the forces of freedom for long. this is my firm conviction that shall continue to guide me. this, the presidential medal of freedom shall serve to spur me on and to encourage me. mr. president, thank you for honoring me with this prestigious award. [applause] >> next, a discussion on the use of social media in connection with the arab political protest. then another chance to see some of the highlights from german chancellor angela merkel visit to washington d.c. this week.

tomorrow on "washington journal," "reporters roundtable on the 2012 campaign with political columnist charles hurt. karen elzey talks about president obama's expansion of booktraining, and kevin bucsho discusses the future of opec. "washington journal, live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. connect with c-span on line with the latest video on twitter, continuing conversations on facebook, political places in washington and beyond, and programming highlights on our youtube channel. c-span and social media, connect today. a discussion now on the role social media has played in the arab political uprisings in the middle east and how media such as facebook and twitter can be used as political organizing

tools here in the u.s. speakers include gillian york and comedian and blotter. it is about an hour. >> we have limited time so we would like to get the panel started. please have a seat. please have a seat, everybody. before restart, i want to get a quick show of hands. how many of you here have a twitter account that they use? we are trying to get the hash tag belling it -- going if you want to have a discussion on twitter. it is not necessary to turn off your cell phones. how many people here have a facebook account that they use?

mom, you have a facebook account. we have a little power point thing to come up. i don't know if it will be coming up, but it was an essential part of our discussion about social networking and media. before i get started with that, i want to introduce the speakers today. on my left is deanobeidallah. he is the founder of the new york arab-american, detestable which is in its eighth season. -- arab-american comedy festival which is in its eighth season.

she is a prolific blogger and has an incredible twitter account and is on the cutting edge of questions of those rights of social media users and online activism around the world. so we will have to make very interesting perspectives today. we wanted to start with referencing the thing a lot of people has been talking about which is what happened with the performance last night. we also felt that episode had very specific relevance to the idea of social networking. we want to remind you that an on-line newspaper, politico, is who broke the story about what happened.

we heard about it through e- mail, facebook, and twittered before the event started. adc came out to try to respond to this. this shows the power of social media to get these kind of stories out there and bring issues to the public eye that might not have been brought before. we can think about how social media works and apply it to adc development's for the future. we are going to share of four main ideas that have to do with social networking that we will structure our discussion around. the idea of wanted to throw at you is that in social

networking, everybody is connected to everybody else with facebook and twitter. there is a leveling effect in terms of how information flows. i can become a broadcaster. in the old days, major organizations like adc were the broadcasters through mailings and phone trees and things like that. in the new media era, we are all gatekeepers and we are all circulating information and ideas. this is a new media kind of logic and that's it is what drove us to find out about the story. i think the adc response so far has reflected an old media way of thinking. adc so far was built an area of top-down institutions where social media in a way of

information communication technology is all about networks. i just wanted to present the idea that there is a major fundamental, generational thing at play. it is our job to help abc move in the right direction which is the way of the future. all three of us receive a lot of messages from people who were concerned about what happened, so i wanted to give the opportunity to the panelists before get started to share their thoughts on it. also as a way to communicate the message to those people who decided not to come today. >> thank you for having me on this panel. this really is a social being media issue because it is on twitter and facebook that i learned about what happened.

it really was distressing for people in our community. it is the way people are communicating with each other. from a personal point of view, i am a comedian, expression is paramount. it is something i defend absolutely. it is is all about freedom that makes people uncomfortable. those too uncomfortable with the idea of freedom and arab countries, that is an issue to me. at the end of the day, being here is more important than boycotting. i am here to engage and speak to our friends who did not come. let's try to change things for the better.

