Democracy's Fourth Wave?: Digital Media and the Arab SpringDid digital media really "cause" the Arab Spring, or is it an important factor of the story behind what might become democracy's fourth wave? An unlikely network of citizens used digital media to start a cascade of social protest that ultimately toppled four of the world's most entrenched dictators. Howard and Hussain find that the complex causal recipe includes several economic, political and cultural factors, but that digital media is consistently one of the most important sufficient and necessary conditions for explaining both the fragility of regimes and the success of social movements. This book looks at not only the unexpected evolution of events during the Arab Spring, but the deeper history of creative digital activism throughout the region. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
1 Digital Media and the Arab Spring | 17 |
2 The Recent History of Digital Media and Dissent | 35 |
3 Information Infrastructure and the Organization of Protest | 47 |
4 Authoritarian Responses and Consequences | 69 |
5 Al Jazeera Social Media and Digital Journalism | 89 |
Digital Media and the Rhythms of Social Change | 103 |
Notes | 127 |
| 133 | |
| 141 | |
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action active activists Al Jazeera English Algeria AlJazeera Arab Spring Arab world arrested authoritarian regimes Bahrain bloggers blogosphere blogs Bouazizi broadcast media casualties censorship citizens civic civil society civil society groups civil society leaders country’s coverage democracy democratization developing diasporas digital media digital networks disconnect Egypt Egyptian elections Facebook global hashtags important incidents information infrastructure information technologies internet access internet service Islam Jazeera English journalists Libya major media systems Middle East mobile phones Morocco Mubarak Muslim Brotherhood North Africa offline online political organizations percent political actors political change political communication political parties population Regime Type region revolution role of digital ruling elites Saudi Arabia shut significant social media social movements social networking strategies street protests successful Syria Tahrir Square technology diffusion television tion Tunisia Tunisia and Egypt Tunisian blogosphere tweets Twitter unique users websites WikiLeaks Yemen YouTube