines, the research approach was accepted on 11/12/08
and a copy of the form can be gained from the dissertation supervisor.

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