[Air-L] New Issue of CyberOrient: The Net Worth of the Arab Spring

[Vit Sisler]

Dear colleagues,

a new issue of the CyberOrient journal (http://www.cyberorient.net/)
is now available online. It aims for critical and evidence-based
evaluation of the use of social media in the Arab Spring, the coverage
of the Arab Spring in cyberspace and beyond, and the remediation and
appropriation between social media and traditional media outlets,
including satellite TVs and the press.

Vol. 6, Iss. 1, 2011


Editorial

The Net Worth of the Arab Spring
Ines Braune
http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7760

When I was asked to be the guest editor of the current issue of
CyberOrient, I realized this is a welcome opportunity to arrange and
re-sort some aspects, points, and arguments about the role of the
media during the Arab Spring. In the course of the events late in 2010
and early in 2011, I felt enthusiastic and overwhelmed - not primarily
as a scholar with a background in Middle Eastern and media studies,
but as someone who was part of the peaceful German revolution in 1989
as a young teenager. Upon reflection, I took up the role of a media
researcher considering how the use of media shaped these events.
Though much has already been said and written about the media and Arab
Spring, it would be worthwhile after a bit more than a year to reflect
and reevaluate the relationship between the media and revolutions. Due
to my involvement in this edition, and after numerous discussions with
colleagues, and students in my media seminar in the summer term, I
frequently came across the following three points: the significance of
mediatization processes, the online-offline dichotomy, and various
kinds of amnesia.


Articles

Political Activism 2.0: Comparing the Role of Social Media in Egypt’s
“Facebook Revolution” and Iran’s “Twitter Uprising”
Mohammed El-Nawawy and Sahar Khamis
http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7439

Social media, particularly blogging, Facebook and Twitter, have played
a key role in instigating, accelerating and even organizing some of
the uprisings and revolutions that have been taking place all over the
Middle East. This role has been effective in galvanizing the youth and
empowering them in their fights against repressive regimes and their
plight for more freedom and independence. This study looks into the
social media role in the so-called “Facebook revolution”, which took
place in Egypt in January 2011 and the so-called “Twitter uprising”,
which took place in Iran in June 2009. The Egyptian revolution did
succeed in toppling the regime, while the Iranian uprising failed. Why
did the calls for political change that started in the virtual world
lead to actual change in the real world in Egypt but not in Iran? This
study addresses this question by providing a critical analysis of the
available literature and interviews with online activists in Egypt and
Iran. The authors used the SPIN model (Segmentation, polycentrism,
integration and networking) as a theoretical framework and concluded
that the model helped social media succeed in Egypt, but not in Iran.

Al Jazeera’s Framing of Social Media During the Arab Spring
Heidi A. Campbell and Diana Hawk
http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7758

This study investigates how Al Jazeera framed social media in relation
to the revolutions and protests of the “Arab Spring” within its
broadcast media coverage. A content analysis of Arabic language
broadcasts appearing from January 25th through February 18th 2011,
covering the protests in Tahrir Square, was conducted using the
Broadcast Monitoring System (BMS) and Arab Spring Archive. Through
this analysis we see a number of common narratives being used by Al
Jazeera to frame social media and make claims about the influence they
had on the protests and related social movements. By noting the
frequency of social communications technologies referenced, ways in
which these technologies were characterized and interpreting
supporting themes with which they were identified helps illuminate the
assumptions promoted by Al Jazeera regarding the role and impact of
social communications technology on these events.

Remixing the Spring!: Connective leadership and read-write practices
in the 2011 Arab uprisings
Donatella Della Ratta and Augusto Valeriani
http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7763

This article discusses the connections between the unfolding of the
2011 Arab uprisings and the “culture of the net”. Being far from
overestimating the role that Internet has played in the uprisings, we
propose to look at it not as an ensemble of tools, applications and
technologies; but as a specific set of values, behaviors, skills and
strategies that define the cultural dimension of the web. The article
shows how linking, sharing and remixing have been among the core
cultural practices behind the social movements that were successful in
confronting Egypt and Tunisia`s regimes. We also discuss how, despite
the fact that the Syrian uprising has not achieved its political goal,
yet it shares a similar cultural framework based on participation,
peer-production, remix practices.

Beyond the Soapbox: Facebook and the Public Sphere in Egypt
Anton Root
http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7751

The question of the internet as a forum for political debate is
continuously contested. My research grows out of such scholarship but
focuses specifically on Facebook as a virtual public sphere in Egypt.
Based on an analysis of a note posted by Wael Ghonim during the
January 25 uprising on the Facebook group ‘We are all Khaled Said,’ I
discuss the structural and technological benefits of the platform, as
well as user behavior and interaction with one another. Using Jürgen
Habermas’ The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and
Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks as the theoretical groundwork
for my study, I make observations about the internet’s ability to
allow considered opinion, not just to record popular sentiment. I
argue that while Facebook’s structure has both drawbacks and
advantages for promoting discussion, the new medium's biggest
limitation in helping to produce a virtual public sphere is user
inexperience with the platform.


Comments

Egyptian uprising: Redefining Egyptian political community and
reclaiming the public space
Mervat Youssef and Anup Kumar
http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7766

The purpose of this paper is to understand and explain the emergence
of a public sphere and the articulation of a new Egyptian identity. We
argue that the Egyptian revolution, catalyzed by the social media, was
possible because the young men and women succeeded in reclaiming the
public space from the apparatuses of the post-colonial state. There
was a contest between the protesters and the regime over the meaning
of Egyptian identity and what it means to be an Egyptian. The
protesters were able to redefine the Egyptian public sphere and redraw
its contour. Through a semiotic and discourse analysis of the
repertoires of protest, the symbols, the slogans and the images at
Tahrir Square and on social media sites, we hope to show how the
youth-led massive social mobilization redefined and reconstructed the
civil society and the Egyptian national political community
(identity).


Reviews

The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information
Technology and Political Islam
Jon W. Anderson
http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7753

Howard's book The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
focuses on the relation between ITCs and civil society and democracy
in the Muslim world. It assembled a database of indicators (for
Internet availability, access, policy, ownership, structures and uses)
cross-referenced to common standard measures of democratization and
development for 75 countries with substantial Muslim populations.

The Arab Revolution: The Lessons from the Democratic Uprising
Marek Cejka
http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7747

Filiu's book The Arab Revolution: The Lessons from the Democratic
Uprising provides an overview of the context of the indirect
circumstances of the Arab Spring and also takes into account the
related sociological and psychological factors, which makes the book
more interdisciplinary. It focuses on events in Tunisia, Egypt and
Libya but also covers other parts of the MENA region.


The CyberOrient journal is published by the Middle East Section of the
American Anthropological Association in collaboration with the Faculty
of Arts of Charles University in Prague.

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All the best,

--
Vit Sisler, Ph.D.

Charles University in Prague
Faculty of Arts & Philosophy
Institute of Information Science and Librarianship
New Media Studies

http://uisk.jinonice.cuni.cz/sisler/