Introduction
Social media is the current social trend that almost every person is using to get keep up with the current events and also interact with friends and families. It has also been used to provide information and persuade individuals to participate in certain activities as seen in the Arab Spring Revolution of 2011. From the statistical records by these social cites, Facebook users in Egypt had doubled during the Spring Revolution and even after the sites were temporarily blocked.
Problem statement
The continuous use of social media has left many researchers contemplating on the role of social media in social mobilization and creation of awareness in the modern social communities. This calls for a need to look deeper into both the positive and negative roles that social media played in mobilizing a community in relation to the use of social media during the Arab spring Revolution in Egypt.
Research objective
Theoretical framework
Assumptions and limitations
This research assumes that social media was the tool that was majorly used to provide information to the protestors in Egypt during the Spring Revolution of 2011. The main limitation involved in this study is accessing the actual statistics that were using social media exclusively for the revolution. This is because the number of registered users of particular social site may not correspond to the active users of the same social site.
Literature review
The review is based on the research studies conducted by several researchers in the field of sociology. According to Castells (1996), information is a special weapon that protestors use to plan and execute their plans in a persuasive and direct way to the government and this is highly provided by interacting through the social media. This is an indication that the future of social media in political and social mobilization is essential topic that need to be addressed fully as social media is an integral part of today’s and future community interactions. Some of the issues to be addressed are:
- Role of social media in the community
- Social media as a interaction channel
- As a source of information
- As a tool for sensitizing community participation
- Impacts of social media use in mobilizing the community in relation to the Egypt Spring revolution.
- Future of social media in community mobilization
Hypothesis
This research is based on hypothetical assumption that social media had a positive role in mobilizing the protestors during the Egypt Spring Revolution.
Research plan: study and analysis
This paper will adopt a qualitative research study to address the relationship between the two research variables (social media and community mobilization). Descriptive analysis that involves statistical presentation and analysis of the data is suitable for measuring variables in this study.
Conclusion
This will provide a summary of the research findings and the recommended future study on the same issue.
Sources
The sources that will be used in this paper include the sociology materials that defines the relationship between community networking through social media and its impacts on community interactions and mobilization. In particular, most of the sources includes previous studies and critiques on the role played by social medic in Arab spring Revolution.
References
- Bhuiyan, S. I. (2011). Social Media and Its Effectiveness in the Political Reform Movement in Egypt. Middle East Media Educator Vol. 1: 14-20.
- Castells, M. (1996).The Rise of the Network Society.Oxford: Blackwells.
- Eltantawy, N. & Wiest, J. (2011). The Arab Spring Social Media in the Egyptian Revolution: Reconsidering Resource Mobilization Theory. Internationa Journal of Communication, Vol 5. Retrieved from http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1242.
