The Role of Social Media During the Arab Spring

2020 ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Antoine Nasrallah ◽  
Nada Sarkis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The Arab Spring

scholarly journals THE EMERGENCE OF STATE SPHERE IN SOCIAL MEDIA: A POLITICAL BALKANIZATION IN MALAYSIA

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 811-819
Author(s):  
Badrul Mohamed ◽  
Mohammad Agus Yusoff ◽  
Zawiyah Mohd Zain ◽  
Dori Efendi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Ruling Party

Social media has phenomenally replaced the traditional media. Blogs have transformed news reporting; YouTube has reinvented talent sourcing; and the trinity (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) have revolutionary changed the rules of the game of regime change. Enabling commoners to be producers and its interactiveness are the two most important characteristics that grant the ordinary citizens to be extra-ordinary. From Tinseltown to Alexandria, the roles of social media has been unstoppably growing. The world political events in the recent times, particularly the Arab Spring have shown a strong correlation between social media and democratization. Malaysias political experience in recent years, in particular the 12th General Election (GE-12) in 2008 is comparable to the Arab Spring in view of the alluring role of social media and its gladiatorial impacts in politics. The failure of Barisan Nasional (BN or National Front, the only ruling party since independence) to retain its customary two-third majority in GE-12 is a proof of peoples growing desire to enjoy democracy that among others offer free and fair elections, good-governance, and social justice which are dissimilar to existing communalism and strong government. At a glance, GE-13 in 2013 produced similar results as GE-12 which displayed fortification of democracy among citizens. In contrast, further analyses toward the details of GE-13 surfaced the revival of communalism and autoritarinism which have shown signs of decay in GE-12. Thus, this article explores the conflictual roles of social media which (has been functioning as an ideal public sphere) when the ruling party together with the state machinery invade the sphere of social media to satisfy their political agenda. This investigation showcases the anarchic sphere in social media is not only capable in catalyzing democratization, but also undermining democracy by propagating political Balkanization that propels disjointed feelings among multi-racial citizens.

Sociale media en oude routines

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebeca De Dobbelaer ◽  
Steve Paulussen ◽  
Pieter Maeseele
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Tv News ◽  
Foreign News ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Sociale Media ◽  
The Arab Spring

Social media and old routines. The role of social media in the TV news coverage of the Arab Spring Social media and old routines. The role of social media in the TV news coverage of the Arab Spring This study investigates the use of social media as a source of information for Belgian broadcast journalists covering the Arab Spring in 2011. We conducted a content analysis of the 7 o’clock news on the Flemish public broadcasting channel Eén and its commercial competitor VTM, from January 1st till March 31st. We found that user-generated content from YouTube contributed to 30% of all news items about the Arab Spring, while 8% of the news items referred to social media other than YouTube. Interviews with four foreign news editors confirm the growing importance of social media for newsgathering despite the professional prudence with respect to the veracity of user-generated content. At the same time, however, the increased use and visibility of social media in the foreign news does not seem to affect the dominance of institutional sources, such as major news agencies Reuters and APTN and international media like BBC and CNN. The study concludes that conventional routines and standards of professional gatekeeping shape the use of social media in contemporary journalism.

scholarly journals RELIGION, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL CHANGE: REPRESENTATIONS OF MUSLIM WORLD IN ACADEMIC ANALYSES OF THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE ARAB SPRING

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeela Arshad Ayaz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Neoliberal Globalization ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
The Arab Spring

This article deconstructs the dominant constructions and portrayals of the Muslim world in literature on social media and civic engagement in relation to the Arab Spring. A critical reading of literature on social media and ‘Arab Spring’ shows that analyses by Western scholars and commentators are still grounded in ‘modernist dualism’ and orientalist understandings. The article starts by tracing the history of technology to argue that analyses of social media’s educational and civic potential within the Western context in general, is continuation of arguments about earlier technologies in relation to societal development. However, when it comes to analyzing social media and civic engagement particularly in the Muslim world this tendency gets muddled with another well-established trend, that of Orientalism. The overall impact of this tendency results in restricting majority of arguments within the essentialists/determinists paradigm. Such analyses essentialize the technological aspects of social media as universal and constitute the West as civilized, democratic, multicultural, and progressive. On the other hand Muslim world is represented as uncivilized, undemocratic, uncultured, and chained in past traditions. Thus, there is a need for a nuanced understanding of the relationship between the social media and civic engagement in the Muslim world, which can be conceptualized by framing the issues within a postcolonial critique of neoliberal globalization. DOI: 10.15408/tjems.v1i2.1264

