Faizan Ahmed Khan
15020568
Professor Erum Haider
Pol 320
6 May 2014

How do social media shape the social movements in modern times?
A comparative study of Ukraine Crimea crisis and Egyptian revolution for democracy!

A social movement can look like and be called many things. Whatever their appearance or name, the goal of all social movements is presumably the same: a change for the better. If this is indeed the ultimate objective of a social movement, it is well worth considering how successfully a movement achieves that objective. In the past ten years, several social movements have grabbed the world’s attention for the change they promised. Deemed successful for achieving their goal of change, though not necessarily change for the better, further evaluations have been sparsely performed. However, in judging social movements, what happens is shaped to a greater degree by the media, specifically. We shall look at modern day Egypt and Ukraine in our analysis. The effect of social media—and the Internet more generally—in both sets of protests is undeniable yet also distracting. Like most historic events, these protests and revolutions were in part possible due to a new technology. Flipping through the pages of history we see that The Reformation in Europe was aided by the invention of the printing press; the revolutions of 1848 occurred in some respect thanks to the invention of the telegraph which transmitted news across Europe of one set of protests overnight; the age of modern terrorism, from the late 18th century onwards, came upon the world when it did due to the invention of dynamite. This limited case study will; 1) analyze the effects that social media plays in organizing anti-government protests with reference to recent unrest in Egypt and Ukraine, 2) implore how often the social media is misused to create false images in the international community. However, in all these events, technology fails to explain the underlying causes that created them. A focus on technology can lead one to ignore the role of central agency, for how technology shapes an event can only be understood by examining those who used it and how they used it. Hence this paper will also try to explore the two opposite dimensions of media, specifically social media in shaping the face of the social movements, both for the revolutionaries and the international community. I believe that despite the negative proponents of media, and the hype that intensifies, media has helped the Egyptian and the Ukrainian social movements to gain wider audience, which is the first step for any social movement to embark on the journey to success. The Egyptian revolution of 2011 and the Ukrainian Crimea crisis in 2013 are contemporary cases, they have not reach their ends and it would be too early to conclude that either of these two social movements have won or lost. Yet during the entire series of events, it is interesting to see how media has been an active participant and has indeed reshaped the landscape of these social movements in an unparalleled way.
A. Egypt Explained:
I. History
If we delve back to year 2010 in Egypt, we see that President Hosni Mubarak had ruled over Egypt for 30 years, but soon the civilians got fed up of the atrocities, inequality, poverty and underdevelopment that pertains. This negative energy outburst in the form of a call for the end of the authoritarian regime. And we saw Egyptian stage a nationwide protest and demonstrations against the Mubarak’s regime. Eventually Mubarak stepped down and power was transferred to the military. People were under the belief that military is “by the people and for the people”, but little they knew as the demands of the people were not still addressed to. The agitation grew wild and people fought fire with fire. People managed to get the first election contested on 23-24th May of 2012, when Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq surfaced as the two main competitors from a poll of 13 candidates. Morsi won with a 51.7 % of the total votes. But by 22nd November Morsi, who was also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood was able to unilaterally decrees greater powers for himself, giving his decisions immunity from judicial review and barring the courts from dissolving the constituent assembly and the upper house of parliament. As a result a fresh new wave of up surged among the masses on 30 June 2013, millions of people rallied across Egypt calling for President Morsi's resignation from office. And eventually he was removed from office on 3rd July 2013 by Field Marshal Al-Sisi. The people of Egypt have seen the downfall of three leaders following Mubarak every year since 2011, yet every successive regime brings more pain and relentless suffering and the hopes of the Egyptian civilians seems to be diminishing.
II. Theoretical framework
We shall use the resource mobilization theory to answer the following question; in what ways do the social media technologies employed as a resource to support the Egyptian revolution? However before we start answering this question, let us outline the basics of the resource mobilization theory. John D. McCarthy believes that for the success of any social movement, resources like money, organizational skills and certain social and political opportunities are critical (McCarthy and Zald). The types of resources can vary, but the availability of applicable resources and their effective usage matters the most. This theory is the first ever to recognize the importance of influences outside the social movement under study (McCarthy and Zald). We shall see how the Egyptian case fits on the resources mobilization theory in the following text.

