...“The Facebook Revolution”: Social Networking Sites and the correlation with The January 25 Revolution. 1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Information and communication technology increasing with the growing variety of Internet based applications. This new media is not only "library information" to facilitate the dissemination of information to a universal audience, but even more than that. This media is also a powerful tool for communication activities. Furthermore, with Web 2.0 technology, design and use of the Internet has changed much work to do with this new media that Levinson (2009) call this "new new media"- more new than the new media- which shows variances against the classic new media such as e-mail and websites. This media is not merely a tool to facilitate distribution, archiving and text-based, but has become a tool for social media who have the capability delivering media content and providing interaction facilities between readers and writers. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein (2010) define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content (photos, videos, links, etc.)." In addition, it is also one of the latest communication channels that enable dissemination and sharing of information can be done quickly and widely through the new media. Undeniably, the year 2008 is seen as...
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...for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. Its service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks. Like Facebook, twitter and their role in the Egyptian revolution. We will start by introducing Facebook one of the most important social networks all over the world. Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook Inc. May 2012. It reached more than 900 million users; more than half of them using cell phones, iPod, iPhones & tablets Users cannot access the site unless you register, after having a Facebook account, add and search for new friends, and send messages, including notifications when they update their profile. Moreover, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People from Work" or "Close Friends"....
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...Faizan Ahmed Khan 15020568 Professor Erum Haider Pol 320 6 May 2014 How do social media shape the social movements in modern times? A comparative study of Ukraine Crimea crisis and Egyptian revolution for democracy! A social movement can look like and be called many things. Whatever their appearance or name, the goal of all social movements is presumably the same: a change for the better. If this is indeed the ultimate objective of a social movement, it is well worth considering how successfully a movement achieves that objective. In the past ten years, several social movements have grabbed the world’s attention for the change they promised. Deemed successful for achieving their goal of change, though not necessarily change for the better, further evaluations have been sparsely performed. However, in judging social movements, what happens is shaped to a greater degree by the media, specifically. We shall look at modern day Egypt and Ukraine in our analysis. The effect of social media—and the Internet more generally—in both sets of protests is undeniable yet also distracting. Like most historic events, these protests and revolutions were in part possible due to a new technology. Flipping through the pages of history we see that The Reformation in Europe was aided by the invention of the printing press; the revolutions of 1848 occurred in some respect thanks to the invention of the telegraph which transmitted news across Europe of one set of protests overnight; the age of modern...
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...Arab Spring: Ben Ali and Hosni Moubarak knocked out by Mark Zuckerberg Source: Egyptian Internet Revolution, crazyjunkyard.com 26 years old Mohamed Bouazizi supported a large family selling fruits on the streets of Sidi Bouzid. For years, corrupted local officials who demanded backhander at every term have tormented him and other sellers in the market. On Friday December the 17th Mohamed set up his tools near the central mosque. This day, he did not have the money needed to pay the bribes to be there. The corrupted police officers arrived and took everything from him. They stood in front of him smacked him in the face and kicked him on the floor. Humiliated, Mohamed got upset and started to cry. He headed to the town police station and tried to press charges against those who assaulted him. No one listened to him. He was terribly upset and disappointed by the fact that he could not rely on his authorities for justice to be done. He then went to the closest shop and bought a bottle of fuel. He returned in front of the police station with the fuel, chose a spot in front of the building, poured the fuel over himself and then set himself on fire as a sign of protest and disagreement toward those who refused to listen to his complaints. Horrifically injured, Mohamed was taken to the hospital. Bouazizi hopeless act quickly became popular throughout the city and across the Arab world. The next day, hundreds of people gather at the spot where Mohamed had set himself alight....
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...Social media’s role in 2011 Egyptian revolution Egyptian revolution in 2011 was part of Arab Spring, a series of demonstrations, protests and revolutions. All of those revolts have one thing in common and it is the important role of social media. This essay is going to investigate the social media’s effect on Arab Spring, particularly on the revolution in Egypt. Social media have a great power, because thanks to them, people can share their thoughts in every single minute of their life. Even though there are other ways of communication, social media, such as blogs, Twitter or Facebook, had a great impact on Egyptian revolution in 2011 because people could organize their dissidence fast and could easily share their ideas of the free Egypt. When Hosni Mubarak became a president in 1981, he became suppressing all his opponents. People were not happy, but they were not united in order to oppose Mubarak. Everyone trying to oppose Mubarak without the support of the people put his life and lives of his family into the risk. There was no simple nor easy way to connect with people who shared the same opinion about the government, because having such a discussion at any public place was dangerous at that time. Although it was possible to find people with the same political views, the idea of making any non-violent protest was unrealistic. To make such a protest many people need to join the demonstration, but without internet, people couldn’t share the information about the demonstration...
