Like many, I’m fairly cynical about blogs in most of my conversations about them. But that doesn’t mean I don’t see enormous value and potential there. This video reminded me that I should say that more often.
Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.
Peej
There are a number of excellent blogs in Iran (and, as expected, a very large number of terrible ones!); unfortunately, all the good ones (and in general, a majority of blogs) are in Farsi (thanks to Hossein Derakhshan). Even if they have an equivalent English translated site, that one falls short of the actual one, and usually has less content. (If you haven’t read up on Derakhshan and the whole blog movement in Iran, do so; there were a couple good articles a few years ago–I’ll see if I can find them.
One particular area where blogging has been invaluable to Iranian youth has been as an underground networking tool for GLBTs in Iran. That’s a whole ‘nother post, though.
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Not exactly blogging (and, I know, not exactly your favorite!) but another extremely popular method of communication within and outside of Iran is Facebook. And, of course, Twitter. Persian twitters are fun to follow along because you can just see the cultural struggle with trying to keep it short and succinct (something I am familiar with and struggle with myself, obviously!)
MB
Really?
Peej
Areh, jeddi.
(Kheyli khoshmazaei, vallah.)
MB
Could have fooled me.
Amit
another form of expression becoming popular in China is via text messaging. they even send novels over SMS.