Once upon a time, when an international crisis developed on such a scale that the entire world held its breath, we would just sit down in front of our TV sets and watch, hope and pass comment on what was going on. We saw live pictures of the Berlin Wall coming down and the First Gulf War unfolding like a Hollywood movie.
However with the rise of internet in the mid-1990s, TV lost some of its pre-eminence as the window on the world. The current crisis in Libya is proof, if there was any need of it, that internet has taken over as the information medium of choice for many people, including many Maltese, prompting citizen journalism on a scale never seen before in Malta.
Since the start of the February 17 revolution in Libya, the Maltese have come to appreciate internet as an important resource for information and communication. News websites, Skype, Facebook, Twitter and other interactive services were abuzz as never before, as many sought the latest news from Libya, relayed it across the internet or were desperately trying to contact friends and loved ones held-up there and trying to get them out before things got nastier.
The website timesofmalta.com registered the highest number of views for any story so far this year when the news of the arrival of two Libyan fighter pilots defecting to Malta drew 91,000 readers. When the Libyan crisis started to take a more sinister twist last week, the website registered almost 118,000 visitors who viewed 1.5 million pages between them, well above the normal average. Just over half the traffic was generated locally, with 11 per cent coming from the US and over eight per cent from the UK.
This website, together with other Maltese online news media, gave breaking news coverage of the unfolding events, but timesofmalta.com was not just publishing text and pictures. It also provided news in video, thus bringing together the immediacy of internet and the richness of TV. TV viewers had to wait for the local stations to broadcast the news at the usual pre-determined time, while radio stations, though well-positioned to give breaking news, lack the richness of video.
When international news media could not get their cameras in the hotspots, people simply uploaded videos taken from their mobile phones cameras to YouTube, filling-in the wide gaps left by the journalists and cameramen unable to access the hotspots.
Speaking of the role of the media in the Libya crisis is just a part of the story, for the Maltese internet users made their presence felt online and did not play the traditional role of passive receivers of information.
Maltese online users could not resist commenting, and even joking, on the otherwise serious incident of the two Libyan jet fighters landing in Malta. Someone posted a “for sale” notice for the two jets on the local auction site maltapark.com. Within a few hours there was a €1 billion bid for the pair which, according to the seller named “ahmedbinaziz”, are in “excellent condition, vera ma jahlix petrol u munizzjon irhis ukoll. Jistghu jintuzaw ghall-kacca, no problem. [Economic, ammunition is cheap, could be used for hunting without problems]. Power-steering, central locking, electric windows, fluffy pink dice and custom Muammar Gaddafi bobblehead figurine included. Pilots not included.”
The prank immediately made the rounds on Facebook, garnering over 9,300 “likes” and leading to more than 57,000 viewers going to the auction site to check it out.
Speaking of Facebook, thousands of Maltese Facebook users made full use of the social networking site to comment about what was happening in Libya and in Malta, sent messages and posted links to multimedia news content. In some cases Facebook proved an important communication tool for some Maltese workers in Libya. “I am here waiting to go home,” wrote one Maltese worker on his Facebook on Tuesday February 23. He was safely evacuated from an oil rig in the desert by a chartered commercial plane later in the week.
Facebook proved an important one-stop-shop for breaking news, with users sharing links to both local and international news websites. Some news aggregation pages such as Aħbarijiet minn Malta (News from Malta) gave full coverage while many a user reported excerpts of Prime Minister Gonzi’s press conference on Sunday evening as they watched it live on TV.
As expected, Facebook users exploited the interactivity of the medium and showered praise on Air Malta, Virtu’ Ferries and all those involved in supporting the evacuation of the Maltese and foreigners from Libya, while at the same time pouring scorn on Gaddafi and the shooting of protesters.
Twitter proved an important news stream, though it is less popular than Facebook with Maltese internet users. On Monday February 21 the term “Malta” was trending on Twitter, albeit for a few hours, as a result of the two Libyan jets defecting to Malta making international headlines. Although “Malta” disappeared in the following days, “Gaddafi” and all its different spelling variants continued to trend, alongside more mundane topics such as music and the Oscars.
Smartphone users were not left out, as most of the online content was also available through apps or mobile websites. Al Jazeera took a prominent role in breaking news from Libya, and many-a Maltese with a satellite dish tuned to the free-to-air channel or could watch the live transmission on the app for smartphones. Libyan state television is also accessible free-to-air from Malta on satellite.
While Malta developed as a hub for the evacuation of thousands of foreign workers in Libya, some Maltese internet users accessed www.flightradar24.com to check air traffic between Malta and Libya. Flights going to or coming out of Tripoli and the intense activity over the Maltese airspace could be watched on the live service that is based on a tracking system installed on most commercial aircraft.
Once totalitarian regimes have come to appreciate the power of internet, internet access inevitably becomes one of the first victims of repression. Libya is no exception, but in this particular case, there could be another victim: the bit.ly web address shortening service. The “.ly” is the country top level domain for Libya, and Libyan authorities could well stop the use of the service registered with them, thus affecting millions of links to internet content worldwide.
With many observers calling the pro-democracy protests in North Africa and the Middle East as the “Facebook” or “Twitter Revolution” and not just the “Jasmine Revolution”, it has become clear that internet is no longer the passive observer of events but an active player, with a role to play in the shaping of things to come.