Arab Spring and the Media

1.0 Introduction

The Arab Spring was a wave of revolutions initiated by people across the Arab world at the end

of 2010, who were dissatisfied with the governments’ corruption and incompetence as well as their

long dictatorship.

A large number of educated young people who have the knowledge of network and

dissatisfied with the status quo became the main role in this campaign. At the same time, the

modern mobile communication technology, the Internet and the social media have played a pivotal

role in promoting.

This essay illuminates the ways in which people use these new technologies to encourage

people to be politically conscious and participate in activities to defend democracy. Also, this

paper will explore what did Tunisians and Egyptians change after the revolution then discuss

whether these two countries have successfully used modern technology to build political

awareness and encourage people to stand up for democratic rights.

2.0 The Arab Spring

The Arab Spring was launched by the people of the Arab world at the end of 2010. It was a series

of anti-government activities with the theme of "democracy" and "economics" that spread to

countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria. In this movement, many leaders have

been overthrown and attracted worldwide attention.

2.1 The Cause of the Arab Spring

On December 17, 2010, a 26-year-old Tunisian, Mohamed Bouazizi, who depended on a small
fruit stand to support his family on the streets of Sidi Bouzid, was tortured by polices for not having

any registration permits. He was so poor that he could no longer bribe the police with money so

that he was slapped and verbally abused.

Mohamed Bouazizi felt ashamed and angry. He cannot stand being bullied by local corrupt

officials all year round. So, he went to the town government and wanted the people there to judge

him, but no one did. He was very angry and disappointed, then poured a bottle of fuel and set

himself on fire in front of the building. In the end, he was sent to the hospital for severe burns and

died.

This news soon got around in such a small town. Mohamed’s despair resonated here and

across the Arab world, triggered the Tunisian Revolution. Since Jasmine is the national flower of

Tunisia, this revolution is also called the "Jasmine Revolution". Then, the success of the Jasmine

Revolution led to the Arab Spring.

3.0 How had the social media and the Internet been used to encourage people to be politically

conscious and participate in activities to defend democracy?

There is no doubt that the speed with which news travels online is staggering, giving demonstrators

a lot of power. Through the social media and the Internet, the activists were able to let a large

number of people know the corruption of the government and convene them to participate in the

demonstrations to defend democracy.

Apart from that, during the demonstrations, the Internet users and dissident organisations

in the region can provide news leads and content directly to Al Jazeera and other outside media

through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and emails. This helped the protesters to attract more

attention. Then, there will be more and more people who have resonance to support and join the
demonstrations.

Moreover, one of the advantages of the new media 1is that it contains information elements

such as text, pictures, sounds, images and other traditional media 2that cannot be combined. It can

also deliver unprocessed first-hand materials anywhere and anytime. Through the Internet and the

social media, people are constantly interacting with each other and often with a strong sense of

community as these new media can eliminate people’s sense of distance from hot events and drives

the enthusiasm of people to participate. It is also because our personal perception has been

extended through smartphones and the Internet. Both listening and moving have occurred

simultaneously, even globally.

3.1 Tunisia

The former president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was one of the few dictators who

controlled the Arab World. He was notorious for corruption. According to Rivlin (2014), the

government seized $13 billion (approximately RM 52.5 billion) worth of assets from Ben Ali, his

relatives and in-laws after the 2011 revolution. On June 20, 2011, Ben Ali and his wife were

sentenced to 35 years in prison by a court in Tunisia for theft and illegal possession of cash and

jewellery (Rivlin, 2014).

Moreover, under the leadership of Ben Ali, Tunisia is also a police state 3 , and both

traditional media and new media were censored. His review of the network was very strict. To take

the words of Shirayanagi (2015), “The old regime censored websites administered not just by

1
New media is the media which opposite to the traditional media, such as television, smartphones, the Internet and
the social media.
2
Traditional media includes newspapers, magazines, books and radio.
3
In a police state, the government has the legal power, can be in the absence of a legal process under the premise of
direct violation of the will of the people, to control the people with administrative power.
terrorist groups, but by the entire political opposition.” Under his rule, people could not criticize

the government, could not have their own opinions, or even have their own personalities. All

dissidents will be tortured. This is where people hated him the most.

