Social Media, Mediation and the Arab Revolutions

Abstract

This article discusses the socio-political implications of user-generated applications and platforms through the

Digital Realism: a Dialectic Approach to Understanding Digital Media’s Social Functions in View of Ethnic-Identity Related Online Activism

“…A critical stance towards digital optimism is based on notions and allegations of cybersectarianism (Sunstein, 2002) which is the most important for our current thesis, but also intertwinement of corporate complaisance (Aouragh, 2012) and traits of censorship (Nashif, 2017), panopticity, i.e., mass surveillance and geopolitical implications (Morozov, 2011, Robins andWebster, 1998) have been observed. The commodification of the Internet (Schiller, 1999) and transnational collaboration between the state and major companies (Iványi, 2017) and other various negative or unknown socio-psychological impacts and implications are assumed.…”

“…Morozov, 2011, Aouragh, 2012, i.e., patterns of surveillance, censorship, and a selfcongratulatory agenda of digital capitalism to be touched upon below.…”

“…Accordingly, digital media has recently been interpreted in the context of certain universalist digital optimistic visions anchored by a form of a hypothetical electronic agora: what is seen as a platform for communities of practice; (Shirky 2009) and/or a forum of unlimited self-expression (Ghoneim 2012) and/or a new public sphere (Benkler 2006;Castells 2009;Wellman 2011) due to its allegedly interactive, emancipatory, democratizing and empowering capacities. On the other hand, opposing views of digital pessimism hold that as digital media intersects other social, political, and economic factors, it becomes compromised as tendencies of information control and surveillance (i.e., Robins -Webster 1998) censorship and propaganda (Morozov 2011) and/or the politics/economy of digital capitalism (Schiller 1999;Aouragh 2012) can clearly be observed. The first approach, either out of naivety or negligence and/or other reasons, ignores various kinds of power realities Whilst the latter either falls in the trap of an academic paranoia or out of an excessive skepticism, underestimates their capacities for supporting certain grassroots movements, that later, in fact, turn out to be, or seem to be successful without serving, in essence, any "hidden agenda.…”

“…McKinley et al, 2014 without being necessarily understood as cyberbalkanization (cf. Sunstein 2009) and for (sub-)political engagement without being subjected to political factors described by current rather pessimistic or sceptic discourses of censorship, oppression (Morozov 2011), digital capitalism (Schiller 1999) or ICTimperialism and geopolitics (Aouragh 2012). All in all, this digital realist model at hand interprets digital media as a limited public sphere or public spherical (Neuman 2011;Cunningham 2001) and encourages further research whilst offers a via media between digital pessimism and optimism.…”

“…Such identified potential can arguably challenge the existing cultural, social, and political realms of status quo by movements untied to power formations identified by digital pessimism (i.a. Morozov 2011;Aouragh 2012;Schiller 2014).…”