A2 WeMedia - Were the net pessimists right?

Do read this, retweeted by Morozov.

Arab regimes embrace Twitter and Facebook - for their own ends

Also this (in case you haven't yet heard about Mike Daisey) ABOUT THE PERILS OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM.
Learning from Mr Daisey
Extracts:
"The bigger question is what we've learned about journalism in the age of what the writer Andrew Keen has called the "cult of the amateur". I believe the whole affair has reinforced the value of journalism as a profession. Because it was professional journalists at This American Life who uncovered the truth about their own programme, and professional editors who had the courage and integrity to make a very public admission of their errors." [...]
"That's not to say that citizen journalists and bloggers haven't contributed greatly to the flow of information, comment and insight that the digital age has brought us. Nor is a professional training any guarantee that a journalist will prove to be accurate, honest or ethical.
But to listen to the forensic job that Ira Glass does in his interview with Mike Daisey is to come away convinced that the values to which professional journalists aspire are worth preserving."

Finally, the big news is that you can now read the afterword of Evgeny Morozov's book, The Net Delusion, How Not To Liberate The World, online for free. AT least try to skim it and collect a couple of gems for your essays! You can read it here. (and the ebook here!)

But first, this is an accessible Guardian article penned by Morozov:
Facebook and Twitter are just places revolutionaries go
Cyber-utopians who believe the Arab spring has been driven by social networks ignore the real-world activism underpinning them
And as a bonus, this is a review of his book from the New Stateman. It's hard to read but the last 2 paragraphs will do! Now what do you think is a 'cyber-realist'? Clue = rather the opposite of a cyber-utopian!

New Statesman's review of Evgeny Morozov's Net Delusion
For the A/A* of this world, there is also this article discussing the ideas in the book in more detail:
The Internet: For Better or For Worse