Does Social Media have the power to change or contribute to the political communication, mobilisation, and organisation of social movements?
Facebook and Twitter have been used as a tool for political expression and have been the main factors in various social movements around the world.
Hundreds of examples can be used to articulate the importance Facebook and Twitter have played in the development of social movements, the one that interests me the most, however, is the Arab Spring Movement. Just to run a brief historical background of what’s been happening in the world at that time and what lead to the Arab Spring, I would like to highlight the main reasons behind the uprising:
- Arab regimes have gone through a large demographic population growth that unfortunately could not be matched with the political and economic development in most Arab States.
- Inevitably, low living standards and the constant change of political power between the left and right wing led to unemployment.
- People grew tired of their governments as some of the Arab dictators have ruled for decades and were deemed corrupted.
The countries that were involved in the Arab Spring Uprisings were: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Morocco, and Jordan.
Protesters in Egypt. Source: Pinterest. Continue reading Social Media Apps: Powerful and consistently pertinent tools for the mobilisation of Social Movements in a digital era