PIntroduction on Egyptian revolution
Social Media
Social Media “Social media are a powerful tool for grassroots journalism and for independent information spread” (Cumunello & Anzera, 2012, 453). Knowledge and information sharing is an on-going activity on social media because users are able to share what they like and whenever they like.
The purpose of social media as a tool is quite easy for users to understand as in sharing information within their network communities. There can be several reasons of why social media is so powerful, but the fact that users are able to influence one another is very powerful compared to before the existence of social media; it was only the professional journalists that were powerful and the ones that were able to influence the citizens.
Social media in relation to the Egyptian revolution in 2011, is to get a comprehensive understanding of the political interaction that is shaped by the affordances of social media use. The importance of social media needs to be investigated in Egypt, as it is a country that has suffered from lack of freedom of speech online. “Technology shapes a society” (Cumunello & Anzera, 2012, 458).
Regardless, whether social media was essential as the direct trigger of the beginning of the uprisings in Egypt; it is important to recognize that technology influences society in terms of other factors, such as people gaining knowledge and becoming more informed. Although, one cannot guarantee that the quality of the information and knowledge is fully accurate or sufficient. Information and knowledge sharing is essential for this research, after all social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook’s main functionality is the flow of information among different user accounts.
The mobilization of social media has lead to political engagement, in terms of opportunities of political interaction taking place online. This consequently creates new opportunities arising on social media and debates on political relations, whilst simultaneously allowing the users to have the ability to become the center of attention in their own network and being listened to.
In relation to social media use in organizations, and I have applied them in the context of the Egyptian revolution.
Egyptian Revolution Historical Review
The president of Egypt was Hosni Mubarak until the very beginning of the Egyptian revolution in 2011. The former president Hosni Mubarak has ruled the country for 30 years and he was forced to resignation the 11th of February 2011 after a high number of demonstrations that took place throughout Egypt1 The Arab Spring may have started in Tunisia, but it continued in Egypt for a much longer timeperiod. Egypt has suffered from very unstable conditions as demonstrations since 2011. The direct trigger for the urban uprisings are dissatisfaction with high food prices and unemployment in terms both in Tunisia and Egypt (Cumunello & Anzera, 2012, 456).
The Egyptian revolution did not only last a couple of days during the uprisings at Tahrir Square because even after the fall of the Mubarak regime; Egypt was facing other challenges. The Muslim Brotherhood started to dominate the political situation. Mohammed El-Morsi formed a new party called the Freedom and Justice Party based on contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, which was on a very short-term basis, as Egypt has had very unstable political conditions since the fall of the Mubarak regime.
Mohammed El-Morsi was also forced to step down due to not efficiently managing the economic situation of Egypt and poor governance.2 Short time after Mohammed ElMorsi’s resignation the interim president Adly Mansour was in power until the current president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was elected. 3 There have been many presidents throughout a short time-period. After 25th January 2011, the different presidents failed to manage the Egyptians interests. 25th of January indicates a very meaningful day for Egypt. It is the national police day in Egypt and also the first day of the uprisings.
Twitter and Facebook have played major roles in the Egyptian revolution. Anonymous human right activists established the Facebook page ‘We are all Khaled Said’, which is based on a terrible event that occurred, where a young Egyptian man was beaten to death by the police while he was sitting in an Internet Café. 5 The Facebook page represents the brutality and corruption from the police, moreover a beginning of a revolution. It was created in November 2010, but also managed as a source of coordinating several demonstration events during the uprisings in 2011. Moreover, Twitter users have contributed with updating people about what is happening at the exact moment. “Technologies such as Twitter, which offer real-time tracking of public opinion, do make Burke’s nightmare realisable. Which means that a company that can regulate expressions of that opinion might be very powerful indeed” (Naughton, 2013, 2). Both of the social media web sites have been quite important for the Egyptian revolution in different manners. In order to get information about what was happening in Egypt, people used popular hashtags as 25Jan.
Social Media Strategy and Online Citizens
Using social media as a tool to create awareness about the dissatisfactions have also been inspired by the Tunisians who were in one way or another quite successful with their revolution by using social media as a communication tool, which is very powerful indeed. Comparing it to other countries in the Middle East that have attempted to do the same, but have not become as successful. Social media gives the opportunity to communicate online and create awareness.
The Egyptian government realised the major influence of social media and shut down most of the Internet traffic for several days after the major demonstration on 25th of January. After all, Egypt only has four Internet service providers; it was not difficult for the government to manage shutting down the Internet. Facebook was used as an organizing and mobilizing source, which caused disruptions in Egypt. “The Internet, by definition, is a democratic medium, at least in the sense that anyone with Internet access is a potential publisher of information.” Despite, the Internet is recognized as a democratic medium, it is important to mention that there are different regulations about the use of Internet in Egypt regarding freedom of speech. Bloggers were sentenced to jail for years to speak against the police or the government ibid. Political interactions have been more publically available since the uprisings; moreover the role of social media has changed after the uprisings and since the fall of the regime.
