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

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In the pre-protest period activists used
social media to publish anti-government
criticism not seen/permitted in
traditional media
Sensitive information regarding protest
venues was spread via more targeted
communication channels like email and SMS
(drawing on more personal networks).
The paper concludes by noting that communication
technologies are not beneficial to processes
of democratisation, per se, but that the role of
technology depends heavily upon who is using them/
for what purpose. Different media serve different
functions that are constrained by the more/less
favourable opportunity structures in which relevant
actors are situated, as well as by the process of
character communication. The paper concludes by
proposing a holistic communication model of antiauthoritarian
protest (p. 1283).
Russell, A. (2011) ‘Extra-National
Information Flows, Social Media,
and the 2011 Egyptian Uprising’,
International Journal of Communication,
vol. 5, pp. 1238-1249.
Keywords: social media, mainstream media,
Egypt, control, journalism.
This article examines two emerging characteristics
of digital networked journalism, as highlighted by the
Egyptian revolution (p. 1239):
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The ability to retain centralised control
of communication eroded because
contemporary networked communication
thrives on increasing grassroots
pervasiveness, and because it retains a hackable/malleable
quality whereby users can
re-work the technology to their advantage
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The influence of the networked
decentralised reporting of the revolution
on mainstream news outlets altered both
the nature of the news products and
the professional norms and practices
of journalists.
The author argues that, in effect, mainstream
news outlets were ‘...delivering a meta story being
reported by people hooked into digital social
networks’ (p. 1239). The article explores how
software developers and hackers joined with (or in
some instances replaced) journalists, editors and
publishers as the champions of the news (p. 1240). It
is acknowledged that networked social media played
a significant role in the political communication
war in two main ways (to draw the attention of
mainstream media):
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Message control
Deconstructing the news
The author concludes by noting that networked
communication is fuelled by participation (the more
participation the better the network) and that the
result of this spread of grassroots participation
is decentralisation (both in terms of news media
and politics).
Salah Fahmi, W. (2009) ‘Bloggers’
street movement and the right to the
city. (Re)claiming Cairo’s real and virtual
“spaces of freedom”’, Environment and
Urbanization, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 89-107.
Keywords: blogs, Egypt, transformation,
space, activism.
This paper explores the ways in which blogger
activists have articulated dissent, particularly in
regards to spatial tactics such as boycott campaigns,
Social Networking, Social Media and Complex Emergencies:
an Annotated Bibliography
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