III. The role of social media
One cannot argue that the Egyptian revolution was actually an internet revolution. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that both the birth and the sustainability of the protests of 25th January wouldn’t been possible to the same extent if it weren’t for the social media. It’s not startling to see social media being so efficiently during the processions of the 2011 revolution, Egypt has even in the past been accustomed to use social media for similar social causes. For instance in the early 2000s several Egyptian resorted to blogging in order to tackle political issues. Initially these blogs were in English only, but to accommodate the wider population, an Arabic software was introduced. This invited the concerned Egyptians to expand their means of communicating to Flickr, Facebook and Twitter. (Eltantawy and Weist). But the real question is did it make any difference? Yes indeed it did. Social media introduced new levels of speed and interactivity that were lacking in the traditional mobilization techniques, which included leaflets, posters and faxes (Eltantawy and Weist). One such individual who contributed to the revolution via social media technologies was Omar Afifi, a former Egyptian police officer-turned-activist. In 2008, Afifi wrote a book advising Egyptians on how to avoid police brutality. The book was banned and Afifi’s life was threatened, which forced him to seek asylum in the United States. Afifi then took advantage of social media technologies in his continued effort to advise Egyptians, this time through YouTube videos, Facebook, and Twitter. When the Tunisian revolts took place, Afifi released a series of detailed YouTube videos instructing fellow Egyptians on techniques for conducting their own revolution. Afifi provided numerous details and specified the exact day to revolt, where protesters should gather, and what they should wear (Eltantawy and Weist).
The Guardian cites tweets by Mohamed Abdel Fattah, an Egyptian video journalist, who on the evening of January 25, 2011, released a series of disturbing tweets in short succession during ongoing protests (Siddique, Owen and Gabbatt):
“@mfatta7 Tear gas
@mfatta7 I’m suffocating
@mfatta7 We r trapped inside a building
@mfatta7 Armored vehicles outside
@mfatta7 Help we r suffocating
@mfatta7 I will be arrested
@mfatta7 Help !!!
@mfatta7 Arrested
@mfatta7 Ikve [I’ve] been beaten a lot” (Siddique, Owen and Gabbatt).
This helped Egyptian activists to respond quickly and as a result personal safety was not compromised, to the extent as it would have in case traditional means of communication were employed. Although clearly the social media wasn’t the only driving force for the revolution, t was perhaps the most effective tool that it has used during the ordeal. It facilitated Egypt create a cyber-collective identity. Although the media played its role, helped organize the revolution better, yet then why hasn’t the revolution deemed successful today? This is cause of the fact that social media had its limitations, and there are multitude of other factors that are responsible for it, which are beyond the scope of this paper (McCarthy and Zald).
To sum up the Egyptian revolution, we see how the resource mobilization theory has explained the proceedings of the events. This was possible due to the ubiquity and potential for communicating messages to global audience, social media may be seen as important, instrumental resource for collective action and social change (McCarthy and Zald). At this point it is important to reiterate the fact that there was a powerful external forces namely in the social, political and the historical context of the movement that also molded the ongoing procession in Egypt to date.

IV. The darker side of the picture:
Of course the awareness created by the social media is deemed necessary for the success of the any revolution, however the biggest problem regarding any sort of media is censorship. At times what is portrayed to the masses is often the false and superficial image of reality. The work of Susan Sontag in her book, ‘Regarding the Pain of others’ is an excellent starting point at how the media, or social media obliterates the picture. The following picture was found online, some argue it to be an exaggeration but it paints the picture perfect for many occasions. The grim fact is, that one cannot know for sure when the media is being used or misused. This part of the essay deals with the idea of why media is an incorrect or biased estimator for the success of a social movement.
In 1924, Ernst Friedrich wrote a book called “Krieg dem kriege” German for ‘war against war’. It was intended to show the true face of war, maimed at executions, sufferings, misery and death. To reach the wider audience, it was written in four languages (German, French, English and Dutch) but was also translated into 50 more languages. This book caused a stir around the globe, sending ripples of shock and agitation. It was prohibited in certain places. Nevertheless it was the images that caused horror among its viewers. In contrast to a written account, which is pitched for either a large readership or a small one photographs have only on audience i.e. everyone. It is perhaps the most powerful means of transferring information for social media sites today. The understanding of war, for those people who have not been a part of war or conflicts themselves is derived as a product of the impact of these images (Sontag, Chapter 2). In this era of information overload, the photograph provides a quick way of apprehending something and a compact form for memorizing it. Sontag argues that the appetite for pictures showing bodies in pain is as keen, almost, as the desire for ones that show bodies naked. Sontag leads to the argument that these pictures desensitize the humans, stripping them of emotions and replacing it with satisfaction of looking at the picture without flinching (Sontag, Chapter 3). Hence what we may have seen on the social sites? The pictures depicting the pain and suffering of the people during the Egyptian revolution may or may not depict the reality. We have seen in the past that a picture can have multitude of the meanings and interpretations attached to it, and the caption that follows direct our minds towards that particular explanation, deeming all other possibilities as less plausible.