. i know there are discussions behind the scenes. i like the idea of being here and working together with abc in the future. there are born to follow in b.c.. -- they are going to follow nbc. >> i was receiving a lot of messages. there has been a lot of online repression happening in the country. i have gotten all lot of messages. i came to the conclusion that coming here and talking about this would be a better way to address the situation, even as an outsider to the community >>

it during the question and answer period, we will ask for other viewpoints, but we want to shift the focus back on social networking media and what are the attributes of it and the risks of it that are important for us to think about. we wanted to structure the conversation around four main ideas and i will be announcing those ideas in sequence, and then inviting them to share their thoughts. the first is the idea of broadcasting, which i mentioned earlier. unlike phones, letters, audiotapes, social media allows us to communicate with many other people simultaneously. we are able to broadcast our ideas to a wider number of people at once. that is the first point i wanted you to be able to take away from this. jillian, my first question is about the arab uprising.

there has been a lot of talk about egypt being a facebook or to revolution. is that really the case? >> i think that attributing credit to the platform is ignoring a broader platform that it takes human power to make anything happen. it is not fair to say a facebook recorder revolution. to the point of broadcasting, that is where the tools were really affected. use of people pushing information out, witnessing with video and braque and images and projecting that out of the country. you also saw the triangulation with traditional media. you had al jazeera picking up social media and broadcasting back through satellite television. so you have an interesting facet to social media. maybe it is not as effective for organizing. the jury is still out on the organizing question, but in

terms of broadcasting, most people i've spoken to from tunisian and elsewhere agreed that the idea of witnessing a broadcasting and getting the attention from traditional media through social media really matters. >> is a stark difference from the era of state broadcasting. before satellite television, the government had the broadcasting power within society. dean, you mentioned earlier that there was a precursor to the arab revolution, the comedy uprising, i think you call that? >> the, the revolution. -- the comedy revolution. i saw it used to or three years earlier when it stand-up comedy started to flow through the middle east. high was one of the first canadians to go over and do it shows. there was not visual advertising

for this form of entertainment. in egypt, they had almost 4000 people come out to show, and it was all most all advertised on facebook. we use facebook and where a great deal. it was used to organize a whole yogurt generation of arabs in the middle east, not talking about politics and reform, just the idea of getting together to talk about the economy. now the young people are communicating with each other and doing comedy. the arab spring, to me, is not geographic. we are eating it here to empower each other. the arabs bring is a different mentality now. the world is changing.

it was amazing to see the young people their use its. young arabs are doing standup on their own. they are using facebook, twitter, and youtube to get their message out. it is more organic in the arab oral, stand-up comedy. >> you are not afraid of being overthrown? [laughter] thugs that wanty club me out. >> the second point we want to talk about is campaigning or coordinating. using social media to bring together different people to recruit, to organize, coordinate people to work for the same kind of goals. what are some of the features of social media that facilitate coordination, and do you have

any examples of success stories? >> there is an interesting story a few months ago, right at the beginning and things had started in egypt. there was a pamphlet that had been passed out on the streets and it was about how to deal with teargas and handle other issues. simultaneously, there is a global document that contains virtually the same information. some people were updating it in real time. you can take a paper pamphlet and print it up and handed out to people and try to make sure it does not get into the wrong hands, or you can use this online tool and get it out to thousands of people and then update it as things change. so you have this fascinating means of being able to organize in real time and change as the

flow changes on the ground. >> are there any other specific examples from the united states? >> pitbull say why does it not work in the u.s.? -- people say why does it not work in the u.s.? one of the most prominent ways to organize -- that is something that has embraced social media, twitter, facebook. when a celebrity says they are going to perform, you see people from all sides of the arguments. that is a fascinating views of how to come together around this core issue. panelre'll be another tomorrow about media. with setting up events and being an organizer of events and also a performer, or their other

attributes of social media that help setting up these events? >> without social media we would never have the budget to reach out the way we have. using social media is a great way for anyone to market any kind of action and idea. to get the message out, if you have a business, there is nothing wrong with a profit. we will talk later about the effective ways of using it, but it has changed the world. in the past you have to spend a lot of money to put an ad in the new york times. today you get the word out on facebook and twitter. it is direct advertising for

