The Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding at the U.S. Institute of Peace and George Washington University's Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication are hosting a public event exploring the role of new media in contested politics around the world. From Iran to Kenya to Colombia, the impact of new and social media on movements for political and social change has been the subject of much discussion, and controversy.

In a USIP Special Report to be released at the conference, a team of scholars from GWU, in cooperation with scholars from Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and from Morningside Analytics, take a fresh theoretical, and empirical approach to answering this question.The report critically assesses both the “cyberutopian” and “cyberskeptic” perspectives, and proposes a new framework for assessing the role of new media in contentious politics.

This event will explore these themes in three panels. In the first morning panel, Alec Ross of the U.S. State Department, Berkman’s Ethan Zuckerman, and GWU’s Marc Lynch will engage in a discussion of these topics moderated by USIP’s Sheldon Himelfarb. The second morning panel will feature bloggers and citizen journalists from around the world to offer a ground-view perspective. The final panel will bring together tech firms like eBay and Facebook to explore their perspectives on new media and conflict. 

Find a full agenda for the day here. 

**Please note: This event will be webcast live beginning at 9:00am EDT on July 8, 2010 at www.usip.org/webcast.html. Online viewers will be able to engage panelists and each other through live chat and Twitter discussions (hashtag: #usipblogs).