Twittering the #ArabSpring?

An Empirical Content Analysis of Tweets

Thèse de Master , 2012 , 69 Pages , Note: 72% (Distinction)

Médias / Communication - Multimédia, Internet, Nouvelles Technologies

This dissertation examines tweet content from key periods of the uprisings in Egypt and Syria of 2011 and 2012, generally known as the “Arab Spring”. Some authors and the main-stream media have suggested that these uprisings were significantly influenced and organised by Twitter and subsequently referred to them as “Twitter Revolution”. Other authors have strongly opposed this idea and attributed it to self-deception in the light of marvellous inventions of the Western World. They have suggested Twitter was predominantly used as an information-sharing network. In an effort to contribute data to this debate, this dissertation analyses tweet content from three different observation periods; two tweet datasets were collected from other academics and third one was crawled from the Twitter API; this process made use of the crawling tool cURL and the database software mongoDB.
The combined tweet dataset contained about 1.9 million tweets out of which a sample of 1945 tweets was drawn. This sample was then evaluated in a quantitative content analysis according to a coding manual. These codes were entered into the statistical analysis software SPSS, in which they were also processed.
This study found that in the context of these uprisings, Twitter was indeed used more as an information-sharing tool and only to a relatively small fraction for organisational purposes. This result does not negate the possibility of a mobilising effect of that small fraction. A further, central result is that almost every second tweet contained a hyperlink and that most of these lead to visual stimuli.

Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)

• 1 INTRODUCTION
• 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND DISCUSSION
  • 2.1 TWITTER IN A NUTSHELL
  • 2.2 TWITTER REVOLUTION OR REVOLUTION BY THE PEOPLE?
  • 2.3 QUANTITATIVE STUDIES
  • 2.4 GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE-ACTIVISM
  • 2.5 CONCLUSION
• 3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES
• 4 METHODOLOGY
  • 4.1 CONTENT ANALYSIS
  • 4.2 DATA COLLECTION AND SAMPLING
    • 4.2.1 CRAWLING TWEET DATA
  • 4.3 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
  • 4.4 METHODOLOGICAL LIMITATIONS
• 5 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

This dissertation examines the role of Twitter in the context of the 2011 and 2012 uprisings in Egypt and Syria, often referred to as the "Arab Spring". It aims to contribute empirical data to the ongoing debate about the influence of social media, specifically Twitter, on political movements. Key themes explored in the dissertation include:

• The role of Twitter as an information-sharing tool during political uprisings.
• The extent to which Twitter was used for organizational purposes during the uprisings.
• Government responses to social media and online activism in the context of the Arab Spring.
• The impact of visual stimuli on Twitter usage during the uprisings.
• The methodological challenges associated with collecting and analyzing Twitter data.

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

• Chapter 1: Introduction - This chapter introduces the research topic and provides background information on the Arab Spring and the role of social media in political movements. It also outlines the objectives and methodology of the dissertation.
• Chapter 2: Literature Review and Discussion - This chapter reviews existing literature on the use of Twitter in political contexts. It explores various perspectives on the role of Twitter in the Arab Spring, including those who argue that it was a key driver of the uprisings and those who view it as primarily an information-sharing platform.
• Chapter 3: Research Questions and Hypotheses - This chapter presents the specific research questions and hypotheses that guide the study.
• Chapter 4: Methodology - This chapter details the methodology used in the study, including the methods of content analysis, data collection, and data sampling. It also discusses the challenges and limitations of the research approach.
• Chapter 5: Findings and Discussion - This chapter presents the results of the content analysis of the tweet data, highlighting key findings and discussing their implications for understanding the role of Twitter in the Arab Spring.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

This dissertation focuses on the role of Twitter in the context of the Arab Spring uprisings. Key terms include: social media, Twitter, Arab Spring, political activism, online activism, content analysis, quantitative research, government responses, information sharing, visual stimuli, and methodological limitations.

• Université: City University London (School of Informatics and School of Arts and Social Sciences)
• Cours: MSc Information, Communication and Society
• Note: 72% (Distinction)
• Auteur: Johannes Sieben (Auteur)
• Année de publication: 2012
• Pages: 69
• N° de catalogue: V205832
• ISBN (ebook): 9783656333678
• ISBN (Livre): 9783656333814
• Langue: anglais
• mots-clé: Arab Spring, Twitter, Content Analysis, facebook, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, uprisings, moldovia, arabischer frühling, Inhaltsanalyse, Ägypten, Syrien, revolution