B. Understanding Ukraine:
I. History
In late February 2014, the President Viktor Yanukovych was impeached from the Ukraine parliament. Many of the Russian forces crept into the Crimean borders to take control of the province. The people of Ukraine were posed the question of joining the Russian federation through a referendum. The results showed that 96.77 % of the voters that turned out were in favor of joining Russian federation. But this action was condemned by EU, labeled as illegal, since it was contrary to Ukraine’s constitution and international law. On March 17, the Crimean Parliament declared independence from Ukraine and asked to join the Russian Federation. On March 18 Russia and Crimea signed a treaty of accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol into the Russian Federation. On March 27, the U.N. General Assembly passed a non-binding Resolution 68/262 that declared the Crimean referendum invalid and the incorporation of Crimea into Russia illegal. On April 15, Ukrainian parliament declared Crimea as a temporarily occupied territory by Russia. Crimea has 60% of its population who are Russians. (esri.com)

II. The role of social media
We have established so far as to how the social media was being used by the masses in propagating the social revolution in Egypt. And we also saw the pitfalls that media possess for the common audience to fall into. How it can be used to manipulate ones point of view, we shall now see how the officials and government agents in particular use social media in times of turmoil. We see that nearly 40 million people follow Barack Obama on Facebook, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has a twitter account and even the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani can also be find on Facebook. Hence it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Ukraine’s interior minister Arsen Avakov on Facebook. But what is he doing on Facebook? It can be answered by one studying his profile. We will shortly run how Arsen used social media as a tool for conflict (Why Ukrain's Interior Minister is on Facebook?). There are two groups of people, one of them are pro-Russians and others are of course the Ukrainian governments’ agents, who oppose the Crimea cause. Both parties have waged online war, trying to get their views across, to reach the wider global population and simultaneously trying to get support from the masses. This has opened room for curiosity, one might ask what how can the online war of words contribute to legitimacy of either of the two participants. Second question that comes to one’s mind, is that whom to trust? Amidst of confusion and the exchange of information, sifting for facts among the fabricated tales shared online, is one skill that no one has yet learnt.
Conclusion
We began by highlighting how the power of social media changes the face of a social movement in recent times. In addition to this the real question one must ask is what is success or failure in their strictest sense. From French revolution to Russian revolution to the political crisis in modern day Ukraine, we have seen that in order to get their message across all possible means are fair to use. People have a tendency to exploit any resources that they can resort to, and it can be rightfully said that social media-a modern day tool is misused to attain its ways. In contemporary times we are not able to see the deep seated implications that social media has rooted. The sole and major disadvantage with social media lies in the fact that if it can be used by the civilians to organize social movements then it can also be used by the opposition of the social movement for their purpose. The social power of social media is free and one cannot stop others from using it. It is a public good that is destined to change the way we think act react and see things.

Bibliography
Eltantawy, Nahed and Julie B. Weist. "Social Media in the Egyptian Revolution:." International Journal of Communication (2011): 1207-1224. Report. esri.com. n.d. http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2014/crimea/. 18 4 2014.
McCarthy, John D. and Mayer N. Zald. "Resource Mobilization and Social Movement: A Partial Theory." The American Journal Of Sociology (1977): 1212-1241. Report.
Siddique, Haroon , Paul Owen and Adam Gabbatt. "Protests in Egypt and unrest in Middle East – as it happened." 25 January 2011. The Guardian Website. http://www.theguardian.com/global/blog/2011/jan/25/middleeast-tunisia. 13 March 2014.
Sontag, Susan. "Chapter 2." Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, n.d. Book.
Sontag, Susan. "Chapter 3." Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, n.d. Book.
Why Ukrain's Interior Minister is on Facebook? 16 4 2014. http://www.channel4.com/news/facebook-ukraine-arsen-avakov-euromaidan-social-media. 19 4 2014.