2011: The Year Everything Nothing Changed

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Thomas Swann
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Self Organisation ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Arab Spring

Chapter One introduces the connections between anarchism and cybernetics against the backdrop of what will be referred to throughout the book as the 2011 uprisings (Occupy, the Arab Spring, 15M/Indignados, the UK riots). The chapter highlights the apparent role of leaderless self-organisation in these uprisings and the perceived use of social media as an organising tool therein. It is argued that the examples of the 2011 uprisings show that there is a need for an in-depth understanding of how self-organisation and social media-backed organisation can and do operate.

Social media, riots, and revolutions

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Arab Spring

This article analyses the mass media’s claims about the role of social media in the 2011 UK riots and the Arab Spring, arguing that social media has become a new fetishism of technology that distracts from the contradictions of capitalism underlying contemporary societal changes and conflicts. Understanding contemporary capitalism, its contradictions and the role of the media requires a dialectical and critical analysis.

scholarly journals The role of multimedia communication in the Arab Spring

Obraz ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (31) ◽  
pp. 69-75
Author(s):  
Hanna Verbytska
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Large Population ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Arab Spring

Introduction. Social media in the Arab world before the Arab Spring were described as marginal, alternative, and elitist, and their impact was minimal due to low Internet access. The events of 2011 across the Arab world caused the rise of “social media”. However, their role in recent events remains unclear. Relevance and purpose. The Arab Spring caused the study not only of the driving forces of this phenomenon but also its impact on the development of social networks. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to identify the role of modern information and communication technologies in the protest movements of the Arab world. Methodology. General and specific methods based on objective laws of social communication, including logical and dialectical, method of analysis and synthesis, and abstract-logical method are used. Results. Nowadays social and political context has proven the Internet to be perhaps the most effective means of communication which can quickly reach and involve large population groups. In this case, the Internet is a unifying communication factor on three levels – personal, group, and mass. Particular attention should be paid to a new phenomenon on the Internet, which can be described as the “virtual solidarity of people”, who are online. It dramatically revealed itself during the Arab Revolutions in 2011, when large numbers of strangers united, planned, and organized joint political protests using social networks. Conclusions. The Internet is an effective tool for creating and destroying social actors. It acts both as a means of influence and as a means of obtaining information. The Internet usage by the opposing parties either in communication or confrontation between different groups enables the formation of different models of political development and political processes on vast territories. Thus, during the Arab Spring, we observed the emergence of two models – the Tunisian and the Arabian (in simple terms – revolutionary and stabilizing). In both cases, the borrowing (reception) of Western principles of political culture is present, but the main difference between them lies in the means of implementation in society. At that, both cases are characterized by focusing on national traditions and preserving the Muslim religion. Keywords: social networks; social communication; internet; Arab Spring; social actors.

scholarly journals Opening Closed Regimes: What Was the Role of Social Media During the Arab Spring?

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip N. Howard ◽  
Aiden Duffy ◽  
Deen Freelon ◽  
Muzammil M. Hussain ◽  
Will Mari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The Arab Spring

scholarly journals Social Media as a Tool for Political Resistance: Lessons from the Arab Spring and the Nigerian Protests

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-66
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Ufuophu-Biri ◽  
Lucky Ojoboh
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The Self ◽  
Political Resistance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Immolation ◽  
The Arab Spring

Abstract The popular revolutions that swept across North Africa and the Middle East (NAME) countries, popularly called the “Arab Spring”, removed several sit-tight regimes and threatened to remove some others. Until those revolutions, nobody in the region had the audacity to question the actions of the governments. The mass media in the region had no freedom of operation and could not be used to express opinions or ideas that contradicted government wish or stand. However, the self-immolation of Tarek al-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi on 17 December, 2010 in Tunisia and his subsequent death led to an unstoppable torrent of protests across the region. The social media became the tool of communication, organization and coordination during the protests. The social media thus provided the protesters with an alternative voice of expression, which they used to mobilize and organize the protests. This study therefore, examined the role of the social media in the the Arab Spring. The study which is theoretical concludes that the use of the social media was very effective in success of the revolution.The study showed that without the social media, the revolution might not have been successful or might not have taken place at all. The study thus recommends that people should continue to use the social media to protest against oppressive regimes and all forms of oppression.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document