Structured Response

When covering and reflecting on the Arab Revolts of 2011, the news media placed a gigantic emphasis on the role of social media tools in the various movements and revolutions.  It seemed as though the news media were surprised by the widespread use of twitter, Facebook, and other social media tools and their effectiveness. However, I would have been more surprised had protestors and organizers not used social media. We have seen that social movements have utilized relatively new organizing tools effectively (OTPOR used the burgeoning internet to topple Milosevic), so it is no surprise that Arab protestors made use of Facebook and Twitter, both of which had been popular for years.

One unforeseen repercussion of the “Twitter Revolutions” or whatever they’re called these days is that the fact that social media was so effective may have obfuscated the causes and outcomes of the protests themselves. Rather, bystanders to these revolutions came away from 2011 knowing that Twitter was effective, but had no idea which people in which state were protesting what, and what the outcomes were.  Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement used new technologies to aid their protests, but their goals and results were better documented than their methods.