- The first country which the Arab Spring occurred in December 2010
- "The internet revolution has tipped the balance of power"
- The incident started with a citizen called Mohammed who was treated harshly by the Tunisia police force. He was stamped and spitted on. Thus, Mohammed made a complain to the Town Hall, however the government Ben Ali did listen to him. As a result, Mohammed burnt himself alive infront of the Town Hall which began a conflict amongst the Tunisia citizens against the regime.
- Ben Ali was a dictator as he did not listen to his citizens, thus society was a police state which made citizens furious that there was no democracy.
- Mobile phones was a toll to show what was happening in Tunisia. This is because, press was censored and therefore citizens would capture footage on their phones to show the outside world that Tunisia has become corrupted.
- Activist Slim Amamou stated that "were are not animals so why are we being ignored". He was frustrated that citizens could not speak freely in their own countries.
- More than 5 years individuals shared their feelings and messages on to blogs about their hatred towards their dictators.
- 25% of homes had broadband
- 90% of individuals had mobile phones. However, if citizens were caught using one they would be tortured by the police force.
- 2 million Facebook users (25%) which highlights a high lever of penetration.
- The footage of protests went viral and was picked up the Tunisia news channel Al Jazeera. As a result, this led to copy cat demonstration in other countries.
- The union was on the side of the government but the activists overcome this by jacking the union website and telling people they are going to protest.
- Warnings on the routes the policies was taking on the day of the protest was announced on Twitter.
- Live mobile streaming was available to make sure people saw what was happening. Thus, this generated an unstoppable force which led to a downfall in hierarchy.
- Ben Ali conducted his own public relation campaign revealing that there would be more democracy. However, this was a fail as he promoted it through traditional media which is no longer effective.
- On the 14th July Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia. He was ruling for 24 years.
- On the 15th July there was a fall in the regime - it took 28 days for Tunisia to become more democratic, thus highlighting the impact of new/digital media.
Egypt
- Occurred in Kairo
- Tunisia opened possibilities out there
- Activist write blogs about protesting
- Blogs in Egypt was hardly censored - activist found the interest an easy way to communicate.
- June 2010 6 months before Mohammed lit himself on fire, Halid Sahid was brutally killed by showing the police the actions online.
- Facebook has 5 million users in Egypt
- An "omnipotent source was growing"
- The government thought that the internet would not be a threat to society
- January 25th 2011 the protest began
- 20% of Egyptians had internet.
- The activist sent a viral message through taxi drives for people who did not have access to the internet. As a result, they would pretend to be talking to someone through the phone, thus making it sound like a secret so the taxi driver would pass it on to other people. (word of mouth)
- British Vodafone was banned to prevent citizens from contacting one another. However, it caused more people to go on the streets and protest even more which was what the activist wanted.
- On the Egyptian State TV president Muhammed promised that there would be more democratic performs.
- As a result of the protest, Muhammed used the internet to try help his country. He sent out text messages to them however this did not convince his citizens.
No comments:
Post a Comment