Social media and new technologies in egypt and tunisia: two examples of innovative forms of democratization

• Autores: Stefania Perna
• Localización: From social to political. New forms of mobilization and democratization: Conference proceedings / Benjamín Tejerina Montaña (ed. lit.), Ignacia Perugorría (ed. lit.), 2013, ISBN 978-84-9860-595-2, págs. 43-61
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro
• Resumen

  • In 2011 Web 2.0 has emerged as a crucial tool in organizing demonstrations and mo- bilizing people in Western countries and during the uprisings in the Arab world. This paper aims at underlining that new media and new technologies, together with open sources software such as Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS, have also been used as important tools for democratization. The paper has been divided in three parts. The first paragraph revolves around the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. The second illustrates what crowdsourcing is and how FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi have succeed in merging it with the new form of communication provided by ICTs. Finally this paper will take into consideration two case studies, Egypt and Tunisia, which clearly show the impact on democratization that such approach has had.