The Arab Spring and Social Media - Literature review Example

The Arab Spring and Social Media Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: Introduction The present-day pervasiveness of the social media has changed the landscape of political participation. As El-Nawawy and Khamis (2012) explain, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and weblogs have played a critical function in activating, accelerating, and systematizing the most prominent modern-day uprisings and revolutions, particularly in the Middle East. Of specific significance within this context is the increase in the level of “mediatization” of the society, which consists of a process of social change in which the number of the existing media within social interactions, their application in a networked society, as well as their impact on the public sphere has significantly increased (Esser & Strömbäck 2014). Within the context of political participation, the incessant integration of traditionally separate communication modes in interactive online media, such as the social media tools, is particularly significant. This section presents a review of literature on the concepts of mediatization and political participation, the role of the social media in the Arab Spring, and the relevant theoretical frameworks that explain what link social media to political participation. Mediatization and political participation Once the mediatized communication infiltrates interpersonal communication, as well as interaction with the families and friends reaches the public, it may have effects on the nature of political participation (Schäfer and Taddicken 2015). While the idea of mediatization has been applied in a range of contexts to explain the impact of media, Hjarvard (2008) suggested a more apparent conceptualization that is applicable to the concept of media influence to the society. According to Hjarvard (2008), the concept of mediatization entails a process that is relevant for modern societies. Examples include the mass media, which is no longer conceivable as separate from the social institutions. In fact, Esser and Strömbäck (2014) used this premise to explain that the society has increasingly become mediatised, while attempting to explain that the “modes of interactions and social institutions” have increasingly changed due to the growing prominence of media influence. In essence, the process has a dual nature since the media has become integrated into the many social institutions, as well as become adopted as status of social institutions. In a related review, Schäfer and Taddicken (2015) explain that since mediatisation is linked to modernity, it is basically an innovation of highly developed or developing nations, which emerged towards the end of the 20th century. Still, it could be reasoned that mediatization is fundamentally influencing more nations, both developed and underdeveloped, due to the speedy globalization as a result of the ever-increasing social media penetration. Indeed, Kriesi et al. (2013) reviewed the new media’s dramatic development globally and pointed out that the rate at which mobile and internet technologies had penetrated globally was leading to the incapacity of traditional values to be at pace with the new cultural values that the new media generated. Schäfer and Taddicken (2015) seem to agree with the argument. In their view, the ties binding the cultural identities have become substituted with new, interactive, and more engaging forms of new media. Within the context of political participation, what this implies is that political ideologies that are spread through the new media become integrated into other societies more rapidly, as well as with less resistance compared to the traditional media. Schäfer and Taddicken (2015) concluded that it is specifically reflective of the younger generations and manner in which they use the social media. Consistent with this, Hassan’s (2015) study reveals that the social media and mobile communication have increasingly become entrenched into the modern-day social and interpersonal interactions. Additionally, they have changed interpersonal communication considerably. The increase in the amount of communication channels, the extensive variety of information and political opinions provided, as well as the growth of the intricacy of interconnection among the available media channels has a potential to profoundly influence the manner in which people seek, select, and assess media content. In 2012, Neilson research firm revealed in a report that the internet users in the United States spent more time using the social compared to other categories of websites. The report indicated that some 20 percent of the time individuals spent using their personal computers was dedicated to the social media platform while 30 percent of the time spent using the mobile phones was on social networking sites. The report by Neilson showed that 17 percent of consumers in the United States spent their time online using Facebook. The study concluded that Facebook remained the most trendy social networking site and mobile application in the United States. Hence, it was perceived that the social media facilitated quick growth of point-to point communication forms. In particular, such unparalleled prevalence of the online social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn