"You'd be crazy to rely on Global Voices alone for your world news"

Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon, the founders of Global Voices, are the guests for today’s class at Harvard Law School in Internet, Law and Politics. 

– Ethan’s made clear that GV is a complement to mainstream media, and not a substitute.  “You’d be crazy,” he said, “to rely on Global Voices alone for your world news.”  Despite its rapid growth and early successes in its first 14 months, GV is a work-in-progress and one that supplements, not replaces, the news that is offered by other (professional) journalists and informal sources not rounded up on GV.

– Rebecca says that neither blogs nor Internet makes democracies stronger; “people make democracies stronger” and in some cases use technologies to get it done.

– Ethan says that the places where Internet — in the hands of the right users — can have a positive impact on democracy is in places where the media environment is relatively closed. 

– Ethan focuses also on Bridge Bloggers — Ory Okolloh, the Kenyan Pundit (and HLS ’05), and Mahmood of Bahrain — who write not just for a local audience, but for a global audience who are listening in to what’s happening in their home countries, as an example of making a particular difference through their work.

– Rebecca notes that while we are, in the US, focused on the US companies-in-China story, the real story that the Chinese blogosphere is paying attention to is the Steamed Bun Controversy (worth exploring, trust me).