Independent information spread is a more specific understanding of social media because there are many activities are based on how individuals prefer to use social media. “…social media are powerful tools for activists’ self-expression” (Cumunello & Anzera, 2012, 461). Self-expression is an important factor when it comes to social media because it is more than just agreeing with journalists or experts’ opinions, but the users’ are able to create and share their own exact opinions. A major challenge on social media is that everyone wants to be heard. “…And if everybody will speak, who will be listened to?” (Noam, 2005, 58). This can also be connected to self-expression, as users on social media want to be heard, and if there is constantly being shared information it can quickly become unorganized.
The technology itself allows information exchange, but the users are the ones that determine how they are going to take advantage of the capability that the technology of social media provides them. In some cases it has resulted to worthless information and knowledge that interferes with the purpose of forum. It can also be caused by the oversimplification of social media and therefore there can be an urge to share and contribute constantly, though it is not a necessity.
Social media is as powerful as the users make it and it is mainly based on how they will use it and the activity level on the online platforms. “Millions of people around the world have become connected through social media, which has made it easier to mobilize for collective action” (Wolfsfeld et al., 2013, 115). Other aspects of social media being powerful is mobilization as where it is possible to arrange and coordinate events online to inspire and motivate people, and therefore depending on how the users approach social media; it becomes a powerful tool.
Social Media Use There may have been several reasons behind the uprisings in Egypt, but it is necessary to point out the power of social media regardless some researchers opinion about it not playing a major role.
Social media has made it easy for users to communicate and moreover share opinions. It is not any longer only journalists that have the right to express their opinions, but social media users are able to contribute with their opinions about different topics. “Facebook did not go to Tahrir Square. The people did. Twitter did not go to Al-Qaied Ibrahim Square. The people did. More than one-third of Egypt’s population of eighty million remains illiterate, and just 25 percent of Egyptians use the Internet. However, Facebook and Twitter were instrumental in organizing, motivating, and directing these crowds as to where to go and what to do.”9 Though, the people went to the locations, it is important to ask why and how social media can become so powerful?
The social media has had a major influence in terms of how to coordinate the events and reach out to more people. It can be quite influential for people that may have not intended to take it any further, but when constant posts are being shared about a certain case it may have an affect and therefore more people are reached out to. According to Bryman, lowered costs of participation are being compared on an organization level (Bryman, 2012, 46). It can also be applied to the Egyptian revolution, as groups with strong opinions regarding political views are visible social media. The information has suddenly become much easier to access, but the risks are that it can include low-quality participation, which is information shared may not be completely reliable. On the other hand users are able to interact with one another, and learn from it. It is easier for users to access communities with same interest as their own, furthermore being heard can also be a major factor especially if it has not been possible for the users previously.
Users’ are able to do what they want outside the online community where there are not any administrators as, for example on Twitter. Twitter is the user’s space, and the followers have chosen to follow a specific person for a reason and therefore it is more up to this individual about what he wants to share with other people. Bryman mentions the risks in terms of transparency, reduced control, and creativity without a strategy, furthermore the opportunities are considered as strategically creative (Bryman, 2012, 43). Strategy on social media is important to a certain extent depending on the kind of social media platform that is being dealt with, and also the purpose of the web site. For example on ‘We are all Khaled Said’ Facebook page, it has required strategy to some extent because demonstrations have been planned with guidelines.
Conclusions
Knowledge is power’ and it creates awareness, so therefore we can conclude social media had an indirect effect on the Egyptian revolution. The different affordances explain what social media users are exposed to, but the outcome of how users approach social media is connected to a context depending on the individuals’ own knowledge and experiences.
It is very complex to conduct a statement that the Egyptian revolution was successful based on social media. Taken into consideration that constant updates and knowledge sharing on social media platforms contributed to inform people and create awareness on the situation, moreover a coordination of the major demonstration 25th of January through the different social media platforms indicate success.
The consequences of the uprisings lead to the fall of the Mubarak regime, whom had power of the country for more than 30 years. We can assume that there must be a reason the prior Egyptian government shut down the Internet for a certain time-period. It indicates the power of social media in relation to how people affords it, which is by sharing knowledge and having political interactions online, moreover the use of the different features and resources that social media accommodates. It cannot be guaranteed that the quality of the information shared online is reliable.
People quite often have a tendency to share their own opinions or take things out of context as some of the tweets have indicated. However, valuable political interaction can take place, which increases the knowledge of active and passive participants, but the user must be critical. It can be concluded that the political online interaction has changed in terms of the Egyptian citizens, as they have not been able to express their opinions to the same extent before the revolution.
Knowledge sharing is a major part of this research and therefore it has been observed that people will mainly connect with one another based on interests. It is important that the content and network that a person has are interesting. In order to increase ones network based on these associations; the user can become very influential. Chain reactions are created based on interesting content that other users are willing to share, which is also used as an information source. It can lead to a superior outcome and in this context the Egyptian revolution as the information flow online exploded during the uprisings.
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