Social Media and Social Change. A Study of the Arab Spring and Spanish Indignados

Abstract

As the world moves away from conventional tactics to unconventional ones, or conflict below the threshold of violence, public and private services will be used as a form of influence. In turn, social media’s power to influence individuals and groups at all levels has emerged at the forefront of modern day conflicts. It is against this background that this paper investigated the role of social media and bringing about large-scale social or political change. The paper relies on qualitative data and method for its analysis. The Arab spring with focus on Tunisia and Egypt, and the Spanish indignados revolution in Spain were examined. The study concluded that the social media contributed immensely to the Arab spring and the Spanish indignados’ revolutions through awareness, recruitment, mobilization and sustainability