As we saw in the recent presidential election in Armenia when blogs and social media were highly politicized and often quite vicious, it matters who you give the new tools to and also how they are used.

“It would be sublimely naive—and condescending —to expect South Ossetians or Georgians to respond to intense shellfire by taking a crash-course in podcasting, even if they did have electricity and an internet connection. Tskhinvali and Gori were never going to be hubs of user-generated content from a war-zone.”

However, once again, the question must be asked: How is blogging public media? Yes, citizens can log on and blog on to their hearts content, but what will that matter if nothing comes of it? With blogging becoming such a popular tool for self-expression, it will be interesting to see if the ripe moment emerges when Georgians, Azerbaijanis and Armenians really do have a reason to unite together. It is my guess the blogosphere will be the place in which it happens.

Until then, with so much dissent within the region, the blogosphere seems to reaffirm and entrench the warlike images that other public media campaigns work so hard to challenge.

[…]

A quick search for Nagorno Karabakh Cause groups uncovers a South Caucasian mini- information war right on Facebook with hundreds of members taking sides. The Azerbaijanis and Armenians are at war over a territory called Nagorno Karabakh which both claim to have historical and legal claim to.

One of the cause groups titled Peaceful Solution in Nagorno Karabakh seemed to be a place where some true discussion and communication across thick state borders could take place, but I found very little participation from Azerbaijan’s side at all. The few Azerbaijani’s that are members of this cause group are living outside Azerbaijan. No wonder: For an Azerbaijani to claim allegiance with an Armenian, even on Facebook, could have serious implications if the government- controlled press decided it was news worthy.

Facebook does serve as a forum for conversations to take place in public among people who would not typically interact due to the wars, but due to social rules set in place by the strict regimes and militaristic communities, it hasn’t really in the end served much of a public media purpose.

Still, administer them properly and work by new rules which balance the right to freedom of speech and civil communication and the potential is there. If there’s the will, that is.