implies that major opportunities integrated social communication. Consequently, more scholars have focused their discussions on the civic potential of the social media. Specifically, they have contributed to a paradigm shift in the political scene, and to spread democratic ideals and to enhance civic responsibilities and political participation. In a study of social media influences on the Arab Revolutions by Aouragh (2012), the researcher found that the social media fundamentally changes the manner in which people handle public communication, as well as offers an electronic agora that provides a platform for raising and discussing political issues of concern. In a related study of the revolution, Wiest and Eltantawy (2015) commented that since the internet offers an instantaneous resource for communicating in real-time despite the geographical span, the citizens could take pleasure in a real-time interactive communication, challenge autocracies, as well as promote civic participation. Wiest and Eltantawy (2015) further associated such new modes of public sphere to the emergence of social network democracy. In an earlier review, Kriesi et al. (2013) had used a similar assumption to argue that the social media has intense communications potential to pass politically activated information, as well as to cause horizontal network of connections that facilitate the viral propagation of politically charged information, which in turn affects public engagement, political participation, as well as ideological account. Consistent with this argument, Wheeler (2014) points out that the information networks create new modes of meaning, as they encourage causal connections between the public political discourses and individual’s personal expressions. For this reason, the social media facilitates an ever-increasing combination of digital citizens to take part in a ‘communicate abundance’ with the hope of resisting the prevailing political forces in society (Schäfer and Taddicken 2015). Therefore, it is a tool for gaining and channelling power. Within the network society, Schäfer and Taddicke (2015) describe power as being multi-dimensional, as well as being organized in the order of networks that have been programmed within each sphere of human influence. They further explained that the communications networks, such as the social networking sites, consist of critical sources of power-making. To this end, since the Web 2.0 social networks disseminate information or messages in a viral way, they foster new modes of information exchange. To this end, peer-to-peer communication modes facilitate ‘memes’ or ideas, intended to infuse the consciousness of the public. It is based on this fragmentation, as El-Nawawy and Khamis (2012) attempt to explain that alternative voices emerge through the social media that make up political participation. The social media has become a prevalent source of communication. In the United States, for instance, the social media is ranked as the most popular sources of daily news. Consequently, therefore, it has replaced the radio and newspaper. During the two previous American election cycles, the political news audience that turn to the social media has grown fundamentally. Globally, other countries have also caught up with the trend. However, the empirical researchers have thus far failed to provide a vivid reflection of the political consequences of the shifting audience behaviour (Aouragh 2012). Hence, it remains an open issue whether the traditional media are bound to be totally displaced by the online media. By far and large, the effects of online media on political knowledge remain an issue of scholarly debate. In fact, contradictory empirical evidence exists on whether social media encourages civic participation. Most contentious within this context is the predominance of social networking. While the social media platforms have chiefly been used for non-political functions, they have still served political goals, including mobilising protests, expressing political opinion and setting up collective action. Wiest and Eltantawy (2015) note that what keeps motivating people to leverage the social media functions to engage in political discourses can be clarified using certain gratifications of the internet applications. This is consistent with the normative expectations concerning the communication behaviours of citizens and the role of the media as an intermediary tool that connects the margin and the centre of political system. Still, such a relationship is dramatically changing. Conversely, the new media's intermediary function has, at present, intensified because of the unmatched stockpile of information that the social media provides, as well as by the online presence of the divergent political organisations and bloggers. New Media in the Arab World Fulya (2012) employed the concept of the public sphere to suggest that the mobile and internet technologies provide innovative opportunities for personal expression, information sharing, social networking, as well as social activism, particularly in the Arab World. While the social media has been intensely linked to the Arab Spring, some researchers, such as Rauf (2014) have provided evidence indicating that mobile and internet technologies play a crucial role in ensuring