Tactic: Online Video Protest in (Virtual) Tunisia

Written by Mary on May 27, 2008 – 5:19 pm -


You can see a larger version of the video on the Nawaat site.

Description: In 2007, the Tunisian government, led by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, blocked the video-sharing site DailyMotion.com, in part because the site hosted video testimony of Tunisian political prisoners. In response, the human rights organization Nawaat has created an online video protest on Google Earth. If you visit the Tunisian presidential palace on Google Earth, you will see that it is covered with links to the same videos of political prisoners which President Ben Ali was trying to block (see video above). Now, at least online, evidence of Tunisia’s political prisoners are right in the President’s front yard!

Organizer: Nawaat (”the core”), a Tunisian human rights site, co-founded by Tunisian digital activist Sami Ben Gharbia, creator of the video above.

Purpose of Action: To show President Ben Ali that he cannot censor the truth about Tunisian political prisoners, that the truth will come right to his front door.

Organizing Tools: Google Earth, YouTube

Outcome: Unknown.

Ease of Replication: Pretty easy. You can add the Google Earth video geo-tags through YouTube. when you upload a video to YouTube you have the option to specify the date and the location of the video. When you click on that option, you will find a Google map which you can zoom in on. Then you place the geo-tag marker on the location you want the video to be associated with, in this case, the Tunisian presidential palace in Carthage. You can also place the geo-tag marker by inputting the longitude and latitude of the location. There is such easy interactivity between Google Earth, Google Maps, and YouTube because all three applications are owned by Google.


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Posted in Mashups, Mid-East & N. Africa, Tactics, Video | No Comments »

Guide: Designing an Advocacy Video

Written by Mary on March 16, 2008 – 10:44 pm -

All the cool digital tools in the world aren’t much help without an effective strategy. Posts in the new “Strategy” topic will present ideas for how to fit digital tools into your overarching strategy for change.

In this first post, we will present a strategy for designing a YouTube-style video to promote your cause. A good advocacy video should contain the following elements:

1. Start With Background Info

Assume the person viewing the video knows nothing about your cause. You need to tell the viewer who, what, when, why, and where of the cause you are fighting for. The goal of presenting this information is for the person to understand the injustice that has occurred and why action is needed.

There are two options for presenting this information: slides and voice-over. If you are using slides, just type the information (white text on a back background looks nice). Then animate the slides. For voice-over, you need to write a script of the information and then record it and layer the audio over the video. The slides option is easier as you do not need to edit the audio track.

  • EXAMPLE: Video Denouncing Homophobia

This video denounces the homophobic statements of Sally Kern, an elected representative from the state of Oklahoma in the USA. The first 33 seconds show the use of black-and-white slides to give background information about the issue. Specifically: Who? a State Legislator. What? a speech delivered at a gathering in her district. When? (doesn’t say) Why? she thought only 50 people were listening to her speech. Where? the state of Oklahoma. Read more »


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Posted in Americas, Guides & Resources, Mashups, Mid-East & N. Africa, Video | 5 Comments »