Social media has had a major role in the advancement of the Arab Revolution. It has become an important tool used by individuals to communicate, organize, and exchange ideas. Blogging in particular has become a way for journalists, or anyone with something to say, to express their ideas and share them with the public. It is interesting that blogging, such a trendy medium in the United States, can have such a powerful political influence in Libya.

Before the revolution, many bloggers were intimidated by the Libyan security’s infiltration of the blogosphere. Freedom of speech is something that we are so used to as Americans, but we must remember that not all people have the liberty that we experience. It was nearly impossible for bloggers to address current events before and during the revolution because individuals could be persecuted for the words that they write. The Libyan government wanted to shut down any negative commentary about it in order to settle the unrest that was brewing among the people.

There was no traditional media during the revolution. This was probably because the government couldn’t control every single bit of information that was being produced. So, instead of keeping the public informed, they completely blocked them out. This only fueled the bloggers because individuals took it upon themselves to spread information. They would follow up on rumors of attacks, call friends to confirm and sometimes posts videos, images and links on Twitter instead of the blogs to reduce the risk of getting caught by Qaddafi’s social media monitors.

But, once again, the government shut down communication in an attempt to hinder the inevitable change that was coming to the country. The internet was inaccessible for the majority of the revolution. This made the dissemination of information much more difficult and was a complete violation on the government’s part on the rights of its people.

Social media became such a major form of communication in Libya because people had more freedom to say what they wanted, although not much more. There was a certain distrust among the traditional forms of media because they were biased. Although not from a major news source, social media somehow became the more credible source during the revolution. Individuals couldn’t trust the major publications because they were government owned, like Al-Jamahiriya, the Libyan state-owned television channel. They would constantly produce propaganda to put the government in a positive light.

I cannot imagine living in a world where the media is so manipulated that individuals do not know the truth about the current events of their nation. The United States may have media broadcasts that spin stories in a certain way, but very rarely is there a total lack of communication. However, if this were to happen, I could see social media becoming everyone’s main source of information. The people would band together to spread the information when the government failed to do so.

Sources:

http://www.reinventinglibya.org/blogging.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/world/middleeast/24iht-m24libya.html?_r=0