Will the revolution be tweeted? A conceptual framework for understanding the social media and the Arab Spring

Abstract

The goal of this article is to build a conceptual framework for understanding the role of social media in the so-called ‘Arab Spring’, considering two different disciplinary perspectives: International Relations and Internet Studies. More specifically, it relies on literature on Middle Eastern political systems and on social network sites. It also refers to literature that examines the relationship between (social) media engagement and civic engagement. Building on this foundation, the article analyses the main attempts to evaluate the ‘impact’ of social media on the ‘Arab Spring’ from specific perspectives. Commentators have tended to adopt a dichotomous vision of the topic, either emphasizing the ‘revolutionary’ role of social media or totally minimizing its role; this article defines them as digital evangelists and techno-realists respectively. In order to prove their point of view, both sides focus on the same issues. The study critically analyses the main issues, discussing how they have been interpreted by both digital evangelists and techno-realists. Through a multidisciplinary framework, it proposes a more nuanced picture of the relationship between the social media and the ‘Arab Spring’.