Page 53 - AIB | The Chanel | Issue 2 2011

THE CHANNEL | ISSUE 2 2011 | 53
ARAB SPRING
The Arab Spring looks set to be one
of the pivotal events of this decade.
Social media has been in the
spotlight as a source of information
in the protests that have swept
across the Middle East, particularly
Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen
and Syria. Although social media
tools have been vital for surfacing
content, the way news has been
distributed, authenticated, put in
context and then used in online
conversations reveals how
broadcasting and social media can
blend together nowadays to provide a
far-reaching, powerful and inclusive
presentation of news to a worldwide
audience. Technology consultant
Roger Stone looks at how social
media has fed into, as well as fed off,
traditional media
he Arab Spring has
focused the world’s
attention on
protestors who
have practically no
access to tightly
controlled
traditional media in their own
countries. So they have been using
tools such as Twitter, Facebook and
YouTube, often accessed via mobile
phone to enable them to organise
and to make their voice heard to
the wider world; and traditional
broadcasters as well as new media
players have been tapping into the
messages to provide news and
analysis around the globe as well as
back into the originating countries.
This provides a counterpoint to
the common viewpoint of social
media as a convenience tool for the
developed world to use on the
latest tablets – it demonstrates how
social media can provide basic
communications and community
building, enabling everyone to fight
for basic human rights.
SOCIALMEDIA
While repressive states in the
Middle East have generally been
able to control the newspapers,
radio and TV, they have been far
less successful at stopping those
opposing them from organising
and communicating via mobile
phones and the internet. Despite
their attempts to block or filter
network traffic, protestors are
always finding ways round the
restrictions and rulers are
constrained by their own
communication needs.
While state controlled media
continued to deny the extent of
protests until virtually the moment
that the regimes fell, they lost
control of the flow of news. The
demographics of the Arab World
are such that 50% of the population
is below the age of 25 and
T
CONTENT& CONTEXT