pennies. it is very useful. the reason stand-up comedy got known in the middle east is because of you to. you simply click on a youtube link and find out about american and now more broadly, other comedians. youtube deserves recognition for bridging the world in a way we that had never dreamed up. >> my friends in tunisia send me more lolcats than anywhere else. someone takes a photograph of a cat and they put a funny caption under it. that have their own special language. it is all in english originally,

but now you are seeing some people doing it in french. it has caught on globally. my mom sends them to me, but sotomayor friends and other countries. it is really fascinating. >> as much as social media is important in revolutions, it is also important for time wasting activities. the point about the cheapening of information is key. we know that money is power, but the ability to communicate with many people for pennies really has a leveling effect. that is what we saw with the arab spring. i am glad you made that point. moving on to the third point, it is about social media being a tool that can be used well or it can be used poorly. i hope for those of you who use

twitter and facebook, you might pick up some tips hear from people who are well versed in using them, or maybe you can use your own account to post your own tips. as broadcasters and receivers, what are some of the effective and effective ways of using social media? >> i would like to talk to the point of news organizations using it. "the new york times" has long had a twitter page. lately they have started to use it as more of a back-and-forth communication tool. that is really important. what andy from npr has been doing is reporting directly on

twitter about what is happening on the ground. it becomes a really fascinating tool for journalists and news organizations to have not necessarily a primary source of that we cannot completely rely on online sources, but as a secondary source. al jazeera and cnn all had people on the ground and using their cameras and saying this is what is happening, but then you also had a local flavor from people on twitter. i followed the egyptian revolution on twitter. i have friends in the country, friends who were on the ground. i looked at what they were saying and also who they were talking to to know who else they could trust. >> the term being used for that is "curation."

it comes from the art world. there is usually an organizer who picks the best works of art and becomes a gatekeeper for information or art. andy is a great example of someone who is curating information from social media and become a credible source of redistribution. >> global voice is has been doing this for years. they follow blogs and report on what the bloggers are saying. it is complementary to traditional media, i think. >> i want to ask about twitter account you recently set up called "comedians for sarah palin." that is his think social media

as a political tool. what are you doing with this, and why do you think it will be affected. >> first of all, sarah palin is the best thing for comedian's sense george bush, and we want her to win. it is tongue in cheek, but it is an example of what anybody else can do. i wrote an article and start today "comics for palin" twitter account. if they say a joke about sarah palin in cyberspace i will find it and put it on the account. i think it is a great grassroots way. i was lucky enough to get on cnn and talk about it because i have a relationship with them. you can start anything.

you can start a twitter put -- a twitter account for anything, whatever it is. something about a candidate. the beauty is, you can set it up in five minutes, then you start trying to get people to follow you, your friends, use facebook and twitter to follow what you are doing. it is a great time for empowerment. anyone can sit in your room, for good or bad, and create a web site or a twittered feed and start getting the word out and raising consciousness about an issue. it could not be easier right now to take action. >> are there any other tips you wanted ad -- you wanted to add in terms of the top few things of facebook order user can do to

be more visible? >> you can use it for self- promotion, and we all do that. any time i write an article, i opposed it out to my followers because i want people to see it. it's absolutely have to connect with people. one of the best ways to make friends and network is to get other people involved. that is my big one. >> if you want to get more people to be friends on facebook or followers on twitter, it cannot be just you waiting and posting on facebook and sitting back. it is when people make a comment about something you posted, you get pitbull to feel like you are having a conversation. they will turn around and reposed the article or comment on their own facebook or twitter

account. it has to be a soccer conversation you are having with many people at the same time. the morning gaged york, the more people will want to speak to you, because they know there is someone there. i get comments and i respond and try to make sense of them. or just a conversation about an issue. >> the thing about the new media age is that when you say something publicly, someone can easily go find out of every perspective and bring it up against you. it would not have this problem so quickly in the old media age. it is important if you make a mistake to correct yourself and be very honest about the mistakes you made. transparency is the way of the future, as shown by wikileaks.

