The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgement The author is grateful to Professor Karin Gwinn Wilkins at the University of Texas at Austin for an opportunity to present these ideas in the spring of 2011, and to Professor Ziad Munson of Lehigh University and Professor Margaret Menninger of Texas State University for their helpful comments on the manuscript. Notes 1. Marc Lynch, Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East politics today (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), p. 5. 2. Jon B. Alterman, New Media, New Politics? : From satellite television to the Internet in the Arab world (Washington: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1998). 3. Charles Kurzman, The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004). 4. Malcolm Gladwell, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted, ” The New Yorker, October 4, 2010, http: //www. newyorker. com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fafactgladwell. 5. See, for example, Michael Hughes, “Tunisia's President Toppled by Twitter Revolution, ” Examiner. com, January 15, 2011, http: //www. examiner. com/geopolitics-in-national/tunisia-s-president-toppled-by-twitter-revolution-photos-video 6. For an enthusiastic, although sober, assessment of the role of social media in Egypt, co-written by one of the deans of the sociology of online behavior, see Xiaolin Zhuo, Barry Wellman, and Justine Yu, “Egypt: The First Internet Revolt? ” Peace Magazine 27, no. 3, July-September 2011, pp. 6-9, http: //peacemagazine. org/archive/v27n3p06. htm 7. “U. S. Delegation Urges Progress in Tunisian Reform, Human Rights, ” November 18, 2005, http: //www. america. gov/st/washfile-english/2005/November/20051118165013cmretrop0. 9721949. html 8. Freedom House, Freedom on the Net 2011: Global Scores, http: //www. freedomhouse. org/images/File/FotN/MainScoreTable. pdf 9. See, for example, Borzou Daragahi, “Tunisia on Verge of New Crisis over Regime Holdovers, ” Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2011, http: //articles. latimes. com/2011/jan/25/world/la-fg-tunisia-wise-men-20110125 10. Yasmine Ryan, “How Tunisia's Revolution Began, ” Al-Jazeera, January 26, 2011, http: //english. aljazeera. net/indepth/features/2011/01/2011126121815985483. html 11. The Economist, “Young, jobless and looking for trouble, ” February 3, 2011, http: //www. economist. com/blogs/schumpeter/2011/02/youthᵤnemployment 12. Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (Egypt), http: //www. msrintranet. capmas. gov. eg/pls/fdl/tst12l? action=1 and “Factbox: The Role and Make-Up of Egypt's Parliament, ” Reuters, November 28, 2010, http: //www. reuters. com/article/2010/11/28/us-egypt-election-parliament-idUSTRE6AR0OH20101128 16. David Kirkpatrick, “Wired and Shrewd, Young Egyptians Guide Revolt, ” New York Times, February 9, 2011, http: //www. nytimes. com/2011/02/10/world/middleeast/10youth. html? ᵣ=1 see also Charles Levinson and Margaret Coker, “The Secret Rally that Sparked an Uprising, ” Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2011, http: //online. wsj. com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576135882356532702. html 17. Taghir, hurriyah, ‘adalah ijtima'iyah and Hosni, Hosni, Hosni Bey, kilo lahma bi-mit ginay. 18. USAID and UNICEF, Egypt: Demographic and Health Survey 2008, March 2009, p. 23, http: //www. measuredhs. com/pubs/pdf/FR220/FR220. pdf. 19. Dubai School of Government, “Civil Movements: The Impact of Facebook and Twitter, ” Arab Social Media Report, May 2011, p. 8, http: //www. dsg. ae/portals/0/ASMR2. pdf 20. Ziad W. Munson, The Making of Pro-Life Activists: How Social Movement Mobilization Works (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009). Additional informationNotes on contributorsJon B. AltermanJon B. Alterman is director and senior fellow of the Middle East Program at CSIS