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Springing into action: have social media and the Arab Spring reshaped world politics?

Recent events in the Middle East and North Africa have taken the globe by storm. The Arab Spring and the revolutions surrounding it brought social media to the forefront with great force and caused many journalists and protestors alike to start using social media tools in order to rise up against restrictive political regimes. Because of this, many of the gaps left open by mainstream media outlets were filled and people began to wonder whether social media could be reshaping world politics. And if so, how?

More than 200 senior journalists from the EN region working on European and international affairs, along with editor-in-chiefs of major news outlets, gathered together on 10 – 11 October to discuss exactly that at the European Neighbourhood Journalism Network Closing Conference: Media Futures – Policy, Politics and Power in Brussels.

The impact of social media in Egypt

One of the countries that really took advantage of the use of social media tools during the uprisings was Egypt and many were curious to see what some of the locals had to say.

Jack Shenker, foreign correspondent in Egypt for the British newspaper, The Guardian, kicked off the social media and politics discussion by explaining that, “before the uprising, mainstream media produced a skewed image of an Egyptian success story, ignoring social injustice and the surge in the number of people who lived in absolute poverty.”

During the uprisings earlier this year, as the Egyptian government worked to shutdown Internet access altogether, protestors were busy using tools such as Facebook and Twitter in order to get around governmental restrictions and continue the dissemination of important information.

Shenker was wary however of the false hope that social media sometimes gives in terms of its actual abilities and stressed that while, “social media can overcome some of mainstream media’s shortcomings by bringing in a whole new range of opinions the problem is that like mainstream media, it can still enforce false ideas, be it through rumours or governmental propaganda.”

“Social media is merely a tool of communication,” he said, “and as such, can be used for popular mobilisation either by protestors or by the State.”

Censorship and social media in Tunisia

In contrast to Shenker’s sceptical view, Advocacy Director at Global Voices, Sami Ben Gharbia, gave a more positive view regarding the power of social media through the example of the Tunisian revolution, which began back in December of 2010. During this time Tunisian authorities knew very well how to keep a lid on political dissent. Many major websites were blocked, including most social media platforms, one of them being Facebook. Strong protests ensued however and Facebook was eventually allowed back online, where it quickly became the protestors’ main source of information outside of the doctored material being fed to them by government officials.  Armed with the realisation that once online, information could go viral, citizens began sharing as much user generated content with each other as possible. 

“I am against censorship and the censorship of the social networks,” Ben Gharbia stated. “There are those who say Internet can foment hatred and violence, but this attitude threatens to bring us censorship again. Censorship should not even to be considered.”

Did social media change world politics?

Following Ben Gharbia’s lead, Director of International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Jillian York, continued the discussion regarding Tunisia saying, “this situation crystallised the role social media has in society, with citizen content pushing away state propaganda and correcting mainstream media reports.”

York argued, “social media did not try to replace mainstream media, it merely provided an alternative to the narrative it was promoting.”

Niche author and Director of the social analysis agency, Flockwatch, James Harkin, seemed to disagree with the idea that social media helped reshape world politics. Looking at social media as a ‘weak tie’ Harkin voiced his concern that social media is not strong enough to create a lasting engagement.

“My conclusion is that the obsessive focus on the media, tends to rob politics of its content, and in doing so, we really are in danger of missing what’s really going on,” Harkin stressed. “I think we should be careful not to lead the activists into a blind alley.”

International reporter and columnist at Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s biggest daily, Konstanty Gebert, inspired by Harkin’s claim interjected saying, “Indeed, social media do not build institutions, rather, they replace the need to a political change with a catharsis. In Eastern Europe, the underground movement was built on trust, a very strong bond of trust. But in Tunisia, everybody is on Facebook and nobody’s there to print a leaflet that would explain to the guy on the donkey what’s going on.”

Throughout the conversation participants continued to voice their concerns that social media was not the only reason for change in strict governmental regimes. “Facebook played an important role, but there were other important factors contributing to the fall of the regime,” one delegate pointed out “The mosques and the Friday prayers, for instance, were also important in mobilising protesters.”

Egyptian delegate, Aliaa Hamed, covered the discussion via Twitter where she posted a tweet quoting, Jamal Dajani, Vice President of Middle East, North Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean at Internews Network:

The final consensus from both speakers and delegates seemed to be that while social media does play a role, it should not be considered the sole factor in terms of reshaping world politics. It should be viewed instead as a tool, which can be used to facilitate change.

An Egyptian delegate summed it up saying, “Social media provided information and space for discussion. They assisted the formation of a new leadership and coalition. The activists were building their network in cyberspace but they also emerged out of cyberspace and met in person in NGO headquarters, where you could encounter activists from all over the country.”

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Photos Copyright of Lucas Daniels and Sueli Brodin

 

Tags: advocacy, aliaa hamed, brussels, delegate, director at global voices, egypt, egyptian government, electronic frontier foundation, facebook, foreign correspondent, gazeta wyborcza, jack shenker, jamal dajani internews, james harkin, mainstream media, mainstream media outlets, media platforms, media tools, middle east, middle east and north africa, ngo headquarters, north africa, online information, sami ben gharbia, shutdown internet access, social media, social networks, the guardian, tunisia, twitter, us federal reserve, vice president of middle east north africa latin america,

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