>> yes yes to have to go back and look it up, go to the library. now everything is instantaneous. it is out there and is free. >> that was a quick overview of social media. you don't get the impression that we think is going to fix all of our problems. there are down sides to it. there are pitfalls and social media. let's talk about some of those. can you think of any current news -- >> i cannot think of anything. [laughter] the anthony weiner scandal, a

man who was very skilled in using it, and he made one little mistake. he meant to send a picture to one young lady and he made it public for anyone to see who is following him on twitter. >> what was a picture of? >> i don't remember. [laughter] i think it was his last name. if you are going to send a picture of yourself, send it by e-mail. >> don't even do that. >> he suffered for that, and others have suffered. the cyberworld cuts both ways. the other side of that, people can make up their own identities to attack you in cyberspace. there is no accountability, because no one knows who they

really are. just look at the angry comments, they are off the charts and indefensible. >> look at the comments on any youtube video. >> there are a lot of hegel people out there who know how to use the internet, unfortunately. -- there are a lot of hateful people out there. >> there is as much good that can be done as bad that can be done. there is a interesting case that jillian has been following that deals with the question of anonymity. there is an interesting story about the put paul -- about the pitfalls of being on line. >> of the months ago a blocker

who claimed to be in syria, she called herself a day girl in damascus. she had been blogging about her life as a lesbian in syria, and it was very compelling. it seemed like a very true story. there might have been a few facts that were off, but nobody said anything about it. a few months ago, cbs in the u.s. and "the guardian" in the u.k. but did stories about her. we all believe that this person was real. someone posted that she had been kidnapped by security forces. immediately the story blew up. it was like everyone was panicking, this girl is missing. then they said she had a girlfriend. it turned out they had never met.

there were no cousins. basically the entire story was fabricated. that found that she had stolen 150 photographs of a croatian lawman 11 in london, and that is the photograph she was using. now no one knows if she is real or not. what it comes down to is, there was an old cartoon years ago that said on the internet, nobody knows you are a dog. she could be american, she could be a man, she could be an infiltrator -- who knows? in this case, i think that journalists fail to do their job. they never spoke with her on the phone or never met her. they just trusted and enter the exchange by e-mail. you cannot do that as a journalist. >> another dark side of the issue of social media, it also

can be a tool of surveillance by those in power. i don't know if you read the story about how the activists were able to take tahrir square. they knew that there facebook conversations were being monitored. they organize these 20 protest all around cairo. the 21st was kept off facebook, and that is where the critical mass started. it was the power of social media, but not in a direct way. they were able to use it as a decoy for the government. then there is the example from sudan. from what i understand, the government set up a fake facebook protest in sudan, and then they arrested everybody who showed up. >> they used as bait for everyone who came out. in syria, we heard that people were arrested and had their

facebook passwords and demanded. in morocco a few years ago, a young man was arrested for creating a fake profile of one of the princes. to this day, no one knows how the authorities found out it was him. did facebook turn over that information? there have been cases over the years of social media companies -- i don't want to say turning on their users because sometimes they are forced to comply with local laws. at the same time, they don't necessarily have our best interest at heart. we have to remember these are private companies, they don't know you anything.

-- they don't owe you anything. >> when you put something on facebook, your privacy goes way down. i would not opposed anything on facebook where twitter that you do not want the media, your wife, your boss to know. i used to be a lawyer before i was a comedian. there is a very low expectation of privacy if you post something on that facebook wall. it is at your peril. watch what you post and watch what you tweet. it can be used against you in a courtroom or in a lawsuit between two people.

