The advent of social media has proven to be crucial in the spread of ideas, information, and quite literally, movements. Social media acts as a virtual communal gathering space and provides easy access to direct messaging and the sharing of media, such as photos or videos of a specific event. During the evacuation of Aleppo, survivors desperately posted videos to Facebook and Twitter, telling their friends, families, and anyone who would listen goodbye. Fearful that they would not be alive by the time the video reached their loved ones, this act placed the dismal situation in Aleppo into perspective on a global stage.
The use of social media in the Arab Spring was crucial in effective planning for demonstrations and protests. As mentioned in Khondker's Role of the New Media in the Arab Spring, "we use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world" (Global Voice Advocacy, 2010). Without the integral role that each site played, protests and demonstrations may not have gathered the same support and showing of people. Sending a tweet or a direct message is faster, discrete, and more efficient than door-to-door campaigning and hanging posters. While it is an over-statement to say that social media was a defining factor in the revolts, we cannot understate their effectiveness.
I definitely agree that social media plays an important role in social movements, such as those during the Arab Spring. I also think that, as you mentioned through your example of social media usage in Aleppo, it has the ability to strike the emotions of people from all around the world and help to force action from the international system. The arguments you make do justice to the role that social media plays in the Arab Spring, but they also point to the realistic fact that social media is not a social movement panacea.
ReplyDeleteI'm with the fact that social media continue to play an important role in social movements given the type of world that we live in. Social media like you say has a type of "effectiveness" of getting certain messages across to a bigger audience that can then start the dialogue worldwide.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you used the example of Aleppo, and how social media played an emotional part of support for survivors and bring awareness to how bad the situation was.
ReplyDelete