The Role of the Digital/Visual Media in the Revolutions of the Arab Spring - Essay Example

The Role of the Digital/Visual Media in the Revolutions of the Arab Spring The Arab uprisings represent an activist wave of demonstrations and chaos that spread across the Arab world. The uprisings were set off by the first protests that took place in Tunisia on December 18, 2010 after Mohammed Bouazizi set himself in fire in protest of widespread corruption and ill-treatment by the police. In the following one year, this protest brought about major transformations in its wake. The most pointed of these transformations were the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt that brought about the downfall of the two regimes as well as a civil war in Libya that led to the downfall of its regime. There were also civil uprisings in Syria and Yemen as well as major protests in Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Oman and Iraq. There were also minor protests in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and to a lesser extent Sudan. In all these Arab countries, the protests adopted the nature of sustained campaigns that involved thousands of ordinary civilians utilizing identical techniques of civil resistance namely strikes, demonstrations, marches and rallies. According to Professor Salih Kamal (184), particularly instrumental to the protests was the use of social media to plan, communicate, raise awareness, and pass across danger alerts among the thousands of protestors in the wake of state attempts at repression, Internet control, crowd control, and even the use of physical violence to the point of being shot at close range. This paper discusses how both visual and digital media were instrumental in the Arab Spring and how civilians used its power to bring far-reaching changes in the Arab world. The Role of the Internet and Social Networks in the Arab Uprisings According to Dr. Xose Perez, the media has always been viewed as a critical weapon in any struggle. This explains why the first thing that administrations did when the uprisings erupted out was to secure the state-owned television and radio stations. With the absence of free and independent press, information was passed on to the people via media channels that had been contaminated by government propaganda. During the uprising, there was no access to foreign press and journalists were forced to work in a repressive environment. Various governments used their immense power to hide crucial information regarding locations or images that would communicate the strength of the rebellion or the frailty of the regime. The regime also tried to discredit the reports made by international media houses and at other times the journalists suffered physical attacks especially during the riots. With no reliable source of information from the radio and television, the world and the citizens increasingly relied on the digital media for information (Xose 147). According to Khondker Habibul, social media has played a significant role in disseminating information in the Middle East and North Africa. This has been due to the tendency by governments in these regions to gag the mainstream media or to fill the media houses with propaganda. Khondker (675) notes the 6 April, 2008 case of Kareem Al Beheiri, an Egyptian blogger who had been locked by the authorities for allegedly instigating chaos. Although the conventional media had reported this incident, the story had not stayed in the limelight for long and before long it had been overshadowed by other events making headlines in the region. Beheiri had been tortured and later on released without the visual media taking any note. Beheiri’s cyberactivism was a part of a gradual movement that was taking shape within this region. Over the last few years, Facebook and Twitter have been growing steadily and are said to have been instrumental in the revolution that rocked the Arab world in 2011. Khondker Habibul actually notes an incident where one parent named her daughter born in 2011 Facebook in recognition of the role that this social media had contributed to the revolution (Khondker 675). In his ground breaking study, Khondker (676) notes that the real power of the digital/social media was noted after Mohammed Bouazizi the Tunisian fruit seller immolated himself in his car to protest against police brutality and the ever rising food prices. Although the government controlled media tried to prevent this story from breaking out, the international media houses such as Aljazeera reported the story widely and it soon became international news. However, it was the digital media that helped the story to spread fast. Khondker (676) notes that people used Facebook messages to call for protests all throughout Tunisia. These calls were answered by both virtual and real revolutionaries coming out in high numbers to protest. The role played by the “people’s” media in the uprising is clear given the high number of registered Facebook users in the region at the time. Just three months before Bouazizi burned himself in his car, there had been a similar case in Monastir but it had largely gone unnoticed since no one had filmed it. However, what made Bouazizi’s case different was that the images had been circulated on Facebook and everyone had seen them. Although this incident took place in just a small town, the images had been spread far and wide and hence the widespread protests in the region. In 2008, a similar revolution had taken place but it had been quashed without much rebellion from the citizens. This can be explained given that there were only 28,000 registered Facebook users at the time. What this means is that the digital media penetration was low at that time (Khondker 677). The Tunisian revolution soon spilled over to Egypt. In both cases, digital media played a crucial role. The revolution in these two