Oral Communication and the Arab Spring
Richard Hamilton on why the West has overstated the role of social media and understated the oral tradition in the Arab Spring.
Upheavals in North Africa during the Arab Spring over the past year were eagerly seized upon by western journalists in particular as barometers of the use of social media. From the streets of Tunis to Cairo's Tahrir Square phrases such as ‘Twitter revolution' and ‘Facebook generation’ have been liberally applied.