The Tunisian Revolution and Democratic Transition: The Role of Al-Nahdah by Mohammad Dawood Sofi

Author:Mohammad Dawood Sofi [Sofi, Mohammad Dawood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: African, Democracy, Political Ideologies, Middle Eastern, Political Parties, Political Science, World, Political Process
ISBN: 9781000483802
Google: YKdMEAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 59140174
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

5.3The Tunisian Revolution: Internet, media, and social networking sites

What role, if any, did the Internet, media, and social networking sites played in the Tunisian Revolution? To answer that question, an examination of the role of various channels of media in the Tunisian Revolution reveals that they were very effective tools in organizing the protests, accelerating the revolution, and disseminating the latest details about the current situation to a wider audience within and beyond Tunisia. Breuer, Landmanb, and Farquhar have argued that the Internet's prominent role in the diffusion of popular protest across the Arab world has re-energized the debate on the implications of social media networks for political mobilization and patterns of protest diffusion, as well as the impact of social media networks on individual political engagement.52 Likewise, Chalcraft argues that the new modes of coordination through the Internet and new forms of leaderless organizing had come into being.53 Therefore, it is suggested that by and large these channels have become significantly low-cost and effective tools for protest and political mobilization.

Even before Bouazizi's act of self-immolation that sparked nationwide protests, the courageous Tunisians had already recognized a number of informal ways and means to demonstrate resistance and air socio-political opinions. Among these methods, the tech-savvy activists mainly appropriated the contestation through various social networks. A very fine example in this regard is that of 2008 Gafsa protests. As expected, the Tunisian press hardly bothered to cover these incidents. Whereas the international media reported on them frequently, the authorities censored their broadcasting in the country. In order to tackle the situation, the tech-savvy activists used an alternative yet dynamic platform to transmit the information about the Gafsa incident to the wider audience, primarily through emails and Facebook.54 Consequently, this type of oppositional mobilization should be understood alongside another organized Facebook campaign popularly known as ‘Tunisia in White’ (in French: Tunisie en Blanc) in which the Tunisian state had to face a serious protest led by a number of young activists against the Internet censorship.55

As a new form of protest embodying online activism, these channels gave Tunisians a significant platform to break their silence, generate healthy discussion, provide updates about new programs, mobilize the masses, and organize the protests. Breuer, et al., in referring to ‘resource mobilization theory’ (RMT), maintain that social media helped a tech-savvy generation break the national media blackout in Tunisia. It also provided an element of emotional mobilization by depicting atrocities associated with the regime's handling of the protests and enabled intergroup collaboration that resulted in spreading a large cycle of protest.56 Apart from filming and sharing the protests, more importantly, it served as a powerful medium to expose the authoritarian face of Bin Ali, his regime, and its propaganda at large. While this online mobilization process communicated disparate modes of grievance in the country, it galvanized at the national level a more focused critique of the Bin Ali regime.57 Social media, according to Masri, gave substantive, symbolic, and organizational force to the Revolution.58 More importantly, it acted

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