Student Web project becomes cultural campaign

A former USC student now living in Iran has turned a class project into a unique cultural effort: Inside Iran, a blog that offers a personal, small-scale look at Iranian life and society. Under the name of "Shiva the Spy" she promises to "be your eyes and ears in Iran. ... You'll have a window into the social, cultural, political and historical aspects of the country. I will bring you the stuff that American media can't ... or won't."

Shiva, who asked to be identified only by her first name, is an Iranian-American who was born and raised in California. She graduated from USC in May 2005 with a double major in international relations and communication and a minor in journalism. In her senior year, Shiva took a class in online journalism production with Online Journalism Review editor in chief and Annenberg School for Communication adjunct professor Robert Niles; it was in this class where Inside Iran began to take shape.

Post-graduation, Shiva planned to spend a year in Iran to learn Farsi on a professional level. Originally, she wrote in an e-mail interview, she began the blog as a way to keep in touch with her friends while she was out of the country. The project took a slightly different twist when she explained it to Niles, who encouraged her to push the concept further and turn it into her final project for the class.

Inside Iran developed into a forum for exploring the cultural differences and similarities between America and Iran and for stimulating debate about Iranian issues, because "there simply isn't enough of this out there," Shiva wrote.

The blog also works to dismantle cultural stereotypes: "Inside Iran’s purpose," she noted, "is to show a more everyday-life perspective of Iran that may serve to balance the constantly negative and extremely simplified images typically portrayed by the mass media."

The site is a collection of Shiva’s daily observations about Iranian living, ranging from pop culture (techno music and Iranian sitcoms) to politics (the problem of terrorism, and the country’s quest for nuclear energy) to religion (funeral ceremonies and the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.) She also maintains a photo gallery and a page of links to other interesting sites dealing with the topic of Iran. Interestingly, Shiva is not alone in her efforts: she reported that Iran ranks as the third country in the world in number of blogs, with about 70,000 sites in operation.

When asked about the readership of her site, Shiva wrote that the audience consists mostly of friends, professors and colleagues who want to keep in touch with her. However, she added, "a lot of new and veteran bloggers also visit the site, which came as a surprise to me. I guess word spreads fast in the blogosphere." Since the site’s debut two months ago, she has had visitors from such far-flung places as South Korea, Norway, Japan, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, the Ukraine, India, Singapore, Sweden and Indonesia.

Shiva will leave Iran when her school year is finished and wrote that she does not plan to continue the blog after her departure: "After all, it’s called Inside Iran!" However, she noted that she has been "surprised and glad to learn that there are many people curious about Iranian life" and expressed the wish that others inside the country will be interested in furthering the site’s objectives once she returns to America.

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