The peculiarities of the Velvet Revolution were numerous in the field of media. For example, more people were watching live stream than reading the news. Live broadcasts were created as much by hundreds of Facebook users as by journalists.

Which, for a moment, began to have a serious impact on the quality of communication. And I think that hence the quality of communication became one of the factors which led to another interesting thing. Telegram, a messaging application which up till now very few in Armenia were aware of, has become one of the most useful tools.

Telegram became an important news platform over the course of a few days. Of course, Telegram’s advertisement in Armenia took place in parallel, thanks to the Roskomnadzor blocking scandal in Russia.

However, during the last days of April, Telegram became one of the most downloaded applications in Armenia.

One after the other, information channels began to open, which fairly quickly began to collect an audience. Although, it was possible to open the channels earlier and be more prepared.

Of course, the story of Telegram channels in Armenia are only a few days old (before the revolutionary movement, there were a few channels which had a small audience), but we can now talk about fairly influential information flows.  

So if you are a news outlet or a journalist and you still do not have Telegram as a channel, the time has come to correct this mistake.

Finally, I would like to mention the Armenian channels about which I am aware of at the moment (they are not only Armenian, there are a few channels which are more tied to Russia and Post-Soviet Armenian communities). The number of subscribers are placed in parentheses as of the morning of April 30th.  

• Infocom https://t.me/infocomm (8600)֊ opened hence for the purpose of raising awareness about the revolution.

• Баграмян 26 https://t.me/bagramyan26 (3500) This channel was opened at the beginning of the year, the admins are most likely in Russia. It began to get momentum in recent days, as there were virtually no information other channels on Armenia in the Russian Language.

• Злой Аналитик https://t.me/zloyanalitik  (2500) It seems like another representation of the voice of the Armenian community in Russia.

• Azatutyun https://t.me/azatutyuntv (950) RFE/RL Azatutyun

• Pan.am https://t.me/panarmeniannet (900) PAnarmenian.net’s channel

• News From Hell  https://t.me/hellnewsam (~500) a popular Facebook Page’s channel

• Fight Against Fake News https://t.me/blockfakenews (450) – A channel regarding the revolution which fights mainly against Republican Party fakes according to those who believe it to be so.

• Samvel Martirosyan On Air https://t.me/SamvelMartirosyan (400) your humble servant’s personal channel.

• Erkat https://t.me/erkat_tg (400) ֊ most probably a group of Russian-Armenians

• Cryptoarmenia https://t.me/cryptoarmenia (260) A channel dedicated to the theme of cryptocurrencies

• Хетк https://t.me/hetqinrussian (150) Hetq’s Russian language channel

• Aysor.am https://t.me/aysor (150) Aysor news’ channel

• Bambas News https://t.me/bambasanq (~100) The channel opened at the beginning of the year, the admins most likely are connected to the admins of Баграмян 26

• Artsakh MFA https://t.me/Karabakh_MFA (~50) one of the oldest Armenia channels. It’s official.

Samvel Martirosyan

The views expressed in the column are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Media.am.