political, social and cultural change. In the earlier research, Al-Saggaf (2006) had examined the capacity of online technologies to promote civic engagement within the Arab world after he examined readers’ comments regarding a popular internet television station. In a later study, Aouragh (2012) focused his study on internet users in Palestine and found that technology had changed the tactics used by social and political activists, as well as reinforced citizen’s political agency. Mohamed (2011) later based his analysis on the effects of social media on political activism using the concept of public sphere. The researcher examined the manner in which social media bloggers in Egypt were instrumental in transforming traditional journalism, promoting activism, as well as expanding the public sphere. The researcher found that social media enabled the bloggers to promote activism. Aouragh (2012) examined the socio-political impacts of user-generated content in the social media on the Arab revolutions. Aouragh (2012) commented that the revolutions triggered a revival of discussions regarding the influence of new media political activism basing on the Marxist concept. An overview of Aouragh’s (2012) works indicates that the social media was a tool for protests during the ‘Arab Spring,’ hence reflected the more profound ideological significance of the Marxist notion of mediation. By invoking the concept of mediation, the researchers were able to understand the clichés regarding the role of the internet and the social media as helping to empower and disempower. Hassan (2015) also examined the role of the social media during the Arab Spring. He argued that the protests that began in 2011 were incapable of evolving without the prevailing discontent over high rates of unemployment, corruption levels, as well as poor living standards. Hassan (2015), however, suggests that it is the significance of social media platforms, such as Facebook, which provided the stimuli for the protests. Indeed, it is based on this assumption that he argued that before the emergence of social media, widespread discontent had existed in the Middle East but there were no stimuli to start the revolution since the region’s governments censored the existing mainstream media outlets. Hassan (2015) highlights the role of Facebook as having effectively awakened the Arab people and empowered them to protest against the repressive regimes. For instance, Hassan (2015) remarks that it is Facebook that acted as catalysts that stirred up the Tunisian revolution. This finding is supported by a related study by Müller and Hübner (2014), which concluded that without Facebook, the Arab revolution would have been slower in Jasmine, Tunisia. Müller and Hubner’s (2014) study investigated the role of Facebook during the 2010 Jasmine Revolution of Tunisia, which led to the change of the Tunisian regime. Müller and Hubner’s (2014) established that historically, the traditional mass media posed as a key factor that corrupt regimes used to stay in power because of the ability to censor them, Tunisian case became the first case in the Middle East that witnessed a triumphant revolution that happened after the traditional media was circumvented through the use of social media platforms that were transformed into political activism tools. A similar assumption is shared by Eltantawy and Wiest (2011) in their examination of the role of Facebook on the Egyptian revolution. However, Hassan (2015) argues that the roles of other social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube cannot be overlooked, since they serve a similar function of empowering the political activists. The researcher commented that social media users in Tunisia used Facebook and Twitter to post photos of protests and unrests to influence collective consciousness. In the same vein, the footage of police shootings and street protests were posted on YouTube, as well as aired on Al-Jazeera. However, Bruns et al. (2012) appears to disagree with Hassan (2015) when he presents contradictory evidence showing that Twitter was the medium of choice for the political activists, during the Arab Spring, specifically after the dispute of the Iranian election results in 2009, which lead to the ‘Twitter revolution.’ Bruns et al. (2012) also examined elsewhere in Libya and Egypt and concluded that while the concerned governments attempted to block Internet access, the activists used workarounds to post on Twitter. The role of blogs cannot be overlooked. One of the studies that explored the significance of the blogs was by Bruns et al. (2012). In their study of the role of blogs on the Egyptian Revolution, Bruns et al. (2012) defended their effectiveness in promoting political activism. The researchers commented that before the Arab uprisings, the practices of blogging in Egypt were attributed to the growing need to comment on the existing trends in politics after the media outlet began to intensify critical coverage of Mubarak’s regime. In Bruns’ et al. (2012) view, blogging became a means by which people provide political commentaries that could not be published in traditional media, such as newspapers. Ultimately, when the Egyptian blogosphere became increasingly active, the bloggers who were concerned created a network of activist within the borders of Egypt and overseas