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Impact of Social Media on Political Infrastructure of the Middle East
Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction................................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................6
Research Methods......................................................................................................................................9
Findings and Analysis................................................................................................................................10
Discussion.................................................................................................................................................13
Limitations................................................................................................................................................14
Future Scope.............................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................16
References................................................................................................................................................17
Abstract
The following paper discusses the impact of social media on the political environment,
institutions and dynamics of the Middle East. In particular, as the Arab Spring was the largest
movement of change in the Middle East in recent decades, it is studied with special focus. A
two-tiered approach of research is used, combining primary research of a direct survey with
secondary research of literature review. Based on this methodology, the paper finds that social
media has in fact had a significant impact on the dynamics of Middle Eastern politics. However,
the limitations of the sample used for primary research restrict the paper from drawing firm
conclusions.
Introduction
The Middle East is a geographical region that consists of the countries of Iran, Turkey,
the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, and Maghreb. This region straddles the strategically
important junction of Eurasia and Africa, which historically has been a major trade route as well
as the center of some of the world’s biggest religions, due to which this region has seen a lot of
warfare in its history. Today, the region is important to the world due to its geographical position
but also due to the vast amount of natural resources it contains (Beaumont et al, 1988).
Currently, most of the countries that constitute this region are authoritarian dictatorships,
and almost all are Muslim majority. The postcolonial nature of these countries, the internal
ethnic and sectarian conflicts, the long history of wars and bloodshed, and the importance of this
region to foreign imperial interests has resulted in significant turmoil and unrest, especially in
recent decades. At the same time, there are political movements from all across the spectrum
operating within these countries and aiming to drive change, both reactionary and progressive
(Ismael et al, 2015).
These movements have interacted with external factors such as globalization and the
Information Revolution in complex and varied ways. In general, there has been a drive to utilize
modern information and communication technology, particularly social media, to spread ideas
and messages (Anderson et al, 2006). This is critical because, as most of these countries are
dictatorships, the print and electronic media is heavily regulated by the state (Stier, 2015).
However, there has been little research into the impact of modern information and
communication technology on the political environment, movements and structures of these
countries. The aim of this paper is to study this impact. However, as this is too vast an area of
study for a paper like this, the primary focus will be on the Arab Spring, the biggest and most
impactful movement for change in the Middle East in the past several decades (Brown, Guskin &
Mitchelle, 2012).
This research is aimed at understanding the impact of social media on the political
institutions of Middle East. This impact will be specifically analyzed in the light of Arab Spring
that happened in the start of this decade and during which several Middle Eastern countries
witness the political revolutions (Britannica, 2019). Social media was a pivotal instrument in the
revolutions (Gire, 2014).
The primary question for this research is: “How social media played a decisive role in
Arab Springs that changed the political landscape of the Middle East?” This research will
revolve around this question.
Literature Review
Middle East is one of the important region of globe having the attention of the super
powers of the world. Middle East is the home to some vital natural resources of the world like
fossil fuels. Gulf countries and other Arab states are the part of middle east. Arab countries
constitute 5.2% of the world population despite of this ratio these countries enjoyed 55.2 percent
of oil and 27.5 % of the gas reserves. Majority of the population in this region has never enjoyed
freedom or equality (Norton, 2016). But there was an event which totally shaken this region and
was one of the important event in the history of the middle east. This event is known as the Arab
Spring a revolution which was led by media. (Rashed, 2019)
Arab spring was a wave of anti-dictatorship or prodemocracy uprisings and protests
which started right back in 2011. One by one there were demonstrations within every single
oppressed county which were under the rule of brutal dictators. This wave began when a 26-
year-old street vendor of Tunisia set himself on fire in front of city hall. He was ill – treated by
the public officials and police (Gelvin, 2012). Hence it was an act of frustration. The whole
frustration was because of the brutal dictator Zine EL Abidine Bin Ali. Video of that event got
viral on social media. Media was playing a key role at that time. That video agitated fire within
the streets of Tunisia and there were demonstrations and uprisings against the brutal dictator.
