The Arab Spring and Social Media Audiences

Abstract

Although popular media narratives about the role of social media in driving the events of the 2011 “Arab Spring” are likely to overstate the impact of Facebook and Twitter on these uprisings, it is nonetheless true that protests and unrest in countries from Tunisia to Syria generated a substantial amount of social media activity. On Twitter alone, several millions of tweets containing the hashtags #libya or #egypt were generated during 2011, both by directly affected citizens of these countries and by onlookers from further afield. What remains unclear, though, is the extent to which there was any direct interaction between these two groups (especially considering potential language barriers between them). Building on hashtag data sets gathered between January and November 2011, this article compares patterns of Twitter usage during the popular revolution in Egypt and the civil war in Libya. Using custom-made tools for processing “big data,” we examine the volume of tweets sent by English-, Arabic-, and mixed-language Twitter users over time and examine the networks of interaction (variously through @replying, retweeting, or both) between these groups as they developed and shifted over the course of these uprisings. Examining @reply and retweet traffic, we identify general patterns of information flow between the English- and Arabic-speaking sides of the Twittersphere and highlight the roles played by users bridging both language spheres.

Intergroup Conflict 2020

“…Initial evidence suggests that social media may change not only patterns of participation in collective events (e.g., protests or riots) but also interactions between protesters and law enforcement officials. Research on the role of social media in the Arab Spring (e.g., Bruns, Highfield, & Burgess, 2013) and evidence from other contexts (e.g., riots in London: Bohannon, 2012) suggests that online communication may play an increasing role in patterns of group organization and action in intergroup contexts. Exploring the role that communication technology plays in shaping intragroup and intergroup processes constitutes a particularly fruitful avenue for future research on intergroup conflict.…”

Prayer-Bots and Religious Worship on Twitter: A Call for a Wider Research Agenda

“…To put the numbers in context (see Fig. 2), Bruns et al (2013) collected 205,000 tweets on the Arab-Spring related hashtag #egypt on its busiest day, when President Hosni Mubarak resigned amidst intense public pressure. During the 2016 US election, when significant popular attention focused on the role of automated accounts, Bessi and Ferrara (2016) estimated an upper bound of 3.8 million tweets from automated accounts on political topics in the week leading up to voting day (an average of about 540 thousand tweets per day).…”

Tükçe Paylaşim Yapan Kullanicilar İçi̇n Sosyal Ağ Tabanli Anali̇z Ve Tavsi̇ye Si̇stemi̇

“…Compton vd., Twitter üzerinden halka açık paylaşımların belli bir kısmını ele alarak, çeşitli anahtar kelimeler ile yaptıkları filtrelemeler sonucunda Latin Amerika'da meydana gelebilecek olası toplumsal olaylar konusunda çıkarım yapmaya çalışmışlardır [9]. Bruns vd., 2011 yılı "Arap Baharı"nda Facebook, Twitter gibi sosyal ağların toplum üzerinde etkili bir role sahip olduğu görüşüyle, Ocak -Kasım 2011 döneminde Mısır'da yaşanan devrim ve Libya'daki sivil savaş sürecinde Twitter üzerindeki trafiği izlemiş, paylaşımlar üzerinde farklı grupların görüş ve rollerini analiz etmeye çalışmışlardır [10].…”