Global Voices today has an excellent interview with Danish researcher Caroline Nellemann, who has written her master thesis on the Iranian blogosphere. It is well worth a read, and I’m not only saying this because Caroline was my companion on my recent journey to Iran.
A little snippet from the interview:
I believe that blogs are a way of opposing prejudice. The blogosphere enables a pluralistic exchange of opinion and contributes to the eradication of prejudice. Most of the bloggers I talked to explained that they are participating in the blogosphere regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the blogs they read. This indicates that the blogosphere is not just a free-for-all for ideas, but at the same time promotes networking and allowing people to be better informed as well as more politically conscious citizens. Reading about everyday life in Iran and seeing pictures on a photo blog from Tehran might change a lot of Western idea about Iranian society. One of the Iranian bloggers I met developed a more nuanced view of the hejab after reading about women who actually wore it voluntarily.
However, the conclusion is realistic rather than optimistic. I think that if Caroline wrote her thesis again today, she would be more realistic (read: pessimistic) about the Iranian blogosphere’s potential for changing Iranian society. Some people read blogs, most don’t, and to cross from the virtual world to the real world is hard, especially when you live in a society with limited freedoms. Unfortunately the Iranian regime keeps a tight control on the Internet and on blogging, making it dangerous to take political action with blogs, and that is not going to change any time soon.
