Photo courtesy of Yardena Schwartz

When Columbia journalism students got to their class on February 11, the room had turned into a television studio. Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, hosted an episode of the network’s “Empire” at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in the City of New York.

On the day that President Hosni Mubarak passed all his authority to a council of military leaders in Egypt, students, faculty and the general public discussed the power of Internet and social media within political revolutions with a panel of media specialists.

Before the show started, the Dean of Student Affairs, Sree Sreenivasan, cheerfully introduced the panelists Carl Bernstein, best known for his Watergate coverage, radio host Amy Goodman, Evgeny Morozov, author of “The Net Delusion”, Columbia professor Emily Bell and NYU professor Clay Shirky to the audience.

“Everything began with a phone call from Flo Phillips, one of the producers of the show,” Sreenivasan said. “This shows the convening power of Columbia. In this room, there are many conversations you want to be in.”

The show started with Bishara asking, “How will governments deal with the information revolution, and do social networks really lead to social revolution?”

Photo Courtesy of Yardena Schwartz

When speaking about Wikileaks, most of the panelists agreed with each other. “Wikileaks is evolutionary, not revolutionary” Bernstein said. “It is just a step forward in the era of information.”

But, when it came to social media there were two marked sides. Bernstein, Goodman, Bell and Shirky agreed that it is a very important tool for spreading the word. “People make the revolution, but new media puts it on steroids and transmits it,” said Bell, director of Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

Morozov disagreed with them. The “Internet is not a one-way street, and dictatorial regimes are quite technologically savvy. In countries like Egypt the government may block the Internet at times, but they can benefit from it,” he explained.

There was also some criticism of the United States government and its Internet policy. “When Obama was running for office three years ago, he pledged to support the principle of a free and open Internet, however it is not the path he is following allowing cable companies to write the legislation” said Goodman, host and executive producer of “Democracy Now!”

The audience was quiet for most of the show, but they cheered when the guest speakers analyzed the mainstream media’s work. “If we had state media how would it be any different?” Goodman asked, and the public erupted into applause.

Afterwards, students left the room discussing the panel with each other. “They made good points on how the Internet spiked the revolution, however Morozov is too ideological and has a simplistic view,” said Michelle Moghtader, a first-year Master of International Affairs graduate student.

“The show offered a great discussion that showed many different sides of new media,” Brigit Lewis, a retired flight attendant who attended the panel said.  “It was funny to see Bernstein, an old journalist, defend new media, and Morozov, a young one, attack it,” Svetlana Didorenko a journalism graduate student added. “It was impressive to see all these relevant people on one stage.”

Join The Morningside Post‘s conference on digital media, Friday February 25th: “Information Overload? Navigating the Age of Democratized Media.”