Oppressed people were demanding resign of Ben Ali the President and there was also a demand
of reclaim of democracy. After 23 years in power Bin Ali was finally stepped down and a state
of emergency was declared. He was expelled from the country and he flew away to Saudi Arabia
according to the officials. (Alsaleh, 2015)
Wael Hussein a BBC news producer writes that “I saw the unimaginable happen”. After
few weeks of demonstration with in the Tunisia there were uprisings and demonstrations within
the streets of Egypt against the dictator wh o had been ruling for three decades Mr. Hosni
Mubarak. By getting aware through media people started the demand of economic and political
reforms. People within the streets of Cairo were chanting “we demand the fall of regime”. These
people were Egyptian citizens which were taking part in the anti-government protest for the very
first time in their lives. They were ready to sacrifice their lives. The videos of Tunisian
uprisings brought confidence and awareness within the citizens of Cairo. Finally, Mr. Mubarak
was stepped down and there was a wave of joy within the streets of Egypt. (Hussein, 2021)
There were protests in Libya against the brutal dictator Muhammad Gaddafi. “Libyan
people were suffering more pain and were oppressed than the Tunisian people who were
suffering under the regime of Bin Ali or what the Egyptian were suffering under the regime of
Mr. Mubarak” (Aljazeera, 2018). Just like the uprisings of Egypt and Tunisia there were
demonstrations within the street of Libya against Muhammad Gaddafi (Cosentino, 2020). People
were demanding freedom, equality and resignation of Muhammad Gaddafi. It was the media
which was acting as the catalyst throughout the region causing pro-democracy demonstrations
and uprisings (Routledge, 2014). Gaddafi was in power for more than four decades, following
protests in Tunisia and Egypt there were uprisings in Libya (Herrold, 2020). Gadhafi by use of
force tried to tackle these protests but that made situation worse and resulted in more violence
from the side of the protestors. Things were getting out of hands. Rebels succeeded in forming a
governing body National Transition Council. In 2011 June, Warrants were issued for the arrest of
Gaddafi and his son and the NTC was recognized by more than 30 countries as legitimate
government of Libya. (Aljazeera, 2018)
Arab spring is one of the most important scar on the political history of the middle east
and the globe (Angrist, 2013). It gained attention of the whole word within few days. Great deal
of attention was brought to social media through Arab Spring. Social media apps like Facebook
and twitter which were seen as the apps to connect with friends were now seen with different
perspective (Adi, 2014). After the incident of Tunisia, it was seemed that media has the ability to
topple corrupt regimes (Hudson, Iskandar & Kirk, 2016). It linked people together even in the
non-democratic countries. People came to know that there were other people who were also
having the same views. People started using social media as weapon against the brutal monarchs
of the middle east to reclaim democracy and to fight against the oppressors (Bebawi, 2014).
Social media proved to be a platform for the oppressed ones where they raised their voice or
demands for political and economic reforms. Role of social media in the Arab spring is totally
inevitable and remains a highly debated subject. (Sadiki, 2017)
Research Methods
For the purpose of this paper, a two-tiered research approach was utilized. Research was
conducted in both primary and secondary manners. The primary research consisted of a direct
survey among a sample of 41 respondents. Keeping in view the correlation between age and
social media use, the overwhelming majority of the respondents were young students. This
survey attempted to record the respondents’ opinions regarding the impact of social media on
Middle Eastern politics in general, and the Arab Spring in particular. The secondary research, on
the other hand, consisted of a literature review carried out on scholarly works over the last
decade regarding the dynamics and factors of the Arab Spring. The objective was to understand
the role that social media played in strengthening the Arab Spring protests. In this way, a
combination of primary survey and secondary literature review was utilized in the research of
this paper.
Findings and Analysis
The primary survey consisted of 11 questions, 4 for determining the characteristics of the
sample, 2 for determining their level of knowledge on politics, and 5 for gauging their opinions.
