The Role of Social Media in Revolutionary Events - 665 Words

Current and revolutionary events around the world raise two questions: What role does social media play in these revolutions? Should we credit social media with the outcomes of these events just because they are somewhat involved? In â€Å"Small Change,† by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell stresses how modern-day social media websites are of no comparison to the strong bonds and hierarchies that contributed to most of the reformation that happened during the Civil Rights Movement. He suggests that social media websites have networking opportunities only. â€Å"Reforming Egypt in 140 Characters,† an article by Dennis Baron, supports this claim indirectly by stating that even though social media can get the word out, no website can replace the voices of people, or their rebellious spirit. I concur with both authors. People can use Facebook and Twitter all they want in order to spread the word, but without their thoughts and intuitions, these networks are useless. In his opening paragraph of â€Å"Reforming Egypt in 140 Characters,† Dennis Baron acknowledges the role of Twitter and other huge forms of social media in the impeachment of the the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. However, Baron then points out that the protest continues in Cairo despite the governments shut down of the internet. He says, â€Å"that while the Iran protests may have been tweeted round the world, there were few Twitter users actually in-country; and that although Americans cant seem to survive without the constantShow MoreRelatedThe Impact Of Facebook On Citizen Engagement1196 Words   |  5 Pageson the power that social media sites possess on citizen engagement. However, a study done in 2011 examined the usefulness of Facebook pages as a way to connect citizens with each other (many-to-many) for policy input versus the utilization of those social media sites to transmit to and receive from government to citizens (one-to-many) in a more authoritative manner . The stud y was done to examine the use of Facebook to maintain power relations and inform citizens about their views rather than usingRead MoreEssay about Corrupted Media in Egypt872 Words   |  4 PagesAfter the 25th of January revolution in Egypt, the media started to be the backbone of the Egyptian social political lifestyle. The media forms the people’s opinions towards a certain candidate, propagate against an ideology or a movement. 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This relates back to the conflict theory, as this had a great impact on the citizens of Cuba, causing more hate on america and its