The Internet and Social Media: Tools of Freedom or Tools of Oppression?

Pretty cool online video I saw today from here:
What an interesting discussion:

Featuring Christopher Preble, Director of Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute; Alexander Howard, Government 2.0 Washington, D.C., Correspondent, O'Reilly Media; and Tim Karr, Campaign Director, Free Press; moderated by Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies, Cato Institute.

Freedom movements around the world are using Twitter and Facebook to express dissent and to organize, particularly in the Middle East. It might be fair to say that the Internet is becoming the platform for political liberation. But the "just add Internet" thesis has its skeptics, who argue that, in fact, the Internet may give authoritarian governments the upper hand. Social media platforms are very amenable to government surveillance, and revolution doesn't come easy, online or off. Should lovers of freedom be saying "Internet FTW!" or is it one big "#InternetFAIL"?

Hawaii Pacific University Newspaper Censorship

The most interesting thing I learned this week was about how Social Media has helped free the people of Egypt. To help the readers of this blog understand why I value the 1st Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In the similar fashion that the US Government allows free speech, colleges and universities are supposed to be Marketplaces of Ideas to allow dissent and discussion and intellectual learning.

I will now go over the battle I had with the Hawaii  Pacific University administration in attempting to work towards a more journalistic based (and uncensored) student newspaper. 

If you are an audio learner, I documented the entire case up until December here on YouTube.

(Probably be easiest to listen to YouTube video and then if you want to learn more read some of the articles below).

Above you'll learn the whole history from start to now. Below you'll see the video of my speech that kicked off last years battle.

My public speech on YouTube to the HPU Student Government after giving up on trying to change HPU's newspaper:

It started with an HPU student covering what the Student Government and I were working on. A professional journalist wrote up this piece 

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Nov/22/ln/hawaii911220368.html

These two pieces got this published:

http://collegemediamatters.com/2009/12/02/hawaii-pacific-university-student-newspaper-a-beacon-for-censorship/

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2009/12/03/hawaii-pacific-reviews-censorship-claim.htm

University of Hawaii made wrote an article in our fight and they published this:

http://www.kaleo.org/hpu-students-should-be-given-chance-to-see-what-they-can-do-1.2084626?pagereq=2

HPU is private and so its legal to not allow students to write journalistic pieces but they should not. Because we are private, the administration was REALLY pissed off that we did this and especially that University of Hawaii's student paper attacked the administration because they are our biggest island competitor.

If you google “Kalamalama” it now says “KALAMALAMA: Hawai’i Pacific University’s Student Run Newspaper“ So they think if they say its ‘Student Run’ they can censor? -- They now have taken "Student" and now we have a "Hawai`i Pacific University Newspaper" 

The HPU administration helped edit the newspaper. Vice President of Academic Affairs John Kearns sat on the editorial board and approved what was written. 

After those articles were published in the community questioning the censorship the newspaper responded. VP Kearns emailed me before they wrote an article attacking us in our endeavor. Mr. Kearns asked me in an email if "This is me" and linked to an article that accused me of lying on a political campaign. Then they ran the article in which the HPU Newspaper advisor suggested students go to a website and read about my alleged involvement on campaign. For which many students thought that was Libel. Another student named Philip Shange wrote a article (not available online) because I believe someone made a call to the Honolulu Advertiser and had the paper pull the article from online, felt attacked in this article because the advisor said Philip lied about his reporting. This article attacking us is not available online and the advisor was later removed from being the advisor (Assuming because he wen't over the line).

Dave Bergen who graduated Fall 2009 published a response in Hawaii Reporter slamming HPU for its attack on students at his Alma Mater LINK or GOOGLE CACHE. 

Since then, I have started recording the administration at public forums and demanding they uncensor students. I uploaded my last question to Mr. Kearns but someone flagged it as a Privacy Violation. I'm not sure how YouTube can agree that video taping a public meeting for students assumes that leadership taking questions is "Private."

The administration has a also  told us if students host politicians, as we did with Former Congressman Charles Djou on campus, that they could not campaign. Ironically, when the Kalamalama, student journalists showed up to our forum with Mr. Djou, the first question they asked was "Why should students vote for you" -- Which I had to interupt and let them know, they were violating administrations orders to now allow Mr. Djou to 'campaign' which I strongly disagreed with. I have emails from this exchange with administration, including citations I got from theFire's website showing that clubs can have political activity's but their 'legal counsel' says otherwise.

Censorship goes against the priniciples in journalism and it shouldn't be at student newspapers. Egypt's young people are asking for their democratic rights, we want a voice in our education, otherwise our student journalism will just be public relations, for and by the university in the name of the journalism profession.

-Tim

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Tim Lussier is an award-winning champion debater for the Hawai`i Pacific University's Debate Society. 

He is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Communication and is currently serving as the Assistant Debate Coach for the HPU Debate Society. He earned his BSBA in Entrepreneurial Studies from Hawai`i Pacific University 

Why I Facebook?

Communication is involved in everything we do in life if we are not alone. Besides being one of the most important things to understand, communication is also highly fascinating. Communications 6910, Spring 2011 is a class I’m taking that discusses the new forms of digital communication that we are experiencing in the new millennium.

Let me share with you, a few ways and reasons I use Facebook.

Birthdays: People love to hear from you on your FaceBook. I try to go above and beyond when its someones Facebook and comment personally on their wall or even message them. For real good friends, I sent them a text or email. I only know its their Birthday because Facebook told me!

Pictures: how great is it to see someone’s latest trip to Maui. You can view dozens of pictures and comment and share your feedback. It’s lots of fun and rewarding for both people.

Email and Phone numbers: Both are easily accessible. If you are in someone’s friends list, you can easily get their phone or email number, which you might have lost or forgotten.

Networking: I use facebook to get to know people I might not already know. Classmates, friends of friends, members of groups I’m apart of. If they don’t like me, they can deny me or unfriend me, but most often I benefit and so they do and then I want to meet them in person.

Events: It’s real easy to get invited or hear about events on Facebook.

What I don’t use FaceBook for:

Farmville or any game app. I am too busy to have my life sucked away by useless applications and games like Farmville.