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When Arabs Tweet

(International Herald Tribune) Rami G. Khouri - We are witnessing a continuing social revolution in how youth throughout the Middle East use Web sites, cellphones, chat systems, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other rapidly evolving new media. But are the new digital and social media a credible tool for challenging established political orders and bringing about political change in our region? My impression is that these new media today play a role identical to that played by Al Jazeera satellite television when it first appeared in the mid-1990s - they provide important new means by which ordinary citizens can both receive information and express their views, regardless of government controls on both, but in terms of their impact they seem more like a stress reliever than a mechanism for political change. Watching Arab pundits criticize Arab governments, Israel or the U.S. - common fare on Arab satellite television - is great vicarious satisfaction for ordinary men and women who live in political cultures that deny them serious opportunities for free speech. Blogging, reading politically racy Web sites, or passing around provocative text messages by cellphone is equally satisfying for many youth. Such activities, though, essentially shift the individual from the realm of participant to the realm of spectator involved in an act of passive, harmless personal entertainment. Young people use the digital media mainly for entertainment and vicarious, escapist self-expression. The writer is director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.
2010-07-23 09:16:56
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