The Middle East: Social Media Revolution in Public and Private Communication

The so-called Web2 technologies have brought about a revolution in public and private communication. These technological changes could be predicted as the Internet was developing fast during the 1990s. There were many preliminary social networking tools like Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) which could be traced back to the early 1970s, but, it was the cultural, sociological, economic and political impact of these new technologies which proved to be unprecedented for politicians, businesses, academics, and others. Social media are powerful, but their power is not manifested in the conventional ways one could have predicted 20 years ago. Estimations show that by the year 2014, the number of people who were members of at least one social networking service had passed 2 billion and this number was increasing (Kemp, 2015). 

Social media have left a profound political impact. Things that now happen –particularly in the previously non-democratic societies- could hardly been imagined only two decades ago. As social media give individuals the power of online participation based on –with some reservations- equal opportunities, marginalized and isolated groups are no longer oppressed in silence and they can reach out to the wider society and even bring their plight before the global audience. Many of such instances include the massacre of Rohingya people in Myanmar, relocating, harassing and killing of Sampang Shia people in Indonesia and enslaving Izadi women and children in Iraq that raised global awareness and distaste and pushed the governments to simply “do something.” Social media also have provided a platform for election campaigns and polling surveys which can give the authorities better feedforward and help them make better plans. Another benefit of social media for political participation is the direct contact between rulers and lay people. Pioneers are Barack Obama (43.9 million likes), Narendra Modi (29.1 million likes), Mitt Romney (11.3 million likes), and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (6.9 million likes). This huge number of followers and their comments and ‘likes’ give the politicians’ strategic team a marvelous opportunity to analyze what is really going on among their supporters and how they can design their future policies in order to get optimum results. They can simply read more . . . 

Dumbing Down or Reaching Out? Facebook in Kurdistan and Nasser Razazi

The new communication facilities and particularly Web2 technologies have made it possible for a majority of people to participate in online global debates. It seems that scattered voices in all parts of the world –and in Kurdistan in the Middle East- are no longer suffocated in silence and in this new global arena, we can have everyone expressing his or her opinion on key issues. Of course, Web2 technologies have done many good things to us, but we should not neglect the dark side. 

Contrary to what is known as the information and communications revolution, and particularly the Internet, promises to revitalise democracy and promoting public sphere, the new technologies are seen by some as destroying the pillars of the fourth estate  (Williams, 2003). The phrase “dumbing down” is used to explain this process and can suggest that the culture being supplied less sophisticated or complicated or tasteful, or thoughtful, or statusful than a past one, but it is also used to refer to the public or audience being served, who are thought to have declined in taste, intelligence, and status (Gans, 1999, p. 80).

For some commentators, while there may be more information available, the quality of this information as well as general awareness is declining. This is a threat to democracy. Public ignorance and apathy is growing as the serious, challenging and truthful is being pushed aside by the trivial, sensational, vulgar and manipulated(Williams, 2003, p. 230). In the pessimistic . . . read more