Today my UC class went to the State Department and the spokesperson there actually briefly touched on how media affected the Arab Spring and other people's revolts in the MENA region. He mentioned how people discuss the use of mainstream media through sites like Facebook and Twitter to mobilize the masses as if it were something entirely brand new, but he claimed it isn't. He believed that it could have happened regardless, and that it would have been more interesting and exciting if the uprisings had occurred without the media. While I respected the spokesperson's opinion, I don't see how the revolts could have happened any other way.
In this day and age, everyone uses the internet. Most people wouldn't know how to function without it, so it only makes sense that the revolutions gained the power it did through the most actively visited place in the world. Not only that, but the internet is the one place government does not have total control over what is published, there's just too much being posted online for the state to track and shut down compared to other outlets like the newspaper. Almost every aspect of life can be found online now, social movement groups are just taking advantage of it and increasing their size through the media. It's globalization at its finest.
I agree that social networks are becoming more and more relevant today--I really enjoyed your last line, "It's globalization at it's finest." However, I do agree with your spokesperson in that the movement could have happened with or without social media. Yes, social media did play a big role in the revolutions, but I also think that dissatisfaction with the government(s) had become too powerful to ignore. People began to unite to bring about change in whatever manner possible. I think word of mouth and the physical uniting of people really makes the movement more legitimate, though, because the vocalization of such a movement makes it seem more plausible while also reaching a larger spectrum of the population (not everyone has access to the internet). As time goes on, however, I do think that social media will rise up to this level of potential.
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