>> it has definitely been used in court cases where somebody said they were injured but then there are zero rows of them skiing. -- and there are photos of them skiing. creditors can find you because they find your facebook account and then know what city or living in. there is the issue here where people get fired everyday for things that they pose. >> when you post something on the internet, is a lot easier to post than it is to take it down. >> it lives forever. >> when i was an undergraduate, i received a very nasty hate mail from somebody. what did i do? i posted it on line. about four or five years ago i got a call from a company saying we are interested in hiring so and so. is it true that he sent you this letter that is posted on the

internet? >> i said yes, it is true. [laughter] so remember, what goes up does not come down when it comes to the internet age. i want to give the panelists a chance to make a final thought before we open it up to questions. >> i am on twitter at dean of comedy. i think it is a great tool to keep in touch with people professionally, personally, and just is it intelligently. think about what ever you are going to post. it can come back to haunt you. can also help your career a lot. it is a very effective tool to be used that way. >> i want to add that the level of knowledge or ability that you have to have to get involved is

becoming lower and lower. it is easier to get involved in generating media. if you are intimidated by this kind of technology, don't be. just jump in and you will pick it up very quickly. >> my final thought, i think one of the things people need to be aware of is security online. for those of us in the u.s. who might need to keep a level of security, but those who travel also -- whenever you are traveling, be extra cautious. learn how to use certain tools. the electronic frontier foundation has a lot of information on how to stay safe

while using social media. >> we are going to open it up for questions. as abc members and convention goers, if you have recommendations for adc on how to use social media better, you can chime in at this time or put it on twitter. we hope you enjoyed the panel. is a microphone on? >> there we go. it is ready to go. >> i wanted to see if adc has a staff for -- a staffer who could use the social media to raise retirementhe staff's benefits and for their employee

benefits and to make an endowment for abc -- 4 adc. >> as the obama campaign showed, there are so many fund-raising opportunities for using the web and on line. >> there are organizations that work with nonprofits to help them raise funds. there is one that picks a charity of the day and says give a buck to whatever. this organization helps promote a different non-profit every day. there are a lot of amazing tools out there. >> it is very effective and easy to do. >> i was born in damascus.

i am lebanese, and i have lived in egypt, live. -- in egypt all my life. someone could be muslim, christian, are jewish. every morning, i get on my e- mail or by the things, and is really making me sick. they are so wonderfully organized. they are so clever in using this media. i really would advise you to look at what they do, because it is wonderful. every time from all the students in every university of what they should do. they are absolutely well

organized, and i just cannot avoid looking at that. now that i am out of the closet, i hope they are not going to stop sending it to me. that have recipes, and i realize that all of our food at its origin in the bible. it is fantastic. i advise you to go there and really look at how it is being used. >> anything you do not know how to do, you cannot google -- you can add google if it. >> i am talking about systematically organizing our action. listen to what they say and the reactions to this.

>> i am from the d.c. area. let us see it -- let's say you are working for adc or for anthony wiener's staff, and you go back to the split second after that information was released. what would you do differently to do pr damage control? that seems to be a major issue with a lot of organizations and individuals with social media. the second question is, what do you see as the future of social media? how did you see organizations and individuals interacting and how does it change the realm of communication that people are having right now? >> for the first question, my

answer is honesty. whenever scandal breaks and something like that happens, people are going to talk about it on twitter. i think you have to engage with people and answer them honestly. if the first response, if it is no comment, you are setting yourself up for disaster. >> yesterday there was a minor controversy. tracy morgan made some anti-gay statements. the next morning he was full apologies, saying i was wrong, that was not funny in any context situation. it is about being honest and forthright, coming out immediately and trying to change the narrative. if you say no comment or like

anthony wiener, if you make of allegations, the more you like, the worst is going to get. being honest and forthright and responding immediately with clear answers that are credible is the best way of dealing with it. >> i think twitter -- base but and myspace are closed platforms. i think twitter and the tools that are coming out like it are going to be more effective in the long run because they really generate conversation. i have tweeted to celebrities and had them at tweet back. it really breaks down barriers.