countries was branded the Jasmine Revolution simply because it was not as violent as it could have been expected as it was witnessed in Libya several months later. In essence, the significance role of digital media has resulted in Tunisian and Egyptian conflicts being referred to as Facebook and Twitter revolutions. It is evident that the social networking websites played an important role in organizing and giving publicity to social protests. The role of the digital media was made more relevant by the government’s control of the social media. As Habibul clearly points out, during the protests, the Egyptian activist pointed out clearly in a tweet that they used Facebook to plan the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to broadcast to the world (Khondker 678). In looking at the example of Egypt, one thing that comes out clearly is the active role that digital media played in the revolution. In a clear example of this, an Egyptian blogger was pulled out of a cybercafé before he was beaten to death by armed policemen. The act of these police officers shows that the government had known the power of the social media in the revolution and was bent on quashing it. One of the most fascinating things is that the owner of the café snapped pictures of the beating and posted the link on YouTube for the world to see. The shattered face of this blogger were splashed across social sites all over the world something that irked the protestors even more (Khondker 678). In 2011, women protesting the ban on driving took photos of themselves driving then posted them on Facebook. One woman who was arrested for this crime drew wider activism and today her Facebook page remains a space for Cyber activism. This act of social defiance on social media by this Saudi woman drew the support of women from all over the world including US Secretary of State, Ms. Hillary Clinton continue to show solidarity with this woman. There has also been a YouTube video posted on the Facebook page that showed an earlier protest of 47 Saudi women who broke the taboo and drove across the streets in 1990. While this event took place almost 20 years ago, there have been new comments added to it almost on daily basis after it was posted on the Facebook page. Whether this gesture by the Saudi women calls for an Arab Spring or not is not clear, the truth is that it demonstrates the general feeling in the Middle East and the entire North African region. While the spread of digital media has been uneven in the region, there is clear evidence that cyber activism is gaining popularity in this region. In Egypt, citizens used the digital media to tell stories of police brutality, violence, and barefaced injustice. In the end, the digital media helped protestors in mobilizing definite political outcomes such as the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak (Khondker 677). Although the governments of these regions had gagged the conventional media, they were also instrumental in encouraging the revolution. Although working in extremely hard conditions, visual media such as Aljazeera and BBC played a leading role in broadcasting the rising numbers of protesters in various parts of the Arab region. Although the government ban meant that these images could not be viewed in various places, the fact that these media houses broadcasts over the Internet meant that people could watch them wherever they were. This encouraged the spread of the revolution beliefs in various places within the region. In addition to this, Al Jazeera collected the messages posted on the Internet and transmitted them to their followers throughout the region (Xose 148). Although the role played by the digital media in the Spring Revolution is apparent, there are some elements that dissent. According to the results of a study published by Xose Soengas (149) that sought to establish the role played by the digital media in the revolution, it is clear that the dissenting opinions are not valid. This study featuring mostly young people established that a big majority (92%) believed that the Internet and social networks made the protests and conflicts in their home countries more visible to a global audience. Those polled supported the belief that these technologies to a certain level made up for the information embargoes and censorship that local media in the region had been subjected to. Majority of those quoted in this study indicate that the traditional regimes fell because the Internet gave those living in foreign countries a clearer comprehension of the importance of the abuses that were being perpetrated by the administration. This gave rise to a global solidarity movement with the rebel forces, causing a further isolation of the regimes. 81% of those polled indicted that they were surprised at the sudden rate at which the riots spread in the region. They claim that they had hoped that the conflict would carry on silently for a long period. However, this was not so thanks to the contribution made by the digital media (Xose 148). Ideally, the fast spread of the conflict in the Middle Eastern region is surprising given that there was no unifying factor that could have triggered the widespread unrest. However, the spontaneous messages passed out on Facebook and Twitter created a sense of belonging and hence the solidarity that was witnessed during the period. In essence, the urgency of the matter made it difficult for the organizers to remove all the tips and data coming into the information center. In regard to this, most of the information distributed and accessed into the center turned out to be fallacious. What this means is that the people were led to believe some things that were not factual something that increased the motivation for a revolution (Xose 150). Despite the fact that the shared information seemed credible, 82% of the interviewees indicated that their