Social Media and Its Use for Political Purposes in the Middle East and North Africa Since 2010

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Communications - Media and Politics, Politic Communications, grade: 2,0, University of Freiburg, language: English, abstract: This essay will show that social networks have become an indispensable instrument in North Africa and the Middle East for a creative and uncensored political exchange. Since December 2010 revolutionary waves of demonstrations and protests have been taking place in the Middle East and North Africa. Whereas in Tunisia and Egypt protestors have successfully urged the oppressive dictatorships away from power at the time of writing, demonstrations and even war is still taking place in other countries such as Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and many others. The self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, can be seen as the spark of the riots in North Africa and the Middle East. The reasons for these revolutionary protests, however, are deep and wide-ranging: dictatorship, human rights violations, corruption of governments, economic crisis, poverty, censorship, unemployment and increasing food prizes certainly were among the major reasons for the outburst of protests.