In the past, what was happening there could be suppressed and not broadcast by newspapers

and television. Therefore, despite the fact that Bouazizi’s self-immolation incident is rare, Tunisian

national television also did not make any relevant reports. This caused Bouazizi’s mother and the

local people could no longer bear it. As a result, Bouazizi’s mother led a peaceful demonstration

outside the municipality building to questioned why the government did not care about that

incident and this scene was filmed by two of Bouazizi’s relatives and posted online (Ryan, 2011).

In accordance with Internet World Stats reported in 2011, Tunisia has 3.6 million Internet

users, accounting for one-third of the total population, and is one of the countries with the highest

penetration rate in the African continent (cited in Ryan, 2011).

These videos spread at lightning speed on the Internet and social networks. “That evening,

the video was aired on Al Jazeera's Mubasher channel. Al Jazeera's new media team, which trawls

the web looking for video from across the Arab world, had picked up the footage via Facebook,”

(Ryan, 2011). When all Tunisians saw what had happened to Bouazizi, they shared the same

concern. They also shared an aversion to the ruler, Ben Ali, and frustration at the lack of free

speech in their own country. As a result, more and more people were taking to the streets bravely

to join the protest.

In this revolution, mobile phones, the Internet and the social media have become the

biggest weapons of these people and gave them greater power. We cannot deny that one of the

advantages of the Internet is that there is no single centre, but unlimited relay information
exchange. Through online reviews in other countries, people can bypass Tunisia’s censorship and

log on to any banned websites.

The photos and videos captured and uploaded by people make it easier for media in all

places to get the news easier and report it to let more people know about it. As the words of Jazeera

(2011), “The Internet, in this case, has assumed the role of a very effective uncensored news

agency from which every broadcaster and news corporation has been able to freely source

newsfeeds, raw from the scene.”

In Tunisia, although the political websites were blocked, people have another way to attract

international media attention, that is, the social media. People took the scenes and uploaded them

to social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. They can finally let the world see what

was happening.

According to Delany (2011), among Tunisia’s 10 million residents and 2 million foreign

citizens, 85% of the population owns mobile phones (5% of smartphones), and the number of

Facebook users was about 2 million of them. These Tunisia users follow the news of the uprising

on social media and the protesters relied on Facebook to communicate.

The videos and the lampooning articles which were written by the activists have

encouraged people to be politically conscious and participate in activities to defend democracy.

Images of the government's crackdown on protests can be posted online in real time across the

country through YouTube and Facebook. It led directly to the humiliation of Ben Ali, drawing

worldwide outrage and public anger.

 Furthermore, owing to the immediacy of the Internet, the group consciousness emergence,

and people bravely openly rebel against their authoritarian government. Therefore, the power of

these new media should not be underestimated.

After 28 days of protests, Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia. Tunisians have finally brought

down his 23 years of dictatorship. The start of the Arab Spring has sparked a series of regional

political upheavals.

3.2 Egypt

Countries with authoritarian governments and regimes were not just one in Tunisia. In fact,

dissidents on the Internet were spread throughout the Arab world. It was Egypt that went on to

demonstrate after the Tunisian revolution.

After the people of Tunisia successfully overthrew their government, the people of Egypt

saw the hope. They finally could not stand it and the Egyptian revolution was unveiled on January

25, 2011, the 10th day after the success of the Tunisian revolution.

Hosni Mubarak was Egypt’s president in 2011. The media and citizens were also controlled

by the authoritarian regime.

Owing to the television and radios were controlled by the state and have adopted rigorous

censorship, the media were forced to report uncritically on government policies, and objections

cannot be expressed in any platforms. Nevertheless, some activists were still tried to expose

government corruption and criticize the policies that violate human rights and democracy on the

blogs and social media.

 In June 2010, six months before the self-immolation of the Tunisian fruit hawker Mohamed

Bouazizi, a young computer programmer named Khaled Said in Egypt was brutally beaten to death

by the police for exposing police corruption online. His horrible body was photographed by his

brother and then spread to all parts of the world.

In accordance with Ghonim’s speech at the TED Talks (2016; 00:47), before 2009, he, like

most people, had no political position at all. However, when he saw the photo and knew the

incident of Khaled, he began to have political awareness. He anonymously created a Facebook

page, calling on people to gather together to overthrow the dictator and promote the Egyptian

revolution.

In search of change, Egyptians flocked to social networks to keep up with the news and

mobilize for further action. According to Mubarak (2011), there were about 4.7 million Facebook

users in Egypt at the start of 2011. On social media, public anger has finally had a chance to vent,

where they shared messages and communicate with each other under posts that revealed

government corruption. The popularization of the Internet and social media has broken the

government’s monopoly on information dissemination.