with international bloggers and journalists. Bruns et al. (2012) explain that it is due to such networks that political ideologies that dissented Mubarak’s regime were shared and spread across the country, as well as globally. Theoretical Frameworks The heavy reliance on social media as a valuable tool for organising and mobilising can be explained based on several conventional theories of communication and social interaction (Storck 2012). The relevant theoretical frameworks include Participatory Culture framework, Two-step Flow Model, Granovetter’s theory, and Lasswell’s functionalist theory. Two-step flow model The Two-step Flow Model suggests that the manner in which interpersonal interactions take place significantly effects or shapes the public opinion compared to the mass media outlets. Theorists Paul Lazarsfeld, Hazel Gaudet and Bernard Berelson proposed the theory in 1948. They hypothesised that the mass media content was initially acquired by the “opinion leaders,” which consists of individuals with active media users. The opinion leaders later interpret the media content before they disseminate the meaning to the media consumers who are less active. According to the theory, information is picked from the media by the opinion leaders who then diffuse it on to members of the public, who must be less active. Katz (1957) explains that when this theory is taken into consideration, then it implies that, through interpersonal communication, individuals get second-hand information from the opinion leaders instead of directly from the mass media. In the study of the 1940 elections in the United States, Lazarsfeld, Gaudet and Berelson established that a majority of voters during the election received their information regarding the candidates from opinion leaders who had interpreted media content of the campaign from the newspapers. The theorists then acknowledged the role of word-of-mouth information transmission as vital for the communication process. They also argued that the mass media had limited social influence on a majority of people. Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) comment that initially, it had been assumed that the mass media had a direct influence on people. The theory is particularly applicable in the new media, where the social media dominates and provides a platform for the opinion leaders to influence other individual’s decisions and behaviours. The Two-step Flow Model is specifically applicable to the concept of mediatisation, which is today applied in a range of contexts to explain the impact of social media. Hjarvard (2008) suggests that the concept of mediatization entails a process that is relevant for the modern-day social media-dominated political discourse. In fact, Esser and Strömbäck (2014) show that the society has increasingly become mediatised, as interpersonal interactions, through the use of social media platforms, shape the public opinion. This later influences the mass audience. In fact, the social media has become integrated into the many interpersonal interactions. As a consequence, more theorists have focused their analysis on the civic potential of the social media. Participatory Culture Jenkins (2009) defines the concept of Participatory Culture as a framework with comparatively low barriers to self-expression and civic participation, which provides a platform to create and share ideas with others within a social network, provides informal mentorship where ideas are passed on along the network, and, which consists of individuals who strongly believe that their contributions are significant, and that they have some level of social connection. The five aspects of Participatory Culture reflect the features of the social media, particularly within the public sphere, as its members have to freely create and contribute ideologies that are passed along the social network, as well as believe that what they contribute is valued. Jenkins (2009) suggests that the culture changes the focus from just individual’s learning and informational needs to individuals’ need for self-expression to civic and community participation. Most applicable within this context is the relevance of social networking sites as tools for participatory cultures. While the social media platforms have chiefly been used for non-political functions as learning and informational needs, they have still achieved political goals, including mobilising protests, expressing political opinion and setting up collective action. Through the Participatory Culture, individuals are motivated to leverage the social media functions, as well as to engage in political discourses. This is consistent with the normative expectations concerning the communication behaviours of citizens and the role of the media as an intermediary tool that connects the margin and the centre of political system. SPIN Model El-Nawawy and Khamis (2012) suggested the SPIN Model is effective for explaining the use of social media and its influence on the capacity of the political movements to mobilise people and initiate change. He adopted the model, which had initially been suggested by Gerlach and Hine (1968). The model proposed that the structure of social movement is "segmented, polycentric, integrated, networks (SPIN).” El-Nawawy and Khamis (2012) defines segmentation as the existence