Maldovan Youth Protest Online

Right now, Twitter is abuzz with discussions of #pman. In fact, #pman ranks among "Easter" and "Braves" as one of the 10 most discussed topics on Twitter. #pman is a searchable tag that protesters in Maldova coined to galvanize protests against the country's Communist government. As they ransacked the parliament building, youth were able to post live updates. Their use of Twitter has enabled global audiences to follow the situation and provided a platform for discussing Sunday's election.

By Tuesday night, the seat of government had been badly battered and scores of people had been injured. But riot police had regained control of the president’s offices and Parliament Wednesday. After hundreds of firsthand accounts flooded onto the Internet via Twitter, Internet service in Chisinau, the capital, was abruptly cut off. There was no sign that the authorities would cede to any of the protesters’ demands, and President Vladimir Voronin denounced the organizers as “fascists intoxicated with hatred.”

- excerpt from "Protests in Moldova Explode, With Help of Twitter" by Ellen Barry in The New York Times. Click here to see the full story.

This situation reflects the emergence of a global youth culture and shows how Web 2.0 tools like Twitter and Facebook can be used for grassroots activism. These protests are a breed of faster and fiercer citizen journalism. With this instantaneous feed of firsthand accounts, it becomes even more difficult for nations to create cohesive brands or communicate credible messages.

Here's BBC's story on three eyewitness accounts on the protest.

The Tweet Heard Round the World

Believe it or not, several prominent world leaders are using Twitter to reach audiences. Mashable wrote about how the White House should use Twitter by highlighting effective world leaders on Twitter. Here are a few notables:

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, for example, has a staff member tweeting about his meetings, events, etc. Here’s the latest tweet from @KevinRuddPM:

British PM Gordon Brown, Romanian PM Calin Popescu Tariceaunu, Canadian PM Stephen Harper and former Israeli PM Netanyahu also all have official Twitter feeds. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also has a team that tweets updates on what he’s doing and who he’s meeting with. Though their aides usually write the tweets, the use of Twitter is an interesting new trend in public diplomacy.

In Dec., PD blogger Matt Armstrong discussed Colleen Graffy’s tweeting. Graffy is unusual among leaders on Twitter because of the personal tone of her tweets. Critics say this gets in the way of PD. Armstrong counters criticisms of her tone, writing:

While Colleen’s “tweets” are at times hyper-personal, they are inline with the personalization required to engage in the modern environment.

Graffy herself explained why she’s on Twitter in the Post article Jameson mentioned. She wrote:

Simply put, Twitter is just one more tool through which we can connect, and by linking my messages to video and photos, I can inform whole new audiences about U.S. views and ideas in a format with which they feel comfortable.

Twitter provides a challenge with just 140 characters to communicate messages but an opportunity in PD because it allows for personalization and real time diplomacy with global audiences.