Social Networking, Social Media and Complex Emergencies: an ...

pervasiveness, and facilitation of political activity.
Furthermore, the Internet and social networking
sites are conceptualised as a neutral tool with the
potential to facilitate and malign various purposes.
Khamis, S. & Vaughn, K. (2011)
‘Cyberactivism in the Egyptian
Revolution: How civic engagement and
citizen journalism titled the balance’,
Arab Media and Society, no. 14.
Keywords: social media, Egypt, activism,
mobilisation, expression.
The authors of this article argue that the role of new
media in the Egyptian revolution was important in
three ways (p. 5):
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Provision of a means for people to associate
with likeminded individuals, evident through
assembly in public spaces organised by
social media
Provision of a virtual place for assembly
and the popularity of certain protester
Facebook pages
Supporting the capabilities of protesters to
plan, organise and execute protests
Allowing the public to engage in citizen
journalism, evident from the proliferation of
cell phone photography and video online,
and throughout mainstream media
Creation of a ‘virtual global public sphere’
where acts of political resistance could be
proliferated and supported internationally.
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Enabling cyber activism as a trigger for
street activism
Encouraging civic engagement by increasing
mobilisation, organisation of protests and
political expression
The authors’ remark that the combined efforts
of civic engagement and citizen journalism tilted
political and communication balance in favour of
freedom fighters and political activists.
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Promoting new forms of citizen
journalism as a platform for expression
and documentation.
The paper also explores how these new media
avenues enabled citizen journalism through providing
forums within which individuals could document
protests, disseminate their own words and images,
and spread information to the outside world through
transnational media. The authors conclude that the
largely leaderless nature of the Egyptian revolutions
is evidence that they were a genuine expression
of public will. Empowerment of protestors was
enhanced through social media by:
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Generation of a public commons for free
speech, evident through free expression of
views on social networking sites
Lewinski, M. & Mohammed, D. (2011)
‘Deliberate Design or Unintended
Consequences: The argumentative
uses of Facebook during the Arab
Spring’, Journal of Public Deliberation,
vol. 8, no. 1.
Keywords: Facebook, Egypt, mobilisation,
deliberation.
This article discusses how Facebook’s design and
context influenced opportunities for deliberation
during the Egyptian uprising. The authors argue that
many benefits for open and critical argumentation
result from unintended, uses of online technologies
(p. 2). It is argued that this is evident in the ways
that technologies such as Facebook or YouTube
Social Networking, Social Media and Complex Emergencies:
an Annotated Bibliography
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