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This week's deadly unrest in Mozambique became a global news story in part because reporters and citizen journalists used new media and social networking tools. Clashes between security forces and people protesting rising prices in the capital, Maputo, left at least seven people dead and more than 200 people injured, according to the latest news reports.
As the streets exploded with violence, one Maputo resident (@BarataJorge)
observed that few local broadcasters were relaying information. "Demonstrations
in
There were also non-Mozambicans tweeting
their experiences from the ground or commenting on the news. One international
observer closely following the Maputo twitterers (@giantpandinha,
self-described as working "in intl devt hack-dom"), tweeted links to video footage of the riots and commented that "this
video is hard to believe: man shooting at rioters on the street below, from
office [of] the ruling party in #Maputo."
When Maputo Twitterers and Portugal-based Jornal
Noticias reported SMS messages were urging civil disobedience, @giantpandinha
contrasted the wide use of SMS in Mozambique to the ban
on messaging during anti-government protests in Ethiopia in 2005. "Meles
ended SMS during the crisis in Addis in 2005, at least residents of
As more tweets appeared in English, more international news media outlets began to express interest in the Maputo Twitterers. On Thursday, for instance, @JorgeBarata received a tweet from freelance journalist Amandine Schmitt on behalf of the Observers news blog of broadcaster France 24. "Hello, how can we contact you to talk about Maputo riots? Please come back to us," Schmitt wrote. Similarly, Chiaras received a tweet from Faith Karimi, a CNN International Wire news desk editor (@FaithCNN): "Are you in Maputo? Can you DM a phone. contact I can reach you for a story?"
Early this morning, Charas sounded the end of the riots. "After a 3hour round I can report that #maputoriots are no more. All roads are accessible, not blocked & no signs of trouble anywhere."
As noted by Global Voices blogger Lova Rakotolomalala, who reported on the unrest in Madagascar in 2009, accuracy and context are often missing from citizen reporting in times of crises. This view was reiterated by @giantpandinha, who wrote "Tweet and rumor equal." Nevertheless, the same user encouraged Mozambicans to tweet in many languages using the hashtag #Maputo. He added: "The world cares about you, Mozambique."
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Interesting observation by you Mohamed, I understanding you are highlighting how social media got riots in Maputo known all around the world.
Great that we have such means to inform people today.
Thank you so much for this insightful article! Being a Mozambican living in Maputo, I would also like to add a comment about Facebook, which was not specifically referred in the article.
Facebook played a very important role in disseminating accurate information about the riots that started on September 1st in Maputo. While I was watching what was happening in two local TV broadcasters, through Facebook I was being updated virtually by the second by people who were located in various parts of town. At the same time, I knew exactly what was going on in 7 or 8 streets of Maputo. Journalists cannot do this. At least not in Mozambique.
People turned to Facebook to know which road they should use to pick up their kids from school when the riots started, or to return home safely. Or to assess whether or not it was safe to go to work on the second day of social unrest in Maputo.
The downside of this citizen reporting is that its potential is sometimes used incorrectly, to spread unfounded rumors that increase panic. As with everything else on the Web, it reminds us that every bit of information needs to be filtered first, and that formal, reliable sources of information are absolutely necessary, I think.
Regards,
Maura Quatorze
Hi Keita,
Excellent job,
This is what we are living in Mozambique, and this seems to be the crise of a total failed government in achieving their promises, but above everything this is what happen when we dont have prepared people to talk to the population, to manage and negociate conflits.
This proved to us that people in Mozambique are taking conscience of their rights and obligations.
It is really bad when we have violence, but I tell you that by this time we have watched 3 sorts of violence:
- Manifestants violence because of the increase of life cost;
- But above everthing, Verbal violence: in the voice of some governants;
- And Police violence - the arm governants chose to lead with their people.
It is really sad
Hi Keita,
keep up the good job,
This a well resourced and referenced treatise than just an article.Though, i am a bit far and less aware of the secnario(but the food price riot) of/in Mozambique , the piece painted it well.
My most interest in this writing is on the role of citizen journalism.Though,it sometimes becomes hard to delinate the difference between citizen and social media-understanding the value and distinctiveness of citizen reporting, i see the future of journalism fully changing.This new genre of media has to be well researched and CPJ has to see ways of promoting it in Africa.