“But in North Africa and the Middle East , relatively new youth movements have been surprised by the speed, size and success of protests they have organized over social networking Websites. Over several years they have found their political voice online and have held their meetings virtually. Each of the dictators in these countries has long had many political enemies, but they were a fragmented group of opponents. Now these opponents do more than use broadcast media to highlight their claims. They use social media to identify goals, build solidarity, and organize demonstrations. During the Arab Spring, individuals demonstrated their desire for freedom through social media, and social media became a critical part of the toolkit used to achieve that freedom.” [1]
The Project on Information Technology and Political Islam, University of Washington
Social media has been a buzzword for quite sometime now. But what one would find if one went to google the term until recently – eight out of the ten links would be based on information detailing out the use of social media as strategic marketing tool. “Companies that actively experiment with social media in their business processes will transform their relationships with customers and create value in unforeseen way,”[2] management dictums like these were norms in the online search sphere. That was until recently. Last one year has changed much. The observation from the report of ‘The Project on Information Technology and Political Islam’ is just one example of the increasing role of the social media beyond marketing parlance. If we consider the simple corollary of basic marketing anthem, i.e., developing relationship between the need of the product and the consumer, any new communication platform is used strategically first by the marketers in a world dominated by capitalist/neo-liberal economies. It’s beyond marketing or sociological use depends on the scale with which the communication platform is adopted by the masses as an interactive mode of communication. And social media being driven by the interactive power that the new media technologies like the Internet and mobile communication provide has gone much beyond any mode of communication in reaching to the masses. No it’s not dirt cheap but even that expensive. India
[1] The Project on Information Technology and Political Islam, Philip N. Howard, University of Washington, Aiden Duffy, University of Washington , Deen Freelon, American University, Muzammil Hussain, University of Washington, Will Mari, University of Washington, Marwa Mazaid, University of Washington / page-2
[3] http://ibnlive.in.com/news/indias-mobile-subscriber-base-crosses-873-mn/209206-11.html December 6, 2011
A segment of a research paper that I am writing on 'how the social media affected the recent mass uprisings in different parts of the world'. Will share the whole write-up once it is published.