i am jealous because kim kardashian never answers me. [laughter] >> thank you for the excellent question. >> adc says the question that is in controversy is going to be the opening song tonight. >> adc just released a statement that they will play malek tonight, thank you for that. >> is that you've followed the egyptian revolution on twitter. what differences in information did you see from what the people posted on twitter versus what the mainstream media reported? >> i will honestly say that i

don't think there was a lot of bad reporting. when you are reporters on the ground, the reporting is fairly accurate. it is a difference between accuracy and comprehensiveness. they did not necessarily have a local contact. theon't necessarily know history of the egyptian politics. there is a great movement happening on facebook and twitter and it is very important. but the egyptians are saying, we have been doing this for 10 years. the traditional media gives the overview and twitter is giving you the details and the flavor, the local flavor. it is understanding what people really think and believe in the context of what is being reported.

in many cases, you can follow something like that on twitter. >> al jazeera had a clear advantage in reporting first and better in egypt. >> from twitter, you got the real facts. this is a controversy that could have been ended three or four days ago when it started. playing the video now is burning bridges and some communities. it will not make people who did not come to the event today say they are going to come in the future. it is going to take more than that. it will take a philosophical change. the arab spring is not limited to the arab world. it is here as well. it is a really positive thing and hopefully there'll be more

positive changes. it is and is going to be better in the future, with some changes. >> 10 years ago, had this happen, you would not have had the same kind of controversy we are having. this is happening because people are talking online. i firmly believe that. 10 years ago, a 24-hour turnaround would have been fine to fix the situation. >> it would have gotten a letter in today's about it. >> thank you for the question. >> my question is, we see with grass-roots organizations, they

are elevating a message that is abstract and can get clear point across. as you become more elevated and more of a formalized organization, they want to have their cake and eat it, too. the post thinks from a hired -- they post thinks that are unique, but there is always the sidebar that this is not an endorsement. the people who really on that type of media, to the private sector and large companies like facebook that will sell you out if they feel like they need to, because they are not endorsing what you are saying. how much of this is going to change? >> i am one of those people -- i

do not sweet for my organization. there are a lot of corporations that kind of get it right. zipcar is a good example. jetblue is another one. those are companies that really interact with their cable. if you tweet the word comcast, you have 20 people come on and say, how can i help you? these companies do need to be able to -- my personal take on the situation, i think that twitter as a company does a good job in engaging with its users

and being real and putting forth the philosophy that they really do believe in free expression. look what they did with wikileaks. twitter was subpoenaed by the department of justice to hand over information from a u.s. citizen and from an icelandic citizens. >> i am a comedian. i use that defense as much as possible. >> thank you for the panel. it was very interesting. i work on leadership and community organizing at harvard. i want you to elaborate on one point and give us a more in- depth analysis.

when you spoke about the role of social media, one of the main concerns is that commitment. you may have 20,000 people who voted for something on facebook. what is the role of social media in doing max? -- in doing that? it is very horizontal, but at the same time you don't have hierarchy. in a sense there is no accountability and no rules. how do you account for being effective in social action when there are no rules? the example you gave about the syrian lawmen and no one knew who she was or if she was real. -- about the syrian woman.

your commitment shows in account -- shows in how adc operates. >> sitting on your couch, armchair politics, basically. there is a lot of that. when you look at people signing petitions for suzanne -- sudan, or when you look at what happened in egypt, you have strong on-line organizing. you had all of this happening and then you have these connections to the young people who are using social media. egypt is a specific case. i don't think you can replicate that without that background of

activism. malcolm blackwell wrote an article saying you cannot have strong ties online. i disagree with that. some of the strongest ties that i have in my activism or with people i have never met or people i have met after meeting them on line first. the key is that you cannot assume that because you tweak to someone once that you have a tie theire. there is a lot of back channel conversations that happen in the background, and you cannot discount that. >> in egypt, for example, if the debate just a there without tahrir square, it would not have had a revolution. had a revolution.