[Air-L] Arab spring & social media evidence

[Montathar Faraon]

In line with what Dave is pointing out:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/02/24/facebook.revolution/index.html

Kind regards,
Montathar

On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 9:02 PM, Dave Karpf <davekarpf at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think Alex H's point was that many more empirical studies aren't going to
> affect that element of the popular discourse.
>
> Or put another way, when a journalist calls you up and asks a question like
> this (the one I get are usually along the lines of "is clicktivism good or
> bad?"), they want a simple answer.  If you give them a complex/nuanced
> answer, they're either going to (a) misquote you or (b) not quote you at
> all.  And if they *do* delve into the complexity as you explained it, their
> editor will surely tell them to cut it down and simplify it.
>
> As far as I can tell, egypt-as-twitter-revolution is basically a zombie
> lie.
>  Far more people debunk the claim than actually hold the claim.  It remains
> propped up solely for the debunking.
>
> ...All that said, David Faris gave an excellent presentation at the
> American
> Political Science Association Annual Meeting a few weeks ago, titled "Yes
> Malcolm, there really are social media revolutions."  His argument, as I
> understand it, is that if Tahrir (and the years of organizing the preceded
> Tahrir) doesn't count as a social media-enabled revolution, then that just
> means we need to rethink the term.
>
> -DK
>
> On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 2:52 PM, nativebuddha <nativebuddha at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > Thanks one and all for these suggestions.
> >
> > In response to Alex H's comments below, I completely agree.
> Unfortunately,
> > there's a lot of policymaking going on right now that's picking up the
> > cause-effect model and runnin' with it. In fact, popular discourse pretty
> > much asserts that Twitter caused the revolution!
> >
> > This simplification is why there needs to be many more empirical studies.
> >
> > -robert
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >  On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Alex Halavais <alex at halavais.net
> > >wrote:
> > >
> > >> I think any "cause-effect model" for any large-scale social phenomenon
> > >> is sketchy, and I also think popular discourse loves such
> > >> simplification. That is to say, I don't think "This Caused That" is
> > >> something that evidence could directly demonstrate or refute (or even
> > >> "refudiate" ;).
> > >>
> > >> That said, I've been reading Philip Howard's new book, "The Digital
> > >> Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy," which is quite good, and
> > >> provides something of a discussion of this question in its
> > >> conclusions, and suggests that ICTs can play an important part in a
> > >> "causal recipe" for democratization of Muslim states.
> > >>
> > >> - Alex
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 1:52 PM, nativebuddha <nativebuddha at gmail.com
> >
> > >> wrote:
> > >> > Does anyone have evidence (or links to studies) that show the
> impact,
> > or
> > >> > lack thereof, of social media on the Arab spring? This cause-effect
> > >> model
> > >> > still circulates in the mediasphere, but what is the evidence show?
> > >> >
> > >> > Thanks.
> > >> >
> > >> > -Robert
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>
> --
> Dave Karpf, PhD
>
> Assistant Professor
> Journalism and Media Studies Department
> School of Communication and Information
> Rutgers University, New Brunswick
>
> www.davidkarpf.com
> davekarpf at gmail.com
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