http://www.firstpost.com/world/arab-spring-to-autumn-rage-the-dark-power-of-social-media-455286.html
At the risk of sounding pseudo-intellectual, I
shall start my first blog post quoting Socrates: “all I know is that I know
nothing”. And for sure, I for the moment know nothing about social networks
analysis. I’m not good at maths and have humble quantitative skills. However,
the crucial role communication, networks and connectedness have come to play in
past years’ geopolitical developments in the Arab Region made me reconsider my natural
preferences towards the all-qualitative.
As classes begin, the
Arab Region is again under the media’s spotlight. This time, an insulting film has
triggered massive popular reactions in the region, resulting in the death of –
but not only – US ambassador to Libya. Many of those protests, it seems, have
been organized through Facebook groups, reaching as far as Paris where 150
people where arrested after an unauthorized demonstration in front of the
US Embassy had taken place on Saturday. Former French Prime Minister François
Fillon was wondering in Le Monde this morning how such a demonstration could
have happened without any official authorization. The response lies, again, in
social media: calls for mobilization have been spread through instant
messaging, Facebook and Twitter, under the Htag “Touche
pas à mon prophète”. Connectedness, reactivity: in a few hours, decisions
concerning time, date and place where made, as well as the initiative of going without
the prefecture’s authorization. Yes, François, that’s how things are done now. But
a crucial question remains: who will be sued for this collective (more than
4000 people had signed up in the Facebook group) action?
The horizontal, polycephalic nature of these
movements/demonstrations makes it difficult to determine who plays which role
in their organization. In my masters thesis I would (tentatively) like to
explore the role of new media in the Arab Spring: how have they facilitated the
penetration of human rights discourse in the civil society? In such movements,
which actors play a crucial role? Is it the “tech savvies”, whose blog posts
fueled the collective action, or the indiscriminate mass of people anonymously gathered
in public spaces? How do we explore that?
These are the questions that brought me to this
class, and that’s how I end up actually enjoying reading about sums,
derivatives, nodes, alters and other egos.
3 comments:
Professor Carolyn Gideon is currently working on a research project related to social media in the Arab Spring. I would try to summarize her research question here, but I have a feeling I would fail to adequately represent her work. If you have not already talked to her about your ideas, it may be helpful!
Hi Jane,
Thanks for the update. I'm seeing Prof. Gideon on Wednesday and will certainly ask her about her research.
Have a great day!
Noemi
This is exactly why it is so hard to predict the reaction of people and networks. An obscure (in relative terms) video makes an appearance on the internet, amongst so many others and through networking there is a dissemination and opinions are formed and action takes place. The military is still attempting to include SNA in its intelligence analysis and probably should do so for other branches, as stated in the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin of April 2012, by two professionals. This at least makes the analysis of social networks a thought in the organization.
-MJones
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