Explanatory blog post 2

The article, After Egypt: The limits and promise of online challenges to the authoritarian Arab state by Marc Lynch takes an in depth look at the role social media in particular played in the shaping of a some what new Egyptian government. However the question that I along with other skeptics that Lynch cites, is to what extent can social media actually change existing political structures, especially in the long term?

Lynch provides four key elements of new media, which he believes, challenge the existing power that many Arab states hold:

1. Contentious Collective action- Firstly social media not only makes it easier for large groups of like minded people to communicate, it also helps smaller groups of individuals who may be oppressed by an authoritarian regime to find and communicate with one another. Lynch uses the example of Egypt’s Kefaya movement (a protest against Mubarak’s authoritarian regime) who at first communicated through discussion lists on the Internet and via SMS. New media also works as an informational cascade, as Lynch describes it. If people at home see individuals protesting on the streets via television about issues that they privately hold then there is a higher chance that those people will follow. New media also means that collective action is more likely because the cost of repression goes up. Recordings of police brutality on protestors put on YouTube for most of the world to see may make regimes sensitive to the costs of repression especially those countries dependent on U.S support.  
2. The Mechanisms of Repression- While new media allows for collective action, it also makes it easier for authoritarian regimes to exercise their power in a new way. If people wanting to protest or challenge a regime are mostly communicating via the internet then the state can respond by shutting this platform down. Lynch states that many Arab regimes work closely with cell phone and internet networks to keep an eye on people.
3. International Attention and Alliances- how the world especially America see Arab nations is key to a regimes survival. With new media international attention is much easier to gain and often more organic and less censored. Lynch reinforces this using America’s changing position towards Mubarak’s regime, saying that it was largely due to images produced by people on the ground such as local activists, which shaped the opinions of many American’s and other international audiences.
4. The Public Sphere- According to Lynch a states ability to control and dominate the public sphere is the final area challenged by new media. The Internet in the long term works as a means to transform and empower Arab society. This will inevitably lead to people demanding accountability and transparency from the state. It also creates the type of society who are better equipped at getting around state surveillance and control. These better equipped individuals with a greater grasp of technology are the so called “future” of these Arab nations and they are much harder to control. 

 In the article Lynch argues that many political scientists and sociologists believe that social media provides an avenue for individuals to gain back some of the social power that the otherwise oppressive authoritarian state would have taken away. It works as a tool of empowerment, and allows for free and open communication between members of a community. However that is not to say that just because people feel liberated via new media this will automatically lead to revolutions. Lynch brings up the widely used saying of how “Twitter doesn’t cause revolutions, but revolutions are tweeted,” and there is some truth behind it. While technology and new media gives people a platform to find like-minded people and helps these individuals who were otherwise oppressed to voice their opinions it does not necessarily mean that they will then go onto the streets and demand for political change. New media may be a small contributing factor in introducing political reform but lasting reform or democratization requires correct channels and people to establish and I don’t believe that has anything to do with technology.

Link to article:

http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPPS%2FPPS9_02%2FS1537592711000910a.pdf&code=21ea975708096be2a22b52fd9ff5084a