1. Digital Media in the Arab World One Year After the Revolutions
- Author:
- Jeffrey Ghannam
- Publication Date:
- 03-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- The Arab region is experiencing a profound media shift. The year following the start of the Arab revolutions–in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and violent uprisings in Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain–was followed by continued repression and threats to the exercise of free expression online and offline. But the year also saw great strides in the numbers of Arabs across the region turning to social media platforms and the ascendancy of online engagement. This report traces and analyzes the enabling of tens of millions of individuals–as well as established news outlets–to attract wide global followings with Facebook and Twitter updates and YouTube videos about rapidly changing events. The widely diverse and pluralistic online communities in the Arab world are creating and sharing content, calling into question the future of the many state-owned or self-censored media that provide less in the way of engagement that Arab audiences have come to expect.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Politics, Science and Technology, Mass Media, and Regime Change
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Libya, Yemen, Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Bahrain, and Tunisia