Will the revolution be tweeted? A conceptual framework for understanding the social media and the Arab Spring

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This assignment is meant to contribute towards your Literature Review & Research Proposal Project. To fulfill this obligation you must meet the following three obligations: (1) establish how the selected article intersects with your research interests; (2) explain the central theme or relevance of the article; and, (3) explain how your tentative research project builds upon the contributions of this article. This assignment is graded as “credit / no credit.” Credit Relevance of selected article for research interests is clearly explained; central theme or contribution of the article is explained rigorously and concisely; how your tentative research project builds upon the contributions of this article is clear. No Credit Failure to meet any of the criteria above.focus more about how the social media change our relationship with our society,so I will upload the article which he ask me to do the annotated bibliography and keep it in your mind that my focus in (how the social media change our relationship nowadays?

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This assignment is meant to contribute towards your

Literature Review & Research Proposal

Project

To fulfill this obligati

on you must meet the following three

obligations: (1) establish

how the selected article intersects with your

research interests; (2) explain the central theme or

relevance of the article; and, (3) explain how your tentative research project builds upon the

contributions of this article. This assignment is graded as “credit / no credit.”

Credit

Relevance of selec

ted article for research interests is clearly explained;

central

theme or contribution of the article is explained rigorously and concisely; how

your tentative research project builds upon the contributions of this article is clear.

No Credit

Failure to m

eet any of the criteria above.

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Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations

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subscription information:

http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cicm20

Will the revolution be tweeted?

A conceptual framework for

understanding the social media and the

Arab Spring

Francesca Comunello

& Giuseppe Anzera

Department of Communication and Social Research , Sapienza

University of Rome , Italy

Published online: 05 Sep 2012.

To cite this article:

Francesca Comunello & Giuseppe Anzera (2012) Will the revolution be

tweeted? A conceptual framework for understanding the social media and the Arab Spring, Islam

and Christian–Muslim Relations, 23:4, 453-470, DOI:

10.1080/09596410.2012.712435

To link to this article:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2012.712435

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Will the revolution be tweeted? A conceptual framework for

understanding the social media and the Arab Spring

Francesca Comunello* and Giuseppe Anzera

Department of Communication and Social Research, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

The goal of this article is to build a conceptual framework for understanding the role of social

media in the so-called

‘

Arab Spring

’

, considering two different disciplinary perspectives:

International Relations and Internet Studies. More specifically, it relies on literature on Middle

Eastern political systems and on social network sites. It also refers to literature that examines

the relationship between (social) media engagement and civic engagement. Building on this

foundation, the article analyses the main attempts to evaluate the

‘

impact

’

of social media on

the

‘

Arab Spring

’

from specific perspectives. Commentators have tended to adopt a

dichotomous vision of the topic, either emphasizing the

‘

revolutionary

’

role of social media or

totally minimizing its role; this article defines them as

digital evangelists

and

techno-realists

respectively. In order to prove their point of view, both sides focus on the same issues. The

study critically analyses the main issues, discussing how they have been interpreted by both

digital evangelists and techno-realists. Through a multidisciplinary framework, it proposes a

more nuanced picture of the relationship between the social media and the

‘

Arab Spring

’

Keywords:

Arab Spring; social media; internet studies; digital evangelists; techno-realists;

international relations

Analysing the relationship between the

‘

Arab Spring

’

and social media from a

multidisciplinary perspective

The so-called

‘

Arab Spring

’

has received wide media coverage in Western countries. Many

commentators quickly emphasized the role played by social media, defining the situation as a

‘

social media revolution

’

, mainly focusing on its organizational aspects (social media

contributions to organizing protestor activities) and information spread (social media are a

powerful tool for grassroots journalism and for independent information spread). Others

minimized the role of social media, claiming that only a minority of people in the Arab

countries have Internet access (and even fewer mobile Internet access), or even suggesting that

social media may have represented an important tool for secret services to identify and localize

activists.

Not only journalists, but also Internet scholars and International Relations scholars have

questioned the role of the social media in the

‘

Arab Spring

’

, and their opinions, some of which

will be reviewed in the following paragraphs, have gained acceptance in the public debate,

mainly through the media system. Early in the debate, understandably, there was no empirical

research to support their assumptions, and, like journalists and other commentators, they often

proposed dichotomous visions of the topic, either emphasizing the

‘

revolutionary

’

role of

social media, or minimizing it. For a better understanding of the role of social media in the

so-called

‘

Arab Spring

’

, however, a more nuanced picture is needed. Social media cannot be

interpreted as the

‘

main cause

’

of such complex processes, nor can they be seen as completely

uninfluential. In order to build a more balanced framework for discussion, we consider the

ISSN 0959-6410 print/ISSN 1469-9311 online

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2012.712435

http://www.tandfonline.com

*Corresponding author. Email: francesca.comunello@uniroma1.it

Islam and Christian

–

Muslim Relations

Vol. 23, No. 4, October 2012, 453

–

470

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