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New College of Florida

Publication Date

Fall 2014

Program Name

Tunisia: Emerging Identities in North Africa

Abstract

Our world has entered a digital age, where technology has made leaps and bounds and is accelerating in development. With this digital age came the widespread use of the internet and the emergence of “social media”—online platforms for communicating with others. Though the initial use of these social media platforms was to stay connected with friends and family, a sect of users have used the platforms to share news and important information. In the past few years, people have come together to demand change in their countries by protest and eventually even revolution, all of which is said to have been enabled by social media which allowed people to connect in a way previously impossible. Social media has now become a topic of debate with its importance to these movements, with one side arguing that social media only leads to “slacktivism” while the other side argues that social media is essential to modern-day uprisings, networking, and activism. I will be utilizing this ISP as part of my undergraduate thesis, which will be on the relationship between the emergence/use of social media and the awareness/spread of human rights, as well as the reaction of governments to the utilization of social media. In the case of Tunisia, I wish to look at the revolution through the lens of human rights. The main question I would like to answer is: To what extent did social media influence the demand for human rights and uprising during, before, and after the revolution?

Disciplines

African Studies | Communication Technology and New Media | Critical and Cultural Studies | Mass Communication | Organizational Communication | Social Influence and Political Communication | Social Media

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