of open boundaries among different civil society groups. The social media enables the social activists to be members of different groups or segments at the same time, yet remaining available for future coordination. Polycentrism refers to the situation where a social movement has many people, often temporary leaders, who are at the center of influence and who often compete for influence. In using social media during social activism, no one speaks for the movement and the movement is not based on hierarchy. Integration, as El-Nawawy and Khamis (2012) explain it, entails the "the horizontal structure with scattered social activists. The integrative function provides personal ties, as well as appreciation of prevalent threats, and the need to achieve goals. In political participation, the social media allows diverse groups of people to unite for a course. El-Nawawy and Khamis (2012) further explain that networks contain membership that overlaps, and promotes joint initiatives and shared ideologies. The social networking sites, like Facebook, embody an example of “networks” that allowed political movement participants to pass and share ideas, as well as to coordinate political activism jointly. Granovetter’s theory and functionalist theory According to Storck (2012), the Granovetter’s theory and functionalist theory are rooted in the sociology instead of International Relations, and became popular before the emergence of the social media. The theory can be sufficiently applied in explaining the reasons why the Egyptian activists selected the social media as tool for communication. Storck (2012) further explains that the Lasswell’s functionalist sociology presents an analytical framework for analysis of the social media effects on political participation. Lasswell’s model, as Storck (2012) explains, is anchored in the multi-faceted question “who says what in which channel to whom with what effect?” The theoretical framework provides an approach for content analysis, a method that aims to attain an objective analysis of the social media content. Conclusion It is established from a review of literature that the social media and mobile communication have increasingly become entrenched into the modern-day social and interpersonal interactions. Additionally, they have changed interpersonal communication considerably. Within the context of political participation, what this implies is that political ideologies that are spread through the new media become integrated into other societies more rapidly, as well as with less resistance compared to the traditional media. Specifically, they have contributed to a paradigm shift in the political scene, spread democratic ideals and enhanced civic responsibilities and political participation. However, a review of the literature shows that the role of social media has not been explored exhaustively to empirically determine whether they are a hindrance to the concept of political participation. A review of literature shows that the role of social media in causing civic participation has just started to be integrated into the scholarly body of works during the last decade. This is partially since most recent studies on political participation tended to focus substantially on the effects of social media rather than their conceptual advances with regard to political participation. Overall, the social media have intense communications potential to pass politically activated information, as well as to cause horizontal network of connections that facilitate the viral propagation of politically charged information, which in turn affects public engagement, political participation, as well as ideological account. References Aouragh, M 2012, "Social Media, Mediation and the Arab Revolutions," Triple C vol 10 no 2, pp.518-536 Bruns, A, Highfield, T & Burgess, J 2012, The Arab Spring and Its Social Media Audiences: English and Arabic Twitter Users and Their Networks, 17 Sept 2015, El-Nawawy, M & Khamis, S 2012, "Political Activism 2.0: Comparing the Role of Social Media in Egypt’s “Facebook Revolution” and Iran’s “Twitter Uprising”,” Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East, vol 6 no 1 Eltantawy, N & Wiest, J 2011, "Social Media in the Egyptian Revolution: Reconsidering Resource Mobilization Theory," International Journal of Communication vol 5,1207–1224 Esser, F & Strömbäck, J 2014, Mediatization of Politics: Understanding the Transformation of Western Democracies, Palgrave Macmillan, New York Fulya, S 2012, “The Social Media as a Public Sphere: The Rise of Social Opposition,” International Conference on Communication, Media, Technology and Design ICCMTD 09-11 May 2012 Istanbul - Turkey Hassan, S 2015, Social Media and the Arab Spring, viewed 17 Sept 2015, Hjarvard, S 2008, “The mediatization of society,” Nordicom Review, vol 29 no 2, pp.105–134 Jenkins, H, Purushotma. R, Weigel, M & Clinton, K 2009, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture, The MIT Press, Cambridge Katz, E 1957, The two-step flow of communication: An up-to-date report on an hypothesis,” Public Opinion Quarterly, vol 21 no 1, pp.61–78. Katz, E, & Lazarsfeld, P 1955, Personal Influence, Free Press, New York Kriesi, H, Bochsler, D, Matthes, J, Lavenex, S, Bühlmann, M & Esser, F 2013, Democracy in the Age of Globalization and Mediatization, New York, Palgrave