The Arab Spring has impacted multiple countries in northern Africa and the Arab world and so far since the end of December in 2010, leading to the fall of the government in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Among the unarmed insurrections, social media and social networking technology functioned as a new strategy that empowered the protesters to gain successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and inspired grassroots movements in other Arab countries.
The new media, namely Twitter, Facebook and Youtube, with online blogs and mobile telecommunications, played a significant role as the politics of connectivity, which connect, coordinate and communicate the protestors. Labeled as “Twitter Revolution” or “Facebook Revolution”, the new media to some extent engaged in the Arab Spring uprisings.
Through analyzing more than three million tweets on Twitter, content on YouTube and thousands of blog posts, a study led by analysts from University of Washington finds that social media played a critical role in shaping political debates in the movements during the Arab Spring and it inspired protestors through the Internet platform and spread democratic ideas and demands across the national borders.
Taking the use of social media in the unarmed insurrections in Tunisia and Egypt as cases to study, this essay aims to analysis whether the social media was the driving force that led to the movements during the Arab Spring since 2011.
Different from the prior movements and uprisings that were organised and directed by a chief leader, the insurrections in Arab Spring was structurally changed that started by a mass of the online connected young people. The Internet and social media first empowered the young people to stimulate the uprisings, whi...
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The digital unarmed strategies in Arab Spring are not the substitute to the physical actions and insurrections, yet they worked jointly with the traditional insurgency methods to reach greater audiences and appeal more public support. Social media is not the strategy that sparked or guaranteed the revolution, but it vitally contributed to the spread of movements.
Works Cited
Khondker, H. 2011. Role of the New Media in the Arab Spring. Globalizations 8(5), pp. 675-679.
Dubai School of Government. 2011. Arab Social Media Report. 1(1), p3. [online] Available at: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/dsg/unpan044212.pdf. [Accessed: 2 May, 2014.]
Aday, S. et al. 2012. New Media and Conflict After the Arab Spring. United States Institute of Peace. [online] Available at: http://www. usip. org/files/resources/PW80. pdf. [Accessed: 29 April, 2014.]
The authoritarian regimes of the Middles cycled through a pattern of anti-western policy until the globalization effects of economics and information demanded reform. As conservative Arab states try to maintain the autocracy they relied on after gaining independence, their citizens, affected by information and education expansion, challenge their resistant governments as typified by Syria’s unwillingness to capitulate. The proliferation of information and education underscored the protest movements of the Arab Spring because citizens’ contempt for their obstinate governments grew to large under economic pressures, as the current situation in Syria demonstrates.
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The Middle East has always been a region which has frequently appeared in global news and media for various reasons. Despite all the attention directed towards the region, there has always been a sector of the population which has been left unaddressed most of the time. This sector which I talk about is the Arab youth. For a long time, the Arab region and its politics have been closely related to its traditions and its past, with many leaders maintaining their power for several decades. Due to this social structure, the youth of these countries have been given little amount of attention and say in the way their countries are run. However, in light of the recent events that have occurred across the region, it is evident that the youth have had enough of this oppression and that now it is their turn to take control. The question that has popped up in the minds of millions across the world is “what might have caused these sudden uprisings?” A part of the answer to that question can be attributed to technology. Specifically, it is the social media structure of the internet and television which has acted as a catalyst and empowered the Arab youth, not only to revolt against their oppressors, but to rediscover their identity in times of strife and hardships.
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Wolfsfeld, G., Segev, E., & Sheafer, T. (2013). Social Media and the Arab Spring: Politics Comes First. International Journal of Press/Politics, 18(2), 115-137
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