What's Going on? Making Sense of the Role of the Media in the Arab Uprisings

The article reviews recent scholarship on the role of the media in the Arab uprisings. After a summary of events, it sets out the debate between researchers who attribute a central and significant role to social media in the mobilizations that spread from Tunisia to Egypt and beyond in early 2011, and those who are more sceptical of such ‘techno‐enthusiasm’. Different theoretical perspectives on the media and protest are then presented, followed by an overview of empirical approaches to the topic. It is argued that the impact of social media must be viewed in relation to how they fit into wider media ecologies and social and political structures.