Social Media and the Decision to Participate in Political Protest: Observations From Tahrir Square

Abstract

Based on a survey of participants in Egypt's Tahrir Square protests, we demonstrate that social media in general, and Facebook in particular, provided new sources of information the regime could not easily control and were crucial in shaping how citizens made individual decisions about participating in protests, the logistics of protest, and the likelihood of success. We demonstrate that people learned about the protests primarily through interpersonal communication using Facebook, phone contact, or face-to-face conversation. Controlling for other factors, social media use greatly increased the odds that a respondent attended protests on the first day. Half of those surveyed produced and disseminated visuals from the demonstrations, mainly through Facebook.

Arab Spring Effects on Meanings for Islamist Web Terms and on Web Hyperlink Networks among Muslim-Majority Nations: A Naturalistic Field Experiment

“…' Within the scholarly community conceptual distinctions are made about various new media, but a review is beyond our scope. Consistent with that larger literature, however, some researchers investigating Arab Spring focus on concepts broader than "social media" (Tufekci & Wilson, 2012), such as on "new media" (Khondker, 2011), while others on "digital media" (Howard & Hussain, 2011), or the term ICTs (Allagui & Kuebler, 2011). As generally defined, "new media," "digital media," and "ICTs' would include both Web sites and pages.…”

Social media and Umbrella Movement: insurgent public sphere in formation

“…The Umbrella Movement shared many characteristics of social movements that have sprung up in recent years in the United States (Bennett, 2012;Castells, 2012;Juris, 2012), Egypt (Arditi, 2012;Castells, 2012;Tufekci & Wilson, 2012), Spain, Turkey, Mexico (Rovira Sancho, 2014), Guatemala (Harlow, 2012), and Chile (Valenzuela, Arriagada, & Scherman, 2012). These movements differed from the norms and rituals of conventional social movements and operated with a new "self-help" and "self-actualization" ethos.…”

“…In all these movements, SNSs exhibited an "outrage", "radical", "anti-establishment", or "insurgent" role (Arditi, 2012;Bennett, 2012;Castells, 2012;Downing, 2001;Juris, 2012;Rovira Sancho, 2014;Tufekci & Wilson, 2012).…”

Situating the Conversation on Social Media, Emerging Spaces and Professional Development in the Twenty-First Century

“…In the global arena, examples quickly emerge around its influence on elections and political movements that have toppled governments (Howard and Parks 2012;Harb 2011;Christensen 2011;Tufekci and Wilson 2012); its use in advancing causes and agendas are evidenced by hashtags such as #blacklivesmatter and #bringourgirlsback; its ability to spread news and connect to events internationally are evidenced by #PrayForParis, and its use to 'check-in' as 'safe' in the case of emergencies. It also is equally undeniable that there are negative consequences involving the use of social media as exemplified by the tragic death of a Rutgers University student (Byers 2013) and numerous instances of cyberbullying and harassment (See: Görzig and Frumkin 2013;Luxton et al 2012;Xantus et al 2015).…”