goal was to follow the occurrence of events in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Many people also wanted to understand and access the publication of data and testimonies of the atrocities that were being committed against the people. By doing this, the succeeded in destroying the regimes reliability and globally broadcast each nations reality especially in relation to acts of oppression. This was followed by the interviewees assuring the people back in their home countries of the international support since the media back at home could not be trusted. Although lacking in authenticity, this shared information between those within and those outside the regime is believed to have led to the lifting of spirits for those taking part in the revolution. Although the mainstream media was not allowed to broadcast any information by the regimes, the people who were outside these regimes followed all the news from the foreign press and shared the contents on social media. Through this shared information, those living inside the regimes were able to gauge the effect that their efforts were having on the whole issue. The positive responses encouraged them to continue with their struggle and this led to the collapse of most of the regimes (Xose 154). According to Barrie Axford (681), the power of the digital media in bringing societal transformation had not been lost to regimes even before the protests broke out. According to Axford, the anti-regime bloggers in Tunisia had been imprisoned and tortured even before the protests broke out in the country. In December 2010, the government had launched a full attack on Facebook by threatening anyone who tried to post on the site and trying to divert accounts to a fake login page. In his opinion, Axford points out that it would be inappropriate to ignore the critical role played by the conventional media in reporting and analysing the uprisings. However, Axford was swift in indicating that the traditional restrictive practices of the regimes in majority of the Middle East nations would render the mainstream media in these regions ineffective in reporting of the uprising. He specifically notes the continual harassment of journalists by the governments where majority of the foreign journalists were denied entry into places such as Yemen and Syria. As a result of this trend, Axford notes that the people in the conflict regions lack the right information from the mainstream media. For this reason, an alternative form of reporting in the name of YouTube and images taken from mobile devices as well as interviews from eyewitnesses on mobile devices is created. Fully aware of the power of the media in spreading news about the uprising, the Syrian government banned all old media journalists in the vain hope that they would control the spread of information. However, this tactic flopped miserably as there was still the spread of information through Facebook and mobile phones. In the initial days following the uprising, images of civilians gunned down by the government troops were shared to the outside world on Facebook through the use of mobile devices (Axford 682). While the western print media was in the forefront in reporting stories about the revolution, it is apparent that their information was not as effective given that most of these nations have cut the journalistic resources dedicated to foreign affairs. Perhaps the only foreign visual media that has been constantly involved in broadcasting the events of the uprising has been Al Jazeera was al Jazeera that has been lauded for its visually stimulating news to the world. YouTube and Flicker were also instrumental to the broadcasting of images such as those of the famous trader Mohamed Bouazizi who set himself ablaze in his car or the crowds gathering in Tahrir Square in Cairo. These images were broadcasted to a global audience and became the springboards of the revolution. According to Axford (684), revolutions today are not conducted using rifles or bayonets but instead they are conducted through the use of phones. Actually, the biggest challenge for regimes in the Arab Spring was how to prevent information from their countries from reaching to the outside worlds. However, the protesters still found a way around the barricades placed by the government. A good example is in Egypt where activists tweeted the protesters numbers directly to international journalists so they may be called for phone interviews to explain the issues that were happening in their countries (Axford 685). Conclusion There is no doubt that the media plays a very crucial role in the spread of information both within and outside national borders. However, with governments keen on regulating the mainstream media, this has been somewhat of a challenge. However, the emergence of the social media has been instrumental in passing along information that has been impossible to transmit through the mainstream media. A thorough examination shows that the digital/social media was instrumental in the Spring Uprising that spread across the Arab World in 2011. Through the use of social media, the protesters were able to stay in touch in their planning and execution of their mission. The effect of this new form of media was that several regimes such as Tunisia and Egypt fell while others like Libya led to the overthrow of the regimes. Works Cited Axford, Barrie. Talk About a Revolution: Social Media and the MENA Uprisings. Globalizations 8(5): 2011, 681-686. Khondker, Habibul. Role of the New Media in the Arab Spring. Globalizations 8(5): 2011, 675-679. Salih, Kamal. The Roots and Causes of the 2011 Arab Uprisings. Arab Studies Quarterly 35(2): 2012, 184-203 Xose, Soengas. The Role of the Internet and Social Networks in the Arab Uprisings: An Alternative to Social Press Censorship. Scientific Journal of Media Education4(21): 2013, 147-155. Read More