The Partnership of Twitter and Social Movements

Individuals involved in social movements expect tools of mass media to be a vital partner in their success by providing them the platform to instantly attract, engage, update, debate, and raise global awareness of their efforts.  Oppression thrived when it could not be stopped, but advancements in technology have created mass media tools that can instantly communicate throughout the world.  Twitter continues to excel in its ability to leverage advancements in technology through text, audio, and video.  One successful way is its ability to support the efforts of participants of social movements.  
 

Photo Credit 2009 Creators Syndicate

The revolutionary events of one social movement that began in North Africa and the Middle East in late 2010 have been labeled the ‘Arab Spring’ (Houissa, 2015).  Philip N. Howard, the Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Washington, and his team, gathered data during the time of the uprising.  Here are several quantifiable excerpts showing the contribution Twitter made to the movement.

Our evidence suggests that social media carried a cascade of messages about freedom and democracy across North Africa and the Middle East, and helped raise expectations for the success of political uprising.  People who shared interest in democracy built extensive social networks and organized political action. Social media became a critical part of the toolkit for greater freedom. (as cited in O'Donnell, 2011)

Professor Howard and his team determined 

During the week before Egyptian president Hosni Mubaraks resignation, for example, the total rate of tweets from Egypt — and around the world — about political change in that country ballooned from 2,300 a day to 230,000 a day.  Twitter offers us the clearest evidence of where individuals engaging in democratic conversations were located during the revolutions.  Twitter provides a window into the broader world of digital conversations. (O’Donnell, 2011)

Award winning correspondent Peter Beaumont  researched the impact of social media on the Arab uprisings.  Beaumont identified that Twitter had multiple impacts during the uprisings.  When he spoke with Khaled Koubaa, president of the Internet Society in Tunisia, Koubaa shared that  “Social media during Ben Ali's dictatorship existed on two levels. A few thousand "geeks" like him communicated via Twitter, while perhaps two million talked on Facebook. The activism of the first group informed that of the latter.” (as cited in Beaumont, 2011)

Whether it is to communicate about the uprising itself or to seek support for those impacted by it, Twitter has become a vital tool in the overall support of these movements.  “Social networking sites have supplied the most graphic images of the crackdowns on protesters, but also broadcast messages from hospitals looking for blood, rallied demonstrators and provided international dial-up numbers for those whose internet has been blocked”. (Beaumont, 2011)

Experts agree that mass media alone is not enough to stop unrest, but it has become a vital partner in all facets of these movements.  In his 2011 article, The Arab Spring's Cascading Effects, Professor Howard shared a quote from an activist who identified how they leverage digital media in their protest infrastructure. "We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world" (Howard, 2011).  Technology has created the foundation for mass media to be used to communicate to the world during and about unrest, impacting both society and culture.  

These charts, prepared by the Dubai School of Government, show
Twitter usage during the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings