Mediated Martyrs of the Arab Spring: New Media, Civil Religion, and Narrative in Tunisia and Egypt

Abstract

This article analyzes the emergence of nationalist martyr narratives and their dissemination via new media as forces for social mobilization and political change. Situating them in the religio-historical contexts of North Africa, we trace martyr narratives in Tunisia and Egypt back to pre-Islamic periods and compare them to the contemporary stories of Mohamed Bouazizi and Khaled Saeed. This reveals the impact of new media on the region, evident in ''virtual reliquaries,'' and the role that martyr narratives play as catalysts in social mobilization. The trajectory of the martyr narrative from the traditional religious context to the state-driven concept of civil religion allows for the political dimension of narratives resident within the religious context to surface in the contemporary discursive moment.

Persuasive Narratives and Costly Actions

“…It denotes one who testifies to the truth of a statement or important course of events by dying rather than denying. 16 Martyr narratives serve as catalysts in social mobilization. 17 The self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi, a local Tunisian vendor in an act of defiance against a corrupt autocratic regime, made him the patron martyr at the heart of the Arab Spring.…”

Videoactivismo: revisión conceptual y práctica del fenómeno

“…El material fue compartido por Al Jazeera y se viralizó entre los usuarios de Facebook y de Twitter. Rápidamente, los hashtags mencionando a Bouazizi y la necesidad de cambiar el país, tomaron el ciberespacio y llegaron a las calles (HALVERSON et al, 2013;HOWARD et al, 2011).…”

Toward an Initial Conceptual Framework to Assess Community Allostatic Load: Early Themes from Literature Review and Community Analyses on the Role of Cumulative Community Stress

“…The concept of allostatic load has enabled the public health sector to better explain why stress, racial trauma, or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have significant consequences for individual health across the life span, affecting such measures as biomarker expression, chronic disease experience, and vulnerability to specific triggering events (e.g., trauma for personal loss) (McEwen and Seeman, 1999;McEwen and Gianaros, 2011). While the term allostatic load has been a construct primarily applied in the health and biomedical sciences, equivalent considerations of cumulative stress have emerged in the environmental sciences (Lenton et al, 2008), as well as in the political sciences, particularly around conflict that has led to cultural changes or tipping points (e.g., Arab Spring) (Lamberson and Page, 2012;Halverson, Ruston, and Trethewey, 2013).…”