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...THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ON POLITICAL CHANGES IN THE MIDDLE EAST Name Institutional affiliation Date The influence of social media has been felt over many spheres in life. Over the past half a decade, the Middle East countries have been using the social media as a platform in airing their grievances on their governments’ nepotism, dictatorship, and economic stagnation among other political issues that have affected their countries since time immemorial. This paper discusses the influence that the social networks such as facebook, twitter, and YouTube have had influence on the political changes in the Middle East. The paper uses three distinct sources by Samantha M. Shapiro, Alexis Madrigal, and Philip N. Howard and Muzammil M. Hussain. The research conducted by these authors and analysis shows that these social networks have improved civic organization and information sharing but still has a long way to go in realization of real change in the politics in the Middle East. Learning the influence of social networks on the political changes in Middle East is important in getting to understand the future of the politics in the region. As other countries are enjoying the fruits of democracy, the people in these countries are deprived off the basic needs of a healthy nation such as freedom of speech. With the many positive aspects that have come with social networks, it is optimistic that the rise of these social networks will have a positive influence on promoting...
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...THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ON POLITICAL CHANGES IN THE MIDDLE EAST Name Institutional affiliation Date The influence of social media has been felt over many spheres in life. Over the past half a decade, the Middle East countries have been using the social media as a platform in airing their grievances on their governments’ nepotism, dictatorship, and economic stagnation among other political issues that have affected their countries since time immemorial. This paper discusses the influence that the social networks such as facebook, twitter, and YouTube have had influence on the political changes in the Middle East. The paper uses three distinct sources by Samantha M. Shapiro, Alexis Madrigal, and Philip N. Howard and Muzammil M. Hussain. The research conducted by these authors and analysis shows that these social networks have improved civic organization and information sharing but still has a long way to go in realization of real change in the politics in the Middle East. Learning the influence of social networks on the political changes in Middle East is important in getting to understand the future of the politics in the region. As other countries are enjoying the fruits of democracy, the people in these countries are deprived off the basic needs of a healthy nation such as freedom of speech. With the many positive aspects that have come with social networks, it is optimistic that the rise of these social networks will have a positive influence on promoting...
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...In this era of the new and social media, does it really matter who owns the `mainstream’ media? “It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.” (Clemens, 1897) Foreword According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written up by the United Nations, its states that, “Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people” (UN, 1948). Articles 19 to 21 specifically target the freedom of thought, conscience and belief of human rights that a Democratic government must abide by and Egypt is no exception. Arab Spring Turmoil has been brewing in Egypt, causing great pain to its inhabitants, destroying homes and families and creating complete mayhem in the process. The first marked incident according to The Guardian is on the 1st of January 2011; a suicide bombing attempt took place outside a Coptic Church in Alexandria. By the 25th of January Egypt finally joined the Arab Spring alongside Tunisia, Yemen and Algeria. The ‘Arab Spring’ was an activist movement by several Middle-Eastern countries in an attempt at freedom from political and religious oppression and authoritarian...
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...The Role of New Media in Arab Uprisings: Al-Jazeera focus by [Author’s Name] [Faculty Name] [Department or School Name] [Month Year] ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible. DECLARATION I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University. Signed __________________ Date _________________ ABSTRACT This research is focused on analysing the role played by Social media in the Arab Uprisings. During l8-day period, the Egyptian protesters succeeded to a large extent in achieving maximum publicity and attracting the attention of the world by mobilizing news media coverage of their protests. The role of media is to provide information and communicate messages to others. Media played a significant role in ringing political changes to the countries belonging to Arab region. Since a long time, the people of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other countries were facing problems due to the unequal and biased policies developed in the country by the leaders. These riots turned out to be an outcome of the frustrations and annoyance which were filling up the people...
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...one Egyptian revolutionary movement overthrew a dictator while one another overthrew a democracy. On the 17th of December, 2011 a vegetable vendor lit himself on fire in response to the corrupt and inefficient bureaucratic system in Tunisia. This small event by an unknown vendor led to the biggest and fastest spread of social movements in the history of the Arab world known as the Arab spring. Yet while the Tunisian example has been seen as relatively successful, in Egypt things seems to be more complicated and difficult especially with two different social movements, the first mobilized on the 25th of January and overthrew the long time autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak, while the second had its beginnings in December of 2012 led to the overthrow of the first democratically elected president on June 30th of the following year was able to rally the biggest protest in modern history. This research paper’s goal will be to analyze the two social movements, their origins, make-up, organizational structure, their image abroad and finally their conclusion. For example why did the January 25th movement, which had clear goals from the onset and an extremely diverse make up ranging from secular liberals to conservative Islamists get sidelined and collapsed after achieving their first goal? And why did the Tamarod movement (rebel in Arabic) which had its origin in a petition form and was able to garner more active support, including the average non politicized Egyptian, was...
