[ICTs-and-Society] Subject: RE: Social Media, Democracy and, Politics in the Information Society

[Christian Fuchs]

From: Kristina Riegert riegert at jmk.su.se

I am really enjoying this thread, and had not intended to participate 
although I now feel that I should make one point reminding participants 
about social media in other national/transnational contexts than the 
USA. The example was given previously of Egypt and I would very much 
agree that we are uncertain of what the results of the Arab Uprisings 
are beyond awareness given to Western media for countries such as Egypt.
There is an uproar going on right now in Russia - similar to that of 
Egypt against the blatent corruption that takes place under the guise of 
democracy, and like Egypt it is driven primarily online but also has 
offline effects. In other words, in both countries we can see a 
government line in the msm whereas the Internet has inspired a kind of 
oppositional media, smaller to be sure, but something that may be 
sustainable after the "revolutionary moment". Because lets face it, 
these are moments in history. The real work, as our Egyptian friends are 
finding out, starts after that moment is over.

What we are finding in our ongoing study of Arab bloggers in Lebanon, 
Egypt and Kuwait is to be careful of what bloggers and demonstrators say 
in the heat of the moment about what they are doing. Later they often 
reassess the role of social media, as many Egyptian activists have. The 
top Egyptian bloggers, who think that the social media are great 
organising tools and are totally dependent on them - also admit that it 
was not what brought out the masses. It was word of mouth via mosques, 
it was the closing down of businesses on strategic days, it was the 
closing off of the Internet that brought out the masses. And if we look 
today, after this year, we see that these hardcore well-seasoned human 
rights and media activists - veterans since 2005 - are still fighting 
for regime change. The same institutions and people are in place. So the 
question becomes what can the role of social media be in bringing real 
and lasting institutional change?

This doesn't mean we cannot point to concrete changes that have taken 
place thanks to blogging campaigns in these three societies, we can 
often point to governments backing down on issues, as Ben here pointed 
out, but it does mean that the social media function differently in each 
societal context and in each mediascape. Lets also not forget the hybrid 
media situation (Chadwick) which seems particularly relevant in 
societies where Internet penetration is low and varying. This means that 
mobile telephony and TV are "force multipliers" and must be part of any 
society-wide change.  One big question is the long-term relationship 
between the local national and the international media work in such 
situations. And how the latter are changing thanks to revitalisation of 
the former thanks to Internet.
Kristina (who is going to the conference)