CHILDREN OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION:

CONCEPTUALISING PROTEST IDENTITIES THROUGH THE ARAB

AWAKENING

DR K BARKER

K.BARKER2@WLV.AC.UK

@BABYLEGALEAGLE

C Baghdady

c.baghdady@bham.ac.uk

‘COMMUNITY’

•  PLACE OR LOCALITY

•  DIFFERENT MEANINGS TO EACH COMMUNITY

•  COMMUNITIES EXIST BECAUSE PEOPLE BELIEVE IN THEM

•  ‘A SHARED UNDERSTANDING’ (ATKINSON, 2014)

•  IDENTIFY CHARACTERISTICS RATHER THAN COMMUNITIES?

‘GETTING SOCIAL’

•  ONLINE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS DESIGNED TO CREATE NETWORKS

•  ONLINE PERSONNAE ENCOURAGE THE CREATION OF DIFFERENT IDENTITIES – FORMATION OF PROTEST COMMUNITIES E.G. #EGYPT

•  SHARED INTERESTS, SHARED IDENTITY – REMOVAL OF ‘BARRIERS’

ONLINE IDENTITIES & PROTEST

•  DISTINCTION BETWEEN ONLINE & OFFLINE IDENTITY?

•  USERS ARE NOT CREATING ANONYMITY IN CYBERSPACE – THEY ARE CREATING IDENTITIES THAT CAN BE USED THERE

•  TRADITIONAL EMPHASIS ON POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND RELATIONAL BOUNDARIES IS REMOVED

•  GENERATIONAL SHIFT IN ‘IDENTITY’ AND ‘COMMUNITY’

THE ARAB AWAKENING

CHILDREN OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION?

•  CONSTRUCTION OF NEW ‘SELVES’

•  ONLINE V OFFLINE?

•  ONLINE AND OFFLINE? •  TECHNOLOGY IS A MEANS OF IDENTITY CREATION

•  TECHNOLOGY IS A MEANS OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

•  TECHNOLOGY IS A MEANS OF RECONSTRUCTION

Citizenship Community Identity Characteristics

of self

DR K BARKER

K.BARKER2@WLV.AC.UK

@BABYLEGALEAGLE

C Baghdady

c.baghdady@bham.ac.uk