Social Media and the Arab Spring - Media Watch Journal

Social Media and the Arab Spring

RABINDRANATH & SUJAY KAPIL
Central University of Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

This paper discusses the effect of social media on the occurrence of ‘Arab Spring’. In the Arab world no country could claim to be truly democratic and most were autocratic coupled with desertification (68.4 per cent of the total land area), phenomenal rise in population and scarcity of water. Moreover, about 60 per cent of the population is under 25 years and this group belonging to lower- middle class with high education, self- constructed status, wider world views and global dreams forced them to raise their voice and change the autocratic set up. But, in the absence of effective social media since the year 2000 made it possible to raise their voice unitedly through facebook, twitter and blogs culminating to the ouster of Hosne Mubarak in Egypt. The ‘top to down’ approach adopted by the Western social scientists, thus proved wrong and ‘bottom to top’ approach through social media brought the dramatic changes in Arab nations.

Keywords: Social media, Arab Spring, Egypt, convergence, blogosphere, Internet activism, desertification

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Dr. M. Rabindranath is an associate professor in the School of Journalism, Mass Communication and New Media at the Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India. His research interest is on impact of media on society, advertising and cultural communication.

Sujay Kapil is a research scholar in the School of Journalism, Mass Communication and New Media at the Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India