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...------------------------------------------------- -The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on 25 January 2011. The uprising, in which the participants placed emphasis on the peaceful nature of the struggle, mainly comprised a campaign of civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil disobedience, and labor strikes. Millions of protesters from a variety of socio-economic and religious backgrounds demanded the overthrow of the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Despite being predominantly peaceful in nature, the revolution was not without violent clashes between security forces and protesters. The campaign took place in Cairo, Alexandria, and in other cities in Egypt, following the Tunisian Revolution that saw the overthrow of the long time Tunisian president. On 11 February, following weeks of determined popular protest and pressure, Mubarak resigned from office. Grievances of Egyptian protesters focused on legal and political issues including police brutality, state of emergency laws, lack of free elections and freedom of speech, uncontrollable corruption, as well as economic issues including high unemployment, food price inflation, and low minimum wages. The primary demands from...
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...Synthesis essay: why the revolution will not be tweeted Technology is being used all across the globe in everyday life. With the development of technology, the development of social media became very popular. In “Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted”, Malcolm Gladwell stresses that “real” revolutions do not depend on social media to be resolved or started; however, small revolutions can depend on social media or networking. Although Dennis Baron is sending the same message in “Reforming Egypt in 140 Characters?” there is one point that Baron makes that differs from that of Gladwell’s; Baron actually believes that a game changing revolution can occur with the use of social media. Gladwell believes that in order for a revolution to be successful, it does not have to rely on social media networks. In the beginning of his writing, he discusses the sit-ins that occurred in the 1960s. After acknowledging how fast the word spread about the sit-ins, Gladwell mentions that it happened without the help of “e-mail, texting, Facebook, or Tweeting” (314). Social media was probably not thought of in the 1960s. One of the biggest revolutions, the Civil Rights Movement, was accomplished without the need of social media. Also, it is easier to get participation on a social networking site rather that participation for something that is confronting a disgraced practice. Gladwell claims that it is easier for a person to donate blood rather than to protest for a certain...
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...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15435768 Abstract People often comment on the impact that technology has on people's social skills. Frequently, this lens is used to analyze the limits of social media . However, this paper moves away from simple social skills in seeks out the effects that social media has in generating a greater kind of change, social change. This paper analyzes the impact that social media can have on revolutions in the twenty-first century. I use the Arab Spring as a means to point out the strengths and weakness that social media forums can have on a revolution. Primarily looking at Twitter and the role that Tweets played during the Arab Spring, I outline the role that Social media can play in times of uprising. Like most things, moderation is key. While social media offers many benefits, in excess, it can generate chaos and present an apparent lack of directions. This ultimately raises the question of how will changes in technology change us and how we change humanity. Nathan Willis William Penman Interpretation and Argument December 2, 2013 Not Following the Leader: How Social Media Impacted the Arab Spring Introduction As long as there have been established governments, there have been revolutions to test them. In times past, these revolutions frequently came from people discussing their dissatisfaction with other members of their towns. The advent of the telegram allowed people to overcome the barrier that distance created. Yet, two major...
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...ENG 202: Brandel Of Prisoners & Superheroes Shalin Patel Poem Title: Prisoner No. 786 Drama Title: Love is Bl(ow)ind Creative Non-Fiction Title: v/s The Biased Media of the 21st Century Fiction Title: Sub-Urban Superhero Reflection Essay Included Total Word Count: 5095 Prisoner No. 786 I, prisoner number 786, stick my head out through these iron bars. I watch as days, months and years turn into eons. The smell of the warm moist mud reminds me of all those carefree afternoons I spent on my mama’s porch watching the rain pass by. The scorching sun on my face reminds me of the sweetest iced tea my sister used to so carefully prepare. The unflinching rain at times takes me back to the fields where I would play soccer for hours at end with my cousins. The bitter cold within my bones reminds me of the steaming hot barbecue my father would make so passionately, never failing to impress. This man standing outside my cell tells me this is not my country, then why does it feel like I’m right at home? He says I’m not like him, then why do I feel like he’s like me? I, prisoner number 786, stick my head out through these iron bars. I stare towards the heavens as a white fairy descends from the village of dreams. I don’t know who she is, but she talks like she’s all mine. When I listen to her, it feels like I want to go out there and live again. When she makes all those fake promises, she makes me want to believe in myself again. I, prisoner number 786, stick my head out through these...
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...y 1. Introduction Social media is gaining more and more acceptance and popularity as a practical and strategic method for communication and organization among wider group of people, making it an ideal platform for popular use. This paper attempts to stress the role of social media in shaping opinions and motivating collective actions. It draws example from the recent Arab revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. In this regard, the paper will debate the arguments made by Malcolm T. Gladwell, is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, peaker and a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. Malcolm was critisized by many Arab activists because of his contradictory views regarding the role of social media in the Arab Springas he made it clearly that he doesn’t think such tools amount to much. In an online chat that Malcolm Gladwell did for the New Yorker's website , he explicitly stated that the internet can be an effective tool for political change when used by grassroots organisations as opposed to a core crop of activated individuals. Thus, simply showing that the internet was used to publicize, and even organise protests in the Middle East does nothing to counter his argument. The paper would argue that social media could be very strong and powerful communications tool for a particular group of audiences as well as the general public. One value of using social media is that it is simple and can easily be used by various channels to deliver messages that are unique to...
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