The Role of Social Media Facebook and Twitter in Tunisian and Libyan Revolutions - Coursework Example

The Role of Social Media (Facebook and Twitter) in Tunisian and Libyan Revolutions Student’s Name: Institution: Date: The Role of Social Media (Facebook and Twitter) in Tunisian and Libyan Revolutions Facebook and Twitter are vital tools of social networking which many internet users rely on to communicate with other people. In Tunisia, the single act by a street vegetable trader proved to be the decisive spark that triggered the people’s anger and resentment towards the ruling regime. Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in a protest against insensitive government policies towards the poor in the country. The self immolation of Bouazizi went viral on social networking websites such as You Tube, Twitter and Facebook encouraging young people to take action to change the political destiny of their country (Allagui & Kuebler 2011). In neighbouring Libya, Facebook and Twitter proved to be useful tools of mobilisation which were used by thousands of people to rally against an oppressive regime. These events reveal that the value of social media as a tool for political awareness had not been fully exploited yet. Bloggers were able to network with their followers on Facebook and Twitter to discuss strategies of initiating mass protests to compel their autocratic governments to relinquish power (Allagui & Kuebler 2011). Together with other external media organisations such as the BBC, CNN, Reuters and Al Jazeera, political reformists were able to publicise their agenda to the masses by making them aware of government excesses in both countries. In both Tunisia and Libya, protesters were able to show their defiance and contempt for the ruling regimes and some paid the ultimate price by sacrificing their own lives. Facebook and Twitter helped to fuel ideals of democracy, liberty and equality across Tunisia and Libya during the Arab spring. Even though there were significant efforts by governments in both countries to restrict free media access, people were still able to communicate with other people who held similar views outside their borders. As a result, they were able to hold discussions about the ideal societies they wanted to live in and why it was necessary to fight against political repression. In light of this, many young people were also able to learn new things about their governments which made it difficult for them to prosper in their own countries (Downing 2001). They were able to find out the manner in which their governments were spending taxpayers’ money and hot this related with the overall goals and expectations of the citizenry. More importantly, the role of the internet as a tool for mobilisation against political and social injustices came out in the open as the two countries had to contend with high levels of political turmoil. Since the communication culture in both countries had always favoured restrictive media and internet access, the bold steps taken by young people to become more actively involved in the future of their country showed how they had lost trust in their leaders. Therefore, they had to take action against long term injustices and poor leadership which had denied them an opportunity to improve their standards of living (Howard et al. 2011). Consequently, they were forced to use violence to demonstrate their anger. The majority of residents in North Africa and the Middle East are young people aged 35 and below. Since the regimes of Zine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya had failed to take note of young people’s concerns, violent and bloody political turmoil was the only language young people could use to express their dissatisfactions towards their government. They took it upon themselves to publicise misuse of funds by government officials and how this showed they were out of touch with the expectations and concerns of ordinary citizens (Khondker 2011). For instance in Tunisia, bloggers were able to show the manner in which the first lady used the government jet to go on shopping sprees in France at the taxpayers’ expense. Facebook and Twitter were used to highlight the luxurious lifestyles which government officials and their relatives were enjoying even though the majority of the population were struggling to make ends meet. Free access to information was an important part of the Arab spring that compelled citizens to take action against their governments. Bloggers were able to overcome high levels of censorship in mainstream media by relying on unofficial video recordings to reinforce their arguments (Kaplan & Hainlein 2010). The role of the citizen journalist gained a new meaning because more and more people used different ICT tools to give an account of what was happening in their countries. However, the battle for the right to free media and speech was not won easily. Both governments did all they could to use mainstream media channels under their control to publicise their propaganda to try and dissuade their citizens from paying attention to citizen journalists. Ultimately, citizen journalism proved to be the winner in this struggle because many young people were able to mobilise themselves to challenge dominant power structures. There were collective changes which were witnessed in the manner in which citizens collected, disseminated and communicated with one another during the Arab Spring. Online forums that encouraged free debate regarding important issues in society such as government corruption, police brutality, high taxes and unemployment gained a lot of popularity. Members of these social online forums were able to encourage one another through acts of sympathy and support. Government authorities in both countries used violent means to crack down against any form of dissent by protesters, to maintain their stranglehold on power (Abaza 2011). The strong public support the political movements in both countries received surprised the ruling regimes in both Tunisia and Libya and they realised that the end was near. Therefore, leaders’ misuse of state resources and power was coming back to haunt them. Citizen journalists were able to create highly structured forms of attracting attention to their causes by creating simplified trends through Twitter and Facebook. Readers were able to follow different forms of coding used to understand information flows between different active participants on online networks who had similar political interests. For instance, the hash tag acquired a very important meaning on Twitter during the revolutions in the two North African states because they were used to inform people about the next round of protests. This made it easy for protesters to rally and come up with common slogans and methods of protests to publicise their agenda both nationally and internationally (Skinner 2011). Various international media organisations developed important networks with bloggers and other social media actors to find out their plans which were broadcasted to international media audiences. The monopolisation of news dissemination by state entities created room for other citizen journalism platforms to become more prominent. Digital networked information platforms were a perfect catalyst to democratic awareness in North Africa and the Middle East because they encouraged citizens to react against repressive laws. The connection between new and traditional media played a crucial role in emboldening political activism in the society to a very high level which had never been witnessed before (Skinner 2011). Furthermore, this shows that participatory media is the direction information dissemination is headed because as shown by active online presence, many people are not willing to be passive recipients of news anymore. In conclusion, Facebook and Twitter were instrumental in making people aware about the need for democratic changes to their societies. These two social media platforms encouraged users to support one another to counter high levels of injustices and poor leadership which were present in their governments. The absence of a free media encouraged citizen journalists to use all technological tools at their disposal to influence radical political changes in their societies. References Abaza, M 2011, ‘Revolutionary moments in Tahrir Square’, Global Dialogue, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 3–5, Allagui, I & Kuebler, J 2011, ‘The Arab spring and the role of ICTs: editorial introduction’, International Journal of Communication, vol. 5, pp. 1435-1442. Downing J 2001, Radical media: rebellious communication and social movements, Sage, Thousand Oaks. Howard, P., Duffy, A., Freelon, D., Hussain, M., Mari, W & Mazaid, M 2011, ‘Opening Closed Regimes: What Was the Role of Social Media During the Arab Spring?’, Project on Information Technology and Political Islam Working Paper, University of Washington, Washington. Kaplan, A & Hainlein, M 2010, ‘Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media’, Business Horizons, vol. 53, pp. 59-68. Khondker, HH 2011, ‘Role of the new media in the Arab Spring’, Globalizations, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 675-679. Skinner, J 2011, ‘Social media and revolution: The Arab spring and the occupy movement as seen through three information studies paradigms’, Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems, vol. 11, no. 169, pp. 1-27. Read More