Macmillan Müller, M & Hubner, C 2014, "How Facebook Facilitated the Jasmine Revolution. Conceptualizing the Functions of Online Social Network Communication," Journal of Social Media Studies vol 1 no1, pp17–33 Rauf, A 2014, "Social movements, YouTube and political activism in authoritarian countries: a comparative analysis of political change in Pakistan, Tunisia & Egypt," PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2014 Schäfer, M & Taddicken, M 2015, "Mediatized Opinion Leaders: New Patterns of Opinion Leadership in New Media Environments?” International Journal of Communication 9, 960–981 Storck, M 2012, "The Role of Social Media in Political Mobilisation: a Case Study of the January 2011 Egyptian Uprising," This dissertation is submitted in part requirement for the Degree of M.A. (Honours with International Relations) at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and is solely the work of the above named candidate Wheeler, M 2014, The Mediatization of Celebrity Politics through the Social Media, viewed 17 Sept 2015, Wiest, J & Eltantawy, N 2015, "Mediatization in the Arab World: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of New Media Use," Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies vol 5 no 2, pp.12-142 Read More

In their view, the ties binding the cultural identities have become substituted with new, interactive, and more engaging forms of new media. Within the context of political participation, what this implies is that political ideologies that are spread through the new media become integrated into other societies more rapidly, as well as with less resistance compared to the traditional media. Schäfer and Taddicken (2015) concluded that it is specifically reflective of the younger generations and manner in which they use the social media.

Consistent with this, Hassan’s (2015) study reveals that the social media and mobile communication have increasingly become entrenched into the modern-day social and interpersonal interactions. Additionally, they have changed interpersonal communication considerably. The increase in the amount of communication channels, the extensive variety of information and political opinions provided, as well as the growth of the intricacy of interconnection among the available media channels has a potential to profoundly influence the manner in which people seek, select, and assess media content.

In 2012, Neilson research firm revealed in a report that the internet users in the United States spent more time using the social compared to other categories of websites. The report indicated that some 20 percent of the time individuals spent using their personal computers was dedicated to the social media platform while 30 percent of the time spent using the mobile phones was on social networking sites. The report by Neilson showed that 17 percent of consumers in the United States spent their time online using Facebook.

The study concluded that Facebook remained the most trendy social networking site and mobile application in the United States. Hence, it was perceived that the social media facilitated quick growth of point-to point communication forms. In particular, such unparalleled prevalence of the online social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn implies that major opportunities integrated social communication. Consequently, more scholars have focused their discussions on the civic potential of the social media.

Specifically, they have contributed to a paradigm shift in the political scene, and to spread democratic ideals and to enhance civic responsibilities and political participation. In a study of social media influences on the Arab Revolutions by Aouragh (2012), the researcher found that the social media fundamentally changes the manner in which people handle public communication, as well as offers an electronic agora that provides a platform for raising and discussing political issues of concern.

In a related study of the revolution, Wiest and Eltantawy (2015) commented that since the internet offers an instantaneous resource for communicating in real-time despite the geographical span, the citizens could take pleasure in a real-time interactive communication, challenge autocracies, as well as promote civic participation. Wiest and Eltantawy (2015) further associated such new modes of public sphere to the emergence of social network democracy. In an earlier review, Kriesi et al. (2013) had used a similar assumption to argue that the social media has intense communications potential to pass politically activated information, as well as to cause horizontal network of connections that facilitate the viral propagation of politically charged information, which in turn affects public engagement, political participation, as well as ideological account.

Consistent with this argument, Wheeler (2014) points out that the information networks create new modes of meaning, as they encourage causal connections between the public political discourses and individual’s personal expressions. For this reason, the social media facilitates an ever-increasing combination of digital citizens to take part in a ‘communicate abundance’ with the hope of resisting the prevailing political forces in society (Schäfer and Taddicken 2015).

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