The Internet has great influence, and the Egyptian people finally held demonstrations to

defying their dictatorial government on January 25, 2011, led by Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian

computer engineer, and other activists.

At that time, it was very important in the aspect of information dissemination, and the

Internet and the social media were playing an important role as they are very effective and rapid

in disseminating information. During the demonstration, people were airing live on YouTube and
Facebook. The atrocities of the police in dispersing demonstration were also recorded. What

happened here is no longer suppressed but can be known to people all over the world.

On January 28, 2011, activists plan to occupy Tahrir Square. However, the government

shut down the entire network and cut off all online and mobile phone contacts because they saw

activists used the Internet and mobile phones to convene a large number of people to take to the

streets a few days ago. Vodafone of the United Kingdom, one of the four Internet providers in

Egypt, claims that under Egyptian law, the authorities have the right to issue orders to stop service

and they must comply (Greenemeier, 2011).

In this seemingly unfavourable move for those activists, it has unexpectedly become their

advantage. Since people could not access the Internet and do not have cell phone signals, they

could not understand what's going on outside, they went out of their homes. This made the activists

ecstatic and took the opportunity to gather millions of people, repeatedly shouted against the

authorities' slogans to go to Tahrir Square. At that night, the police unable to control the

demonstration and withdrew from the square. In the end, the protesters occupied the square.

Finally, on February 11, 2011, Mubarak admitted that he could not control the situation in

the country. Then, the Vice President of Egypt announced Mubarak’s resignation as the president

of the Republic and the state power was transferred to the Egyptian military, temporarily take over

by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

The determination of Egyptians to reform defeated their dictatorial government.

4.0 To what extent was the endeavours of Tunisia and Egypt a success?

In the past, under the long military dictatorship of Tunisia and Egypt, the people did not dare to

speak up to the government because of the strong military repression, and even if they made their
voices of oppositions, it seemed insignificant. Nowadays, with the advancement of the technology,

the advent of the smartphones, the Internet and the social media has become very beneficial tools.

These new technologies have the power to bring together a large number of people, allowing them

to keep up with the news and understand what's going on outside.

Since the Arab Spring, the political consciousness of the people of Tunisia and Egypt have

successfully built up and they are more likely to participate in activities and have been actively

defending their democratic rights. People began to realize their rights and obligations to the

country and began to realize that they had a responsibility to fight for social justice and their own

rights.

A lot of Tunisians have paid great attention to political issues. When there are policies that

threaten their interests or democratic rights, they will raise out instead of enduring it quietly. For

example, since January 8, 2018, people took to the streets again to oppose the harsh new budget

plan of 2018, which adopted austerity measures. People protest the measures because it will

increase the tax and push up the price of necessities (Stratfor, 2018).

As for Egypt, after the successful overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power for

30 years in Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi was elected president of Egypt

in the 2012 presidential election.

On June 30, 2013, a large-scale demonstration took place again in Egypt. That day was the

first anniversary of the reign of Egyptian President Morsi. Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered

to protest and demand his immediate resignation. It was because many people were unhappy with

the way he deals with political, economic and social issues during their tenure. As the words of
BBC (2016), “During his 12 months in power, Morsi was seen by many Egyptians as preoccupied

with establishing political control rather than tackling economic and social problems.”

This shows that the Egyptian people successfully established political awareness since the

2011 Egyptian revolution, and they dared to stand up and point out their dissatisfaction with the

government.

5.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, the Internet and the social media has contributed to building up the political

awareness of people. They have also encouraged people to participate in the activities to defend

democracy.

For the first time in history, the events that changed the world were recorded by people on

the street for a while. The downfall of dictators like Tunisia and Egypt has a special video record,

and people can see the cruel scenes that are unimaginable in other theatres in the Arab world.

However, people have to note that the advent of the Internet and the social media was not

the cause of the Arab Spring but were powerful tools that can encourage people to be politically

conscious and defend democracy by participating in activities. The Internet and the social media

were just tools and the actual force and power came from the determination of people (Ghonim,

2015). To take the words of the Egyptian activists, “Facebook and Twitter were just tools, never

the driving force,” (cited in Shearlaw, 2016).

In brief, the Internet and the social media were the tools and weapons of the people that

helped to promote and speed up the subversion of the regimes.