Modern communication in the Arab Spring
The role of digital communication in the overthrow of the autocratic governments in Tunisia and Egypt cannot be sidelined. In the wake of 2011, most Arab governments were under intense pressure by the rebels who had mounted enormous support from the public. The exodus of the uprisings was in Tunisia that spread to other Arab countries in North Africa and Middle East. The long time dictatorial leadership in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Bahrain was put under intense demands from the public. The successful revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia are ascribed to the modern technology in communication tools. The widespread availability of the internet, satellite communications and cell phones has been the pivotal drive in the development of akin movements in Arab countries.
The Internet was the fundamental platform for the conversations about democracy and the role of the uprising in the future leadership of the Arab world. Twitter for example, offered the broader space for conversations that involved discussions about the pictures, voice messages and the videos taken probably using mobile phones. A week before the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, rate of tweets on the subject of Egypt revolution puffed up from 2,300 a day to 230,000 in a day (O’Donnell, 2011). Views on videos featuring the events during the protests went berserk where the top videos received nearly 5.5 million views; an indication that the issue was a critical one.
Debates on political matters foreshadowed the democratic opinion in Egypt and Tunisia. These dialogs on democracy and liberty preceded the mass protests. On the onset of the resignation of Ben Ali, twenty percent of the blogs were assessing his leadership, an increase from five percent in the previous month (O’Donnell, 2011). The principal subject of discussion in Tunisia was “revolution”. The conversation on the uprising was spread all over the internet, from Facebook, Twitter, bloggers and YouTube comments. More than 100,000 people showed up in a public rally that made the defining force that made the old regime relinquish power to democracy. The Internet platform motivated the protesters to share their experiences with the world as the audience showed concern and made sense of their struggle for democracy. It can be argued that the activists would starve of lack of motivation from the globe and their quest would have eventually burnt out. The human rights organization cemented the legal and moral significance of the protests through their unending condemnation of the brutal acts of the security forces.
Social media played a very important role in connecting and synchronizing groups and entities. It acted as a command center where all protesters received information and instructions. Interactions trough Facebook and Twitter provided crucial information to the protesters on ways of counteracting the security forces. The protesters received practical advice on how to relieve the effects of tear gas and paper spray. Protester received maps that showed locations of meetings and places of active protest (John, 2014). When friends and family members taking place in the protest got lost in the crowd, they would be able to communicate through social media and locate their whereabouts. This coordinated corporation of such a large multitude puzzled the authorities that were succumbing to the mounting pressure.
The mobiles phone owners turned into civilian journalists, taking photographs of what is happening on the ground and availing the information to world through the Internet. They would take short videos of the activities at the scenes and post them on Internet platforms especially YouTube. The mobile phones as they enabled information to bypass the mainstream media that were controlled by the state. They would disseminate information that would have been censored by the government. Sharing of information on the brutal acts of the government forces and state propaganda was made possible by the use of phones as cameras, audio recorders and video recorders (Albanyadmin, 2012).
The governments of Tunisia and Egypt were not pleased by the images depicting brutal suppression of the protesters by government forces and they tried to thwart the social media. Later on, as pressure increased, Tunisia president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was forced to apologize for blocking the site and he reopened them. He was worried by the worldwide condemnations of the acts of inhumanity committed by his forces. In what can be termed as the last kicks of a dying horse, he offered to have open talks with the protesters, but the uprising was far way beyond his appeal as they had reached a point of no return. On 16 January the following year, he succumbed to the protesters demands and resigned as the head of state (John, 2014). The Egyptian government closed down Internet and cell phone networks for five days in January 2011. This simply soared the situation as more protester come out to the streets determined to achieve their goal. The mass of the protesters expanded and were more united than before in opposition of the oppressive regime.
Satellite television availed immediate global reporting of the events in the respective countries. The residents of the countries where the protests were taking place were able to watch and follow the unwinding of the events broadcasted from foreign Medias. This was important as the foreign media provided accurate information as opposed to the local traditional media that were being censored by the repressive governments (John, 2014). The international news rooms such as BBC, VOA, Aljazeera and CNN provided comprehensive coverage of the events taking place in those countries. Most of their content relied on the report from the individual participants in the protests who made the responsibility of taking photographs, videos and audios their own. The citizens who were not able to participate in the protests followed the events from their homes as they were able to get reliable coverage from the international media houses. In Libya back in 1990s, there was an uprising in a region called Green Mountain characterized by protests. There was no way of information getting to the global ears, and Gadaffi took advantage of this deficiency. He sent his helicopters that bombed them and nobody knew about it (Albanyadmin, 2012).
Critics argue that the role of modern communication tools in the revolutions was exaggerated. They argue that only the elite in North Africa and Middle East have access to the modern gadgets and Internet (Albanyadmin, 2012). Whichever the case the role of modern communication on the success of toppling dictatorial regimes in the Arab world cannot be underrated. Borne of the new ways of communication, responsible and democratic leadership has transformed the lives of the people in the Arab world.
References
Albanyadmin. (2012, March 23). The Arab Spring and the impact of social media. Retrieved from www.albanyassociates.com: www.albayassociates.com/notebook/2012/03/the-ara-spring-and-the-impact-of-social-media/
John, S. (2014, December 12). World Development book case study: the role of social networking in the Arab Spring. Retrieved from bad.eserver.org: bad.eserver.org/issues/2011/word-of-click.html
O’Donnell, C. (2011, September 12). New study quantifies use of social media in Arab Spring. Retrieved from www.washington.edu: www.washington.edu/news/2011/09/12/new-studyquantifies-use-of-social-media-in arab-spring/
