1. Will Social Media Democratize the Arab World What role if any do Essay

1. Will Social Media Democratize the Arab World What role if any do social media play in the current social unrest in many Arab countries - Essay Example Internet has created an outlet where the young people can interact and even organize themselves around a specific cause (Ghannam 14). Besides it is easier for the dissenting groups and organizations to target the young people via internet (Ghannam 15). Internet has broadened the horizons of the Arab youth that was till now methodically managed and constrained by the more co-opted traditional media. Internet has created a space where dissent can get registered without invoking a direct threat. 3. The US indeed supports the Arab social media in the sense that it extensively politicizes the digital activism in the Arab world, thereby bolstering the zeal of the political activists, without making way for the commensurate safety measures and provisions (Ghannam 18). Though the US professes the internet freedom to be central to its foreign policy, the entire initiative appears to be a sham and double faced in the sense that the US in no way intends to destabilize the political status quo in the friendly Arab dictatorships and monarchies (Ghannam 18). 4. The social media is still at a very nascent stage in the Arab world. However, in a long term context, the social media could be positively expected to have a significant and discernible impact on the masses in the Arab world. Social media has not only increased the magnitude and frequency of people’s access to the divergent view points and possibilities, it has also changed the form and manner in which the people engage with these view points (Ghannam 23). Though social media on its own could not be expected to bring out an immediate political change, it will certainly make way for the emergence of a popular mindset and the requisite institutions, which will facilitate political change in the long run. 5. The internet in the Arab world is indeed acting as a catalyst of change in the sense that it has extended a space to the voices and agents of change, where they can express