Social Media in the Middle East

Much of the content that is in the readings assigned for this week explains what social media has done for the Middle East and the direction that it seems to be going in for the future.  In the article from the Pew Research Center “The Role of Social Media in the Arab Uprisings” authors Heather Brown, Emily Guskin, and Amy Mitchell delineate what is thought to be happening versus what is actually happening in regards to the effect of social media in the Middle East during the Arab uprisings. To clarify, a lot of what the Arab uprisings are about deal with the exile of Mubarak, the riddance of the former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the civil/political unrest that is underway in Syria.

One would think that social media and internet access is found everywhere in the world, but that is not the case for certain parts of the Middle East and other regions in different countries. 65% of Egypt is without internet use, but the 81% of those who do have access to internet claim to use that force in order to stay in tune with all things political. This could be a solid representation of the rest of the Middle East. Most individuals in the region who have access to internet and new technologies use social media and other sorts of communication to let the rest of the world know what is going on in their hometowns, signaling the universal community of the travesties triumphing in their areas. Included with social media are the use of bit.ly links, an app that makes internet links shorter and more accessible to a mobile device. The age we live in now is very important for those in the Middle East, as young as the area is, where they can use social media and different apps to communicate with other individuals in efforts to get the word out about current situations happening there.

In Aljazeera’s article “What next for the media in Middle East and N Africa?”, several media related topics are underscored with details about where it could be headed in the future. One topic, Media and government, indulges readers about how some country’s governments appoint selected officials in certain agencies to regulate what is being exported by the media. This can create issues in regards to the legitimacy of what is being digested by its viewers. Media and surveillance is another key topic. Surveillance of consumers by the government has increased while the number of government leaks like Snowden’s case and the recent Panama papers case. The use of anonymous Twitter accounts to divulge important information in nations like Turkey and Morocco have also brought attention to other governments worldwide, letting them know that people like Snowden are out there in their communities ready to show the public what they think needs to be shared. Incidents such as those lead countries to make stricter security and surveillance policies, each country having distinct and different ways at approaching the matter.

In my opinion, social media has only heightened the way information is expedited to other parts of the world. Without social media during the Arab uprisings, who knows how many more people would have not been able to escape certain areas or assemble counter-protest groups to combat the evils upon them? But, with that being said, more and more government intervention is also going to come out of this, I believe. Surveillance techniques are only going to get stricter and stricter, and government censorship in countries that have not fully liberated their people (especially in the Middle East) are going to increase as well. It is up to those who are protesting, us as citizens and advocates for their cause, and the increasingly evolving world of technology to give the people what they deserve which is the right to live freely without the threat of intermission of a selfish government.

Sources

Sonay, Ali, and Roxane Farmanfarmaian. “What next for the Media in Middle East and N Africa?” Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera, 7 May 2016, www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/05/media-middle-east-africa-160504131354194.html.

Heather Brown, Emily Guskin and Amy Mitchell. “The Role of Social Media in the Arab Uprisings.” Pew Research Center's Journalism Project, Pew Research Center, 27 Nov. 2012, www.journalism.org/2012/11/28/role-social-media-arab-uprisings/.