Saturday, February 12, 2011

Egypt finally in rest

The Egyptian people are rejoicing with the news of their president stepping down from office after a heated protest lasting many days.
 Many believe this would not have been possible without the helpful spread of information by using social networks like Twitter and Facebook. In the article on Wired, writer Sam Guston explains the link between the president backing down and the use of new media. Although these new media outlets did not cause the revolution, it gave it fuel to spread all over the world and gain support from many outside sources. Facebook was said to organize the revolt within the country while Twitter helped include the outside world. It is hard to conquer injustice without support, and without these two sources of new media, Egypt may still be suffering under a violent regime.

It would have been unheard of back in the times of the American revolution that the people were using online new media to rally supporters in their cause. I think it’s pretty impressive how persistent the people of Egypt were with using Twitter, Facebook and Youtube in order to win their revolution. With all the news surrounding this issue, it is nice to see the citizens of a country working together for the greater good, and exciting to see how new media outlets can be used to create this unity.


http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/egypts-revolutionary-fire/

1 comment:

  1. I agree that these social media networks didn't spark the revolution but they contributed to it. In a different CNN article, I read that Facebook and Twitter were used to get people out on the streets. I thought that was interesting considering those two sites cause people here to waste time online. However, they are definitely good to use if people want to get the word out about anything. I think the media in general helped Egypt get their word out. Reporters from everywhere covered the crisis in Egypt. I agree it was nice to see Facebook unify people rather than just update about individuals' lives. I hope that other countries don't follow Egypt's example and that they don't blame the U.S. or even Mark Zuckerburg.

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