The impact of social media on Arab spring Communications & Media Essay

The Impact of Social Media in the Arab Spring
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The Impact of Social Media in the Arab Spring
In the last decade, the world has been changed by many factors, among the factors is technological advancement which has influenced every aspect of our, social, economic and political life. From medicine to religion, technology has influenced the changes and developments we continue to see in our daily lives. The change has come with its effects and advantages as well as disadvantages. We can say the latter is surpassed by the first, but overall, it is a phenomenon that needs to be studied and analyzed. According to Della Porta et al. (2006) globalization and technology advancement have both transformed the world into an easily reachable global village making it easy for individuals to share cultures, politics and way of life. In politics, to the ways people used to engage with the government have changed as the new digital era takes over. Political and social movements in our communities have taken the trending strategy of amassing global support within minutes to use the power of number to enact the desired changed. This study is going to look at the effects of social media in social and political in our society based on the unpopular uprising of the Arab Spring.
Campaign Development
Social media was a key ingredient of the unpopular campaigns. Although it is observed that, the Arab Spring was in the making for a long time and was not solely based on social media, just that it needed that little trigger to blow up and the immediate cause can be said to hang with one Mohammed Bouazizi, a young Hawker from Tunisia. Bouazizi was told that he could not parade his items to sell in the streets unless he bribed the police and the bribe money mentioned to him was a little higher than he could afford. Taking his plea to his governor, he lit himself on fire after the governor failed him dying on the spot. It was this act of protest that triggered the unpopular Arab Spring in the Arab region. Civilians started to lament on the deplorable living conditions in states such as Libya, Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia. Protesting on issues such as corruption, poverty levels, low-quality education, and unemployment. The movement as observed was made up of mostly youth who used social media platforms mostly Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to call for and organize the protest at different regions at the same time. United by the common goal of obtaining the justice they used social media to spread their concerns to not only the protestors only but also the world where they gain support for their newly developed mission. Women were also involved in the protest and much can be attributed to social media where other younger females encouraged them to join the action for their future and rights.
Networked Social Movements
A decade before the Arab uprising, networked politics, and networked social movements were not common especially in the political protests or collective actions. One reason why this mode was not popular was that internet availability was still low and lack of the know-how of technology. However, with advancement of technology recent political protests are characterized with use of modern technology fo...