With regards to sample characteristics, the survey had the following findings:
1. Age Group:
Age Groups 15-18 18-22 22-25 25+
% of 0% 61% 34.1% 4.9%
respondents
2. Education Level
Education Level Matric/Intermediate University Students Graduates
% of respondents 0% 90.2% 9.8%
3. Field of Education
Field of Humanities Social Natural Technical Others
Education Sciences Sciences Professions
% of 12.2% 61% 2.4% 7.3% 17.1%
respondents
4. Time Spent on Social Media
Social Media 1 hour 2-3 hours 4-6 hours Above 6 hours
Usage
% of 7.3% 39% 26.8% 26.8%
respondents
With regards to the knowledge of the respondents, the survey had the following findings:
Level of Knowledge On International Politics On Arab Spring
Very Low 14.6% 20%
Low 7.3% 17.5%
Medium 46.3% 32.5%
High 29.3% 12.5%
Very High 2.4% 17.5%
Finally, with regard to the opinions of the respondents, the survey had the following findings:
Arab
Social Spring
Social media Arab Spring Media couldn’t
Social media is
impacts Changed was have
spreading
Opinions political Political principal happened
awareness in
institutions in Landscape in channel in
ME
ME ME for Arab absence
Spring of social
media
Strongly 7.5% 5% 2.5% 5% 5%
disagree
Disagree 5% 10% 15% 15% 17.5%
Neutral 40% 25% 30% 32.5% 37.5%
Agree 35% 45% 40% 37.5% 25%
Strongly 12.5% 15% 12.5% 10% 15%
Agree
Based upon these findings, four basic trends can be identified regarding the respondents of this
survey:
1. The respondents are all young and well educated.
2. They are well engaged with social media as over 90% of them spend more than two hours
a day using social media.
3. A heavy majority of them rate their knowledge of international politics in general and the
politics of the Middle East and Arab Spring in particular as falling somewhere between
medium to very high.
4. An overwhelming majority of them fall between neutral to strong agreement on
statements regarding the importance and relevance of social media to the political
environment and change movements of the Middle East.
Discussion
Based on the trends identified in this research, we can find a correlation between
education, young age and social media usage on the one hand and medium to high self-rating of
knowledge on politics. This seems to suggest that the educated youth which uses social media is
well engaged politically. Furthermore, among this subset of the Middle Eastern population at
least, it seems like social media is viewed as a key driver of and mechanism for change.
The literature review has also shown the protestors during the Arab Spring used social
media to connect with each other and organize themselves. This is critical in authoritarian
countries as the mainstream print and electronic media is heavily regulated by the state, which
means that the information that is broadcasted to the public is heavily censored in order to serve
state interests. This contributes to keeping people unaware of political realities as well as
isolating them from likeminded individuals, as in these countries political organizing is also
heavily regulated (Genoverse, 2017). Therefore, social media seems to play a key role in both
aspects: spreading awareness about political realities and helping with connecting with
likeminded individuals. This means that ideas can spready very rapidly through modern
information and communication technology, and a mass of people with similar views can
become a movement.
This was evident in the Arab Spring, as the protests broke out in authoritarian countries
where the means of information and the political environment is heavily regulated (Katz, 2019).
As our literature review has shown, there was a domino effect as the protests started from
Tunisia and then spread to Egypt and Libya. This was largely made possible due to social media,
as it allowed news of protests in other countries to reach people without any censors, which in
turn inspired them to organize and demonstrate too (Karolak, 2016).
Limitations
While this paper has tried to strengthen its research by using a two-tiered approach which
combines both primary and secondary research, there are still some limitations. The first
limitation has to do with the small size of the sample, as only 41 respondents were questioned.
This small size of the sample restricts this paper from drawing any firm conclusions.
Furthermore, the sample was not diverse enough. Of the 41 respondents, all were young adults
who were well-educated. This means that the sample size can at best be reflective only of the
educated youth’s opinions and views. Lastly, the questionnaire didn’t attempt to determine the
different nationalities of the respondents. This means there is no way of finding out any
correlation between nationality and views on the questions under study.
Future Scope
The political situation of the Middle East, volatile as it is along with being situated in one
of the world’s most important regions of the world, is of great interest both politically and
academically. This paper represents a limited effort at determining the effect social media has
played on the political dynamics of the Middle East, especially the Arab Spring. While the small
size and non-diverse nature of the sample doesn’t allow the paper to draw any firm conclusions,
it still opens the door to further research on the topic with more depth of analysis and breadth of
scope.
Conclusion
The findings of this two-tier research and the analysis of these findings lead the paper to
the conclusion that social media is essential to political change in the Middle East. The primary
research conducted by this paper shows that the educated youth of the Middle East views social
media as impacting political institutions and spreading awareness in the region, as well as having
been one of the biggest channels of the Arab Spring. The secondary research of this paper also
supports this view, as scholars have observed that important role that social media played in
spreading awareness and being a channel for organizing protests. While the research of this
paper had some limitations, the findings can be used as basis for future research on this topic.
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